Monthly Archives: May 2014

More than mere genetic engineering

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Scientists have been doing genetic engineering for some time. Heck, if you count breeding for traits, we’ve been doing it for centuries. But actual modification of DNA, changing the GCAT letters is pretty recent. But now scientists have gone past that. Scientists have added new nitrogen bases. They’ve added X and Y.

First, they had to make the new bases (d5SICS (X) and dNaM (Y)). They used RNA to make them in test tubes. Next, they had to get the X and Y into the cell. Using the favorite bacteria of mad scientists everywhere, Escherichia coli, they added a gene that would let the new bases through the cell membrane. Now that the e. coli had X and Y, they added a loop of DNA that contained a base pair of these bases, just one rung of the DNA double helix. For a week the bacteria multiplied, and each new cell had the DNA loop with the XY pair.

Click for more:

  1. http://www.nature.com/news/first-life-with-alien-dna-1.15179
  2. http://scitechdaily.com/scientists-engineer-first-living-organism-expanded-genetic-alphabet/
  3. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/182119-first-living-thing-with-alien-dna-created-in-the-lab-we-are-now-officially-playing-god

Superheavy element 117 confirmed

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In 2010 scientists in Russia synthesized some atoms of element 117 (with temporary name ununseptium). Now, other scientists using a different method have created more of them, helping to confirm the original finding. Element 117 decays very quickly via alpha decay. One of the atoms created by the decay, Lr-266 (atomic number 103), has a half life of 11 hours. This is very long for superheavy elements, and could be on the edge of the hypothetical “island of stability” for superheavy elements. If the island exists, the next atomic numbers should be 108, 110, or 114, with 184 neutrons. Some of these hypothetical atoms may actually have a nucleus with a hole in the middle, kind of like a bubble.

10 Cancer myths busted

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Here are 10 common myths about cancer, and why they’re wrong.

  1. Cancer is a man-made, modern disease
  2. Superfoods prevent cancer
  3. Acidic diets cause cancer
  4. Cancer has a sweet tooth
  5. Cancer is a fungus, and sodium bicarbonate will cure it
  6. There’s a miracle cancer cure
  7. The big drug companies are hiding the cancer cure
  8. Cancer treatment kills more than cancer does
  9. We’ve made no progress in fighting cancer
  10. Sharks don’t get cancer

Suspended Animation coming closer

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Science fiction frequently uses suspended animation to let people travel large distances over long periods of time. And now it may be used on the operating table to give surgeons more time to save lives. They will try it with 10 patients with severe blood loss. After normal first aid has failed, they will replace the blood with cold saline solution through a catheter in the aorta. This will stop the blood loss while keeping organs alive. The organs will slow down so much that the heart will virtually stop, and the brain will stop. Then doctors can work on the original problem without having to worry about blood loss. After the operation they can put compatible blood back in, warm the body, and restart the heart. They will try this with 10 patients, and use 10 other patients with similar problem as controls. If the new procedure is beneficial it will be tried more.

This sounds scary, but has had a 90% success rate in animals.