Human Astrocytes Developed From Stem Cells 92
RogerRoast writes "Astrocytes are the most ubiquitous cells in the brain. They perform critical support function to the neurons. These cells are also implicated in several human brain disorders. The U of Wisconsin researchers developed a method to create these cells from stem cells. According to the lead author Dr Zhang, 'not a lot of attention has been paid to these cells because human astrocytes have been hard to get, but we can make billions or trillions of them from a single stem cell.' The technology developed by the Wisconsin group lays a foundation to make all the different species of astrocytes. It may be possible to genetically engineer them to mimic disease so that previously inaccessible neurological conditions can be studied in the lab."
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I'm with you, that's just crazy talk. If ya don't understand the article just say so.
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If God wanted man to fly, he'd have given him wings.
If God wanted man to travel outside the planet, he'd have given him the ability to breath in space.
If God wanted man to live through a heart attack, he'd have given him an internal defibrillator.
If God wanted man to travel the oceans, he'd have given him flippers.
Seems to me that what "God wants" is an inherently outdated list of things that we deliberately break, through choice, every day.
Basically, if "God wants" me to do something, chances are I'm not g
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If God wanted man to fly, he'd have given him wings. If God wanted man to travel outside the planet, he'd have given him the ability to breath in space. If God wanted man to live through a heart attack, he'd have given him an internal defibrillator. If God wanted man to travel the oceans, he'd have given him flippers.
Here's another one for the list, but with opposite implication:
"If God wanted us to go around naked, we'd be born that way" - Oscar Wilde.
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"If God wanted us to go around naked, we'd be born that way" - Oscar Wilde.
Pedantic mode on: can you please provide a proper citation? Like what interview, article, book, etc.
(are you sure is Oscar Wilde?)
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Well, google tells me it might be Mark Twain :
Quote page [easylit.com]
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Yeah, but Uncyclopedia says it's Oscar Wilde.
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I've done some websearches on the matter, and 1) the quote comes around phrased in various slightly different ways, all attributed to Oscar Wilde, 2) there is no source to be found for the quote(s) at all and 3) the quote(s) are also attributed to various other people, including Marc Twain, all also unsourced.
I also think the quip is so obvious that it must have existed almost as long as the "if the gods had wanted us to do X they would have given us Y" argument. And "the best way to sound authoritative, is
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It was Kirk: Captain's log, stardate 3715.3
In this case I don't think it matters who said it or when. The point is still a valid one.
If you wanted to correct him and say some other person said that and then give a citation, go for it.
Don't give a citation..
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If you wanted to correct him and say some other person said that and then give a citation, go for it.
I only asked for info (maybe in the name of an exaggerated precision... this is why is called pedantic mode, you know?).
I googled the phrase, couldn't decide the origin, took my chances and asked: maybe somebody actually knows for sure.
Following you on the "straw man" slope: why are you so inclined to take a question as a covert action of casting doubt on the message or poster? Can't questions be just that: questions and nothing more?
(how does it feel to have words put in your mouth?)
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I only asked for info
And it was a fair question. In fairness to you, I did search a bit but did not find an attribution with a proper citation.
It's one of those quotes I've come across many times on the web and did not bother to try tracking down before. Most places attribute it to Oscar Wilde, and one or two attribute it to Mark Twain. Perhaps it has been attributed to others also. It's certainly a pithy and witty comment which one could imagine either of those gentlemen coming up with. However, it is not listed among the q
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The only answers to this from religion are either "bad design" implying that God is fallible and can make mistakes, or "God works in mysterious ways / is testing our faith" which are thought-terminating cliches.
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I don't know, growing a human from an adult's rib - sure sounds like transdifferentiation of hematopoietic stem cells to me. Or did god just happen to choose one of the tissues that contain adult stem cells?
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I call these "My Dice".
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He did. However, our ancestors didn't understand it and removed that part, assuming it was some nonsense someone smuggled in. :-)
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Now *that* (Score:3)
is News for Nerds.
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Just you wait, in 30 years time we will be the jocks and the new nerds will have craniums twice the normal size. They will mock our puny intellects from their 7 foot tall vantage point, then don their robes and wizard hats before going off to have sex with the other blond haired blue eyed cosmetic-commercial-perfect super nerds.
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaahn!
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Just one of the very many bits of wisdom to remember from The Far Side.
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Did anyone else read.... (Score:2)
surely I can think of a few.
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I actually read "Human Acolytes Developed from Stem Cells" and was a bit puzzled.
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I read aristocrats.
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For stupid coming from defective hardware, this might be the road to fixing it. However, I think most stupidity is a software problem. Bad software is rarely fixed by throwing more hardware on it.
