The Hole

Ring Nebula Deep Field

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:48:34 -0600

via Astronomy Picture of the Day RSS Feed on 11/6/09

Ring Nebula Deep Field A familiar sight to sky enthusiasts with even a small telescope, the Ring Nebula (M57) is some 2,000 light-years away in the musical constellation Lyra. The central ring is about one light-year across, but this remarkably deep exposure - a collaborative effort combining data from three different telescopes - explores the looping filaments of glowing gas extending much farther from the nebula’s central star. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from a dying, sun-like star. This remarkable composite image includes narrowband image data recording the Ring’s atomic hydrogen emission (shown as violet) in visible light and molecular hydrogen emission (shown as red) at near infrared wavelengths. The much more distant spiral galaxy IC 1296 is also visible at the upper right.

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Best Hand Painting Art Ever

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:31:12 -0600

Long list but check out the eagles and the elephants at the bottom :D

Best Hand Painting Art Ever

via Damn Cool Pics by noreply@blogger.com (Damn Cool Pics) on 11/4/09

Body painting is a type of art in which paint is applied to a part of skin. It is considered one of the ancient types of art. Unlike tattoos, body painting is temporary. Lasting for just few hours or ion some cases a few weeks. Hand painting art is the application of make-up or paint on to the hands to look like any object or mostly to depict animals.

Following art is created by Mario Mariotti (1936-1997), an Italian artist from Florence, famous for his amazing hand painting art.

Artist Guido Daniele who has specialized in body artwork. His hand painting which he dubs as ‘Handimals‘ is appreciated around the world. For your enjoyment, we have a collection of Guido’s hand painting art, check out his amazing creations which look like real animals.

Source: guidodaniele

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We Learn Our Language in the Womb

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:10:56 -0600

Pretty wild if you think about. And I always think about it ;)

We Learn Our Language in the Womb

via Neatorama by Johnny Cat on 11/5/09

Artist’s rendering of a human fetus growing inside the womb. (Credit: iStockphoto/Max Delson Martins Santos)

No wonder learning a new language can be more difficult the older you get. We were learning our individual languages before we were even born! That’s what researchers revealed in a release today by Current Biology.

It seems that fetuses not only warm to the sound of mother’s voice as they gestate, they also are being programmed in the direct patterns inherent in certain languages. By the time we are born, our dialect is determined.

Wermke’s team recorded and analyzed the cries of 60 healthy newborns, 30 born into French-speaking families and 30 born into German-speaking families, when they were three to five days old. That analysis revealed clear differences in the shape of the newborns’ cry melodies, based on their mother tongue.

Specifically, French newborns tend to cry with a rising melody contour, whereas German newborns seem to prefer a falling melody contour in their crying. Those patterns are consistent with characteristic differences between the two languages, Wermke said.

ScienceDaily has a brief story about this new knowledge: Link

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Hubble’s New Camera Delivers Another Stunner | Wired Science

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:40:14 -0600

The Hubble Space Telescope’s new camera is returning incredibly detailed, stunning images of space. This close-up view of an area near the core of the iconic Southern Pinwheel galaxy, or M83, shows very rapid star birth.

The image to the right of the entire galaxy, taken from the ground by the European Southern Observatory’s 2.2-meter telescope at La Silla, Chile, shows the location of the image above. Hubble’s detailed view reveals that the spiral arms of the galaxy, about 15 million light-years from Earth, are lousy with clusters of infant stars, only a few million years old. The clusters show up as red because of the hydrogen gas they emit, and they have blown holes in the brownish dust tracks of the arms.

The image also reveals around 60 supernova remnants, around five times more than had previously been seen. the different wavelengths of light captured by Hubble’s camera, from ultraviolet to near-infrared, gives scientists a look at stars in all stages of formation, which will help them understand the evolution of the Pinwheel galaxy, and give them insight into galaxy formation in general.

Images: 1) NASA, ESA, STScI/AURA. High-Def Version. 2) ESO.

