Strides in Science 2008

Science magazine has put up re-programming cells along with the creation of induced pluripotent stem-cells (iPS) as the major breakthrough of the year. The highlight is the creation in vitro (cell culture model) of preparing cells that act as the most primordial of an active human cell. The earliest stage of human development is the blastocyst and iPS in many ways simulate the formation of these cells in the lab.
To understand the big excitement about stem cells, you have to understand the specialized nature of the human body. The cells that makes up our body are all differentiated, or to put in layman's perspective, having their own unique character and attitude to boot. For e.g, the neurons or nerve cells are specialized as an extremely nimble communication device, they form network connections among themselves and begin the formation and accumulation and storage of bits of data called thought and store them as "memory". The kidney cells on the other hand act as filters, the liver cells as detox workers and so on. In an adult body, usually the cells stay as the same once they have already differentiated. Meaning, its no mean feat to get your neuron to change to a pancreatic beta cell or vice versa.
So for a long time, scientists have been trying to find the most undifferenciated cells or "stem cells" from the small pool of stem cell niche. These cells in the preliminary experiments long time back have been shown to be coaxed to change to many different types of cells based on the culture conditions and growth factors. In other words, you could feed them to make them whatever you want them to be.
Here is an example of the differenciation of a stem cell that is naturally programmed as the precursor of blood cells.


Photo courtesy: http://training.seer.cancer.gov
The iPS cells can be produced by introducing just 4 genes in addition to normal genes already present in a normal cell. So, you have "embryonic like cells" from just genetically engineering a normal mice cell. ( from the lab of Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University)
The genes that stood out in stem cell maintenance were Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-myc. Interestingly some of these are known oncogenes (genes that can produce cancer).

See Video

A major advantage of reprogramming is to create or mould one kind of adult cell to another kind of adult cell. This is a paradigm shift from our classical hypothesis that was always taught which goes.. "Cell differenciation is a one way road". Apparently, some labs have already shown that there are techniques and genes involved in the change of one kind of cell to another, in other words, reprogram the cell differenciation process.
This could in theory change the way we attempt treatment.
If for e.g, a patient with young onset diabetes chooses, in future he may be able to change his skin cells or perhaps even his belly fat cells to be programmed to be pancreatic beta cells of the Islets of Langerhans. These new cells than can make insulin in the hosts body and control the blood glucose level naturally. This will also remove the risks associated with islet transplantation and immune rejections that are sometimes a common problem with Type I diabetes treatment.

Winter Myths debunked

I remember when I was a school student, about the TV programs and even some of our teachers telling us why wearing a cap in the winter is a necessity. The argument was that, most heat from the body is lost through the head. Of course, it was plausible since the scalp has the surface area to lose body heat.
But I learned today that this is actually a myth. Researchers have now found that any part of the body that has been left uncovered will lose heat. (BBC Report)

Scrutiny of the literature shows this myth probably originated with an old military study in which scientists put individuals in arctic survival suits (but with no hat) and measured their body temperature in extreme conditions.

If the experiment had been done with the participants wearing only swimsuits they would not have lost more than 10% of their body heat through their heads, the researchers said.

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Hangover cures
Scientists have also found that there is no cure for hangovers except to "not consume alchohol".
Now, that must be something most households in Kerala have already found out, even if unscientifically documented.

Snow Storm in WNY

On Friday the 19th of December, we had our first major storm of the winter. The forecast predicted about 6-10 inches of snow. And it didnt disappoint. It began snowing from 9:00AM to about 2:00PM. Then it stopped only to resume in another hour.
Driving in the snow is really fun and a bit scary. That is because its partly driving a car and partly driving a big boat. When the tires get some purchase from the asphalt, you can drive, otherwise you drift like a rudderless boat. Many accidents have been reported in the past evening. Hopefully, no one is hurt badly.

Live MESH Update

OK, I tried livemesh and I am disappointed. The remote connection even on a broadband line was slow, the screen refreshes on a line by line basis like a scanner. But slower than most scanners. The storage space of 5GB is just not enough for my appetite. And to top it up, user control of the update feature or to assign specific subfolders in the major shared folder are primitive or absent.
I have uninstalled it from my home computer after it hogged the resources.
Poor implementation.

R-Indi-culous Stats

It might come as no surprise to you that India is the Outsourcing capital of the world.. for now that is. But what about chest-thumping about the "India Shining"? Indians are the most prosperous of all immigrants in the US, 50% of doctors in US are Indians, 75% of Silicon valley is owned by Indians, 36% of NASA scientists are Indians..! The list goes on.. and you have to be a no-brainer to believe it all, because as it happens, all of these are hoaxes circulating on the Internet.

But what happens when news outlets actually peddle this sleazy stuff? Well, that is exactly what happened today.
Check here..!

