Self Evaluation III

I had eleven posts this period and commented on others blogs about once a week except for this last week where I commented on 7 or 8 posts. I didn't realize how far I was falling behind on the comments until I started writing this. My post for this evaluation period have been much more personable and I have let the reader see more of my life through my video posts and using myself as a guinea pig in my at home experiments. I was definitely pressed for time this semester so my blogs came in spurts when I had some downtime. I would have liked to spread those out a bit with more consistent posting.

I feel as if I now have more knowledge on different forms of communicating. Now when I communicate with others I actively think how should I change my style or approach to cater to this particular group. I no longer try to communicate with everyone the same way. I have a lot more fun communicating with people using the lower organs and cultivating dialog so I try to do so when acceptable.    

Fin

So this is it. The good bye post. I am sorry to say to all my loyal followers (if I have any) that my blogging days are done. It has been fun, tedious at times, but fun none the less. I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts and watching me say "awesome" repeatedly. Thanks for following.

Osmosis Revisited

Statkraft's osmotic energy plant

A few people have told me that they do not understand what is full happening with the egg and the osmosis experiment so I thought I would try to explain what is going on a little differently. So first of all diffusion, again, is the transport of some substance in solution (aka the solute) from a point of high concentration to a point of low concentration. It will continue to happen until the entire solution is the exact same (watch the glass with red dye for an example).In the end the dye (the solute) is found at equal concentrations all over the glass.
Osmosis is a special type of diffusion where the water moves to equal out the concentrations instead of the solute. Osmosis occurs because there is a barrier that does not allow the solute to pass but does allow water (aka semi permeable membrane). So imagine a fish tank filled with water. If you were to put a semi permeable membrane that split the fish tank in to two compartments water levels would not change. The water has no driving force left or right. If you now dump a lot of salt in to the left side of the tank water would begin to flow from across the membrane from the right to the left. Since the concentration of salt on the left is higher and salt can not pass through the membrane water will move to equalize the concentrations by flowing to the left side and diluting the concentration of salt. So in the case of the egg, which has lots of proteins, ions and other solutes particles inside, water was flowing in to the egg to try to equalize the concentration of solute inside the egg to match that of outside the egg. Osmosis can only pull water in with so much force and eventually it will reach equilibrium with the force of the pressure created by moving the water into the egg. At that point water will no flow.
The cup where I added salt and soy sauce to the water, the water did not flow into the egg because there was as much osmosis pulling water out of the egg as in to it. In the cup with red dye water still flowed into the egg because the dye did not act like a typical solute. It was able to flow through the membrane with the water therefore it maintained equal concentrations and did not create any osmotic forces.
I hope this has helped clear up the topic of osmosis. It really is an important phenomena that is being use in engineering projects like reverse osmosis water filtration systems and in Norway Statkraft is actually building a power plant based off of osmotic energy. The idea is rather old but we are just beginning to be able to build the membranes needed for large scale processing of osmotic energy. This is a very exciting new form of renewable energy with firm grounds in biotechnology.

E-Cigarettes, A Safer way to Smoke?

It seems like every time I sit down at the bus stop or any other public place there is someone there just puffing away on a cigarette. Nothing annoys me more than second hand smoke. I don't really care if it is unhealthy or not to breath second hand smoke I just don't like the smell. Needless to say I am big fan of those new smokeless e-cigarettes. The smoker gets their nicotine and I don't have to smell it. But is it any safer for the smoker? Common sense says yes. Since you are only inhaling vaporized nicotine there is no tobacco with all of its carcinogens. But you are still inhaling nicotine which could be a major a major health concern. The British Medical Journal says there is no conducive evidence either for or against e-cigarettes over the traditional ones. More studies must be done to prove that these are a truly healthier option. The guys trying to sell the new e-cigs may try to tell you that they are the exact same as the nicotine patch or gum except now you can retain the feel of smoking, but it is just not true. You are breathing in the nicotine so its delivery pathway is much different than that of the gum or patch which could lead to health problems more associated with smoking. But if any smoker out there really cared about their health they would stop smoking. So smokers there is no point yet in switching over to the new e-cigs for yourself just yet, but there are people all around you, like me, that wish you would. If you would like to be more well liked by the general population please switch to e-cigarettes.