See Also:

The Pinwheel Galaxy Captured in Dazzling Color

Hubble Captures Image of Strange Giant Galaxy

Hubble Snaps Fantastic Galaxy Collision

Hubble Is Back! With New Stunning Images

Hubble Goes Deep, Finds Farthest Galaxies Yet

Hubble Catches Galaxies Stripping — Ram Pressure Stripping, That Is

Hubble Snaps Sharpest Image Yet of Jupiter Impact

Follow us on Twitter @betsymason and @wiredscience, and on Facebook.

via wired.com

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Gene Therapy Halts Fatal Brain Disease | Wired Science

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:38:08 -0600

Scientists have used gene therapy to halt the progression of adrenoleukodystrophy, a fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by a single defective gene, in two seven-year-old boys.

It took more than a decade to refine the therapy, in which stem cells taken from the boys’ bone marrow were hacked with healthy copies of the gene, then returned to their bodies. Without them, the boys would soon be dead.

“They would now be unable to speak, to walk, to communicate, to sit, to eat. They would be in an advanced stage of the disease, in a vegetative state,” said Patrick Aubourg, a pediatric neurologist at France’s National Institute for Health and Medical Research who led the treatment’s development. “Instead they go to school. They live a normal life.”

The gene at the root of adrenoleukodystropy — ALD for short — is called ABCD1, and produces a protein necessary to maintain myelin, a compound that acts as an insulator for nerve fibers in the brain and peripheral nervous system. As myelin degrades, the fibers cannot conduct electrical impulses.

The boys who received the treatment suffered from the early form of ALD, in which the defective gene is found only on the X chromosome. Technically known as X-linked ALD, it affects boys, typically starting in childhood and killing them in two to three years. It can be treated with bone marrow transplants, but success rates are low, and toxic immune system-suppressing drugs are needed to prevent patients’ bodies from rejecting foreign tissue — if, that is, a donor can even be found.

No such donor was found for the children, who had just a six-month window after diagnosis in which treatment could be started. After that, it would have been too late. So their parents turned to Aubourg’s therapy, which had only been tried in laboratory animals.

One of the children — their identities remain confidential — received the treatment two and a half years ago. The other received it three years ago. Their story is described in a paper published Thursday in Science. In both, the disease has stopped progressing. Their brain scans show myelin damage that has stopped, and their new genes are active as ever.

The results are as striking as any previously delivered by gene therapy, a biotechnological technique that after nearly two decades of anticipation has largely failed to deliver on its lab-bench promise — though that may be changing.

“There is reason to think that this will last for the rest of their lives,” said gene therapist Nathalie Cartier of NIHMR, the study’s lead author.

In 1993, when Aubourg discovered how to duplicate the ABCD1 gene in a laboratory, he envisioned adding it to blood stem cells, which give rise to the different types of blood cells — including, critically, the cells that make myelin. Every new cell would produce the correct protein. The ALD would disappear.

This type of approach is one example of gene therapy, a technique that even now is highly experimental, and was more experimental then. The first “vector” used by Aubourg — a virus engineered to carry new genes into target cells — succeeded in delivering its payload just .001 percent of the time. Even this miniscule success rate was enough to improve symptoms in mouse models of ALD, but he didn’t trust it to work in people.

Aubourg went back to the drawing board. He used a new vector made from a human immunodeficiency virus from which the genome had been removed, leaving only HIV’s cell-penetrating shell. Inside this he put the new ABCD1 gene, and a string of DNA that helps it fuse with target chromosomes.

The new vector, called a lentivirus, didn’t work all the time, but it was far more efficient than the old one. In the two boys who received the treatment, 15 percent of the stem cells in their bone marrow now possess a copy of the healthy ABCD1 gene. These cells are essentially immortal, and should provide a steady supply of healthy myelin-producing cells in perpetuity.

“Even this low-end number is high enough,” said Aurora Pujol, an ALD researcher at Spain’s IDIBELL Research Institute. She knew the two boys when they were patients at a hospital in Spain, waiting in vain for bone marrow transplants, and connected them to Aubourg’s laboratory. “They did a great job.”

The boys did not escape unscathed, and still suffer from some cognitive difficulties. And though no side effects have been observed, far more testing is needed to be certain that the treatment is safe. “The risk is never zero,” said Auborg.

