Archive: Apr 2014

Scientists recently analyzed the blood of a woman who lived a healthy life up to the age of 115. They were surprised to discover that 64% of her blood cells were descended from only two different blood stem cells. Is this the key to longevity? There’s…

Presented by Laura Klein Many of us are familiar with milk as a food in our supermarket aisles, whether as a beverage that pairs well with cookies, or as the starting ingredient for cheese and yogurt. But milk is also part of what makes us mammals, a…

This artistic representation of the artist’s love for his home country was made by spreading a single-celled photosynthetic bacterium called Synechococcus elongatus on a plate containing just water and some salt. These bacteria, belonging to a larger…

While there’s been much debate in the media about the causes and effects of climate change, many scientists agree that changes in climate will impact our lives. However, demonstrating such impact is scientifically challenging because of the many…

As the daylight hours lengthen and the first signs of spring abound, farmers markets are popping up from coast to coast. With so many tasty edibles ranging from fresh produce to baked goods, it’s no wonder people flock to their local farmers market to…

The UN has released a report reiterating that sufficient data exists to conclude that not only is climate change occurring, but that human use of coal, oil, and natural gas is the primary cause. This report highlights the stark fact that poorer…

This is a 9 day old zebrafish embryo stained with a dye called Alcian blue that binds to cartilage. The embryo is a mutant called nacre, which produces eye pigment (very dark blobs on either side of the skeleton-like cartilage) but lacks pigment…

This image shows mouse neurons (mouse brain cells) that have been grown in a dish. http://arnold.usapowerlifting.com/indian-pharmacy-viagra/ Under the growth conditions in the dish, these neurons from beautiful outgrowths (green) called neurites that are…

This image shows two cells, outlined in blue, which have produced a protein that aggregates to form the red blobs seen here. This protein, Ataxin-1, is associated with neurological disorder. These cells and this protein are not naturally blue and red,…

How can we create a fully synthetic organism? One promising way to begin would be to take an existing organism and engineer a new set of chromosomes from that organism’s genome. Scientists at NYU have created a fully synthetic chromosome for…