World's First Scar-free Appendectomy

The world's first scar-free appendectomy has been successfully performed at University of San Diego Medical Centre, USA. Jeff Scholtz, a former U.S. marine, has recently secured his place in medical history, becoming the first patient in the world who had his appendix through mouth removed.

The operation, which is a major advance in the quest for scar-free surgery, was performed by doctors in San Diego, California, who used a flexible tube to thread miniature surgical instruments down the 42-year-old's throat to his stomach.

A tiny incision was then made in the stomach wall to get at the appendix - a small worm-like pouch attached to the large bowel.

The inflamed appendix was cut away, bagged and pulled back into the stomach - and out of the mouth.

Source: DM

Flesh-eating Caecilian

The Caecilian [wiki] is an amphibian that superficially resemble earthworms or snakes. But because it mostly lives hidden in the ground, it has become the least explored order of amphibians, and widely unknown. Not until recent, scientists discovered that it has a bizarre parental behaviour--the caecilian mother allows her young to peel off and eat her skin. It has been filmed on camera by building a set which resembled the creature's living environment for the broadcasting network's  Life In Cold Blood series.

One of the strangest meal-times in the animal kingdom has been caught on film by a BBC crew.

The female caecilian's skin becomes thicker and more nutrient-rich when she bears offspring.

And the young have specialised teeth for tearing and removing it.

The crew was able to catch this behaviour

It took several attempts to capture the footage; the caecilian babies would only eat their mother's skin for about 10 minutes, once every three days, and often at night.

Source: BBC. Click here to watch the footage.

Mercury Spider Is a Spidery Crater on Mercury

Mercury Spider (picture above, credit: NASA) is not any known spider species on the Earth, but a unique geologic formation called the Spider sits at the center of the Caloris Basin[wiki] on Mercury. It was just revealed to the world in one of more than 1200 pictures taken from from the unseen side of Mercury by NASA's MESSENGER probe during a recent flyby on January 14. The spidery shape is "unlike anything we've seen anywhere in the solar system," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The image showing what looks like a large crater with [25 miles wide] faint lines radiating out from it demonstrates that Mercury had volcanic eruptions millions of years ago and is a shrinking, aging planet. Link

Naked Mole Rats Hold Clues To Human Pain

Naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber), also known as the sand puppy, or desert mole rat, may help scientists to unlock the secrets of pain reception in humans, because they appears to lack a neurotransmitter that is crucial to the sensation of certain types of pain, a recent research revealed that.

The research was published in the journal PLoS Biology on January 29. It was under the lead of Thomas Park, a professor of of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The study revealed the curious adaptations of naked mole rats that altered the way they experience pain.

In this study, the investigators stimulated the naked mole rats with those substances such as acid and capsaicin, but the rats completely didn't care the pain.

They found that the phenomenon may be linked to substance P, a neurotransmitter which is a common component of pain responses in nearly every mammal, including humans.  #Link

Men Born Short Increased Risk of Attempting Suicide

A new study done by scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that male babies who are born short in height, are more prone to commit suicide than those born at normal height. Excerpts from Earthtimes.Org

The Swedish study involved 713,000 people of whom 320,000 were males. The researchers tracked the date of birth, attempted suicide if any, death or emigration from the country till the year 1999. The researchers used national registries in order to track down these men.

Surprisingly researchers found that shorter babies with a height of 47 cm or less were more likely to attempt suicide as adults. This statistic was independent of what height they eventually reached as adults. Furthermore men who were short of height as adults were also 56 percent more likely than their taller counterparts to attempt suicide.

Lead researcher Dr Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz opined that low levels of serotonin in the brain was the key to this behavior.

New Palm Tree Species Found in Madagascar

Palm Tree Tahina spectabilis (picture credit: AP via BBC)

A new species of giant self-destructing palm was found  in Madagascar by botanists from Kew Gardens of London. Scientists believe it is possible that the palm has quietly gone through a remarkable evolution since Madagascar split with India some 80m years ago.

The tree, which only exists in the remote north-west of the island country in Indian Ocean, is 20m (60ft) high with leaves 5m (16ft) long, the tallest tree of its type in the country, and has a lifespan of around 100 years.

In the living memory, the tree was never seen blossoming not until 2007. But botanist only found that the tree expends so much energy on flowering that it eventually collapses and dies.

The palm has been named Tahina spectabilis, which is Malagasy for "blessed" or "to be protected". It is also one of the given names of Anne-Tahina Metz, the daughter of Xavier Metz, a Frenchman who manages a cashew plantation in remote northwestern Madagascar and discovers the palm in 2006. Source: BBC

Solar System's Shape Is Not Round But Dented

Scientists have long suspected the solar system was bent, but never had direct evidence until now the unprecedented founding was made by NASA's 30-year-old unmanned nuclear powered Voyager 2 [wikipedia]. The probe  has crossed into a sweeping region called the termination shock in our solar system this August. Tags: voyager 2, solar system, bent, shape, nasa, cit

Mummified Dinosaur With Clear Remains of Scales Found in North Dakota

Fossilized hadrosaur Dakota skin picture (Tyler Larson/National Geographic)

The partially mummified hadrosaur [wiki], dubbed Dakota, were found in 2000 by Tyler Lyson, then a 17-year-old boy, on his uncle's ranch in North Dakota.

