Top 10 scientific breakthrough of 2008. vol Cure for HIV? wth

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aparrently 2008 was a good year for science..crazy i didnt know half these scientific breakthrough of last year. govt dont tell us +$@*. from water used tofuel your car, curing HIV & making� a transparent Loud speaker?


10. Troubleshooting stem cell therapy

In 2007, scientists learned how to reprogram skin cells into stem cells, without cloning or destroying embryos. It seemed too good to betrue, and it was. The tissues grown from those cells had a nasty tendency to become cancerous, which made them useless for regenerative medicine - the scienceof building and fixing body parts. In 2008, several research groups figured out what was going wrong and solved the problem.

Researchers had used an an adenovirus to slip four genes into each cell, but the microbe was causing lots of collateral damage. By switchingto a different kind of virus, scientists at The Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital were able to make the procedure safe.

9. Turning water into fuel

Companies like Nanosolar and Solyndra slashed the cost of solar energy, but scientists are still looking for a clean way to store all thatjuice. Daniel Nocera of MIT has an elegant solution:
Use electricity to break water into hydrogen and oxygen, store it in separate tanks, then recombine the gases in a fuel cell when you need power.


Anyone can do this. Just hook a 9-volt battery to electrodes and dunk them into a jar of water. The problem is that it takes a lot of energyto do this. If you want to fill tanks with those gases, and use them to run a fuel cell, you'll need to do it very efficiently. Nocera, and his team atMIT, found a catalyst that makes the task of splitting H[sub]2[/sub]O remarkably easy. It could store the energy harvested by solar cells and windfarms.


Top image: Tom White, MIT



8. Marking greenhouse gas levels - 800,000-year high


The numbers on Wall Street were dismal in 2008, but even more frightening figures came from Antarctica. When scientists traveled to thefrozen continent and analyzed ancient pockets of air trapped deep in the ice, they learned that our atmosphere has 28 percent more carbon dioxide now[sub]2[/sub] concentrations in the atmosphere matched themelting and thawing of the polar ice caps, and identified a period in which the greenhouse gas was at an all time low. Another team, led by Jerome Chappellazof Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, drew the same conclusions by measuringmethane levels in ice core. They remarked that another greenhouse gas, CH[sub]4[/sub], has not risen above 800 parts per billion in the past 650 millenia,and currently it is at over twice that level. than at any other time in the past 800,000 years. Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern provided some of themost compelling evidence to date that we are irreversibly warming our planet. He showed that the rise and fall of CO

7. Building loudspeakers from carbon nanotubes

Scientists have been tinkering with carbon nanotubes for decades, and this year the work has paid off. Chinese scientists have used thenanotubes to make transparent audio speakers and sheets of paper stronger than steel. The speakerswork by a thermoacoustic effect: They vibrate and make noise when heated by an electrical current. The scientists demonstrated in YouTube videos that theirprototype could blast a scratchy but understandable version of the Moldovan pop song "Dragostea din tei" while it was taped to the side of awaving flag.
Another team at Florida State University made paper that is far lighterand stronger than steel by pressing sheets of carbon nanotubes together. Those composite materials, developed by Ben Wang and his team, could make aircraftparts and body armor.

In a perfect sheet of the material, all of the carbon nanotubes should be pointing in the same direction. Wang figured out how to align thetiny cylinders with magnetic fields. Thanks to that discovery, and other advances, buckypaper could be on the market within a year.

6. Sequencing entire genome of a cancer patient, including tumor


For the first time, doctors sequenced the entire genome of a cancer patient, and also read the genetic code of her diseased cells. Thatallowed them to pinpoint the exact mutations responsible for theillness.

In the short run, that data will give cancer researchers a much better understanding of the disease, but their real triumph is bringing themedical community a step closer to offering personalized health care.

Cancer is hard to fight because nearly every case is different, and yet doctors use a somewhat one-size-fits-all approach to treatingpatients. As new medications like gene therapy and RNA interference become widespread, oncologists will be able to tailor treatments for patients because ofwhat's wrong with their genetic code. In the meantime, some physicians are using simple genetic tests to predict which medications will work well on theirpatients.�





5. Breaking the petaflop barrier

The latest generation of supercomputers can perform more than a quadrillion operations per second, and that remarkable capability willrevolutionize the way scientists do research.
It will allow them to identify meaningful patterns in unfathomably large mounds of data, and perform simulations with unprecedented accuracy. Meteorologistscould know exactly where a hurricane will strike days before it makes landfall. Neuroscientists may be able to emulate a simple brain. So far, two machineshave broken the petaflop barrier, and as more follow we'll see monumental advances in every field of science.


