New finding in spinal cord injuries

Scientists have discovered that a commonly used food additive FD&C blue dye No.1 is remarkably similar to a lab compound that blocks a key step in nerve inflammation. It makes mice recover more quickly from spinal cord injuries. Just one problem:

New Uses For Pluripotent Skin Cells

[Reuters] "Chinese researchers have managed to create powerful stem cells from mouse skin and used these to generate fertile live mouse pups.

They used induced pluripotent skin cells, or iPS cells -- cells that have been reprogrammed to look and act like embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells, taken from days-old embryos, have the power to morph into any cell type and, in mice, can be implanted into a mother's womb to create living mouse pups."

One more step and there will never be any need to use embryonic stem cells. That last step is to segregate the iPS cells by type, enabling the laboratory to grow specific organs in vitro. In other words, skip the embryo-creation step in cloning and go directly to cloning a specific organ to match a specific donor. Now that we have all these life-prolonging procedures, there would be a good chance that the donor would live long enough to become their own organ recipient with no potential of rejection.

One approach would be to discover, if possible, the difference between iPS cells made from skin and those made from another organ. So far, there is no known difference between iPS cells and embryonic stem cells produced by the current procedures, so research looking for such differences will become very important.

Silencing the Climate Warming Critics

Stunning article in the Wall Street Journal today about the two-faced "scientists" in our government. The WSJ rightly points out that Jim Hansen, the biggest loudmouth in government has given over 1,400 speeches touting his version of anthropogenic global warming, many of them during the Bush administration, and had the audacity to claim that "the Bush administration" was "censoring" his work and fiddling with the science. The Obama administration has grabbed onto that claim and issued very public memos demanding transparency in government and science. Lisa Jackson, the nominee to head the EPA, joined in with "I will ensure EPA's efforts to address the environmental crises of today are rooted in three fundamental values: science-based policies and program, adherence to the rule of law, and overwhelming transparency."

So what about Alan Carlin, a senior analyst (B.S. in Physics from CalTech, PhD in Economics from MIT) who has 35 years in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Science? Last March, the Obama administration decided to declare carbon a "pollutant," and gave the EPA the authority to regulate it. And this was completely without any action by Congress. "Mr. Carlin and a colleague presented a 98-page analysis arguing the agency should take another look, as the science behind man-made global warming is inconclusive at best. The analysis noted that global temperatures were on a downward trend. It pointed out problems with climate models. It highlighted new research that contradicts apocalyptic scenarios. 'We believe our concerns and reservations are sufficiently important to warrant a serious review of the science by EPA,' the report read."

Can you guess what happened? Well, his boss forbade him to do any more work on climate change because his effort was getting in the way of EPA policy! Subsequently, anonymous people in the EPA have been bad-mouthing Mr. Carlin's work.

The WSJ concludes "Mr. Carlin is instead an explanation for why the science debate is little reported in this country. The professional penalty for offering a contrary view to elites like Al Gore is a smear campaign. The global-warming crowd likes to deride skeptics as the equivalent of the Catholic Church refusing to accept the Copernican theory. The irony is that, today, it is those who dare critique the new religion of human-induced climate change who face the Inquisition."

Obama's claims of "transparency" are basically lies. And what happened to the promise that no new legislation would be voted on without being available for debate for five days? Apparently that doesn't apply to anything in Washington these days.

Please read the whole article in the WSJ.

Good Writers.

Good writers, especially clever writers, fascinate me. I wonder how they do it. Literally, I wonder if it's spontaneous, sweat and tears, or just how it comes about.

I know a few good writers personally and have no clue how they do it, either. But what brings it to mind is today's Woot. How do they do it? How do they create something different every day? Always irreverent, of course. And usually funny.

My hat is off to good writers, be they comics or poets.

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS)

Slowly, the science media is realizing the potential of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). Their use for reprogramming genes to correct defects will likely soon become a reality. iPS has the potential of providing all the touted benefits of embryonic stem cells with none of the medical or ethical issues.

The Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA has reported research that corrects a gene defect in human stem cells. The study focused on patients with a rare condition, Fanconi anemia, which causes skeletal problems and bone-marrow failure, and raises sufferers' risk of cancer. When coupled with iPS, it has the potential for correcting the defect in patients and a similar technique could do the same for many other genetic defects.

"For the first time, researchers have fixed the gene defect in cells from patients with an inherited disease, and then transformed the tissue into stem cells with the potential to reverse their condition. While scientists haven't yet tested the treatment in humans, the research could mark the beginning of a new age of curative treatments for many genetic disorders."

It's time for all the hullabaloo about embryonic stem cell research to quietly disappear. It's no longer an issue.

"The New Economy"

"The New New Economy: More Startups, Fewer Giants, Infinite Opportunity," is the title of the 22 May article in Wired. It's the latest re-visit of socio-economic theory based on "the new paradigm." In other words, "Gee whiz, it's a new world and we told you so first." A bit like "The End of History."

You can read the article faster and easier than I can summarize it, so let's move on to analysis. Frankly, it reminds me of many prior attempts at insight that failed even the simplest reality tests. They usually had more in common with wishful thinking than insight. A few from my own experience:

In about 1964, I had a college professor who was, more than likely, a closet socialist. He was a scientist, but not involved with computers, so I was a little surprised to hear him say that computers would be the salvation of Communism. Computers would make it possible to effectively manage state-controlled enterprises. In other words, the obvious failures of Communism would be overcome by electronic brute force. I didn't argue the point, or even comment, as I recall. It said more about the man than the idea.

About 1989, I was a consultant to a company in Europe that was in the data business. They collected it and sold it. For a fee, they would also analyze it. Their problem was that their half-million-dollar computer was no longer big enough or fast enough to handle the volumes involved. Their computer guru had recommended that these new gadgets called personal computers were so cheap that the problem could be solved using several dozen PCs instead of stepping up to a million-dollar mainframe. Management was skeptical and I basically agreed with management; it was too early to make that leap.

These two examples, and the Wired article, have a lot in common. Brilliant insight is a long way from analytical proof. And time has an amazing way of defeating even the most exhaustive analyses.

Which is not to say that there will not be More Startups, Fewer, or at least Different Giants, and Infinite Opportunity. But that's the way it has always been in our society.

Does Eczema Lead To Asthma?

Eczema and Asthma are have in common that they are diseases of the developed nations. Researchers think that's no accident; they have found some evidence that eczema causes asthma.

A report in the Public Library of Science Biology, as documented in The Economist, suggests that skin cells damaged by eczema secrete thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) which, in turn, elicits a strong immune response from the body to fight off invaders. Eczema-induced TSLP enters the bloodstream and, when it arrives at the lungs, sensitizes them so that they react to allergens that would not previously have bothered them. In other words, they become asthmatic.

Nobody really knows what causes eczema. One theory is that cleanliness is the culprit. Detergents, by degreasing the skin, might lead to infection, inflammation, and immune responses with severe side effects like asthma. If so, the "old wives" missed a chance to tell a tale. Maybe little Johnny is not sickly despite how well his mommy takes cares of him, but because his mommy takes such good care of him.