Tibetan Terriers are More than Good Dogs

If you have ever owned a Tibetan Terrier you know they are amazingly wonderful dogs a little difficult to groom but lovable non the less. One problem with the breed though is that pure breds have a tendency to contract neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis or NCL which is a degenerative neurological disorder like Parkinson's in humans. The dog slowly loses vision and muscle control. Eventually the dog will begin to have seizures and can become irritable and aggressive as the disease takes its toll.Not a fun time. Luckily though a PhD student in Missouri located the faulty gene in the terriers so dogs can now be screened to see if they carry the mutated gene before they are bred. This should greatly reduce the number of Tibetan Terriers with the disease.

This is not only good news for dogs but humans as well. Researchers used the map of the terrier's genome to find what disease if any is associated with the equivalent human gene. And low and behold a form of Parkinson's is associated with the gene in humans. Since researchers know that NCL is caused by the bodies inability to breakdown and recycle some of its used up material which begins to build up in the brain causing the symptoms. They could believe that this same occurrence could be causing this form of Parkinson's and can hopefully start looking for cures or better medications to slow the effects of the disease.    

Free Energy Machine

To clear up any confusion all of the eggs were first soaked in vinegar to remove the shells. Then one egg was move to water bath, one egg was moved to water and food coloring bath, and one egg was moved to a salt water and soy sauce bath. I only show myself adding salt  because I did not think of adding soy sauce to get some proteins in the water until after I had finished filming. 

Water Diffusion

As promised in my previous post here is the video of the red dye diffusing in water at 80X real speed.

Osmosis: Mother Natures Biotech (Video Post)

For those of you who would like to watch the full diffusion I am still working on speeding up the video. It took about thirty minutes for the dye to diffuse and it is like watching paint dry right now. I should have it sped up and posted by Monday though.

Wag of my Finger to Johnson and Johnson

For most people when Johnson and Johnson is mentioned they think of baby shampoo. But Johnson and Johnson is also one of the largest medical device producers in the world. They make everything from stents and sterilizing equipment to imaging and EKG machines. Recently though J&J was caught bribing doctors, hospitals and governments in foreign countries across Europe and Asia to use or exclusively use J&J products. This is highly unethical not to mention illegal. J&J has opted to settle out of court for $70 million before the trial without admitting guilt. In all fairness these allegations were all made against J&J subsidiaries and when J&J found out they actually brought it up to the US government. So in all fairness J&J acted very ethically it was J&J's foreign  subsidiaries that deserve the wag of my finger. Bad J&J subsidiaries. It is nice to see that there is still companies J&J Corporate Headquarters who do the right thing in bad situations.  

Hangover Cure Part 2

After my very exciting e-days I collected my "experimental data" on hangover cures. My hypothesis was that enough water and vitamins the night before would cure any hangover. My test started Wednesday night with a control, I consumed normal amounts of water and vitamins that day with a lot of alcohol that night. I woke up the next day with a hangover as expected. I had a massive headache and nausea. Thursday I was sipping on water whenever I was not drinking. The next day I woke up slightly dizzy but not too bad off. Friday I consumed the same amount of water and alcohol with a multi vitamin to cap off the night. I woke up 100% fine, no hangover! Saturday I thought it might just be the electrolytes I got from multi vitamin so I consumed the same amount of water and alcohol except I switched to Poweraid instead of water for 12oz. Again I woke up 100% fine with no hangover. So my conclusion is that hangovers can be prevented with lots of water and a full range of electrolytes.   This is not by far a conclusive experiment but it is a good initial look. If you would like to continue this experiment and tell me the results I would be grateful to hear your insights. If you actually have some of the hangover pills and can compare it to sports drink and water for you. I found that they hangover pills would have been a waste of money since I prevent hangovers for much cheaper.  

A few of these guys did not have as hangover free of an e-days as me.

The Hangover Cure

As everyone at School of Mines knows E-days is this weekend! For those outside of the Mines community E-days is the weekend our wonderful school, parts of Denver and the city of Golden throw all of the aspiring engineers a party. Which means there will be massive amounts of alcohol consumed this weekend, but only by those of us over 21 of course. So I decided to do a very important post on hangovers and the medications taken for them. There are many options out there to choose from like Chaser, Sob'r-K Hangover Stopper, RU-21, Berocca and Rebound. So which is best and why?