Indeed, gene therapy is still best-known for its high-profile failures. In 1999, 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger died during tests of a gene therapy for a rare metabolic disorder. In 2003, two French children receiving treatment for severe immune deficiencies developed leukemia.

But with the recent success of a gene therapy for blindness, and the refinement of new, apparently more reliable methods, gene therapy may have turned a corner.

“This is an important step forward for ALD, but not only for ALD,” said Pujol. “The lentiviral vector approach can be applied to other single-gene diseases.”

Jeffrey Rothstein, a Johns Hopkins gene therapist who specializes in Lou Gehrig’s disease, warned against extrapolating too much from the early ALD results. “It’s great that it worked, but that doesn’t guarantee success in other diseases,” he said.

But University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan, who has followed gene therapy since its beginning, shared some of Pujol’s excitement.

“I think this is the beginning of a turnaround,” he said. “It took a long time to move from animal research to clinical success. It took more than a decade to get anywhere. But these breakthroughs show that this long-touted technology is about to produce clinical benefits.”

Image: Over the course of two years, the breakdown of myelin in a boy with ALD who did not receive the therapy (above) and one who did, from Science.

See Also:

Gene-Therapy Deaths Raise Ethics Issues

Gene Therapy Cures Color-Blind Monkeys

Gene Therapy Restores Sight

Gene Therapy and the History of Organ Transplantation

Citation: “Hematopoietic Stem Cell Gene Therapy with a Lentiviral Vector in X-Linked Adrenoleukodystrophy.” By Nathalie Cartier, Salima Hacein-Bey-Abina, Cynthia C. Bartholomae, Gabor Veres, Manfred Schmidt, Ina Kutschera, Michel Vidaud, Ulrich Abel, Liliane Dal-Cortivo, Laure Caccavelli, Nizar Mahlaoui, Véronique Kiermer, Denice Mittelstaedt, Céline Bellesme, Najiba Lahlou, François Lefrère, Stéphane Blanche, Muriel Audit, Emmanuel Payen, Philippe Leboulch, Bruno l’Homme, Pierre Bougnères, Christof Von Kalle, Alain Fischer, Marina Cavazzana-Calvo, Patrick Aubourg. Science, Vol. 326 No. 5954, November 5, 2009.

Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecosystem and planetary tipping points.

via wired.com

Pretty cool actually

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Image of the Day: Einstein's Cross

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:31:29 -0600

Image of the Day: Einstein’s Cross

via The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel by Casey Kazan Daily Galaxy Editorial Staff on 11/6/09

The Einstein Cross is a gravitationally lensed quasar that is quadruply imaged, hence its name, Einstein Cross, forming a nearly perfect cross, with the lensing galaxy at its center. The quasar is located about 8 billion light years from Earth, while the lensing galaxy is located at a distance of 400 million light years. Many scientists believe quasars are powered by giant black holes feeding on nearby gas. Gas trapped in the black hole’s powerful gravity is compressed and heated to millions of degrees, giving off intense light and/or radio energy. Most quasars lurk in the outer reaches of the cosmos, over a billion light years away, and are therefore distant enough to appear stationary to us.

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Halloween's Moon

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:26:19 -0600

Check out the pic

Halloween’s Moon

via Astronomy Picture of the Day RSS Feed on 11/5/09

Halloween’s Moon Illuminating the landscape all through the night of November 2nd, this week’s bright Full Moon was known in the northern hemisphere as a Hunter’s Moon. But this dramatic view of the shining lunar orb, from Sobreda, Portugal, was captured just a few nights earlier, on Halloween. In the spirit of the season, the image plays a little trick. The picture is actually two digital photos - one short and one long exposure. They were combined to bring out the details of the bright lunar surface and the fainter features in the dark, surrounding clouds, in a single image. Of course, you may recognize some of the spookier shapes in the clouds as having visited your neighborhood last week, along with Halloween’s Moon.

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Courage

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:28:05 -0600

I wonder were that dog got the cymbals

Courage

via Bits Of Wisdom by Jonco on 11/2/09

via

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Hymn # 365

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:16:54 -0600

True story, If you believe the internet ;)

Hymn # 365

via Bits & Pieces by Jonco on 11/3/09

A minister was completing a temperance sermon. With great emphasis he said, ‘If I had all
the beer in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.’

