Laser Procedure Stimulates Tooth Tissue Growth

Lasers could someday be used to help repair teeth. Researchers were able to stimulate new dentin growth in the teeth of mice and rats after just a single dose of laser therapy. Dentin is the bonelike tissue surrounding the pulp cavity of a tooth and comprising the bulk of the tooth. This sort of procedure could not regenerate an entire tooth—it cannot rebuild enamel, the protective outer layer of tooth material, nor can it stimulate dentin regrowth if the pulp is necrotic—but it could, in some cases, allow people to avoid painful root canal procedures. More… Discuss

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Stem Cells Created from Adults’ Cells

For the first time, researchers have successfullycreated stem cells from the skin cells of adults. This is considered the first step in developing patient-specific cells lines to treat diseases like heart failure, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and vision loss, but it is also the first step inhuman reproductive cloning, an issue fraught with ethical dilemmas. To create the stem cells, researchers fused a grown skin cell with an ovum whose DNA had been removed. The resulting embryo contains an inner lining of pluripotent stem cells. Of 39 attempts to create stem cells from adult cells, the researchers succeeded only once for each of their two skin cell donors. More… Discuss

NEWS: QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT STEM CELL STUDY FINDINGS

Questions Raised About Stem Cell Study Findings

A Japanese scientist who published groundbreaking research on stem cells earlier this year is now calling for the study to be withdrawn. Scientists have as yet been unable to replicate the study’s finding that bathing mature cells in a weak acid solution could quickly and cheaply convert them into stem cells, and questions have been raised about the accuracy and legitimacy of the data and images included in the study. The RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan is now conducting an inquiry into the paper. More… Discuss

 

Creativity, by George-B (“My creativity, my word…They don’t live within…”)

Creativity, by George-B

My creativity, my word…They don’t live within…
If I was to find the center of my word
I would look everywhere,
I would look upon my deep breathing pattern…
I took long walks strapped to a photo camera, to a reorder…
creativity came though, after I stumbled upon a rock,
kicked a pebble,
stepped over a fallen branch
took on more step,
with a well broken in PUMA running shoes –
I understood that humility travels with the maker…by walking carefully,
Stumble upon it, and feel with all your being. 

SCIENTISTS GROW MINI-BRAINS

Using stem cells, laboratory researchers have managed to grow cerebral organoids, essentially miniature brainswith several distinct regions—a scientific first. The mini brains are pea-sized and similar to that of a 9-week-oldfetus. They have already been used to studymicrocephaly, a congenital condition characterized by abnormal smallness of the head and underdevelopment of the brain, and may be a useful research tool in future studies of brain diseases. More… Discuss