Lets start off with a little background on how these pills work. Most hangover pills, as I understand it, have some form of carbon that filters out impurities from your drink kind of like a Britta water filter. These impurities combined with your bodies dehydration from the alcohol are what make you feel sick the next day, or so they claim.  


Much to my surprise though I can not find too many bad reviews on the internet. Everyone who has taken these pills other than RU-21 has said that they worked fantastic with Chaser and Nitekap seeming to be the best. I am still very skeptical though since most of these pills require you to take them with one or two large glasses of water around 4 times a night for moderate drinking. Most people do not normally drink that much water whilst drinking which could be a major contributer to no hangover. I will have to try to hold a study two nights over E-days one night where people take a multivitamin and lots of water throughout the night, and one night where they take the hangover pill as directed. My hypothesis is that the water and multivitamin will work just as well for much cheaper since hangover pills average about $1/pill. 


Have a great and safe E-days everyone. Stay safe, don't puke and rally. That is a great way to end up in a hospital.       

Fukushima: Tragedy for Most, Gold Mine for Select Few

There is no arguing that the tsunami and earthquake that hit Fukushima Japan was bad new bears, but from this wreckage some sellers of radiation meds are making out like bandits. Before you go hating pharmaceutical companies do know that many have donated a substantial number of radiation medications to the relief effort. Most are still making a healthy profit though.

One company in particular that is really moving forward because of this disaster is Cleavland BioLabs. They recently started the process of getting their disaster radiation medication called CBLB502 through the FDA, and in order to be able to use this drug in Fukushima the FDA might be fast tracking it through testing. This would allow Cleavland BioLabs to donate and sell their drug in Japan and around the world much faster and cheaper than anticipated greatly increasing the companies profits.

I am not sure how CBLB502 works but I do know it is substantially different from any other medication on the market and works both pre and post exposure to radiation. Traditional radiation medications include lots of iodine in some form and work by having that iodine fill all iodine receptors in the body, most of which are in the thyroid. With all iodine receptors full radioactive iodine-131, one of the most common forms of radiation, can not bind anywhere in the body. If iodine is not taken around radiation or if it is taken for a long sustained period of time it can cause problems in the thyroid. The thyroid is responsible for the regulation of many hormones including ones involved with metabolism and calcium storage and usage.

I would like to know how you feel about companies making profits off of disasters. Is it a win-win out of a bad situation? The companies get money which they can invest in making better products and the people get the medications they need to survive. Or is it just greedy CEO's taking advantage of the mis-fortunate people of Fukushima?

For more information on Cleavland BioLabs please visit:
http://www.cbiolabs.com/
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110314-712174.html

Self Evaluation II

I have been posting 2 times a week and commenting on about 4 posts a week. I have been trying to to get more reader engagement by different and more interesting post topics which has been mildly successful. I hope my most recent post on Fukushima will get a lot of response. I fell it is a really strong post. As far as earlier posts I am not really sure what you were trying to draw out on the last barrage of comments you left and I was hoping to talk to you about it after class tomorrow. I am also starting to run dry on topics to write about and could use some help there as well.

I have done the required number of posts with decent length and content and I feel I am again deserving of a B grade.

Resident Evil Has Some Explaining to Do

As you can see I have the Umbrella Corporation logo as the background to this blog. For those who don't know Umbrella is a fictional pharmaceutical company from the game Resident Evil. In the game Umbrella, in their attempts to create a drug to produce super soldiers made the t-virus that would vastly change the host DNA without killing it. It consistently made humans more aggressive along with a few other changes specific to the individual. A few unforeseen side effects from the virus were decomposition of the hosts skin and reanimation of dead tissue. This of course led to hordes of zombies you have to hack and slash your way through to beat the game.

The virus originated from a natural virus in Africa called the Progenitor virus and when combined with leech DNA creates the t-virus. I haven't the slightest idea what part of leech DNA can reanimate dead tissue and the creators of the game don't bother explaining their thoughts of how this would work.

So, to the creators of the Resident Evil game I ask why base the game on a virus that you can't even begin to explain how it works. You just coped out and said it changes the hosts DNA. All viruses change the hosts DNA in the cells they infect but they do not all lead to zombies. What is different about this virus? How is able to reanimate dead tissue? Viruses are not alive and need living tissue "take over" and help it replicate. Dead tissue can not perform this function and therefore the virus can not infect it. If the virus can not even infect dead tissue how could it possibly reanimate it? I enjoyed playing the game but the creators just ignored so many biological questions. I think the game could have been much better if the actual premise of it would have been more plausible or if they would at least try to explain it. I know most people don't care what makes the zombies they just want to shoot them, but there are a few others like me that would like to know why and how these zombies were made making shooting them all the more enjoyable.

