Stem Cell Breakthrough

Two research teams have found a way to reprogram human skin cells to act like stem cells. Stem cells have the abililty to become any type of cell in the body.

Imagine the possibilities for the future; if you need to replace brain cells, take some of your skin cells and doctors can tell them to become nerve cells! If your heart is damaged, maybe you can make new heart cells from your skin?

Science is not quite there yet, but this discovery will bring us one step closer.


http://images.cell.com/images/Edimages/Cell/IEPs/3661.pdf

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/11/20/stem.cell.reax/index.html

Growing Landfills

* 166 bottles of water are consumed by the average American each year.

* 8 out of 10 bottles of water are not recycled and end up in landfills or incinerators.

* 1,000 = number of years required for a plastic bottle to decompose!

-Container Recycling Institute; EnvironmentMassachusetts.org

Discoverer of DNA Polymerase Passes

Arthur Kornberg won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1959 for synthesizing DNA in the laboratory. Through his work to uncover the enzymes involved in the creation of DNA he isolated and identified both DNA polymerase and DNA ligase. These two enzymes are still used today in Biotechnology.

Kornberg's son Roger received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006.

Dr. Kornberg passed away at the age of 89.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1959/kornberg-bio.html

Al Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize!

Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for work to raise awareness about global warming.

Gore has spent the last 5 years travelling the globe and speaking out about global warming and the effects it is having on earth. Gore has been a proponent of the environment since his early days in the Senate. His oscar winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" came out in 2006 and brought the issues of global warming to a wide audience.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/12/nobel.gore/index.html

A day at the beach?

The world's largest animal, a blue whale, washed ashore 10 miles north of Ventura. The mammal is 78 feet long and weighs over 50 tons! Scientists are taking tissue samples to try and determine the cause of death. Blue whales are currently migrating through the Santa Barbara channel for the winter.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-whale15sep15,1,6328214.story?track=rss

Girls Gone Wild

Researchers at Harvard have discovered that men and women aren't that different after all.



They have found that brain pathways for male sexual behavior can also be found in female mice! Originally it was believed that male and female mice's brains were hardwired differently and this lead to a difference in behavior between the sexes.

Animals use pheromones to transmit sexual signals, the vomeronasal organ (VNO) in the nose can receive these signals. When the VNO is removed in female mice they begin to act like male mice: mounting other mice, sniffing, and pelvic thrusting! They also have a reduction in their maternal instinct.

So the question is: Are men that different from women?

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v448/n7157/edsumm/e070830-11.html

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/sep/girls-gone-boys-gone-wild

SAVE ENERGY!

Have you noticed that southern California is going through a heat wave?

We all need to limit our power use, here is one way you can help.

HANG UP YOUR DRYER
Clothes dryers are use a lot of energy

Hints to reduce energy use:
1. Clean the lint filter after each load
2. Use the cool-down cycle
Better yet, abandon your dryer and buy some drying racks, if
you don't have a clothesline. Generally, clothes will dry overnight.

2 Million Year Old Footprint?

Scientists in Egypt have found a footprint from a human ancestor that may be as old as 2 million years! The footprint was most likely made in mud that hardened into rock. This imprint is considered a fossil and its exact age can be determined by looking at plants found in the same rock. Scientists can use Carbon dating, which takes advantage of a rare radioactive isotope of Carbon called Carbon 14.

Can you imagine someone finding your footprint in 2 millions years?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/08/20/egypt.footprint.reut/index.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20360598/

Make your own embryonic stem cells?

Researchers direct mouse skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells, giving them the ability to become any type of tissue.

"Genetically modified mouse skin cells that act like embryonic stem cells (ES cells) could show researchers how to make versatile human stem cells from a simple skin biopsy without having to negotiate the ethical minefield of working with human eggs and early embryos."