Photo: Cray XT5 Jaguar courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

4. Curing HIV in Germany


Some people are remarkably resistant to HIV, and scientists have found two ways to give that immunity to others. In the first case, Berlindoctor Gero Huetter transplanted bone marrow from a virus-resistant donor to a man who had both HIVand leukemia. By doing that, he cured both diseases with one treatment. It sounds great, but Huetter had to kill off his patient's immune system with drugsand radiation before replacing it with a better one.

Because that tactic is tremendously harsh and risky, it is unlikely that the miraculous procedure will catch on. Instead, his victoryprovided solid evidence that gene editing might offer a viable solution. Everyvirus-resistant person has two mutant copies of a gene called CCR5, and a new biotech tool called zinc finger nucleases can give anyone that mutation. Insteadof transferring bone marrow from another person, doctors could take a few cells from a patient, modify them to be HIV-resistant and then put them backin.

3. Finding another building block of life in our galaxy

This has been a very big year for astrobiology. Several teams of researchers have found the building blocks of life outside our solar systemand others have spotted dozens of planets that aren't much bigger thanearth.

When astronomers in France pointed the IRAM radio telescope at a region of the Milky Way filled with newborn stars, they found signs of a sugar molecule called glycolaldehyde. It is an ingredient of RNA, the substancethat may have played a key role in the dawn of life. Until then, the organic chemical had only been spotted at the chaotic core of our galaxy. Using the Hubbletelescope, another group of researchers found the first evidence of water and carbon dioxideon a planet outside our solar system.

2. Growing a new organ from a patient's own stem cells


Thanks to stem cell research, people with failing organs may not need to wait for a donor or take harsh medications that prevent their immunesystems from rejecting transplanted tissue. One of the greatest examples of regenerative medicine - the science ofbuilding or fixing body parts - took place this year, when doctors removed some cells from a 30-year-old woman with tuberculosis and used them to grow a newtrachea, replacing a segment that was destroyed by the bacterium.

They took stem cells from her bone marrow, layered them onto a decellularized trachea from a deceased donor, and surgically implanted it inthe woman. Four months later, Claudia Castillo could breathe well and showed no signs of the side-effects that patients have when they receive an organ fromsomeone else.




1. Finding ice on Mars

After a seven-month journey through space, the Phoenix lander touched down on Martian soil, and soon after discovered ice.

On May 31, two days after the lander's robotic arm went to work, its camera caught a glimpse of something shiny under the craft. Leadresearcher Peter Smith speculated that the landing rockets had blown a thin layer of soil away, exposing buried ice.

The big announcement came on Jun. 19, after scientists compared two photos of a ditch called Dodo-Goldilocks. In the first image, severalbright nuggets were visible, and four days later the chunks had disappeared. Taking the temperature and atmospheric pressure into account, the specks had to beice that sublimated after being uncovered by the mechanical claw.

The red planet may have an inhospitable climate, but at least ithas water, and that will be tremendously useful when the first group of explorers lands there.
pimp.gif
to the cure of hiv & Stemcell. its successful. too bad the govt is trynalower the population.
 
impressive ... they gotta speed these things up ...

they'll cure AIDS, and invent something else though ...
 
yeah man what gets me mad is how hiv was cured and yet it doesnt go on main stream media. like wth. this is one of the biggest breakthrough in the medicalfield. and i bet 95% of america didnt even know that you can cure hiv.
 
Conspiracy Theory-


i bet there is a cure for HIV/AIDS/Cancer but the government is trying to hide it from us because it'll take a big chunk out of the sales of medicine.
 
I remember an nter on here who is a biochemist said that they've had it for a long time now.
 
that thing about hurricanes landing?.........naw dont believe it.
nature > tech.
dudes still struggle to get the normal everyday weather correct
laugh.gif
 

4. Curing HIV in Germany


Some people are remarkably resistant to HIV, and scientists have found two ways to give that immunity to others. In the first case, Berlin doctor Gero Huetter transplanted bone marrow from a virus-resistant donor to a man who had both HIV and leukemia. By doing that, he cured both diseases with one treatment. It sounds great, but Huetter had to kill off his patient's immune system with drugs and radiation before replacing it with a better one.

