Wow…. Do We Know How to Track It! Some Bests in the ‘Burg

1–An offer to help a flu researcher is a surprise… flu-tracking goes viral!

Rhiza, a  South Side company, is now rewriting its business plan while answering inquiries from potential clients. The speed of the posting and its visual nature has value, Knauer and others at Rhiza have quickly learned. When the flu-tracking map went live, the site recorded 60,000 to 70,000 unique visitors, which has since ballooned to 100,000 visitors.  Rhiza is getting calls from the Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Homeland Security…all expressing interest in their program!

2–Obama applauds Pittsburgh’s National Cyber Forensics Training Alliance!
Who would suspect a few dozen employees, working in a mild-mannered Pittsburgh business park, are hunting down some of the world’s most wanted online criminals?
NCFTA’s new model is so highly regarded similar cyber centers are being considered in Canada and England. 

What else should we do best…and first in the ‘Burg?

Robots with fins & tails demonstrate evolution

It hardly looks like it, but two swimming robots were set loose in the little pool to study evolution, acting out predator-prey encounters from roughly 540 million years ago.   Robots  can do things like shimmy through water or slither up shores.   For instance, researchers can test theories on the development of stiffer backbones.

Image:  Robotic tailfin

Did you think robots could help us do this?

Cotton Candy Does What?

Cotton candy is a children’s treat.  Now it may have found a new role! Cotton Candy could help scientists grow replacement tissues for people.
It may be just right for creating networks of blood vessels within laboratory-grown bone, skin, muscle or fat for breast reconstruction.

What do you think?

DNA Helps Count Gorillas!

Traditionally, conservationists estimate gorilla numbers by counting nests and examining the dung outside each one. This method showsed 336 gorillas left in specific 331-square-kilometre national park. But when Guschanski’s team analysed DNA samples from each pile of dung using a new genetic counting method, the population estimate dropped by 10 per cent to 302. This suggests that some individuals had been counted twice using the old technique.
What do you think?

My Genome, My Self

Picure credits:

Jeff Riedel for The New York Times

Some exterior genetic manifestations – the hand and calf of Steven Pinker, who is allowing his genome to be posted on the Internet.

So…what does the new work in genomics tell us about what we really want to know…ourselves? Click & Read My Genomic Self for an interesting and thoughtful look at what we know, what we will know and what do we want to know?

Take who we are – a cosmic mix of nature, nurture and brute chance. The genome is complex – can we sift out what makes you more likely to be you?  ”Take height. Though health and nutrition can affect stature, height is highly heritable: no one thinks that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar just ate more Wheaties growing up than Danny DeVito. “

So…what do you know? What do you want to know? …What do you think we can know…and should know??

Banana R. I. P.

Bananas are in trouble – can biotechnology save this fruit?

Click to read on.

 

So…what do you think? African nations depend on the banana – do we genetically engineer a blight proof banana?…and do we eat it?

Student Researchers Engineer Genetically Fortified Beer

A team of college students at Rice University in Texas is engineering a new strain of beer that contains resveratrol, the heart-healthy ingredient found in red wine.

 

The project is part of the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition, in which students design and build useful biological organisms using DNA “building blocks.”         Student video.

What would you engineer…or like engineered?

Vote On This Year’s Top Science Story! Suggestion – Could It Be A New Way To Do Stem Cells?

Suggestion:

The end goal of cell reprogrammer scientists is to create immune-system-friendly transplant tissues for patients.

With that said,  discoveries have pushed stem cells from the lab to the news and even the headlines this year.

This year, teams turned human skin cells into unspecialized ones resembling embryonic stem cells, prized by biomedical researchers for the potential to turn into any kind of tissue and earned “Breakthrough of the Year” status from Science magazine.

Click to read on (scroll down and vote!)

What did you vote for…and why?

- above image – human embryonic stem cell

Gene Doping

 

 

 

In the future, that lab might not produce a steroid or human growth hormone but genes that, for example, could alter the webbing of a swimmer’s hands and feet.

We already have webbed hands and feet – so why not have a little bit more?What could …or should the world of sports do about that?

 

Genetically engineered meat may be served under FDA plan… and not labeled

 

Picture caption: These bulls on a farm in South Dakota were genetically engineered to be prion-free, which can make them resistant to mad cow disease.

 

This new proposed plan affects everybody! 

The proposed plan might lead to -

• Salmon that grow more quickly and efficiently.

• Goats that produce drugs in their milk or blood.

• Chickens that produce drugs in the whites of eggs.

• Cows that cannot get the brain-wasting mad cow disease.

• Pigs with organs that can be transplanted into humans without rejection.

• Hypoallergenic dogs and cats.

However, these new rules would not require the labeling of meat or milk from engineered animals, something the advocacy group Consumers Union finds “incomprehensible.”

What do you think?