Category Archives: Life Science

The Chromosome Shuffle

One of the most interesting features of our chromosomes, which I mention briefly in the article, is that we’re one pair short. In other words, we humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, while other apes have 24.
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The fusion of chromosome 2 millions of years ago may not have caused any big change in hominid biology—except, perhaps, by making it difficult for populations of hominids with 23 pairs of chromosomes to mate with populations who still had 24.

Stanford Students Win $10,000 for Aneurysm Treatment

Stanford students win $10,000 for aneurysm treatment (sigh they removed the page – poor usability):

The students won the first Biomedical Engineering Innovation Design Award conducted by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, an alliance of approximately 200 colleges and universities in the United States established in 1995 to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in higher education.
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The Stanford team designed a porous balloon mechanism, which they named Embolune. To use the new invention, a surgeon navigates the balloon to the site of the aneurysm, where it is detached. A hardening polymer substance is then released into the aneurysm space to create a permanent clot and stifle further growth.

Vast Community of Bacteria and Clams Under Antarctic Ice

Beneath Ice Shelf’s Remains, Life Blossoms from Washingtonpost.com

The area had been isolated under the ice for at least 10,000 years, and the discovery means that “the chance of life happening in other places that are even more restricted is increased,”
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The bacteria under the Larsen B ice shelf evolved in far colder conditions than other known cold-seep communities, thriving in near- or below-freezing temperatures, and may have unique properties.

Six-legged Intestinal Robot

Robot combined with swallowable camera could give docs a better look inside the small intestine by Byron Spice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Metin Sitti, director of the NanoRobotics Lab, is developing a set of legs that could be incorporated into the swallowable camera-in-a-pill that has become available in the past four years for diagnosing gastrointestinal disorders in the small intestine.
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The work is supported by the Intelligent Microsystems Center in Seoul, Korea, and sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy.
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Another CMU roboticist, Cameron Riviere, is developing his own robotic inchworm that would use suction pads to adhere to the exterior of a beating heart. The two-footed device, called HeartLander, might be used to inject cells or drugs, implant electrodes or perform coronary artery bypass procedures.

Metin Sitti is an engineer with Carnegie Mellon University.