Because that tactic is tremendously harsh and risky, it is unlikely that the miraculous procedure will catch on. Instead, his victory provided solid evidence that gene editing might offer a viable solution. Every virus-resistant person has two mutant copies of a gene called CCR5, and a new biotech tool called zinc finger nucleases can give anyone that mutation. Instead of transferring bone marrow from another person, doctors could take a few cells from a patient, modify them to be HIV-resistant and then put them back in.


Holy oversimplification, Batman!


I started writing a response to this...but there is just too much bullish to plow through.
1. Don't get your science news from word-of-mouth, NikeTalk, or the mainstream press. As a scientist. Ask a doctor. Because you can find anything youwant to hear on the internet. (Did you know there is a powerful cabal of individuals that secretly control all major world events?!?)
2. I am as hopeful as anybody that diseases like AIDS and cancer can be cured. Hell, it's my job! But there is no cure for HIV/AIDS and it isirresponsible to vomit out half-truths wrapped in sciency-sounding language to mislead people like this piece does.


To address this insulting POS in sickeningly brief fashion:

Remember OJ's blood and the expert witness testifying that, yes, in theory there could have been a perfect match for OJ in the back yard thatnight? I've met the expert witness. He calculated the odds at roughly 1 in 55 BILLION. That was something like 1 in 11 Earths when it happened in 1994,but he had to admit that it was theoretically possible. So if you had 11 Earths then there might be one match for OJ - but we're supposed tobelieve that there were two over at his place that night and the other one was bleeding all over Nicole and Ron? Come on...

Well, that's the way this HIV cure happened in Germany. The individual that had his HIV remedied truly - in the most absolute sense of the phrase - wonthe genetic lottery and then happened to be at the single place in the world at the right time in history. The procedure that the article so matter-of-factlyexplains will not be performed again on ethical grounds (you doom a patient to a very short and painful life) except that this guy was P E R F E C T. We're talking two OJs in the same room wearing Bruno Magli's and bloody gloves on the phone with Al Cowlings perfect. And the details that were leftout of this piece are AMAZING. Like, you know, he just went to the hospital, had a little procedure, wiz, bang, no more AIDS! People, please have a higherthreshold for truth that being able to read it online. For your own sake.

Oh, and the thing about gene editing in the second paragraph? Yeah, maybe you can take your flying car over to the unicorn ranch on the way to the geneediting facility BECAUSE YOU'RE IN FANTASY LAND.


(I simply cannot stomach it when idiots that obviously know nothing about what they're talking about try to sound convincing.)
 
Originally Posted by Boilermaker X


4. Curing HIV in Germany


Some people are remarkably resistant to HIV, and scientists have found two ways to give that immunity to others. In the first case, Berlin doctor Gero Huetter transplanted bone marrow from a virus-resistant donor to a man who had both HIV and leukemia. By doing that, he cured both diseases with one treatment. It sounds great, but Huetter had to kill off his patient's immune system with drugs and radiation before replacing it with a better one.

Because that tactic is tremendously harsh and risky, it is unlikely that the miraculous procedure will catch on. Instead, his victory provided solid evidence that gene editing might offer a viable solution. Every virus-resistant person has two mutant copies of a gene called CCR5, and a new biotech tool called zinc finger nucleases can give anyone that mutation. Instead of transferring bone marrow from another person, doctors could take a few cells from a patient, modify them to be HIV-resistant and then put them back in.

Holy oversimplification, Batman!


I started writing a response to this...but there is just too much bullish to plow through.
1. Don't get your science news from word-of-mouth, NikeTalk, or the mainstream press. As a scientist. Ask a doctor. Because you can find anything you want to hear on the internet. (Did you know there is a powerful cabal of individuals that secretly control all major world events?!?)
2. I am as hopeful as anybody that diseases like AIDS and cancer can be cured. Hell, it's my job! But there is no cure for HIV/AIDS and it is irresponsible to vomit out half-truths wrapped in sciency-sounding language to mislead people like this piece does.


