Category: Biotechnology
This time scientists give mice a live-forever liver.. so unfair.
Can someone please tell me exactly what is so very wrong with mice that Scientists are determined to spend so much time supe-ing them up?!
Last week i wrote about scientists who created exercise-in-a-pill for mice. Well, this week, different lab-coat wearing mouse-botherers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, have gone and genetically modified a lil’ mouse’s liver to stop the aging process in it. And it’s worked, apparently.
Scientists develop new artificial cornea
Scientists at Stanford University have developed a new type of artificial cornea using two interwoven polymer gels of similar makeup to the materials used in soft contact lenses…
Commercial pet cloning on its way, dogs and camels first
A South Korean company has successfully cloned five puppies from the frozen cells of a pitbull who died of cancer two years ago.
Bernann McKinney paid US$50,000 for the puppies, which are confirmed as Booger’s genuine clones.
This case is all quite sentimental, because it sounds as if Booger was a wonder dog who saved its owner’s life, and helped her recuperate from her injuries.
Cows herded by remote control… the most fun you can have on a farm?
After his recent campaign to clear up the clearly criminal practice of battery chicken farming, I'm pretty sure mad-as-a-march-hare celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall will be gearing up for a brand new TV series over the latest news that farmers might soon be corralling cattle using radio-controlled bovine headsets.
Researchers from the Department for Agriculture in the good ol' US of A have put their thinking caps on and designed a high-tech cow-hat that sits over the cow's ears and allows the controller to corral the individual remotely, using sounds funneled directly to the ears.
A bitter pill to swallow: Scientists give mice effort-free exercise
Lazy bastards and fatties rejoice – scientists in California have gone and created a pill that does all the hard work of exercise for you, helping you lose weight AND get fitter. Great news, yeah? Well, no.. Because before you get all excited and go mad ordering an extra large stuff-crust pizza in celebration – you should probably note that the pill only works on mice.
"Microscope on a chip" could lead to mobile magnification
Scientists from the Californian Institute of Technology have developed a high resolution microscope which is small enough to fit on a fingertip.
It uses “microfluidics” with a grid of CCD sensors — as used in digital cameras — to allow the liquid being analysed to be viewed in high magnification.
The chip needs to be illuminated from above, but sunlight is sufficient, meaning that it could provide a useful mobile solution for medical diagnosis in developing countries, as well as anywhere else…
South Korean dog-cloning – build an army of Shebas for $50k a pop
If your faithful old mongrel is starting to get a bit wobbly on his legs and is going off his food, rip out a lump of its hair and head to South Korea – where “dog cloning” is a genuine service.
Two competing South Korean labs offer the chance to recreate a dog for anything between $50k and $100k, although, of course, this isn’t just so Paris Hilton can keep the same puppy…
MONKEY uses its BRAIN to control a ROBOTIC ARM
More news from the world of mad scientists PLAYING GOD – this time they’ve managed to thoroughly confuse a poor monkey by hooking its brain up to robotic arm.
The serious research angle behind the monkey/robot/brain fun is something to do with it eventually being used to help humans control prosthetic limbs. So far, the boffins at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have managed to teach a monkey to pick up a marshmallow and put it in its mouth. Here is the dramatic moment in pictures:
This development in marshmallow consumption alone…
Bio-art interfaces life and art
The first really new art form of the 21st century is taking hold: bio-art. Bio-art ranges from Adam Zaretsky playing Englebert Humperdinck to E.coli for 48 hours to see how it reacted (it produced antibodies to, seemingly, try to…
