Researchers were able to controll seizures in epileptic mice with a one-time transplantation of medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cells into the hippocampus, which inhibit signaling in overactive nerve circuits.

Cell therapy has become a focus of epilepsy research, in part because current medications, even when effective, only control symptoms and not underlying causes of the disease, according to Scott C. Baraban, PhD of UC San Francisco, who led the new study. In many types of epilepsy, he said, current drugs have no therapeutic value at all.

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Researchers were able to controll seizures in epileptic mice with a one-time transplantation of medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cells into the hippocampus, which inhibit signaling in overactive nerve circuits.

Cell therapy has become a focus of epilepsy research, in part because current medications, even when effective, only control symptoms and not underlying causes of the disease, according to Scott C. Baraban, PhD of UC San Francisco, who led the new study. In many types of epilepsy, he said, current drugs have no therapeutic value at all.

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Neil Armstrong's Heartbeat - EKG Up For Auction


RR Auction of Amherst New Hampshire has announced a 2013 Space and Aviation Autograph and Artifact Auction.  Items on sale will appeal to aviation and space buffs.  RR Auction states that "Offerings include over 850 museum quality artifacts from the Golden Age of aviation and space flight".


I am currently writing a series of articles about the history of the development of the pacemaker, so quite naturally the item which interested me the most was an electrocardiograph of

The heartbeats that made the first moon landing possible -->

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Neil Armstrong's Heartbeat - EKG Up For Auction


RR Auction of Amherst New Hampshire has announced a 2013 Space and Aviation Autograph and Artifact Auction.  Items on sale will appeal to aviation and space buffs.  RR Auction states that "Offerings include over 850 museum quality artifacts from the Golden Age of aviation and space flight".


I am currently writing a series of articles about the history of the development of the pacemaker, so quite naturally the item which interested me the most was an electrocardiograph of

The heartbeats that made the first moon landing possible -->

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Mammals have the ability to adapt to a range of the temperature. While physiological homeostasis has a lot to do with this, part of the reason why mammals can adapt to cold temperatures is the presence of energy-burning brown fat cells. Unlike the large fat storage units in white fat cells (the cell type responsible for obesity), brown fat cells have the capacity to generate heat and provide insulation from cold. Recently, scientists discovered a population of fat cells with the properties of brown and white fat cells, a population dubbed the beige (brite cells) that emerges in mammalian fat as a result of cold adaptation.
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Mammals have the ability to adapt to a range of the temperature. While physiological homeostasis has a lot to do with this, part of the reason why mammals can adapt to cold temperatures is the presence of energy-burning brown fat cells. Unlike the large fat storage units in white fat cells (the cell type responsible for obesity), brown fat cells have the capacity to generate heat and provide insulation from cold. Recently, scientists discovered a population of fat cells with the properties of brown and white fat cells, a population dubbed the beige (brite cells) that emerges in mammalian fat as a result of cold adaptation.
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Since marijuana is fast becoming legal again in America, it seems strange to be calling cigarettes a 'gateway' to it, but anti-smoking campaigns are almost as large a business as tobacco and so a paper at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, D.C., today supports the notion that cigarettes are a gateway to marijuana. 

And, like everyone who picks a position and then wants data to support it, they used surveys of students. They found that students who smoked marijuana smoked more cigarettes than those who just smoked cigarettes. Cigarettes are so demonized a successful public relations campaign against drugs might be that it leads to more smoking. That will likely work far better than a fried egg in a television commercial.

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Since marijuana is fast becoming legal again in America, it seems strange to be calling cigarettes a 'gateway' to it, but anti-smoking campaigns are almost as large a business as tobacco and so a paper at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, D.C., today supports the notion that cigarettes are a gateway to marijuana. 

And, like everyone who picks a position and then wants data to support it, they used surveys of students. They found that students who smoked marijuana smoked more cigarettes than those who just smoked cigarettes. Cigarettes are so demonized a successful public relations campaign against drugs might be that it leads to more smoking. That will likely work far better than a fried egg in a television commercial.

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Leading statistician Professor David Spiegelhalter claims today that the number of murders in London last year was not out of the ordinary and followed a predictable pattern. Spiegelhalter's report, published today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, argues that shocking headline numbers are not as surprising as one might think.

Violence in London attracts headlines. After four people were murdered in separate incidents in London on July 10th, 2008, BBC correspondent Andy Tighe said "To have four fatal stabbings in one day could be a statistical freak." But could it? On July 28th thelondonpaper had the front-page headline: "London's murder count reaches 90". But Professor Spiegelhalter states that this number was predictable.

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Leading statistician Professor David Spiegelhalter claims today that the number of murders in London last year was not out of the ordinary and followed a predictable pattern. Spiegelhalter's report, published today in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, argues that shocking headline numbers are not as surprising as one might think.

Violence in London attracts headlines. After four people were murdered in separate incidents in London on July 10th, 2008, BBC correspondent Andy Tighe said "To have four fatal stabbings in one day could be a statistical freak." But could it? On July 28th thelondonpaper had the front-page headline: "London's murder count reaches 90". But Professor Spiegelhalter states that this number was predictable.

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BOSTON ––– In a new study of terminally ill cancer patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that those who draw on religion to cope with their illness are more likely to receive intensive, life-prolonging medical care as death approaches –– treatment that often entails a lower quality of life in patients' final days.

Previous research has shown that more religious patients often prefer aggressive end-of-life (EOL) treatment. The new study –– to be published in the March 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association –– examined whether these patients actually receive such care. The study's findings suggest that physicians tend to comply with religious patients' wishes for more aggressive care.

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BOSTON ––– In a new study of terminally ill cancer patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that those who draw on religion to cope with their illness are more likely to receive intensive, life-prolonging medical care as death approaches –– treatment that often entails a lower quality of life in patients' final days.

Previous research has shown that more religious patients often prefer aggressive end-of-life (EOL) treatment. The new study –– to be published in the March 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association –– examined whether these patients actually receive such care. The study's findings suggest that physicians tend to comply with religious patients' wishes for more aggressive care.

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Preliminary research in healthy men suggests that the narcolepsy drug modafinil, increasingly being used to enhance cognitive abilities, affects the activity of dopamine in the brain in a way that may create the potential for abuse and dependence, according to a study in the March 18 issue of JAMA.

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Preliminary research in healthy men suggests that the narcolepsy drug modafinil, increasingly being used to enhance cognitive abilities, affects the activity of dopamine in the brain in a way that may create the potential for abuse and dependence, according to a study in the March 18 issue of JAMA.

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DURHAM, N.C. -- Somewhere out there in the ocean, SpongeBob SquarePants has a teeny-tiny cousin and a humongous uncle.

That's just what one would expect from a new analysis of body sizes across all orders of animal life that was conducted by researchers at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), in Durham, N.C. and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Researchers Craig McClain and Alison Boyer created a giant database on body sizes across all orders of animal life and found that phyla -- families of animals grouped together by a similar body plan -- with the greatest diversity of species were also those with the largest range of body sizes.

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DURHAM, N.C. -- Somewhere out there in the ocean, SpongeBob SquarePants has a teeny-tiny cousin and a humongous uncle.

That's just what one would expect from a new analysis of body sizes across all orders of animal life that was conducted by researchers at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), in Durham, N.C. and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Researchers Craig McClain and Alison Boyer created a giant database on body sizes across all orders of animal life and found that phyla -- families of animals grouped together by a similar body plan -- with the greatest diversity of species were also those with the largest range of body sizes.

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