Do Your Genes Have a Little Extra Junk in the Trunk?

Everyone has genes that are referred to as junk genes; actually nearly half of our genes are junk genes. Junk genes are just sequences of our genome that scientists can not discern. Some of these junk genes do have a purpose and scientists just have not figured out what it is yet. Others are truly junk and do not code for anything. These will be the genes I am referring to as junk in the rest of this post. The current theory to explain the waste in our genome is that junk genes are viruses inserted throughout the evolution of the mammalian genome that are missing a piece of biological machinery to be transcribed. These viruses are essentially stuck in our genome not helping or hurting us. But are these junk genes really just junk?

Humans share 99% of our DNA with mice. Humans and mice have 99% equivalent DNA. This is a staggeringly high amount for how different we are as organisms, but this just looks at what genes are shared serve the same purpose and not what genes are expressed. The junk genes in our system are now believed to play some role in the expression of genes through human evolution. Junk genes can be transposons, or genes that can hop around in our genome from one spot to another. Sometimes this jumping can turn on or off gene expression in cells. If it is a helpful change the cell can thrive and the organism will hopefully pass on the improved cells. If it is a detrimental jump the cell will probably die and stop the genetic flaw. The recent study done on this idea of jumping genes aided scientists in the explanation of evolution but more importantly has made a step forward in being able to differentiate stem cells down their different paths. 

Save a Horse Ride a T-Cell

When I was young I went horse back riding with my family. I was so excited to lead the horse around to all sorts of cool places, but shortly after I started riding I learned that this was not the case. The horse had walked the trail so many times that he knew exactly where the trail went and no matter how hard I tried I could not make the horse turn off on to a different trail. I was just along for the ride and no amount of effort would change the final destination. T cells behave in much the same way as these horses.

T-cells are an important part of our immune system. They are often referred to as the foot soldiers of immunology. Being the foot soldiers T cells know exactly where to go to reach any area in need an immunological response, such as wounds or cancerous tissue. So scientists have cleverly figured out if they can get a cancer killer attached to the T cell the killer can have a free safe ride straight to the cancer site. There it will hop off and start to kill cancerous cells. So in my analogy the T cell is the horse, I am the cancer killer just stuck along for the ride, and the stable at the end of our trail is the cancer. The horse will deliver me safe and sound to the stable no matter how much I fight to go somewhere else, just like the T cell will deliver the cancer killer right to the cancer wiping it out. Hooray, we beat cancer just by thinking about horses! Well there are still a few things to figure out, but being able to get the cancer killer to the site without detection and destruction by our own immune systems is a major step forward. The Mayo Clinic has successfully completed this process in mice with cancerous tumors using a type of retrovirus as the cancer killer. A retrovirus is just a type of virus that carries its genetic code as RNA instead of DNA. The virus inserts its RNA into the cell and forces it to make DNA from it and the DNA in turn will tell the cancerous cell to be self destructive. This whole process still needs to go though much more testing before it can even start trials on humans, but theoretically this looks very promising.  

Manbearpig is Real! At Least He Could Be

Al Gore was right! Manbearpig exists, or he very well could with all of the cross-species mixing going on in laboratories today. Manbearpig for those who don't know is a mythical creature from the show "South Park" who is half man, half bear, and half pig. The video below explains.

Zoologists have been interbreeding species for a long time. The first liger was bred in 1824 according to liger.org . Now scientists are crossing species separated a bit farther by evolution like a mouse and a human, a mouman if you will. South Koreans mixed together a mouse embryo with human stem cells and Americans unable to use fetal stem cells mixed specific tissues of a human with a mouse such as a mouse with human neurons. This research is not about what crazy chimeras we can make, it gives good insights into how stem cells differentiate. This can help scientists figure out how new ways stem cells can be used to repair tissues and cure diseases. It is all very important and highly ethically debated research, but I still wish they would make one manbearpig just for the fun of it. If you would like to know more here is a great article by the US News and World Report.

Daddy Would You Like Some Sausage?