To address this insulting POS in sickeningly brief fashion:

Remember OJ's blood and the expert witness testifying that, yes, in theory there could have been a perfect match for OJ in the back yard that night? I've met the expert witness. He calculated the odds at roughly 1 in 55 BILLION. That was something like 1 in 11 Earths when it happened in 1994, but he had to admit that it was theoretically possible. So if you had 11 Earths then there might be one match for OJ - but we're supposed to believe that there were two over at his place that night and the other one was bleeding all over Nicole and Ron? Come on...

Well, that's the way this HIV cure happened in Germany. The individual that had his HIV remedied truly - in the most absolute sense of the phrase - won the genetic lottery and then happened to be at the single place in the world at the right time in history. The procedure that the article so matter-of-factly explains will not be performed again on ethical grounds (you doom a patient to a very short and painful life) except that this guy was P E R F E C T. We're talking two OJs in the same room wearing Bruno Magli's and bloody gloves on the phone with Al Cowlings perfect. And the details that were left out of this piece are AMAZING. Like, you know, he just went to the hospital, had a little procedure, wiz, bang, no more AIDS! People, please have a higher threshold for truth that being able to read it online. For your own sake.

Oh, and the thing about gene editing in the second paragraph? Yeah, maybe you can take your flying car over to the unicorn ranch on the way to the gene editing facility BECAUSE YOU'RE IN FANTASY LAND.


(I simply cannot stomach it when idiots that obviously know nothing about what they're talking about try to sound convincing.)





Um are u insulting me or all the other people that aren't as "smart" as you? U sound dumb cocky right. Now. Anyways Gene editing do exist onargricultural products. And that's just the first step in understanding gene editing. Sooner or later scientist would be able to alter a human gene to beimmune to cancer that runs in the family or other great possibilities.
 
Originally Posted by drsfinest72

Originally Posted by Boilermaker X


4. Curing HIV in Germany


Some people are remarkably resistant to HIV, and scientists have found two ways to give that immunity to others. In the first case, Berlin doctor Gero Huetter transplanted bone marrow from a virus-resistant donor to a man who had both HIV and leukemia. By doing that, he cured both diseases with one treatment. It sounds great, but Huetter had to kill off his patient's immune system with drugs and radiation before replacing it with a better one.

Because that tactic is tremendously harsh and risky, it is unlikely that the miraculous procedure will catch on. Instead, his victory provided solid evidence that gene editing might offer a viable solution. Every virus-resistant person has two mutant copies of a gene called CCR5, and a new biotech tool called zinc finger nucleases can give anyone that mutation. Instead of transferring bone marrow from another person, doctors could take a few cells from a patient, modify them to be HIV-resistant and then put them back in.

Holy oversimplification, Batman!


I started writing a response to this...but there is just too much bullish to plow through.
1. Don't get your science news from word-of-mouth, NikeTalk, or the mainstream press. As a scientist. Ask a doctor. Because you can find anything you want to hear on the internet. (Did you know there is a powerful cabal of individuals that secretly control all major world events?!?)
2. I am as hopeful as anybody that diseases like AIDS and cancer can be cured. Hell, it's my job! But there is no cure for HIV/AIDS and it is irresponsible to vomit out half-truths wrapped in sciency-sounding language to mislead people like this piece does.


To address this insulting POS in sickeningly brief fashion:

Remember OJ's blood and the expert witness testifying that, yes, in theory there could have been a perfect match for OJ in the back yard that night? I've met the expert witness. He calculated the odds at roughly 1 in 55 BILLION. That was something like 1 in 11 Earths when it happened in 1994, but he had to admit that it was theoretically possible. So if you had 11 Earths then there might be one match for OJ - but we're supposed to believe that there were two over at his place that night and the other one was bleeding all over Nicole and Ron? Come on...

Well, that's the way this HIV cure happened in Germany. The individual that had his HIV remedied truly - in the most absolute sense of the phrase - won the genetic lottery and then happened to be at the single place in the world at the right time in history. The procedure that the article so matter-of-factly explains will not be performed again on ethical grounds (you doom a patient to a very short and painful life) except that this guy was P E R F E C T. We're talking two OJs in the same room wearing Bruno Magli's and bloody gloves on the phone with Al Cowlings perfect. And the details that were left out of this piece are AMAZING. Like, you know, he just went to the hospital, had a little procedure, wiz, bang, no more AIDS! People, please have a higher threshold for truth that being able to read it online. For your own sake.

