Scientists Calculate the Speed of Death In Cells And It's 30 Micrometers Per Minute (livescience.com) 32
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Live Science: Scientists found that death travels in unremitting waves through a cell, moving at a rate of 30 micrometers (one-thousandth of an inch) every minute, they report in a new study published Aug. 10 in the journal Science. That means, for instance, that a nerve cell, whose body can reach a size of 100 micrometers, could take as long as 3 minutes and 20 seconds to die. Apoptosis -- or programmed cell death -- is necessary for clearing our bodies of unnecessary or harmful cells, such as those that are infected by viruses. It also helps shape organs and other features in a developing fetus.
To figure this out, Ferrell and his team observed the process in one of the larger cells present in nature: egg cells of Xenopus laevis, or African clawed frogs. They filled test tubes with fluid from the eggs and triggered apoptosis, which they watched unfold by tagging involved proteins with fluorescent light. If they saw fluorescent light, it meant apoptosis was taking place. They found that the fluorescent light traveled through the test tubes at a constant speed. If apoptosis had carried on due to simple diffusion (the spreading of substances from an area of high concentration to one of low concentration), the process would have slowed down toward the end, according to the study. Since it didn't, the researchers concluded that the process they observed must be "trigger waves," which they likened to "the spread of a fire through a field." The caspases that are first activated, activate other molecules of caspases, which activate yet others, until the entire cell is destroyed.
To figure this out, Ferrell and his team observed the process in one of the larger cells present in nature: egg cells of Xenopus laevis, or African clawed frogs. They filled test tubes with fluid from the eggs and triggered apoptosis, which they watched unfold by tagging involved proteins with fluorescent light. If they saw fluorescent light, it meant apoptosis was taking place. They found that the fluorescent light traveled through the test tubes at a constant speed. If apoptosis had carried on due to simple diffusion (the spreading of substances from an area of high concentration to one of low concentration), the process would have slowed down toward the end, according to the study. Since it didn't, the researchers concluded that the process they observed must be "trigger waves," which they likened to "the spread of a fire through a field." The caspases that are first activated, activate other molecules of caspases, which activate yet others, until the entire cell is destroyed.
Metal Band Name (Score:1)
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Re:Metal Band Name (Score:5, Insightful)
Setting the jokes aside, the lessons being learned here, will teach why cell apoptosis fails in cancer cells. So what needs to be triggered in a cancer cell, that by normal function should die, to cause it to actually recognise that it should die and hence die and cancer problem solved.
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Re:Metal Band Name (Score:5, Funny)
PSHAW! (Score:3)
I just can't relate to micrometres per minute (Score:1)
So I just thought I'd let you know that speed is close to 0.003 furlongs per fortnight. I'm sure we'll all understand much better now.
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Please, can't we standardize on lightyears per dog year?
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Re:I just can't relate to micrometres per minute (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sure we'll all understand much better now.
I think someone needs to postulate a new set of laws of physics, based on the Speed of Death ("d") as the universal constant instead of the Speed of Light ("c").
It would definitely be worthy of an Ig Nobel honorable mention.
Future SAT question:
"Death travels at 30 micrometers per minute. How dead are Nine Inch Nails in Schrödinger's Cat units?
a) Not quite dead yet.
b) All of the above.
c) None of the above.
d) On legal advice, I respectfully refuse to answer the question based on my Fifth Amendment Rights.
So slow (Score:2)
So slow, yet it catches everyone.
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Freaky subject (Score:2)
It caught my attention... freaky and interesting. Death spreads like fire.