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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Oldest Known Case of Infectious Diseases.
Researchers in Germany have discovered that two 3,500 year old adult mummies had suffered from malaria, one of the most common infectious diseases in the world. Bone tissues samples were studied in over 90 mummies found in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, which today is called Luxor. The two adult mummies were found in separate tombs, yet both had tissues containing the DNA of a parasite that causes malaria.That's not all! A team of researchers at The University Collage in London discovered a pair of 9,000 year old skeletons of a woman and a baby off the coast of Israel who both were infected with the oldest known case of tuberculosis.
By studying ancient diseases that in time have changed, it could help scientist better understand how modern diseases mutate in reaction to drugs. Millions of people die each year from malaria and tuberculosis has grown resistant to antibiotics, it's important that scientist have all the clues they can to help find a cure for these life threatening, potentially fatal diseases.
Frank Ruhli, the head of the Swiss Mummy Project at the University of Zurich, said "If you go back in the past and see this genetic fingerprint of a disease, from a hundred years ago to ten thousand years, it helps you asses how it might actually react in the future."
Radiology and CT scans have also helped researchers find medical abnormalities in mummies, including arthritis, sclerosis, bone fractures, dental problems, and injuries. Only problem is that these scans provide little evidence of these diseases. As a result, archeologists have you use more invasive procedures such as autopsies. By sampling the tissue to look at DNA is both less damaging to the mummy and more precise when it comes to the studying of these diseases.
Although pathologist have not yet found the information they need to create treatments for these diseases, there is still much to be discovered. The more they can find and sample the closer they get to a cure!
By studying ancient diseases that in time have changed, it could help scientist better understand how modern diseases mutate in reaction to drugs. Millions of people die each year from malaria and tuberculosis has grown resistant to antibiotics, it's important that scientist have all the clues they can to help find a cure for these life threatening, potentially fatal diseases.
Frank Ruhli, the head of the Swiss Mummy Project at the University of Zurich, said "If you go back in the past and see this genetic fingerprint of a disease, from a hundred years ago to ten thousand years, it helps you asses how it might actually react in the future."
Radiology and CT scans have also helped researchers find medical abnormalities in mummies, including arthritis, sclerosis, bone fractures, dental problems, and injuries. Only problem is that these scans provide little evidence of these diseases. As a result, archeologists have you use more invasive procedures such as autopsies. By sampling the tissue to look at DNA is both less damaging to the mummy and more precise when it comes to the studying of these diseases.
Although pathologist have not yet found the information they need to create treatments for these diseases, there is still much to be discovered. The more they can find and sample the closer they get to a cure!
A heart that beats, but leaves you pulseless!
Just think, an artificial hear that leaves patients without a pulse? Sounds crazy but believe it or not it just might be possible. Texas scientist are designing a artificial heart that dose just that. The key factor in this is a constant flow pump, first used in ancient Greece as an elongated screw encased in a tube to raise water from one level to another. Over 1, 006 patients have had screw-shaped pump implanted to help their ventricles pump blood to the rest of their body. Even though they still have a natural heartbeat but you are unable to detect a pulse.
Doctors for the Texas Heart Institute are teaming up with scientist from the University of Huston to completely replace the beating of a human heart with a humming constant flow pump. Doctor Ian Fraizer says that it won't perfectly match a natural heart's activity but it will preform the same function. Total artifical replacments hearts alreay exist and have been implanted into patiens. Although the mechanical hearts pump blood, many have failed after one or two years due to mechanical faulires realated to the pumping action. The artifical hearts are a way to buy more time for patients until a nautral hear becomes availavble for transplant.
The hearts today are too large aren't meant for women, children and most men, but the constant flow pump would be much smaller and be about the size of a C cell battery. By being smaller that means they could be used in a wider variety of people, even children. The constant flow pump would also be more resistant to mechanical failures which means they woud be able to last longer then a few years.