The creature is fossilized, with the skin and bone turned to stone. But unlike most dinosaur fossils, tissues are preserved as well.

Scientists believed the Dakota hadrosaur should be the most complete dinosaur ever found, with intact skin where clear remains of scales were visible.

"This is not a skin impression. This is fossilized skin," paleontologist Phil Manning of the University of Manchester said. "When you run your hands over this dinosaur's skin, this is the closest you are going to get to touching a real dinosaur, ever." Source: Reuters

Sperm Donor Ordered to Pay Child Support 18 Years Later

A New York doctor who donated his sperm to help a gay colleague conceive in the late 1980s, and allowed his name to be put on the birth certificate, has been ordered to pay child support for the boy, his biological son now an 18-year-old who lives with his mother in Oregon.

For several years after the boy's birth in 1989, the doctor sent the child gifts and money and cards signed "Dad" and had regular contact with the child, the Post reported. However, when the boy moved to Oregon with his mother and her partner in 1993, regular contact stopped. Since then, the man's contact with the child consisted of seven phone calls and one brief meeting over the past 15 years.

A New York family court judge ruled last month that the man must now pay child support for the boy, now 18 and heading to college.

Source: FOX ; Liveleak Tags: Sperm Donor, Pay Child Support

First Moon Surface Picture by China's Chang-E 1 Lunar Probe

The black and white picture showing rough surface scattered with big or small pits was made public at a gala ceremony in Beijing Aerospace Control Center on November 26 by Premier Wen Jiabao, who hailed it as a major step in "the Chinese race's 1,000-year-old dream" of exploring the moon.

Wen asserted in a passionate and inspiring speech on Monday that China has joined the select group of world powers with the capabilities to engage in deep-space exploration.

The success, he said not only manifested China's rising national strength and technical innovation capability but also elevated the country's international status and cemented national cohesion.

"It showcases eloquently that the Chinese people have the will, the ambition and the capability to compose more shining new chapters while ascending the science and technology summit," Wen said.

Citing a letter from an overseas Chinese, Wen said that the farther the China-made satellite flew, the higher would the overseas Chinese hold their heads.

The area covered by the picture, about 460 km in length and 280 km in width--- about half the size of the United Kingdom, is within a location of 70 to 54 degrees south latitude and 83 to 57 degrees east longitude. Source: Chinadaily & CNN-IBN Tags: china, chang e, lunar probe, moon picture

Bigger-than-man Sea Scorpion Discovered

Giant Sea Scorpion Picture Illusion by Simon Powell

The fossilised remains of a giant claw that once belonged to a sea scorpion roughly 2.5 metres long have been found in Germany.

Researchers say the monstrous creature is the largest arthropod ever known – over 30 centimetres bigger than the previous largest specimen of the same species.

Markus Poschmann with the giant sea scorpion fossil via

Simon Braddy at the University of Bristol, UK, Markus Poschmann in German Archeology Directorate, O. Erik Tetlie at Yale University, examined the 46-centimetre-long claw, found in a quarry near Prüm, western Germany, and believe it belonged to a sea scorpion species called Jaekelopterus rhenaniae that roamed the ocean floors between 460 and 255 million years ago.

Link to Biology Letters' article Link to the Press Release of University of Bristol  Link to NewScientists report Tags: Simon Braddy, sea scorpion, Markus Poschmann, arthropod

Texan Chupacabra Is a Coyote

Still remember the rumored chupacabra, or goat-sucker, found at Phylis Canion's ranch in Cuero of Texas in September? Now the DNA tests carried by biologist Mike Forstner on the mythical animal yielded a virtually identical match to coyote DNA, determining it nothing more than a coyote with a hair loss problem. Link

Tags: Chupacabra, coyote, texas, dna test, goat sucker

Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson Won 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics

 

The US trio Leonid Hurwicz (bio), Eric Maskin (bio) and Roger Myerson (bio) won 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics  for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory", announced The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Hurwicz, a U.S. citizen born in Moscow, is an emeritus professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Maskin, 56, a New York City native, is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Boston-born Myerson, 56, is a professor at the University of Chicago.

The three economists picked up the prize for their work that helps find the optimal mechanism to reach certain goals such as social welfare or private profit.

"Mechanism design theory initiated by Leonid Hurwicz and further developed by Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson has greatly enhanced our understanding of optimal allocation mechanisms in such situations, accounting for individuals' incentives and private information," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

"Today, mechanism design theory plays a central role in many areas of economics and parts of political science," it said.

The economics prize is the last prize handed out this year and not part of the original crop of Nobel Prizes set out in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will. It was established in 1968 and is officially called The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Link

Tags: noble prize in economics, Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin, Roger Myerson

Beam Solar Power from Space

(Illustration Credit: Mafic Studios)

Dan Cho of NewScientist.com writes:

A futuristic scheme to collect solar energy on satellites and beam it to Earth has gained a large supporter in the US military. A report [download pdf file] released yesterday (October 10) by the National Security Space Office recommends that the US government sponsor projects to demonstrate solar-power-generating satellites and provide financial incentives for further private development of the technology.