With even greater emphasis he said, ‘And if I had All the wine in the world, I’d take it
and pour it into the river.’

And then finally, shaking his fist in the air, he Said, ‘And if I had all the whiskey in
the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.’ Sermon complete, he sat down.

The song leader stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, nearly laughing, ‘For
our closing song, let us sing Hymn #365, ‘Shall We Gather at the River.’

Thanks Denny

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Daffy?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:14:44 -0600

Daffy?

via Bits & Pieces by Jonco on 11/4/09

Bet you didn’t notice that the Viper logo is an upside down version of Daffy Duck.

via

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A TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:18:45 -0600

:

Apple does it again
Apple announced today that it has developed a breast implant that can store and play music. The iTit will cost from $499 to $699, depending on cup and speaker size. This is considered a major social breakthrough, because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.

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Man what a long day. half staff and twice the calls. I would do the math but I would just get depressed

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:08:06 -0600

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Blue Sun Bristling

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:13:26 -0600

I have heard of Blue Moon but this is crazy ;)

Blue Sun Bristling

via Astronomy Picture of the Day RSS Feed on 11/4/09

Blue Sun Bristling Our Sun may look like all soft and fluffy, but it’s not. Our Sun is an extremely large ball of bubbling hot gas, mostly hydrogen gas. The above picture of our Sun was taken last month in a specific red color of light emitted by hydrogen gas called Hydrogen-alpha and then color inverted to appear blue. In this light, details of the Sun’s chromosphere are particularly visible, highlighting numerous thin tubes of magnetically-confined hot gas known as spicules rising from the Sun like bristles from a shag carpet. Our Sun glows because it is hot, but it is not on fire. Fire is the rapid acquisition of oxygen, and there is very little oxygen on the Sun. The energy source of our Sun is the nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium deep within its core. No sunspots or large active regions were visible on the Sun this day, although some solar prominences are visible around the edges.

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Nicolas Cage is Broke

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:55:47 -0600

Check out his new hair doo.

Nicolas Cage is Broke

via Neatorama by Alex on 11/3/09

If you’re feeling a tad poor because of the economic meltdown, tell yourself that at least you’re not Nicolas Cage. The highest paid actor in Hollywood is broke:

How could one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors find himself owing $6.3 million in back taxes and deep in money troubles? The answer is, “Easy,” if you believe Nicolas Cage.

In a lawsuit filed Oct. 16 in Los Angeles, the National Treasure star, 45, claims that his longtime business manager, Samuel J. Levin, “lined his [own] pockets with several million dollars in business management fees while sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin.”

Link

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Holiday Lighting Win

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:02:40 -0600

My plan for this holiday season

Holiday Lighting Win

via FAIL Blog: Epic Fail Pictures and Videos of Owned, Pwnd and Fail Moments by Cheezburger Network on 11/3/09

Picture by: JackBrimstone Submitted by: JackBrimstone via Fail Uploader

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The day after hunting season

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:29:24 -0600

Poor Bambi got her days mixed up.

The day after hunting season

via Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? by Cheezburger Network on 11/3/09

The day after hunting season closes.

i prefer teh wabbitz insted.

Picture by: GoGoGodzirra Caption by: toonzinator via Advanced Lol Builder

» Recaption This!

» View All Captions

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Interspecies Muni Line - SFist

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:30:25 -0600

via sfist.com

This is amazing. Someone must have dropped some fast food wrappers or chicken bones on that bus or something, or as Jim Herd suspects, the drivers feed them. (Yeah, we know this photo has been posted all over the place today, but who can resist?!)

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Video: Kitteh Vs. Candy Wrapper « Lolcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats – I Can Has Cheezburger?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:49:29 -0600

via icanhascheezburger.com

Here kitty Kitty

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Drunk Ewoks Storm The Today Show: Pics, Videos, Links, News

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:42:41 -0600

via buzzfeed.com

Poor AL

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listening to "Escape Pod - EPFlash026_MissionToDover"

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:48:38 -0600

listening to "Escape Pod - EPFlash026_MissionToDover":

Hey its Escape Pod!