Scientists plan to use two pumps working together to produce blood to the ret of the body and eventually one screw-shaped pump could replace both values. Doctor Timothy Baldwidn of the National Insitutes of Health says that before the constant flow pump replaces the human heart, years of studied are needed to test its efficancy.
Doctor Baldwin also says that the artifical heart could benfit many people in the furture, although they say that permanelty eliminating one of the most dunfamental sgins of being alive is a big deal. Scientes aren't sure of the long-term effects of constant blood pressure will be.
Although because patients have done well in the past, it only makes doctors more confident.
Doctors for the Texas Heart Institute are teaming up with scientist from the University of Huston to completely replace the beating of a human heart with a humming constant flow pump. Doctor Ian Fraizer says that it won't perfectly match a natural heart's activity but it will preform the same function. Total artifical replacments hearts alreay exist and have been implanted into patiens. Although the mechanical hearts pump blood, many have failed after one or two years due to mechanical faulires realated to the pumping action. The artifical hearts are a way to buy more time for patients until a nautral hear becomes availavble for transplant.
The hearts today are too large aren't meant for women, children and most men, but the constant flow pump would be much smaller and be about the size of a C cell battery. By being smaller that means they could be used in a wider variety of people, even children. The constant flow pump would also be more resistant to mechanical failures which means they woud be able to last longer then a few years.
Scientists plan to use two pumps working together to produce blood to the ret of the body and eventually one screw-shaped pump could replace both values. Doctor Timothy Baldwidn of the National Insitutes of Health says that before the constant flow pump replaces the human heart, years of studied are needed to test its efficancy.
Doctor Baldwin also says that the artifical heart could benfit many people in the furture, although they say that permanelty eliminating one of the most dunfamental sgins of being alive is a big deal. Scientes aren't sure of the long-term effects of constant blood pressure will be.
Although because patients have done well in the past, it only makes doctors more confident.
Love For Blood!
Since today is Halloween I decided to blog in the spirit of this spooky day! We have all heard the stories about Vampires. Dark, mysterious creatures who walk the earth at night, sucking the blood out of humans. The inspiration for these blood-sucking creatures came from one of today’s most popular species, the vampire bat. It is the one of the most common bat’s known and lives on mammalian blood alone. It is because of the genetic changes on these bats that allow them to evolve and live on a diet of pure blood.
Like humans, vampire bats have a plasminogen activator, which is a protein that breakdowns blood clots, activated in their saliva. This allows the bat’s to drink the blood without it clotting up. However, David Liberies, a geneticist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, has discovered modifications in these bats plasminogen activator since they split off from fruit and insect eating bats.
David and his team of researchers did a study on three species of bats who all three are on a blood only diet. One of the species, the hairy-legged vampire bat which feeds on bird blood, PA (Plasminogen Activator) gene looks a lot like a species of bat that dose not feed on blood, but by activating the PA in the saliva could be enough of a change to blood flowing freely, David says. The two other bats that feed on livestock acquired mutations to prevent their PA proteins from causing the blood to clot.
The common vampire bat have also acquired several copies of the PA gene although David and he team are not sure why. Additional adaptations played an important role in the evolution of vampirism, says zoologist at Field Museum in Chicago, Bruce Patterson.
Like humans, vampire bats have a plasminogen activator, which is a protein that breakdowns blood clots, activated in their saliva. This allows the bat’s to drink the blood without it clotting up. However, David Liberies, a geneticist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, has discovered modifications in these bats plasminogen activator since they split off from fruit and insect eating bats.
David and his team of researchers did a study on three species of bats who all three are on a blood only diet. One of the species, the hairy-legged vampire bat which feeds on bird blood, PA (Plasminogen Activator) gene looks a lot like a species of bat that dose not feed on blood, but by activating the PA in the saliva could be enough of a change to blood flowing freely, David says. The two other bats that feed on livestock acquired mutations to prevent their PA proteins from causing the blood to clot.
The common vampire bat have also acquired several copies of the PA gene although David and he team are not sure why. Additional adaptations played an important role in the evolution of vampirism, says zoologist at Field Museum in Chicago, Bruce Patterson.
