Radioactivity.

Source from < http://www.tcd.ie/Physics/Schools/what/atoms/radioactive.php >

Can We Develop Superhuman Senses???

BLIND British children are to be taught a pioneering bat-style echolocation technique to visualise their surroundings.

The children are learning how to build up detailed images of the world around them by clicking their tongue and interpreting the sound as it echoes back.

The technique is used by animals such as bats, dolphins and whales to navigate and hunt in the dark.

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Celebrating a Revolutionary - Charles Darwin!

By RICHARD INGHAN

The world marks the 200th birthday of the man who cast out the human species from the epicentre of the natural world, and discovered a fundamental law of nature.
TWO hundred years ago, in a wealthy household in rural England, a child was born who, in a quiet, dogged, and utterly peaceful way, was destined to become one of the greatest revolutionaries who lived.

Armed just with a pen, Charles Darwin reforged our concept of nature and humanity’s place in it, ignited a social debate that blazes to this day, and shook the foundations of religions.
He bequeathed a theoretical legacy – the principle of evolution by natural selection and the origins of man – that has not only survived assault by Creationists and other critics but also remains a pillar of modern science....

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The Revival Of An Old Beast!

Thousands of years after the last mammoth disappeared across the face of the earth, scientists have recently sequenced 50 percent of the beast’s nuclear genome. This is the first time that so much genetic material of an extinct creature has been retrieved. This has provided insight into the evolutionary history of mammoths. But most interestingly it has brought scientists a step closer towards being able to resurrect a mammoth.

Thus far the mammoth genome exists only in bits and pieces. With the complete genome of the mammoth, scientists may one day be able to bring the mammoth back. It is estimated that around 400,000 changes to the Mammoth’s Genome is needed to produce an animal that looks a lot like a mammoth; an exact replica would require several million. So watch out for a Mammoth coming to a Zoo near you.

Cure for HIV ???

German hematologists Eckhard Thiel, left, and Gero Huetter of Berlin's Charite Medical University
attend a news conference about a successful treatment of a HIV infected patient in Berlin, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Doctors in Germany say a patient appears to have been cured of HIV by a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had a genetic resistance to the virus.

The researchers in Berlin said the man, who suffered from leukaemia and HIV, had shown no sign of either disease since the transplant two years ago.

But they stressed it was an unusual case which needed further investigation.

Experts said the result may boost interest in gene therapy for HIV.

Berlin's Charite clinic said the 42-year-old patient was an American living in Berlin, but the man has not been identified.

About one in 1,000 Europeans and Americans have a resistance to HIV

more from the BBC

Seminar Invitation!

Ant Traffic

How do ants avoid gridlock when their trails narrow into one-way paths? Vincent Fourcassié, a biologist at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France, set up experiments in which ants had to cross a narrow bridge to get from nest to foraging site and back. It turned out that different species follow different rules to determine who goes first. The typical black garden ant did not enter the bride if another ant was crossing from the opposite direction. In contrast, the leaf-cutter ant gave way for ants carrying leaves back to the colony. And the list goes on...

Nobel Prize for Chemistry shared by 3 Scientists!

Research into the mysterious green glow of a jellyfish leads to the Discovery of GFP.

Three scientists will share this year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry in recognition of their contribution to the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein GFP.

By using DNA technology, researchers can now connect GFP to other proteins that were previously invisible, or to various cells, the Nobel Foundation said. The glowing marker allows them to watch the movements, positions and interactions of whatever carries the glowing tag.

The Nobel Foundation said GFP can help with researching nerve cell damage during Alzheimer's disease or insulin-producing beta cells created in the pancreas of a growing embryo. In one spectacular experiment, researchers succeeded in tagging different nerve cells with "a kaleidoscope of colors" in the brain of a mouse, the foundation said.

http://edition.cnn.com

http://afp.google.com

Is Time Travelling possible???

Ever since Einstein revealed his special theory of relativity, we've known that time travel—at least moving forward through time—is possible.

So how does time travel work?

Theory of relativity - the Basics

...the speed of light in a vacuum is constant and an absolute physical boundary for motion. This does not have a major impact on a person's day to day life since we travel at speeds much slower than light speed. For objects traveling near light speed, however, the theory of relativity states that objects will move slower and shorten in length from the point of view of an observer on Earth. Einstein also derived the famous equation, E = mc², which reveals the equivalence of mass and energy. When Einstein applied his theory to gravitational fields, he derived the "curved space-time continuum" which depicts the dimensions of space and time as a two-dimensional surface where massive objects create valleys and dips in the surface. This aspect of relativity explained the phenomena of light bending around the sun, predicted black holes as well as the background radiation left from the Big Bang. For his work on relativity, the photoelectric effect and blackbody radiation, Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921.

http://www.allaboutscience.org/theory-of-relativity.htm

In simple words...if we can travel at the speed of light, we can break the time barrier.

One simple question which should be taken into consideration is that if some sort of vehicle is created can the human body withstand that kind of speed???

