Author Archive
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil…
Researchers from George Washington University have published in Animal Cognition that monkeys make character judgments based on reputation. In the past research has suggested that primates use eavesdropping and third-party interactions to help judge character, now Dr. Francy’s Subiaul believes that his work provides further evidence that a primate system exist similar to human social [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Biology, Business, Chemistry, Drug Discovery, Ethics, Pharmaceuticals by Wendell
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
FDA Request Medtronic Drug Pump Recall
On Wednesday, Medtronic announced that the FDA has informed them that it has classified its communication to physicians related to inflammatory mass formation associated with intrathecal drug delivery as a Class I Recall. On January 16, 2008, Medtronic sent a letter to inform clinicians worldwide of an increase in the rate of reported inflammatory mass cases [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Biotech Mashup, Business by Wendell
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
Part Rabbit, Part Fish, All Hero
The plight of the Great Barrier Reef has been reported at length for the last decade. In 2003, an article in Science, believed that part of this decline was due to the loss of herbivores. According to the authors the loss of herbivores and preadators exposed the reef to pollution and natural disasters of which it could not [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Biotech Mashup, Environment by Wendell
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Only Two Percent of Children Drug Trials Have Independent Saftey Checks
A review published in Acta Paediatrica has found that from 1996 to 2002 only 2 percent of 739 children drug trials had independent safety monitoring. Independent safety monitoring gives an unbiased review of the drugs side affects and can determine if a drug trial should be stopped due to unwanted and harmful results. This is particularly important [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Business, Ethics, Medicine, Pharmaceuticals by Wendell
Monday, March 17th, 2008
Land Cover and You
The European Space Agency working with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization have announced a new land cover, the observed biophysical cover of the earth’s surface, map. The map, called GlobCover, is based upon twenty Terabytes of data and will offer resolution ten times greater than any previous attempt. Current Plans are for the map to be released freely to [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Biotech Mashup, Environment, Pollution by Wendell
Friday, March 14th, 2008
Mosquito Repellent Haywires Neurons
Researchers at Rockefeller University have published in Science the first chemical mechanism on how DEET, mosquito repellent, works on mosquito’s preventing them from biting humans. According to the paper DEET inhibits signals from the olfactory co-receptor OR83b. This receptor responds to 1-octen-3-ol, a chemical secreted by humans. When DEET is sprayed on human skin it competitively binds to OR83b [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Biology, Chemistry, Drug Discovery, Environment, Pharmaceuticals by Wendell
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
A Crabby Personality
As reported yesterday in LiveScience, Mark Briffa, a behavioral ecologist published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B that hermit crabs have different personalities. In the past he has examined how they behave in combat and the value they place on a shell.
Dr. Briffa’s method for determining a crab’s personality was to flip crabs upside down and measure how long [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Biology, Biotech Mashup, Ethics, Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, Technology by Wendell
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Roaches’ Secret to Moving is Unveiled, Motels Around the World Rejoice!
A group at University of Cambridge released a study Wednesday detailing a mystery a century old, how did that roach get there? Lead Researchers, Walter Federle and Christofer Clemente, explain that the nemesis of modern motels has two pads on the feet which allow the legs to pull or push. This allows the buggers to skim [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Biotech Mashup by Wendell
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Stem Cells Used to Create Kidneys and Pancreas in Mice
Researchers from the University of Tokyo have announced they have successfully grown kidneys and pancreas in mice missing the ability to grow their own said organs. According to Japan Today, the researchers injected embryonic stem cells from healthy mice into eggs of genetically engineered mice that do not grow kidneys and pancreases three days after fertilization and [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Biology, Disease, Ethics, Medicine, Technology by Wendell
Monday, March 10th, 2008
HemCon Medical Technologies Uses Shrimp to Save Lives
Ten years ago if you had a car wreck and suffered deep lacerations the standard treatment would have been a tourniquet to prevent bleed out. While waiting to reach a hospital, the result of this treatment could have been loss of a limb or death. Now, it is the year 2008, and treatment procedures have slowly been changing to use [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in Biology, Biotech Mashup, Chemistry, Medicine, Technology by Wendell