(And for those who now feel the urge to point out that the human brain isn't a computer: If you can't infer what I mean you might need a software upgrade. :-))
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No, I was going to point out that throwing more hardware at badly written software is *exactly* what happens in large swathes of the real world.
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No, the mind virus "religion" will still exist. Many of those afflicted will resist this treatment as it includes stem cells.
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Many of those who consider themselves "religious" are smart enough to know that there are two types of stem cells: embryonic and adult stem cells. We only have issue with the embryonic cells due to the method generally used to collect them (abortions). Many are reasonable enough (including myself) to have no issue with cells harvested from the afterbirth of normal non-abortive births - the issue is that using cells from abortions creates a demand for cells from abortions, which in turn creates a social be
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Have to find it first.
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Exactly. Such a modification would make us total penis zombies, shuffling around and groaning "VAAAAAAJEEEE...."
If anything we need to find a way to add some kind of override to prevent conflicts with the main control system.
Inaccessible neurological conditions? (Score:2)
Hey, they've only been inaccessible because we've been unwilling to do to a few unlucky people what we do to lab animals all the time: put them down and harvest their diseased brains for research. It's for the Common Good of Man!
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Hm, I'm curious to exactly what in your brain causes you be such a sociopath. Perhaps you should go first?
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I dunno, you suggest the systematic murder and possible torture (the 'test animals' part there)of other human beings who have done nothing wrong other than having the bad luck to contract a horrible disease.
The alternative opinion is that society would allow those who are incapable of contributing to society in any meaningful way to have a lasting and important impact on the future of humanity by helping to prevent or cure debilitating diseases. Some people who feel that they have no purpose in life, due to debilitating / terminal illness, may be grateful for that opportunity, which you would deny them based upon your own maybe misguided morality.
FYI, I often take the position of "Devil's Advocate" purely in
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On the one hand, I kindof agree with the cold engineering take on it. On the other hand, I'm well aware that I'll suddenly like it a whole damn lot less when it turns out to be someone I care about. Being able to project 'who I care about' to 'who someone else cares about' is of course where the sociopath has trouble.
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Either I'm a sociopath or you're too literalistic....
Medical Applications (Score:4, Interesting)
Astrocytes are linked with the repair of spinal cord injuries. And as of 2008 stem cells can be made from pretty much any normal adult cell http://www.nature.com/stemcells/2008/0810/081030/full/stemcells.2008.142.html [nature.com] .
The possibilities for the rehab of spinal cord injury patients is enough to make this an easy application of stem cell research, which might just earn the stem cell researchers some much needed good publicity from Washington.
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...which might just earn the stem cell researchers some much needed good publicity from Washington.
*ahem* The researchers are associated with University of Wisconsin! Not Washington (the "other UW").
[/alumnus mode]
Significance of Astrocytes (Score:4, Informative)
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Adult vs. embryonic (Score:2)
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I wonder if you'd still want to say that when you or a loved one gets dementia or Alzheimer's.
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Stop trolling. Please. If you're serious in your belief, you're doing absolutely no good trying to spout it off here, as you're coming across as an idiot rather than an intelligent person with something to contribute. Please don't make it harder for the rest of us out there who have faith to be able to hold intelligent discourse with other non-believing human beings.
Thank you for your time.
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Astroturfing (Score:2)
Wait, what? (Score:1)
I read this as "human atrocities developed from stem cells".
Is there anything stem cells can't do?
Acolytes (Score:2)
I thought they said "Acolytes". Was I the only Warcraft player to immediately wonder what kind of magic this breed of Undead could do?
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I thought they said aristocrats.
Aristocrat zombies, that could be interesting...
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I thought they said aristocrats.
Aristocrat zombies, that could be interesting...
I was thinking "The Aristocrats" too... but more in the horribly raunchy joke form.
So Why USA? (Score:2)
The U of Wisconsin researchers developed a method to create these cells from stem cells.
Alright, not trolling here, just genuinely curious. My understanding, at last via information gleaned from Slashdot and other news-oriented sites, was that the US government contributes very little (relatively speaking) to the field of Stem Cell research; not only that, but they have tons of laws in place to complicate and/or hamstring such research, and the research is politically unpopular. It sounds like the USA should more or less fall off the face of the map in terms of groundbreaking Stem Cell researc
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The US government doesn't ban the use of embryonic stem cells, they simply aren't providing the funding for it. Other organizations are free to do so. In addition, a ton of research is being done with adult stem cells and if I'm not mistaken, the government does fund that kind of research. And the fact is that this country throws far, far more money at medical research than pretty much any other country on Earth. So either way the breakthroughs are inevitable.
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Misread: (Score:1)
hPSCs in the abstract, but not the article? (Score:1)
Both links refer to the one study, by the same people, so why does the second mention embryonic stem cells when the paper itself (or at least, the abstract) does not?
Sounds like dirty scientific politics to me.