Mice with multiple sclerosis-like condition walk again after human stem cell treatment

Mice severely disabled by a multiple sclerosis (MS) -- like condition could walk less than two weeks following treatment with human stem cells. The finding, which uncovers new avenues for treating MS, will be published online on May 15, 2014, in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

When scientists transplanted human stem cells into MS mice, they predicted the cells would be rejected, much like rejection of an organ transplant.

Expecting no benefit to the mice, they were surprised when the experiment yielded spectacular results.

"My postdoctoral fellow Dr. Lu Chen came to me and said, 'The mice are walking.' I didn't believe her," said co-senior author, Tom Lane, Ph.D., a professor of pathology at the University of Utah, who began the work at University of California, Irvine.

Within just 10 to 14 days, the mice regained motor skills. Six months later, they still showed no signs of slowing down.

This is a huge improvement in medicine, imagine doing this with people, how many people will have a sustainable life? Yet, the economical and Ethical issue is still manging there, the money access to the people, or what religion will say about it. This factor are one that may reduce, the advance of medicine. 

This article is quite interesting since shows how stem cell is still reaching a point where they can cure some diseases that in the past time it believed that they might be imposible to find a cure.

What connection can I make with my life and this article? I have seen this subject in biology and we have discussed about this topic. All their ethics, social, economical issue. And I think this connect with everyones life including myself in there of course. I personally believe that the ethicity has nothing to do with saving millons of life. 

Global context: This is a continuous development. Stem cells showed us that medicine is something that is beyond of our knowledge and this may be an excelent proof to the religious group that this can save million of lives.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140515123204.htm

Interactions between humans and scavengers have been decisive in human evolution

April 29, 2014

An international team of researchers led by scientists at the University Miguel Hernández in Elche (Spain) has concluded that the interactions that human have kept for millennia with scavengers like vultures, hyenas and lions, have been crucial in the evolution and welfare of humankind. Furthermore, the results of the study note that the extinction of large carnivorous mammals threatens to wipe out the many services that they provide us. This finding has been published in the journal BioScienceand has numerous implications in the cognitive, ecological and cultural identity of modern man.

Again, science had discover something huge for the history of the world. This shows the dependence of human and scavengers in order to evolve and become the human that we are today. As people always says, sometimes we need to depend with something or someone in order to survive, and this is a great example of survivor.

Why am I interested with this article? Mainly because I'm an IB biology students and this stuff may be important to understand. Also I love history, and with this article, I can relate it with the evolution of human. Also it is kind of interesting where do we came from and how did we become the human that we are?

Any connection between this article and my life? Yes, as I said before, this article is related with every one of us (Humans of course). And human evolution may be one thing that I will learn in biology and this article will help me to understand it more deeply.

Areas of interaction? Relationships between People and the Natural WorldI believe this area of interaction fits in this article because somehow makes an assumptions with the natural world. I mean that Without scavengers, humans will not reach the point that we are today. This is a team work which we should somehow be grateful about it.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140429085231.htm

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Father's age tied to higher rates of psychiatric, academic problems in kids

I think this is one of the most interesting articles that I've ever read in my entire life (I know, is an exaggeration). 

According to science news, advancing paternal age can lead to higher rates of psychiatric 
and academic problems in offspring than previously estimated. Compared to a children born to a 24-year-old father, children born to a 45-year-old father are 3.5 times more
likely to have autism, 13 times more likely to have ADHD, twice as likely to have psychotic
disorders and 25 times more likely to have bipolar disorder. 

Basically says that psychiatric and academic behaviors depends on your parents' ages.  For me this is shocking because this is what I most like to hear and to experiment: Human's behavior. So far I did know that most of psychological issues comes from how the parents 
raise their children, but I actually didn't know that also biological factor plays among in this one (Really, I'm shocked).
This interest me a lot because, first I'm a teenager and I of course interact, mostly with people of my age. I have seen their behaviors I have talked with them (deep stuff, non of your business), and I realized that some have a lot of issues that maybe, it won't be solved. As a student of biology and wanna be a psychologist, makes me think: To what extent the age can affect the other generation's attitude? Again, as I always say, this is an enigma.

What connection with this article and my life? (Pff easy) What I experiment today, and what I want to do in the future. My mom conceived when she was 25 and my dad turned to be dad when he was 35, according to the study, that's normal, however I've seen friend which their dads have 70 (Yes, 70!). And their behavior is a problem (No offence). And when I become a psychologist, maybe I will face with something similar of this, and when that day happen, I will be more than ready.

I believe this is Identity. Because clearly shows what we are, what precisely can we do and what can't we do.

Want to read the article? Just go to http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140226165303.htm

Deaths attributed directly to climate change cast pall over penguins

January 29, 2014-Climate change is killing penguin chicks from the world's largest colony of Magellanic penguins, not just indirectly -- by depriving them of food, as has been repeatedly documented for these and other seabirds -- but directly as a result of drenching rainstorms and, at other times, heat, according to new findings from the University of Washington.

Basically, this article is warning that if we don't get any solution of reducing the CO2 emissions, we will kill more species such as penguin chicks. Food scarcity, climate change, and other factors makes a major impact and plays an important role in the global warming. Apparently, the penguin parents dies by hypothermia while they are protecting their eggs, however, since the climate changed, the temperature decreased in a significant way making an unresistant place for the penguins to live.

I got hooked with this article, specially because I'm part of the green team and we always wants to fix the damage that we have made to the environment. And by reading this article, makes me realize that the global warming has increased and therefore we should do something to stop it.

This article can make a connection between my life because, first at all, I heard the concept of global warming since I was little, Me and my generation probably have witnessed a serious change in the planet referring to the environment. Maybe, I will be the key, among with others of course, to restore what we have taken to the animals, their home. Can we do it? That's the question I will find out on the future.

This article has a global context of relashionship between human and natural world. If you think of it, we were the causes of destroying the natural world leading into deforestation, animal extinsion, etc. 
To read more, go to: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140129184826.htm