And could be a bad advertisement for pot.

Watch starting from 3:30 to 5:25 minutes.

Lesson:  “Spend less on the whacky tobaccy and more on the super pac-y” - Stephen Colbert.

“…”We were initially surprised to learn how much the pancreatic beta cell contributes to the onset and severity of diabetes,”…”The observation that beta cell malfunction significantly contributes to multiple disease signs, including insulin resistance, was unexpected. We noted, however, that studies from other laboratories published over the past few decades had alluded to this possibility.”

In healthy people, pancreatic beta cells monitor the bloodstream for glucose
using glucose transporters anchored in their cellular membranes. When blood
glucose is high, such as after a meal, beta cells take in this additional glucose and respond by secreting insulin in a timed and measured response. In turn, insulin stimulates other cells in the body to take up glucose, a nutrient they need to produce energy. In this newly discovered pathway, high levels of fat were found to interfere with two key transcription factors—proteins that switch genes on and off.

These transcription factors, FOXA2 and HNF1A, are normally required for the production of an enzyme called GnT-4a glycosyltransferase that modifies proteins with a particular glycan (polysaccharide or sugar) structure….” Full Slice

Wad, Secure Care, Dean C, and Mr. Guyll were hanging out using Google +. If you can score an invite, it is pretty cool. However, it would be much cooler if Wave were included. Google Docs suck for collaboration.

Space 2.0 and true next generation education.

Just a thought.

There were some tense moments before the crew got their revised flight plan approved, to briefly image Pluto’s shadow as it occulted a star. The only observatory in human space capable of doing so.

Really, nature doesn’t care. If you think that means that you shouldn’t, then I guess we know what you are.

As with any invention that sounds too good to be true, one keeps hoping for some public demonstrations. Still, it will be nifty if this clever looking engine design works out as claimed.

“When populations around the globe started turning to agriculture around 10,000 years ago, regardless of their locations and type of crops, a similar trend occurred: The height and health of the people declined.

“This broad and consistent pattern holds up when you look at standardized studies of whole skeletons in populations,”…early agriculturalists experienced nutritional deficiencies and had a harder time adapting to stress, probably because they became dependent on particular food crops, rather than having a more significantly diverse diet.”

She adds that growth in population density spurred by agriculture settlements led to an increase in infectious diseases, likely exacerbated by problems of sanitation and the proximity to domesticated animals and other novel disease vectors….” Full Slice

“…2008 saw the longest and weakest solar minimum since scientists have been monitoring the sun with space-based instruments.

Observations have shown, however, that magnetic effects on Earth due to the sun, effects that cause the aurora to appear, did not go down in synch with the cycle of low magnetism on the sun…these effects on Earth did in fact reach a minimum — indeed they attained their lowest levels of the century — but some eight months later. The scientists believe that factors in the speed of the solar wind, and the strength and direction of the magnetic fields embedded within it, helped produce this anomalous low….” Full Slice

“…researchers…describe how a single cell genetically engineered to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) can be used to amplify the light particles called photons into nanosecond-long pulses of laser light…the first report of a successful biological laser based on a single, living cell…we wondered whether there was a fundamental reason why laser light, as far as we know, does not occur in nature or if we could find a way to achieve lasing in biological substances or living organisms…Not only did the cell-based device produce pulses of laser light as in the GFP solution experiment, the researchers also found that the spherical shape of the cell itself acted as a lens, refocusing the light and inducing emission of laser light at lower energy levels than required for the solution-based device. The cells used in the device survived the lasing process and were able to continue producing hundreds of pulses of laser light…”One of our long-term goals will be finding ways to bring optical communications and computing, currently done with inanimate electronic devices, into the realm of biotechnology. That could be particularly useful in projects requiring the interfacing of electronics with biological organisms….” Full Slice

Here is my pleasant thought for the day:

The greenest thing you can do is walk to the nearest morgue and shoot yourself in the head with an iron bullet.

The following is for entertainment purposes only.  The graphic is based on assuming that 2011 will match 2010 melt rates through July, the projects a worst case scenario using the 2007 melt rate.    Graphics provided by the IJIS Sea Ice Extent project.

“Single-cell organisms have been known to live deep in the earth, more than 9,000 feet below the surface.

But until now, it was thought that the temperature, energy, oxygen and space constraints of the subsurface biosphere were too extreme for multicellular organisms….” Full Slice

“We report new functions of the cell-adhesion molecule E-cadherin in murine pluripotent cells. E-cadherin is highly expressed in mouse embryonic stem cells, and interference with E-cadherin causes differentiation. During cellular reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts by OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC, fully reprogrammed cells were exclusively observed in the E-cadherin-positive cell population and could not be obtained in the absence of E-cadherin. Moreover, reprogrammed cells could be established by viral E-cadherin in the absence of exogenous OCT4. Thus, reprogramming requires spatial cues that cross-talk with essential transcription factors. The cell-adhesion molecule E-cadherin has important functions in pluripotency and reprogramming.” Full Slice

“It may not be Atlantis, but evidence of a lost civilization probably lies beneath the waves all along the Washington coast — in fact, all along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.

A recently announced discovery of stone tools on California’s northern Channel Islands, just across the Santa Barbara Channel from the city of Santa Barbara, may tell us a good deal about what that civilization did….” Full Slice