As per request from many of my friends I have decided to do a post on penis enhancement pills. I know that these pills are more pharmaceutical biochemistry than biotechnology, but it is such a popular topic I think it will be ok. I want to break down the pills ingredients and talk about their safety and effectiveness.

First up is L-Arginine. L-Arginine is one of the 20 common amino acids in humans. It can stimulate human growth hormone, cell division, and wound healing. It also has an important role in the immune system. Sounds nice right, even if does not make your penis bigger. But more then enough L-Arginine can be ingested through common foods such as oatmeal and dairy products.

Zinc Gluconate is often used as a zinc supplement. Zinc can help to reduce colds. As far as function down below  zinc is essential for prostate health. Many males actually do not get enough zinc in their diet, but zinc supplements are much cheaper and more effective than penis pills.

Crataegus is a plant that is used to strengthen the heart, possibly important for those who want to have sex and have a weak heart. But it is also used a sedative. I don't know about you but I would like to stay awake through sex, but thats just me.

Muira Puama is a plant clinically proven to remedy sexual ineptitude. It is also thought to induce anxiety and increase stress, which is not so good.

My suggestion is to pass on penis pills and take a daily supplemental vitamin. You will not only get better results for overall health, but also skip on all the dangerous ingredients added to penis pills both intentionally and unintentionally. If you want to know about some of the less common ingredients link here.

 

GATTACA

I recently watched the movie GATTACA, a look at one possible outcome of an advanced eugenics driven world. Eugenics is just a fancy word for improving the genetic population,usually used only for humans populations. This can be done through selective breeding, or other high tech methods like designer babies.

Alright so back to GATTACA, in the movie children are primary genetically superior test tube babies and the entire application process to jobs, schools, even dates has been replaced by a simple genetic code reading to test for aptitude. So the plot of the movie is that a child born by normal conception fakes his identity and genes to get a high profile job and he excels at it proving that hard work and determination are better than superior genes. A point I agree whole heartedly with.

So can this future really happen? First of all can your genes really determine aptitude? Many studies are coming out that determine the cause for mental handicaps and what in our genes cause them, but I do not see this drastically improving intelligence for those without handicaps. If you know of any studies that say differently please let me know. Secondly the eugenics done in GATTACA does not make super-humans, it just takes the best traits from each parent and applies them to the child. Even the parents best attributes combined could make a below average human. Finally humans have been practicing eugenics since their existence. We natural strive to find the best mate possible. This ensure that other half of the genes our child receives are the best possible and our progeny will excel. And even after 25000 years the human species has not broken itself into classes.

Right now we have no idea why people like Albert Einstein and Descartes were so smart. Did their genes predispose them to their genius or was it events in their life drove them genius? I feel that genes may have played a small role in their success but the majority came from their persistence.

One Man's Disease is Another Man's Cure

In my life I have broken quite a few bones and torn out nearly every ligament in my right elbow. Needless to say I have spent considerable time in casts and braces, and it is not a fun time with the itching and the constricted movements and just generally not being able to do any thing fun. A team at Harvard Med School feels my pain and have developed a way to amp up the bone and connective tissue healing process.

Lets start with a little background as to how bones heal. Bones heal in a process called endochondral ossification where the chondrocytes in your hyaline cartilage (a cartilage found by your bones) rapidly divide, grow, calcify and die forming new bone. This process also occurs in the muscles of people with a disease called fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva causing bones to grow in and from muscle tissue.

The researchers at Harvard have found the gene that causes this disease and are using it to increase healing rates of bone by harvesting muscle and fat cells from the patient, infecting them with this disease and then introducing them to the fracture site. The cells congregate at the fracture site and form into bone knocking off a little less then a month of cast time. Meaning you can get back to doing whatever it was that broke your bone the first time!

Would You Like to be Sacrificed on the Alter of Science?

Everyday animals are used for testing often resulting in death and mutilation in my field of bio-materials. I personally feel that this has been a necessary evil for the development of new biotechnologies, but I am not happy about it. Mice bear the brunt of the testing but rats, rabbits, dogs and other animals are often used as well. But there is good news for our involuntary volunteers. Dr. Gefen has been working to create isolated tissue outside of the subject that can be used instead of an entire animal. Early estimates predict that as much as 95% of lab animal population could be spared with this new method.

