Science

Cranial Surgery Dates Back Thousands of Years

Cranial surgery is tricky business, even under 21st-century conditions (think aseptic environment, specialized surgical instruments and copious amounts of pain medication both during and afterward).
 However, evidence shows that healers in Peru practiced trepanation -- a surgical procedure that involves removing a section of the cranial vault using a hand drill or a scraping tool -- more than 1,000 years ago to treat a variety of ailments, from head injuries to heartsickness. And they did so without the benefit of the aforementioned medical advances.
Excavating burial caves in the south-central Andean province of Andahuaylas in Peru, University of California Santa Barbara bioarchaeologist Danielle Kurin and her research team unearthed the remains of 32 individuals that date back to the Late Intermediate Period (ca. AD 1000-1250). Among them, 45 separate trepanation procedures were in evidence. Kurin's findings appear in the current issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
According to Kurin, trepanations first appeared in the south-central Andean highlands during the Early Intermediate Period (ca. AD 200-600), although the technique was not universally practiced. Still, it was considered a viable medical procedure until the Spanish put the kibosh on the practice in the early 16th century.
Kurin's research shows various cutting practices and techniques being employed by practitioners around the same time. Some used scraping, others used cutting and still others made use of a hand drill.

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Researcher to Grow Human Cells in Space to Test Treatment for Stroke

Abba Zubair  believes that cells grown in the International Space Station (ISS) could help patients recover from a stroke, and that it may even be possible to generate human tissues and organs in space. He just needs a chance to demonstrate the possibility.
He now has it. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), a nonprofit organization that promotes research aboard the ISS, has awarded Dr Zubair a $300,000 grant to send human stem cells into space to see if they grow more rapidly than stem cells grown on Earth.
Dr Zubair, medical and scientific director of the Cell Therapy Laboratory at Mayo Clinic in Florida, says the experiment will be the first one Mayo Clinic has conducted in space and the first to use these human stem cells, which are found in bone marrow.
He specifically wants to expand the population of stem cells that will induce regeneration of neurons and blood vessels in patients who have suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, the kind of stroke which is caused by blood clot. Dr. Zubair already grows such cells in his Mayo Clinic laboratory using a large tissue culture and several incubators – but only at a snail's pace.
Dr Zubair is working with engineers at the University of Colorado who are building the specialised cell bioreactor that will be taken to the ISS within a year for the experiment.

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World's First Text Message Using Vodka

Scientists have created a molecular communications system for the transmission of messages and data in challenging environments such as tunnels, pipelines, under water and within the body.
The technique has a wide range of applications in environments where electromagnetic waves cannot be used, for example in underground structures such as tunnels, pipelines or in underwater environments.
Molecular signalling is a common feature of the plant and animal kingdom -- insects for example use pheromones for long-range signalling -- but to date continuous data have not been transmitted.
Researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK and the York University in Canada have developed the capability to transform any generic message into binary signals, which in turn is 'programmed' into evaporated alcohol molecules to demonstrate the potential of molecular communications. Their results are published in the open access journal PLOS ONE.
The first demonstration signal was performed in Canada and was 'O Canada,' from the Canadian national anthem. It was sent several metres across open space before it was decoded by a receiver. The hardware is made from off-the-shelf electronics and costs around $100.
The scientists believe the simple system could have a wide variety of applications, ranging from communication in hostile underground environments to nanotechnology.
The team will now set up a company which aims to bring a range of academic and industrial products to the market.

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Mating Is Kiss of Death for Certain Female Worms

The presence of male sperm and seminal fluid causes female worms to shrivel and die after giving birth, Princeton University researchers reported this week in the journal Science. The demise of the female appears to benefit the male worm by removing her from the mating pool for other males.
The researchers found that male sperm and seminal fluid trigger pathways that cause females to dehydrate, prematurely age and die.
The death of the female after she gives birth fits into a general framework of sperm competition that has been observed often in nature, writes Coleen Murphy, an associate professor of molecular biology. "Males compete to have their genomes propagated, and this often occurs at the expense of the female."
Shortened female lifespan following mating have been observed before for roundworms, but the study is the first to document the body shrinkage and identify the underlying biological pathways, Murphy wrote.
The team found that the pathways by which the male kills the female are ones that researchers think exist for the purpose of slowing down aging during times of low nutrients.