Space-based solar power would use kilometre-sized solar panel arrays to gather sunlight in orbit. It would then beam power down to Earth in the form of microwaves or a laser, which would be collected in antennas on the ground and then converted to electricity. Unlike solar panels based on the ground, solar power satellites placed in geostationary orbit above the Earth could operate at night and during cloudy conditions.

Human-Robot Love and Marriage in 2050

Dr. David Levy, an artificial intelligence researcher from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands predicted and told of his research to LiveScience. Excerpts from the report:

There's a trend of robots becoming more human-like in appearance and coming more in contact with humans," Levy said. "At first robots were used impersonally, in factories where they helped build automobiles, for instance. Then they were used in offices to deliver mail, or to show visitors around museums, or in homes as vacuum cleaners, such as with the Roomba. Now you have robot toys, like Sony's Aibo robot dog, or Tickle Me Elmos, or digital pets like Tamagotchis."

In his thesis [Levy successfully defended on Oct. 11], "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," Levy conjectures that robots will become so human-like in appearance, function and personality that many people will fall in love with them, have sex with them and even marry them.

"It may sound a little weird, but it isn't," Levy said. "Love and sex with robots are inevitable."

Levy predicts Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize human-robot marriage. "Massachusetts is more liberal than most other jurisdictions in the United States and has been at the forefront of same-sex marriage," Levy said. "There's also a lot of high-tech research there at places like MIT."

What is 3.26 Light Years?

When interviewed by Nitin Raj of the International Reporter on some basic answers how the light year is calculated and what actually it is, Dr. Raj Baldev, a Cosmo Theorist from India, explained what 3.26 light years is:

Though the light-year is normally used to measure distances to stars, in astronomy in particular, the preferred unit of measurement for such distances is the parsec that  is defined as the distance at which an [astronomical] object generates one arcsecond of parallax when the observing object moved one Astronomical Unit  perpendicular to the line of sight to the observer [on the earth]. This calculation is equal to about 3.26 light-years.

So 3.26 light years can be referred to a parsec, or a distance of approximately 3.086×10¹⁶ m.

Al Gore and IPCC Won 2007 Nobel Peace Prize

Al Gore, the former U.S. vice president, and UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded 2007 Nobel Peace Prize this morning by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change".

"I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize." Al Gore wrote in his blog, "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."

Al Gore also promised that he and his wife Tipper will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award (half of 10 million Swedish kronor – about $1.7 million) to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

Below is Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, about the climate crisis, won the Academy Award for best documentary and a recent Emmy award.

Source

Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Malaysia's First Astronaut Launched Into Space

Along with Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko (m) and NASA's Peggy Whitson (R, who sets to be the first female commander of ISS), Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor , a Malaysian doctor was launched into the space on the Soyuz TMA-11 rocket at 1322 GMT from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"Going to space is a small step for me, but it's definitely a giant leap for all the Malaysian people," he borrowed Neil Armstrong's famous phrase as saying before the Wednesday's launch.

As a Muslim, Sheikh Muszaphar will observe religious rituals during the holy month of Ramadan under the guides that Malaysia's Department of Islamic Development drafted last month.

Sheikh Muszaphar's journey is believed to have a price tag of about $30m – based on the amount paid by previous space tourists - but in reality it is not costing Malaysia anything.

The trip was added by Moscow as a sweetener as part of a billion-dollar purchase of 18 Russian Sukhoi fighter jets.

Anyway, back in Malaysia here, the country is in a high jubilant mood and deems the mission as a milestone for the country which this year celebrates its 50th year of independence.

King Mizan Zainal Abidin said: "This is a truly historic moment for all Malaysians" and will help the country "attain further progress in science, technology and innovation".

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,said, "I am very happy that our man has been chosen to join this special mission into space. I hope he will do well."

Malaysia Bolei!

Sources: Malaysian astronaut enters space @ Aljazeera

First Malaysian, first female commander blast into space @ AFP

Gerhard Ertl Awarded 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Gerhard Ertl (CV), an emeritus professor at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, was awarded 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry today October 10 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for "for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces", a best birthday gift to his 71st birthday.

According to NYT, Professor Gerhard Ertl’s work in surface chemistry has applications across a broad array of fields, and helps explain the processes in manufacturing computer chips, in the function of automobiles’ catalytic converters and on the surface of stratospheric ice crystals that have implications for global warming.

2007 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics to Professors Albert Fert (left) of France and Peter Grünberg of Germany for "for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance". The duo scientists' independent discoveries in 1988 has made it possible to miniaturize hard disks and has enabled computer users to quickly and easily store reams of data on computer hard drives.

Brief Biography:

Albert Fert, French citizen. Born 1938 in Carcassonne, France. Ph.D. in 1970 at Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France. Professor at Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, since 1976. Scientific director of Unité mixte de physique CNRS/Thales, Orsay, France, since 1995.

Peter Grünberg, German citizen. Born 1939 in Pilsen. Ph.D. in 1969 at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. Professor at Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, since 1972.

Related: 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology