Top 10 scientific break throughs of 2009

[Irving]

Interesting read. Thought I'd share.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/discoveries-gallery/

[sniper7]

pretty interesting stuff, especially the one about lung cancer and the pill letting cancer patients live longer lives..at least tested in a mouse.

[Irving]

The mouse one wasn't about extending the life of a cancer patient, but anyone. The drug just happened to be used to slow the spread of cancer cells.

Longevity of life and cell regeneration has always interested me. I've heard that the oldest recorded living animal was a Koi fish that lived over 200 years. Some of the turtles that Darwin studied and tagged, are still alive today. I even had one biology teacher in college, make a comment about how scientists have never found the corpse of a sea turtle that has died of old age, it is always from a shark bite or getting hit by a boat or something. That sounds like a great place to start looking for ways to extend life, by looking at an animal that is already known to be able to live for hundreds of years.

I agree with you as far as those two articles were the ones that I liked the best. I know there have been studies that have shown that dogs can be trained to sniff out cancer.

[Irving]

Here are a few other articles that might be interesting for you guys. I got them all off of www.slashdot.org. I used to frequent that site for the science articles and hadn't been in a while so splurged today.

China clamps down on Rare Earth exports:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/concern-as-china-clamps-down-on-rare-earth-exports-1855387.html

Complex Integrate Circuits Made of Nanotubes:
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/24236/page1/

Solution to Killer Superbug Found in Norway:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_re_us/when_drugs_stop_working_norway_s_answer

Some article playing "Predict the Future!" with what the internet might look like in 2020:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/010410-outlook-vision.html

[SA Friday]

Number one was the most important to me and I've been watching the discoveries very close.

My wife has Neuropsychological Systemic Lupus Eurethmatosis (I think I spelled it correctly, but I'm too damn lazy to check). In a nut shell her body makes a lot more antibodies that attach her own cells than normal. They're called auto-antibodies. In my wife's case, she makes auto-antibodies that attach the double strands of DNA in her neuron cells through out her central nervous system. It very very rare and the only form of lupus that can outright kill the patient.

Gene therapy is the key to a cure for her disease.

[sniper7]

The mouse one wasn't about extending the life of a cancer patient, but anyone. The drug just happened to be used to slow the spread of cancer cells.

Longevity of life and cell regeneration has always interested me. I've heard that the oldest recorded living animal was a Koi fish that lived over 200 years. Some of the turtles that Darwin studied and tagged, are still alive today. I even had one biology teacher in college, make a comment about how scientists have never found the corpse of a sea turtle that has died of old age, it is always from a shark bite or getting hit by a boat or something. That sounds like a great place to start looking for ways to extend life, by looking at an animal that is already known to be able to live for hundreds of years.

I agree with you as far as those two articles were the ones that I liked the best. I know there have been studies that have shown that dogs can be trained to sniff out cancer.


Oh I guess I didn't read into it enough that it is life extending for everyone.

I wonder what the results would be of giving the drug to a child and have them take it throughout a lifetime if they will develop slower or what would happen. I am sure scientists would love to test this as well but probably can't do it.