I do not by any sense of imagination want to belittle the achievements of immigrants in this country. Being one of them for now, who arrived on these shores with a few dollars in my pocket, I have seen and participated in the tireless work of our people in uplifting both them and this counrty to great paths of prosperity.
However, what I do take objection is to see all this in the narrow prism of our national identity and then the inevitable chest thumping that accompanies in the media outlets. For some reason, eulogies by Western nations and nationals seem more important to us than the adolation of our own people. Is it because we are so stingy in that adolation except when it comes to Bollywood and Cricket? How many of us actually commend the life's work of an NGO who worked to save AIDs patients or orphans and destitutes? Infact, many of us know the City of Joy because of Dominique Lapierre. I wonder how many would be enlightened about the lepers of Kolkatta if a Bengali Chattopadhyay had worked in the ashrams for their emancipation, there instead of a pale complexioned Albanian nun?

We pride ourself by writing self eulogies about our "imaginary compatriots" who slave in foreign lands. So, is it a coincidence that the "elite media houses" land with mud on their faces when covering about the 10 year old who was "invited to NASA" to perform research on the Mars Mission?

Microsoft MESH

So, Microsoft has launched a new service called Live MESH. Just like most M$ ideas (yawn) , this one too ain't earth shattering well.. thanks for no surprises as usual Microsoft. If there is anything predictable from the most powerful business empire, that is low innovation and reinventing the wheel to make it look even worse. The service is basically a web based drive that you dont need to carry around. My gripe for now is that you get 5GB of free space. I dont know if the folks at M$ are living in another age. But you can get a 4GB teeny weeny flash drive for less than $20. Do you need to be this stingy? Like most M$ web services, you can login with the infamous Passport or Live ID and get access to your shared data.
This may apparently be Microsoft's venture into the HDD area of "Cloud Computing".See the Economist article here. The market itself is rather full of similar services. Microsoft's Skydrive, Streamload, Dropbox etc. are a few to name. I hope to see a plethora of applications that can serve synergistically with these services. Google wont be too far behind. Adobe already provides a paid service for professional photographic portfolio managers

The steps are simple enough.
Go to the website.
Login with your ID to hotmail or MSN.
Install the software (win32)
Once the service is launched it shows a blue orb near your system clock.
Click on Connect on the website.
[IMAGE]
Once connected you can add your "Device" or computer to the live mesh. (umm.. a bit scary aint it?)
Now, open Windows explorer and right click on the folder you want to umm.. "Share".
Tada, now its on. Synch and start using.
I found it interesting that my Comodo Firewall did not ask for a confirmation of the install process. Usually Comodo is quite jumpy about any new installations. Hmm...? I wonder why?

I have sync'd some of my research material that I work on from home. I will report how this works, by next week.
Here is a screenshot of my folders.

A size 10 shoe

So, President Bush wanted to give himself a fairwell tour to Iraq. Well why not?
It would be interesting to see the effect of the blood and money that has gone to a worthwhile cause of bringing freedom.

Well, apparently, people are still angry about him and his plans..!
See the report

I have to say, his reflexes are pretty good. But his re-enactment of the FDR legacy is not going very well. But seriously, no two people could be more different than the above mentioned two.

Da Vinci Code

Tom Hanks the lead actor in the movie "Da Vinci code" was on TV. Something he said, caught my attention.
He was responding to the criticism of the depiction of Jesus having a child with Mary Magdalene. Predictably the "conservative" religious right in the Western world, promptly began bashing the movie (well, in a polite civilized manner). No theatre burning, no throwing acid bottles at the film crew.. no silly nonsense.
While the film narrative goes in parellel to the church's ambition and powerplay, (never giving an actual sense of Vatican's own potent interest in the "secret"), there are glimpses of the dark side of religious manipulation. To add, there is the fable of free-masonry. Nevertheless, its still a wonderfully woven story around 1000's of years of secrecy surrounding a major religion. A religion that until the 20th century was a haven for noblemen and aristocracy to hold on the feudal system.
However, what I was surprised is coming back to Tom Hanks..
he said, " I dont believe that a fiction book sold in Barnes and Nobles will change the faith and values you hold dear, and that has survived the ravishes of thousands of years of the churning world". ... or something to that effect. I was relieved and also impressed.
Now, here is a gentleman actor, an accomplished performer, who is gifted with art, but also with something upstairs of his neck.
I guess, that is what religion is.. a cornucopia of accumulated beliefs passed on from nomadic tribes to the urban man and that has tempered your "faith".

So here goes, a pictogram of the great divide.

Nota bene: For a moment there, I was confronted with the scene of the Pandava birth and the Kaurava birth and that of Lav and Kush in Ramayana. A chill passed through thinking about the impact on the oh-so-delicate "religious sentiments" that famous euphemism for "total theocracy" that is often stuck up like a dagger, disguised as a PIL (public interest litigation).
A moment of anarchy, a terrifying scream... that's it. I think , its not worth thinking.
Kudos to MT for his "Randamoozham".

Here is an excellent documentary by PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/v2a.swf