US Scientists Clone Human Embryos

Scientists have made a long-awaited breakthrough in human cloning, by using human skin cells to create early-stage embryos. The breakthrough marks the first time human stem cells have been produced via nuclear transfer and follows several unsuccessful attempts by research groups worldwide

In what is being described as a “significant milestone” for medicine, the team from Oregon Health and Science University successfully used a technique which utilised a human skin cell and a woman’s egg to produce an embryo which was a genetic copy of the original skin cell.

The resulting embryos were then used as a source of stem cells, which can be used to create specialised tissue cells for transplant operations. However scientists say they do not think the technique could be used to clone humans for reproductive purposes :: Read the full article »»»»

Australian Scientists 3D-Print NEW Organs …US Student 3D-Prints a Gun

It’s proof perhaps that we live in an ironic world, Australian researchers are on the cusp of creating new human organs via 3D-printing. While a US student fires the first bullet from a home-made 3D Printed polymer gun.

On the up-side, Australian scientists say they have found a way to grow human body parts using 3D printing technology. The technology isn’t the only cleverness here, 3D printers are now so portable that they might be installed in hospitals.

The University of Wollongong’s Centre for Electromaterials Science is opening a research unit at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital where 3D printing will be used to reproduce tissue material :: Read the full article »»»»

IBMs World’s Smallest Movie

Researchers from tech-behemoth IBM have unveiled – confirmed by Guinness World Records –  the world’s smallest movie, made with atoms. Named A Boy And His Atom, the movie used thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action.

The movie depicts a character named Atom who befriends a single atom and goes on a journey that includes dancing, playing catch and bouncing on a trampoline. Set to a playful musical track, the movie represents a unique way to convey science outside the research community.

It takes around 1 million atoms to store a single bit of data on a computer, a bit being the basic unit of information in computing. Recently, IBM Research announced it can store that same bit of information in just 12 atoms.  In order to make the movie atoms were moved with a scanning tunnelling microscope. The microscope weighs two tonnes, operates at minus 268 degrees Celsius and magnifies the atomic surface more than 100 million times :: Read the full article »»»»

Australian Researchers Brew Recipe For Long Life Beer

Australian beer drinkers will soon have the option of buying a beer with a much longer shelf life, a new type of malt barley, developed by Adelaide researchers and a Japanese brewer, can curb beers propensity of tasting stale when left on the shelf.

The new barley variety ‘SouthernStar’ is the results of collaboration between the University of Adelaide and Sapporo Breweries. Importantly this new barley is not genetically modified, it’s been produced using conventional – albeit high tech – breeding techniques, utilising data from the recently completed Barley Genome Project .

South Australian farmers are to begin commercial production of the barley this year. Commercial crops grown in 2013 will be harvested in November/December, processed into malt in the first half of 2014 and used for commercial beer production in the later part of 2014 :: Read the full article »»»»

Breakthrough Cancer Treatment Improves Survival Rates

Researchers in Melbourne have used a new targeted treatment technique to achieve the highest-ever long-term survival rates for patients with some forms of lung cancer.

The team from Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute used PET/CT - Positron Emission Tomography / Computed Tomography - scans to determine the location and stage of tumours in 76 patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The patients were treated with a combination of radical radiation therapy and chemotherapy, leading to a four year survival rate of 32 per cent, the highest ever published.

Research team leader, Associate Professor Michael MacManus, says that is dramatically higher than the historic average of between 10 and 20 per cent.

PET/CT scanning uses a device which combines both PET and an x-ray Computed Tomography, so that the produced images – taken by both devices sequentially – combine into a single superposed image, a 3D map. The image shows the spatial distribution of metabolic activity in the body can be more precisely :: Read the full article »»»»

Kepler-62 Most Earth Like Planets

Astronomers using a potent NASA space telescope to search for life say they have found planets which are the most Earth-like candidates yet. Two of the five planets orbiting a Sun-like star called Kepler-62 are squarely in the habitable zone – not too hot, not too cold, possibly bearing water – NASA scientists report in the journal Science :: Read the full article »»»»

New Study Finds Vaccination Rates of Australian Children are ‘Reassuringly High’

Research from the National Health Performance Authority has found 77,000 Australian children are not fully immunised. The study – Healthy Communities: Immunisation rates for children in 2011-12 – measures the percentage of children who were considered fully immunised at one, two, three and five years of age. It found 32 areas where the percentage of children fully immunised was 85 per cent or lower for at least one age group. The Australian Medical Association says anything below 93 per cent is unsafe.

The success of immunisation programs depends on public support. A lack of public support for these programs can contribute to a significant increase in preventable diseases, and can be directly linked to the resurgence of once common illnesses like measles and pertussis – whooping cough – of which we’ve recently seen outbreaks of in Australia.

Scientific evidence for the effectiveness of large-scale immunisation is well published, in the US full-vaccination from birth save an estimated 35,000 lives annually and prevents an estimated 14 million infections. Some opponents of vaccination argue that the reduction in infectious disease are a result of improved sanitation and hygiene – rather than vaccination – or that the diseases were already in decline before the introduction of vaccination, unlike medicine however, they don’t process any evidence for these anecdotes.

Repating sometimes is the only way of getting a point across; for vaccination programs to work, 93 per cent of people need to be immunised, any number below this presents a danger for communities. In Australia there are pockets with rates of immunisation as low as 85 per cent. More concerning however is that there are communities relying on Dr Google for medical information, forming what the perceive as informed decisions and lowering immunisation rates in the process. Affluent Eastern Sydney for example has an immunisation rate of 89 per cent, this well educated region is choosing to place it’s children in danger of serious infection due to misguided information? :: Read the full article »»»»