Read more @ http://www.nature.com/stemcells/2007/0706/070607/full/stemcells.2007.6.html

50 Ways to Help Save the Planet-Ditch Plastic Bags

DITCH PLASTIC BAGS

Californians Against Waste (cawrecycles.org), a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, estimates that Americans use 84 billion plastic bags annually, a considerable contribution to the 500 billion to one trillion usedworldwide. Made from polyethylene, plastic bags are not biodegradable and are making their way into our oceans and waterways. According to recent studies, the oceans are full of tiny fragments of plastic that are beginning to work their way up the food chain.

Invest in stronger, re-usable bags, and avoid plastic bags whenever possible. If you do get plastic bags from a store try and reuse them or at least recycle them.

Trader Joe's, Ikea, and Oprah.com all sell reusable grocery bags.

Shark's virgin birth stuns scientists!

Birds do it. Bees do it. Now it seems that sharks are the latest, and largest, creatures that are able to reproduce without having sex, a finding that could have important implications for conserving these endangered fish.

A female hammerhead shark has given birth without the help of a male, after genetic tests revealed that its baby shark had no paternal DNA.

An international team reports that the shark's "virgin birth" was down to an unusual method of reproduction known as "parthenogenesis", where an egg starts to divide without being fertilized.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/05/23/eashark23.xml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6681793.stm

Humpback whales lost near Vacaville, California!

A humpback whale mother and her calf made the 90-mile river journey from the San Francisco bay to the Port of Sacramento in the Sacramento River.

Biologists hope to get the whales back into the ocean, where food is more plentiful and the saltwater can heal their cuts. Recorded whale sounds worked in 1985 with a humpback nicknamed Humphrey, which swam in the delta for nearly a month before returning to the Pacific.

The two likely had been on their northward migration from Mexico up the California coast when they were sidetracked, biologists said. Because they are at the end of their hibernation season, they have less blubber to rely on for fuel than they would later in the summer or fall.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/18/delta.whales.ap/index.html

Bio 201 and Bio 202 Students

Keep your classmates and me up to date on your accomplishments. Let us know what school you transfer to and awards you receive. Send me links to interesting articles about any science related topic and I will post it on the blog.

Have a great summer!
Dr. Yabroff

Help the Global Fight Against AIDS

An estimated 38.6 million people worldwide were living with HIV in 2005. An estimated 4.1 million became newly infected with HIV and an estimated 2.8 million lost their lives to AIDS.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established in 2002, with the support of the world's leaders and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world's most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need by supporting locally-driven strategies. To date, the Global Fund has committed US$7 billion to 460 programs in 136 countries.

To help join the fight against AIDS:
http://www.joinred.com

Help locally at AIDS Project Los Angeles:
http://www.apla.org/

To find out more facts about AIDS around the world, visit:
http://www.unaids.org/en/HIV_data/2006GlobalReport/default.asp

Happy Birthday Lainey!

27 million unwanted animals are given to shelters in the U.S. every year. Over 10 million animals are put to death every year in the U.S. alone because they are abandoned and unwanted.

Lainey was rescued one year ago today from a shelter in South Central Los Angeles (http://www.farescue.org).

Challenge: Volunteer for a local shelter or rescue organization (http://www.1-800-save-a-pet.com)

50 Ways to Help Save the Planet-Light Bulbs

1. LIGHTBULBS MATTER
Switch from traditional incandescent lightbulbs to compact fluorescent lightbulbs (C.F.L.). If every American household replaced one regular lightbulb with a C.F.L., the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road. A 30-watt C.F.L. produces about as much light as an ordinary 100-watt bulb. Although the initial price is higher,C.F.L.'s can last 12 times as long. C.F.L.'s are available at most home-improvement stores and at bulbs.com.

Right now, with an instant rebate, you can get four 30-watt C.F.L. bulbs at Costco for only $2.49!

Challenge: Change one light bulb in your house to a C.F.L.

Global Warming is turning coral reefs white!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/05/08/global.warming.reefs.reut/index.html