Hearts without cells? What is this Madness?

Nature medicine has (or is about to, I can never really tell with Advanced online publishing) come out with the news that a group of scientists have made a breakthrough in regenerative heart medicine

What they have done (in simple terms) is take out the heart of a dead rat, removed all the cells, leaving this ghostly shadow of an organ, and then added a fresh batch of stem cells to the mix, thus creating (as if by magic) a new heart.

Focus on Obesity

Okay, last night, I saw a programme, called the Half ton mum (oh my f#cking god I linked to the daily mail... how much lower can this blog get?)
It was about an extremely fat woman, although she wasn't half a ton (more like 70 stone..... The combined weight of me and my family isn't that much)

but anyway, this documentary left me with the indelible question in my mind. How can someone let themselves get so fat that they cannot walk? or in her case, it got to the point where she literally couldn't move. She had weeping sores (which she never saw) and if she tried to roll over or move her legs, her skin would rip apart. And I'm not even going to start on the bedsores.
She had been stuck in her house for the past five years. I tend to go a bit crazy if I've been in the house for five days, so I cannot imagine the hell this woman was exposed to.
Not to mention that this documentary was helpfully followed by another, called "half ton man" this was about a man, who was actually half a ton in size.

Stem Cells Get Rid of Graft vs Host Disease

A New story has just broke in new scientist (yes, that is where i get all my science news... but for f*#ks sake it's the only news outlet that makes the effort to cite their original article sources.)

A clinical trial has just been done in which stem cells have been used to combat graft vs host disease.

Fake Blood? This Is a Hospital NOT a Horror Movie

Yesterday, New Scientist broke the story about a company, known as HemoBiotech which has come up with a more realistic form of fake blood, called HemoTech. I don't mean that they've finally realised that cherryade is too pink for use in movies. No, I mean fake blood that can keep people alive.

Vampires around the globe are now at the edge of their seats (or coffins..or whatever..who cares, they don't really exist)

Why Would You Get Flies Pissed ? (Or why I shouldn't take news articles at face value)

On my daily scan of internet news, I read an astounding piece of news. Drunk flies become "homosexual". when I read about something like this I often wonder two things:

1. What was the point of doing this
2. Why did someone come along and decide that this is "news"

World of Warcraft Addiction

A new disease has arrived, and it is transmitted through cyberspace. The symptoms include lethargy, gain in weight, withdrawal from social interractions and the chronic pursuit of EXP. This is known as World of Warcraft addiction.
This had hit the news in 2005 , because a child in korea was reported dead after being neglected by their parents, who were suffering from world of warcraft addiction.
There are countless other stories of addiction to world of warcraft, which can be found here.
These stories make interesting (and in some cases disturbing) reading. I recommend you take a look through it before you read on.