The Solution to Global Warming: A Simple Machine?
Is it possible that Global Warming can be solved by a simple machine? That's what Climate Change Scientist David Keith, Canada Research Chair in Energy and Environment, and also director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy's (ISEEE) Energy and Environmental Systems Group and a professor of chemical and petroleum engineering. and his fellow Team members have been able to prove. After much research conducted, it showed it is possible to reduce the amount of Carbon Dioxide by using a simple machine to capture the trace amount of CO2 present in the air at any place on the planet.
For those of you who don't know, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. Global warming is another way of saying the earth is warming up because of the greenhouse gases that are being trapped inside by the clouds. So you can see obviously that it’s not good and that if there were some way to reduce these greenhouse gases, we would be better off. The point of this simple machine is too do just that.
In order to capture CO2 it require air capture technology, in which Keith stated that “ air capture might only be a bit harder the capturing CO2 from power plants.” Also air capture is the only way to capture CO2 emissions from aircrafts and motor vehicles, which represent more then half the greenhouse gases emitted on Earth. He also said, “it's also vital to start thinking about radical new ideas and approaches to solving this problem." There are many things’ already being done right now, but he’s right for us to be thinking of more ways because global warming is becoming A bigger issue nowadays
Air capture and Carbon capture require two different types of storage technology. For example, air capture uses technology that can capture the CO2 that is present in the air everywhere. Carbon capture requires equipment such as coal-fired power plants were carbon is released by the burning coal into pipelines which lead to permanent underground storage areas.
Keith and his team’s custom built tower was able to capture the equivalent of about 20 tonnes per year of CO2 on a single square metre of scrubbing material – the average amount of emissions that one person produces each year in the North American wide economy.
Unfortunately this idea of a simple machine to extract carbon dioxide from the air is still only in the early stages of development. Keith states "It now looks like we could capture CO2 from the air with an energy demand comparable to that needed for CO2 capture from conventional power plants, although costs will certainly be higher and there are many pitfalls along the path to commercialization."
Keith and his team surely have opened many new doors of ideas for scientists, including themselves. It’s little ideas that have the will have the biggest impact on our earth, and hopefully in the near future this simple machine will have made a difference.
For those of you who don't know, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. Global warming is another way of saying the earth is warming up because of the greenhouse gases that are being trapped inside by the clouds. So you can see obviously that it’s not good and that if there were some way to reduce these greenhouse gases, we would be better off. The point of this simple machine is too do just that.
In order to capture CO2 it require air capture technology, in which Keith stated that “ air capture might only be a bit harder the capturing CO2 from power plants.” Also air capture is the only way to capture CO2 emissions from aircrafts and motor vehicles, which represent more then half the greenhouse gases emitted on Earth. He also said, “it's also vital to start thinking about radical new ideas and approaches to solving this problem." There are many things’ already being done right now, but he’s right for us to be thinking of more ways because global warming is becoming A bigger issue nowadays
Air capture and Carbon capture require two different types of storage technology. For example, air capture uses technology that can capture the CO2 that is present in the air everywhere. Carbon capture requires equipment such as coal-fired power plants were carbon is released by the burning coal into pipelines which lead to permanent underground storage areas.
Keith and his team’s custom built tower was able to capture the equivalent of about 20 tonnes per year of CO2 on a single square metre of scrubbing material – the average amount of emissions that one person produces each year in the North American wide economy.
Unfortunately this idea of a simple machine to extract carbon dioxide from the air is still only in the early stages of development. Keith states "It now looks like we could capture CO2 from the air with an energy demand comparable to that needed for CO2 capture from conventional power plants, although costs will certainly be higher and there are many pitfalls along the path to commercialization."
Keith and his team surely have opened many new doors of ideas for scientists, including themselves. It’s little ideas that have the will have the biggest impact on our earth, and hopefully in the near future this simple machine will have made a difference.
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