            This is not only good news for the lab animals, Dr. Gefen and others believe that these isolated tissues will actually work better for research. Tissues not associated with the rest of the body is much more controllable meaning that researchers can change variables and view results with more accuracy. This is due to the fact that other systems in the body are not interfering with and mucking up results in the system being tested.     

Self Evaluation

I feel I deserve a B because I do the expected number of posts and comment on at least two other blogs a week. One thing I am really good about is getting back to people that post comments on my blog. I usually am able to reply within about a day. I know my posts started out somewhat deficit modely, but I think I have improved greatly recently especially with my last post, D&G Babies, where I asked a lot of semi rhetorical questions hoping to stimulate some reader response. In conclusion I have not gone above and beyond what was expected, but I have done my posts and comments and I feel I have done them well, and I would say that is a B effort.

Dolce and Gabbana Babies

This post topic as you may have guessed is designer babies, and I am not talking about the ones that wear Louis Vuitton. Designer babies must undergo genetic engineering before they are even conceived, commonly called germline manipulation. The egg and sperm that the child will eventually be made from are altered to add or remove genetic traits. For example if the parents carry a genetic disease such as hemophilia (a blood disorder) this can be removed from the genetic code before fertilization. This can also be use to add a gene that encodes for beautiful green eyes or increases the babies V02 max to make them a better athlete. Many people disagree what constitutes ethical behavior here. Some say this is all unethical. Who are we to mess with natures plan? Some say this is a multi billion dollar industry and there is no reason not push forward with the proper safety precautions. But the majority of people that I have met are somewhere in the middle believing that germline manipulation is ok if it makes the child more "normal". Then the question is what constitutes normal? For example is extreme shortness normal or should it be corrected by genetic engineering.

Another problem with this germline manipulation is that it can be very dangerous at least to begin with. When a bit of genetic code is sniped or added it can have effects other than those expected. This has been seen repeatedly when engineering plants. Bits of genetic code often encode for multiple traits. For example Lance Armstrong has an incredibly high VO2 max but he also had testicular cancer. The same bit of genetic code that gave him his VO2 max could have given him his cancer. I do not know if these things are actually related this is jut a theoretical example. A more extreme example can be seen in popular culture where genetic engineering to improve humans leads to hordes of zombie like creatures. I find this highly doubtful but genes are tricky things and you can never know the full extent of how they will effect someone without trying. Due to this fact not many parents are willing to be the first to try a new bit of genetic code in their child and those that are probably should not be parents.

Germline manipulation once it is perfected could lead to some great improvements in standard of living and overall happiness of people. People in general could have increased memory and focus, be less obese and naturally healthier, and be able to enjoy life to a greater extent.  

Blog Self Interview

I started this blog to open peoples ideas about bioengineering. Many people think that bioengineering is only concerned with creating super humans through genetic engineering. In reality it is so much more, and I would like for anyone who has preconceptions about bioengineering to be more informed and open minded. Most of my posts so far have concerned some of the amazing medications that have come from bioengineering (except for my last one), but I have not really emphasised the ethics of bioengineering in any of my posts which I would like to start doing more of in the future. Ethics, being such a hot topic button, could also start a positive debate allowing more people to get their opinions out over my blog and increase the number of followers to my blog. I am also curious to see more of the general publics' opinion on bioengineering.

I try to keep the tone very light and colloquial so I don't scare anyone off even when I talk about DNA recombination. One strong point of this blog is the amount and simplicity of the information I provide, but the draw back of this is that I can get a little boring, sorry. I am trying to move away from lectures and the deficit model into more interesting open discussions by presenting ideas in different and fun ways.

I am personally a fan of most advances in bioengineering and I do try to present this view in my blog, but I am very open to discussions from opposing views and I would like for readers of my blog to know this. The real purpose of this blog is to inform and entertain the reader while sparking positive discussion on whats new with bioengineering.

Why Not Spiderman?

Most people would agree with enough time, money, engineers and scientist a semblance of Iron Man or Batman could be built. When the question turns to could we make a Spiderman or a Wolverine most people say thats just crazy. But is it. Iron Man just requires engineering on the outside while Spiderman requires engineering inside the body.

What would it take to build a spiderman? Lets first start with the super strength, agility, and endurance. Genetic engineering has already made leaps and bounds in this department. Ostarine and other substances that increase the effectiveness of natural steroids are already in advance studies. This is a safe way to build lean muscle faster and increase energy and endurance.