Oh, and the thing about gene editing in the second paragraph? Yeah, maybe you can take your flying car over to the unicorn ranch on the way to the gene editing facility BECAUSE YOU'RE IN FANTASY LAND.


(I simply cannot stomach it when idiots that obviously know nothing about what they're talking about try to sound convincing.)


Um are u insulting me or all the other people that aren't as "smart" as you? U sound dumb cocky right. Now. Anyways Gene editing do exist on argricultural products. And that's just the first step in understanding gene editing. Sooner or later scientist would be able to alter a human gene to be immune to cancer that runs in the family or other great possibilities.
laugh.gif
word, Boilermaker you sound like a jack @%$.
 
Nice read
Turning water into fuel
Yes, I know that water is renewable but there are so many droughts world wide that I don't think that would be wise.
Finding another building block of life in our galaxy
I always thought NASA was too selective when searching for the building block of life.
 
StarkyL0ve wrote:
laugh.gif
word, Boilermaker you sound like a jack @%$.


You're right. Last night I thought about what I wrote and I wanted to apologize for getting on my soapbox. I've been going on 3-4 hoursof sleep for the last couple of weeks, it was Friday afternoon, I got a little worked up, and I'm sorry. It's difficult to live and work in a world ofscientific and medical research where you really are working to help mankind only to have people (in this case, the writers of the original article) chooseselect bits of information, twist them, and present stories packed with half-truths to a public that is hungry for information and change. It's upsettingto see real and important work being spun into fuel for the rumor mill and the conspiracy machine.


drsfinest72 wrote:
Um are u insulting me or all the other people that aren't as "smart" as you? U sound dumb cocky right. Now. Anyways Gene editing do exist on argricultural products. And that's just the first step in understanding gene editing. Sooner or later scientist would be able to alter a human gene to be immune to cancer that runs in the family or other great possibilities.
I did not mean to insult anyone here. Again, I was referring to the people writing the article. The reference to gene editing in the article isanother perfect example of what I'm trying to get across. Yes, gene editing does exist - and it's nothing like the the article casually describes("Instead of transferring bone marrow from another person, doctors could take a few cells from a patient, modify them to be HIV-resistantand then put them back in."). If you're aware of its applications in agriculture then you're aware of the meticulous work that has to bedone for even simple modifications in well understood plant species. This article wants to make it sound like you just take out a few cells, magically modifythem, and drop them back in the patient. The fact is that the sort of technology they are describing is DECADES away. Whether it be through ignorance oragenda, this piece does the public a great disservice by presenting things in a wholly unrealistic way.


I have come to the unfortunate realization that some people want to believe in conspiracies in spite of any facts to the contrary and I can't do much aboutthat. But sometimes I can point out when people are presenting misleading, twisted, or false information related to my little corner of the universe. So ifyou want to believe that the government is withholding the cure for AIDS or that vaccines cause Autism, then be my guest. But I don't know many peoplethat would dedicate their lives to something and then sit back and watch while people spread false information about it.
 
Once they start "finding" the cure for diseases/viruses that have made them a great deal of money it just means they're ready to release a brandnew one.

The building block of life in the galaxy and ice on Mars seems interesting and I hope it produces something cuz I find most if not all space explorationalthough fascinating to be an egregious waste of money. We gained nothing by going to the moon other than bragging rights.
 
Originally Posted by iceNcream

Conspiracy Theory-


i bet there is a cure for HIV/AIDS/Cancer but the government is trying to hide it from us because it'll take a big chunk out of the sales of medicine.
Not to mention HIV/AIDS is largely affecting minorities, and we all know how America don't give a @$!* about us
tired.gif
 
Originally Posted by Dathbgboy

Originally Posted by iceNcream

Conspiracy Theory-


i bet there is a cure for HIV/AIDS/Cancer but the government is trying to hide it from us because it'll take a big chunk out of the sales of medicine.
Not to mention HIV/AIDS is largely affecting minorities, and we all know how America don't give a @$!* about us
tired.gif
It's a lot more complex than that.
 
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