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Medicine

Submission + - Fat cells used to create beating heart cells (bobim.org)

Amenacier writes: Melbourne scientists recently made the discovery that stem cells isolated from adult fat cells could be made to turn into beating heart muscle cells when cultured with rat heart cells. This discovery may lead to the usage of fat stem cells in the reparation of cardiac damage, or to fix such cardiac problems as holes in the heart.

It is proposed that culturing the stem cells with rat heart cells allows them to differentiate into heart muscle cells through the action of signals from the heart cells. In the future it may be possible to inject/transplant the stem cells into the damaged area and have them naturally differentiate into the type of cell required, with only the natural stimuli provided by surrounding cells required to effect the process, without any danger of rejection by the body.

The original article can be found at the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery website: http://bobim.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=88&Itemid=37

I for one welcome our rat-fat-heart cell overlords, what about you?

Image

"Stayin Alive" Helps You Stay Alive Screenshot-sm 31

In a small study conducted at the University of Illinois medical school, doctors and students maintained close to the ideal number of chest compressions doing CPR while listening to the Bee Gees hit, "Stayin' Alive." At 103 beats per minute, the old disco song has almost the perfect rhythm to help keep accurate time while doing chest compressions. The study showed the song helped people who already know how to do CPR, and the results were promising enough to warrant larger, more definitive studies with real patients or untrained people. I wonder what intrinsic power is contained in "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?"
Businesses

Ars Examines Outlandish "Lost To Piracy" Claims and Figures 380

Nom du Keyboard writes "For years the figures of $200 billion and 750,000 jobs lost to intellectual property piracy have been bandied about, usually as a cudgel to demand ever more overbearing copyright laws with the intent of diminishing of both Fair Use and the Public Domain. Now ARS Technica takes a look into origin and validity these figures and finds far less than the proponents of them might wish."

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