Spiders have hairs that branch off hairs on their feet to create Van der Waals Bonds that hold them to surfaces. We could extract this gene from spiders and implant it in humans to grow these microscopic hairs upon hairs all over our hands. Humans would not be able to scale smooth vertical walls but climbing abilities would drastically improve.  

Spiderman's spider sense could be nothing more than sensitive hearing. To accomplish this the sensitivity of the cilia, the tiny hairs in the ear that sway with vibrations, would need to be increased. Sensitivity would increase with more and finer cilia present in the ear. This would also help fine tune balance in an individual since the cilia in the ear acts as gyroscope for the body. So this would again not give as good of results as the comic book Spiderman received when he was bit, but it would help to hear enemies sneaking up on you.

Finally, Spiderman's go to power, the web shooting. Even Stan Lee did not see this a possibility which is why Spiderman has mechanical pressurized canisters that shoot his man made webbing. Spiders spinnerets would need to be absolutely massive to create enough silk to hold a humans weight. Not only that but the muscles needed to shoot the webbing out would just add to the size. So I am with Stan Lee this part of Spiderman would be more easily man made.

The Next Pandemic Might Not Be So Bad

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) has had researchers stumped for years. They can not figure out how to vaccinate against it. Typically a vaccine ramps up the bodies immunological response to a virus allowing your body to destroy the virus before it can get set up to do some damage. HIV is special because it attacks our immune systems therefore creating a bigger response wont help. That is why this relatively slow spreading virus can not be stopped. HIV is already an epidemic in Africa and has a strong foothold in the rest of world.

But wait, this sounds awful. Everyone in the world getting AIDS, (acquired immune deficiency syndrome i.e. what HIV leads to) isn't the title "The Next Pandemic Might Not be so Bad". How is this not so bad?

Researchers have started put away the old way of thinking about vaccines and have come up with a clever new idea. Forget about exterminating the virus from our body or stopping its replication. What if we just change our immune system so the virus no longer affects us? Researchers now are trying to develop a vaccine that will change our immune system's helper T-cells, the specific cells HIV attacks, so that HIV cannot recognize them but the rest of your body can. So the entire world could be infected with HIV but no one would feel any adverse effects.

A few words of warning this is a vaccine not a cure. This will not work on those already infected with HIV, so  if you have HIV continue to be careful not to spread it, if you don't be careful not to get it. H/T to www.widescreenwallpaper.eu for the pic and ScientistLive for the info.

Humulin and the Wonderful E. Coli

Before 1978 diabetics had a major problem. Insulin was hard to find, expensive, caused allergic reactions in some people, and was against some religions to use it at all. Before 1978 the only way to produce insulin was to grind up the pancreas of either a cow or a pig and extract the small amount of insulin. Since human, cow and pig insulin are slightly different some people exhibited allergic reactions to the "farm animal" insulin. In addition some lifestyles and religions prohibit the consumption of cattle (Hindus), pork (Jews and Muslims), or both (vegans and vegetarians). But in 1978 Genetech created a synthetic human insulin called Humulin. 

Humulin is not just similar to human insulin, it is human insulin. The only difference is that it is not made in a human body, it is made in an E. Coli cell culture. When most people hear E. Coli they think that is the evil bacteria that make you sick. Not true. You actually have millions and millions inside you right now that are helping your body with digestion and other functions, but people only seem to know E. Coli O157:H7 (the toxin producing strain). Genetech took some of the friendly strains of E. Coli and added a few genes, more specifically the genes that code for human insulin production and ones that code for the production of an antibiotic. Those E. Coli that successfully accepted the extra genes were able to survive, because of the antibiotic, while those that did not died. The gene carrying E. Coli continue to replicate and produce humulin. They have no idea why they are producing humulin but their genetic code tells them to so they do. 

This technology of introducing recombinant human DNA to E. Coli did not stop at humulin. Today E. Coli help produce our bodies natural blood thinners and thickeners (to prevent and encourage clotting), immune system boosters, growth hormones, and much more.

 

Hello Future Followers

I have created this blog to share my opinions on the ethics and the research going in to the advancement of humans through genetic engineering, bio-materials engineering, bio-mechanical engineering, and other forms of bioengineering. I will explore what bioengineering has already done for us, what is happening right now, and what we can expect in the future. I welcome all comments as long as they remain civil and relevant to the post.