It is just a theory though :)

Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007

Not intersted in details but just want to keep in touch with the scientific world? Want a recap on what happened in the past year? Well then visit this website to update yourself!

link

‘Wash Away Those Cataracts’

Can you imagine a world where you can just use eye drops to cure cataracts? I mean literally going down to a pharmacy shop, getting the drops, applying it that very day and it’s gone the next day. It’s as simple as that! Well, that world may be upon us earlier rather than later, with the advancement in medical technology.

Cataracts result from an age-related accumulation of protein and lipids on the eye lenses. Currently, the only form of treatment is to surgically remove the lenses. However, this is an invasive and risky procedure which can lead to the patient becoming blind.

However, there is a new solution. The eye drops called C-KAD, are entering the final stages of clinical testing. If all goes well, they will enter the market in a few years. These eye drops could help to slash the millions of cataracts surgeries performed every year.

More information

USM's study on the Origins Of the Malay Race

There is an ongoing project in the Human Genome Center of USM which started in 2005 on the origins of the "malay" race.

Lets hope its outcome will be useful in fostering greater unity in our country.This is with particular reference to the genetic profile which is being compiled in this project.It would among others, highlight the great contribution made by other races in the "evolution" and development of the malay ginetic structure.

Below are more details of this project :

TRACING THE ORIGIN OF THE MALAY RACE THROUGH THE MORPHOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, SOCIO-CULTURAL AND GENETIC ANALYSIS

RESEARCH CENTER :
Human Genome Center , School of Health Sciences and Dental School , USM
CURRENT STATUS OF PROJECT: Ongoing ( started : Jan 2005 )
RESEARCHERS:

Principle Investigator: Dr. Zafarina Zainuddin
Co-researchers: Dr. Zilfalil Alwi, Prof. Abd. Rani Samsudin, Miss Azlina Ahmad,
Dr. Bakiah Shaharuddin, Dr. Liza Sharmini Ahmad Tajudin, Mr.
Hoh Boon Peng, Mr. Mohamad Ros Sidek, Dr. Nizam Abdullah,
Prof. Norazmi Mohd. Nor, Assoc. Prof. Ooi Keat Gin,
Panneerchelvam, Dr. Zainul Ahmad Rajion, Prof. Zainul

F.Zainuddin

INTRODUCTION:

The Malay race inhabits particularly Peninsular Malaysia and portions of adjacent islands of Southeast Asia (SEA), east coast of Sumatra , coast of Borneo and smaller islands between these areas. They were traced by anthropological evidence from the north-western part of Yunnan , in China . The proto-Malays were seafaring people, probably from coastal Borneo who expanded into Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia as a result of trading and seafaring activities. The present day Malays, called Modern Malays of Peninsular Malaysia and coast of the Malay Archipelago are a mixture of different races. They were described as deutero-Malays, descendants of the proto-Malays mixed with modern Indians, Thai, Arab and Chinese. The history and the origin of the Malay race have been the subject of much speculation among scholars. Since the Malays primarily reside within SEA, particularly Peninsular Malaysia, the prehistoric migrations into these regions must be taken into consideration. Several hypotheses of the SEA migration pattern have been put forward. Preliminary studies using mitochondrial DNA analyses suggested affinity of the Southern Mongoloid in the Modern Malay population of Peninsular Malaysia (Zafarina, 2004). The term Melayu or Malay‚ was also associated with the Hindu-Buddhist Srivijaya Empire (7th-13 centuries CE) believed to be located in the South-eastern part of Sumatra . An Arab text dating around 1000 CE observed that travellers bound for China sailed through the sea of Melayu‚ that can be inferred to mean the Straits of Melaka. On opposite shores of the Straits of Melaka by the 7th century CE or earlier, there were the domicile areas of the Malays, namely Sumatra and the Malay Peninsular.
OBJECTIVES:
1. To compile the genetic profile of the Malay race.
2. To study the history, social and anthropology of the Malay race.
3. To characterise the craniofacial, dental and ocular features of Malay race.
4. To correlate the genetic profile of the Malay race with their craniofacial, dental and
ocular characteristics.
5. To correlate the genetic profile of the Malay race with its history, social and
anthropology.
6. To trace the origin of the Malay race by using the genetic profile, anthropology,
craniofacial, dental and ocular characteristics.
METHODOLOGY:
The research encompasses four parts of studies: The Historical and Socio-cultural Analysis, the Ocular Morphology Analysis, the Craniofacial Morphology Analysis, and the last major part, the Genetic Analysis. Various types of genetic markers are used in the study of the genetic components of the population. These markers are autosomal and Y chromosome STR markers, mtDNA, Human Leucocytes Antigen (HLA) and lastly, the SNP genotyping which will be done using the Microarray 50K genechip system.
EXPECTED OUTCOME:
1. The tracing of the origin and the migration pattern of the Malay race.
2. Establishing USM as a part of the member of Pacific Pan-Asian SNP Initiative (PASNPI) organized by Human Genome Organization (HUGO)

http://www.medic.usm.my/~genom/boon_re.html