Future Salon

Adult Stem Cells from Whiskers

Well, I was tempted to do another tasteless title about adult stem cells and dandruff. I refrain.

Still it is interesting where on the body these adult stem cells are hiding and probably doing adult stuff until they get lured out by these excellent researchers.

This time stem cells from mouse whiskers, that can be used to grow tissue and smooth muscle cells, neurons and other nerve cells. [via The Register]

Update: While composing this post linstrum1 has posted about it already on the Future Salon Yahoo Group

Nose Boogers contain Adult Stem Cells

Australian Scientists Grow Adult Stem Cells from Nose

SYDNEY (Reuters) - With the help of the Catholic Church, Australian researchers have successfully grown adult stem cells harvested from the human nose, avoiding the ethical and legal problems associated with embryonic stem cells.

But nobody is taking about the new ethicals problems, where to put your boogers now? If you are not careful you may end up with Fleshy Creatures. Takes the fun out of flicking them, does it. Something tells me I didn't totally get that correctly with harvesting stem cells from the nose. :-)

And who would have thought my good old Catholic Church did some good with the billions they have horded.

It really smells promising.

More recent Stem Cell successes

JP Kikos was at the Stem Cell Future Salon last Friday and send me the following links to more recent research successes and investment opportunities in that area:

Especially the fact that VCs and angels are partnering with the clinics around the world (Russia, England, China, Korea) to open up Stem Cell Clinics in the Caribbean (Bahamas, and Barbados etc). Locally the FDA just expanded the Aastrom's (ASTM) Phase II bone graft trials. And their Replicell technology fully automates the culturing and commercial-scale production of Tissue Repair Cells.

Great Stem Cell Overview

Wow, that was an excellent presentation by Christoper Scott last night. Stem Cells is a complex issue from so many angels: Biology, politics, science, potential health benefits, moral issues, economics, international competition, ... Chris super cool and with loots of dry humor made the topic very accessible and kept us captivated throughout the presentation.

Things I learned last night in no particular order:

Pleasure seeking: the basis for all decisions

Is each of our decisions is ultimately driven by pleasure-seeking, even though it might not be obvious all the time?

The new pleasure seekers
Cabanac then promised the students increasingly large lumps of cash to endure the pain. The more he offered, the longer they suffered. Ironically, Cabanac's experiment was part of a broader investigation into the science of pleasure.

Who put that in my Cereal?

Gene blocker turns monkeys into workaholics [via Gilda at LV Futurist]

Procrastinating monkeys were turned into workaholics using a gene treatment to block a key brain compound, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

I am convinced someone is blocking that Gene in me since about 2 years. I used to work only 4 days a week, to have time for all the other stuff that I love to do, like making music. Now work and fun with Future Salon is blending into each other on way too many hours of the week and I don't get to play my instruments as often as I like.

Politics of Science and Technology

Just about 100 days until the presidential elections. Time for us to look closer at what the two camps have in store for us regarding the things that interest us the most: Science and Technology. (Or at least from a Future Salon perspective these themes are not covered enough.)

I would like to give the September Future Salon scheduled for Friday 17th to both parties to make their case. At the BlogOn last Friday I bumped into Phil Wolff who is very active with East Bay for Kerry. One of their committees is Scientists for Kerry. Phil promised to get me someone to cover the Democrat's agenda.

Same evening I floated the idea with Judith Meskill and she said that she may be able to provide me with an eloquent speaker to present the Republican standpoint.

Consciousness

I found this neat post describing why humans are "dualists". I've recently suspected that religion is genetic, given that about 86% of the world's population is religious, of one denomination or another. Religion appears that it is indeed rooted in biology -- but not for the reasons you might think.

But before I direct you to that webpage, let me first direct you to a different webpage, one that articulates the more familiar "body/soul (or spirit)" split. Although it does not use the word "dualism" (it uses "dual" so it comes close!) this "body/soul (or spirit)" split is the definition of "dualism".

The Brain and the Mind

Now here's the article.

It makes the statement, "In fact, it would be the discovery of the century if some sort of thinking went on that did not involve the brain.".

Natural Born Dualists

So, it would be the discovery of the century if some sort of thinking went on that did not involve the brain. What are we actually finding? We are finding a lot. Here are some recent findings (that you may or may not have heard about already) that caught my attention. Perhaps you will also enjoy reading about them:

PhysicsWeb - Single-electron transistor goes mechanical

PhysicsWeb - Single-electron transistor goes mechanical

Physicists in Germany and the US have made a single-electron transistor that operates using a nanometre-scale vibrating arm.

and it works in room temperature. End of Moore's low not in sight.

Spiders use Electrostatic to get a Grip

Biomimicry here we come: Some Swiss and German scientists found out that spiders are using electrostatic forces to be able to walk upside down on almost any surface. The force is strong enough for 170 times their own weight, not that these spiders could go in the ring with Mike Tyson, but still quite impressive.

Here are some possible uses for this technology:

"One possible application of our research would be to develop Post-it notes based on the van der Waals force, which would stick even if they got wet or greasy," said Kesel. "You could also imagine astronauts using spacesuits that help them stick to the walls of a spacecraft - just like a spider on a ceiling."

Do I hear Spiderman costumes? Climbing up walls should be possible. Of course the real deal is the swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper over New York traffic, guess that will take a bit longer. [Via PhysicsWeb]

If everything works out, we will have Janine Benyus who wrote the book Biomimcry present at the November Future Salon. Cross your fingers. Here an aptly titled article about her: The Remarkable Janine Benyus