Category Archives: Of Interest

Growing New Teeth from Stem Cells

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Science with real bite: Full set of teeth grown in the lab

By FIONA MACRAE

Last updated at 5:26 PM on 13th July 2011

Scientists have grown fully formed teeth from stem cells.

The artificial teeth looked like the real thing, were sensitive to pain and could chew food.

The breakthrough was made on mice but could pave the way for those who lose teeth to decay or injury being able to ‘grow’ replacements.

Cutting edge: A bioengineered tooth, bottom right, successfully transplanted into the jaw of a mouseCutting edge: A bioengineered tooth, bottom right, successfully transplanted into the jaw of a mouse

The researchers harnessed the power of stem cells – ‘master cells’ which have the potential to be used to grow any part of the body – to generate teeth.

Two types of stem cell which between them contain all the instructions for making teeth were mixed together and grown in the lab in a mixture of chemicals and vitamins that started their transformation.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2014076/Science-real-bite-Full-set-teeth-grown-lab.html#ixzz1UdpLe8GW

 

Organic Seed Growers take on Monsanto

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ORGANIC FARMERS AND SEED SELLERS SUE MONSANTO TO PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM PATENTS ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEED
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Preemptive Action Seeks Ruling That Would Prohibit Monsanto From Suing Organic Farmers and Seed Growers If Contaminated By Roundup Ready Seed

NEW YORK – March 29, 2011 – On behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit today against Monsanto Company to challenge the chemical giant’s patents on genetically modified seed.  The organic plaintiffs were forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.

The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed in federal district court in Manhattan and assigned to Judge Naomi Buchwald.  Plaintiffs in the suit represent a broad array of family farmers, small businesses and organizations from within the organic agriculture community who are increasingly threatened by genetically modified seed contamination despite using their best efforts to avoid it.  The plaintiff organizations have over 270,000 members, including thousands of certified organic family farmers.

to read more, go to:    http://www.osgata.org/march-29-2011-osgata-press-release

On Intuition by Andrew Cohen

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Authentic Intuition

Posted: 8/8/11 08:21 AM ET
Andrew Cohen, founder ENLIGHTENMENT Magazine

In many spiritual circles, everybody likes to talk about intuition. “Follow your heart,” “Listen to your inner guide,” teachers tell us. But I always get a little nervous when I hear that kind of advice because it all depends on who you’re talking to. To take a very extreme example, if you told a fundamentalist terrorist to follow his or her heart, we all know where that would lead.

When you tell anybody to follow his heart or to trust her intuition, you first have to know who you’re talking to, how developed he is, and to what degree she has actually evolved beyond ego. When we embark on the path of “Evolutionary Enlightenment,” we recognize that most of us are deeply identified with the individual and collective ego, and therefore our choices and actions are, more often than not, driven by unconscious fears and desires and culturally conditioned beliefs and values. As we begin to awaken to what I call the “Authentic Self,” or evolutionary impulse, and begin to identify more with that than with the individual and collective ego, the motivating forces for our choices and actions begin to shift. The goal in “Evolutionary Enlightenment” is for the individual’s center of gravity or locus of identification to significantly shift so that the influence of the “Authentic Self” becomes greater than that of the ego. But until this critical threshold is crossed, talking about intuition is a dangerous business.

to read more, go to:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-z-cohen/authentic-intuition_b_918836.html

 

so, what do you think?………………….

Disc Shaped Craft In London

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Disc shaped craft is spotted circling near Stansted

3 August 2011 Last updated at 05:39 ET

On his way in to work this morning, Radio 5 live’s sports reporter spotted a disc shaped craft circling above a field in Hertfordshire. Was it a UFO?

Mike Sewell describes what he saw and Timothy Good, an unidentified flying objects expert, tells 5 live Breakfast what it could have been.

to hear the live report, go to:    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14387365

Riots Spreading in Britain

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Britain burns: Riots spread through UK cities

AP

LONDON (AP) — A wave of violence and looting raged across London and spread to three other major British cities, as authorities struggled to contain the country’s worst unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s.

In London, groups of young people rampaged for a third straight night, setting buildings, vehicles and garbage dumps alight, looting stores and pelting police officers with bottles and fireworks into early Tuesday. The spreading disorder was an unwelcome warning of the possibility of violence during London’s 2012 Summer Olympics, less than a year away.

In rare move, England’s soccer match Wednesday against the Netherlands in London’s Wembley stadium was cancelled, preventing unruly crowds from gathering and freeing up police officers who would have protected the game.

Police called in hundreds of reinforcements and volunteer police officers— and made a rare decision to deploy armored vehicles in some of the worst-hit districts — but still struggled to keep pace with the chaos unfolding at flashpoints across London, in the central city of Birmingham, the western city of Bristol and the northwestern city of Liverpool.

Fluoride and Bone Damage

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By The Fluoride Action Network (FAN)

Two new North American studies investigated the impact of low-level fluoride consumption on the strength and density of bone.

While these important (yet largely overlooked) studies are not slam-dunks, they provide some of the strongest evidence to date that low-level fluoride exposure alters the quality of bone tissue, and strengthen concerns that fluoride exposure may increase the rate of bone fracture in the population.

Skeletal Fluorosis—A Real Danger of Excessive Fluoride Consumption

The harmful effects of chronic fluoride exposure on bone are well established. Since the 1930s it has been known that fluoride intake causes excessive bone growth, which can result in joint pain, bone pain, and stiffness. These symptoms are difficult to distinguish from arthritis. Other symptoms indicative of early clinical stage skeletal fluorosis include:

  • Burning, prickling, and tingling in your limbs
  • Muscle weakness
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Gastrointestinal disorders
  • Reduced appetite and weight loss

The second clinical stage of skeletal fluorosis is characterized by:

Time, Calleman, McKenna, & Antigenics

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Mythic Proportions: Evolving Time with Calleman, McKenna, and Antigenics

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It’s October 2009. I’m on the plane from London, flying home to New York through Montreal. I’ve been blissfully engaged by Tom Wolfe’s non-fiction novel, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test”, letting the true tale of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters seep into my thoughts, using Wolfe’s precisely evocative language to turn my own direct moment into something mythical, something more than just another gig, another film shoot. That’s what I like to do, anyway. I like to live mythically. Wolfe ponders:

“It takes a rare kind. Because always comes the moment when it’s time to take the Prankster circus further on toward Edge City. And always at that point some good souls are startled: Hey, wait! Like Ralph Gleason with his column in the Chronicle and his own clump of hipness. Gleason is one of those people… Kesey can remember them all, people who thought he was great so long as his fantasy coincided with theirs. But every time he pushed on further — and he always pushed on further — they became confused and resentful…”

When I read that passage it took me back to the night before in London, Canary Wharf, to a private room at the Four Seasons Hotel, where I’m standing next to Garo, the CEO of a firm called Antigenics. He’d said to me, “You know, John, most people don’t like change. They actually fear it.”

to read more, go to:    http://www.realitysandwich.com/mythic_proportions_and_antigenics

Alternative to Animal Testing?

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Cell-Based Alternative to Animal Testing? Genomic Biomarker Signature Can Predict Skin Sensitizers, Study Finds

New research demonstrates that the response of laboratory grown human cells can now be used to classify chemicals as sensitizing, or non-sensitizing, and can even predict the strength of allergic response, so providing an alternative to animal testing. (Credit: © Chee-Onn

ScienceDaily (Aug. 7, 2011) — European legislation restricts animal testing within the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries and companies are increasingly looking at alternative systems to ensure that their products are safe to use. Research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal BMC Genomics demonstrates that the response of laboratory grown human cells can now be used to classify chemicals as sensitizing, or non-sensitizing, and can even predict the strength of allergic response, so providing an alternative to animal testing.

to read more, go to:    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110807220534.htm