The dark ages are over!

[Thurnez Isa]

The only logical conclusion I could draw is that we should raise and harvest Christians for their stem cells.

[Kai]

^ What he said.

Indeed. Also worth noting is that early-embryonic cells produce telomerase, which regenerates the cell's telomeres (the "caps" on the end of a DNA strand that prevent it from fraying when it divides). This effectively stops the cellular clock, enabling them to divide as many times as they wish (similar to what cancer does). When coupled with stem cells' pluripotency*, this means that you can produce any type of tissue you want and keep culturing the original cells indefinitely. So long as they're kept in a stem cell state, they don't really age.

*Pluripotency = ability to become any one of the three germ layers (endoderm, mesoderm, ectoderm)

Yes, thanks for the continued elaboration.

[Requia ☣]

I can't actually see stem cells curing Alzheimer's, replacing brain cells as they die would eventually leave too much damage behind, neurons aren't cookie cutter cells, each one is unique, replacing it with a different one won't restore the damage.

On the other hand, I could see it greatly improving the quality of life, one of the early things to go is the ability to form new memories, and that could conceivably be fixed (at least for a while) with new cells.

[Golden Applesauce]

I'm not calling the dark ages as over until we get universal access to education.

[LMNO]

I can't actually see stem cells curing Alzheimer's, replacing brain cells as they die would eventually leave too much damage behind, neurons aren't cookie cutter cells, each one is unique, replacing it with a different one won't restore the damage.

On the other hand, I could see it greatly improving the quality of life, one of the early things to go is the ability to form new memories, and that could conceivably be fixed (at least for a while) with new cells.

I don't think stem cells could restore memory; however, if you could do something immediately after the first diagnosis, perhaps you could prevent any further degredation.

[Requia ☣]

I can't actually see stem cells curing Alzheimer's, replacing brain cells as they die would eventually leave too much damage behind, neurons aren't cookie cutter cells, each one is unique, replacing it with a different one won't restore the damage.

On the other hand, I could see it greatly improving the quality of life, one of the early things to go is the ability to form new memories, and that could conceivably be fixed (at least for a while) with new cells.

I don't think stem cells could restore memory; however, if you could do something immediately after the first diagnosis, perhaps you could prevent any further degredation.

I don't see it, but I have fairly basic knowledge of what's going on in the brain at that point, so I could easily be wrong.  And of course, fundamental knowledge leads to recipe knowledge in strange ways.

Something so often forgotten in the attacks on 'useless' science is just how many black swans are found in those experiments.

[Iason Ouabache]

Something so often forgotten in the attacks on 'useless' science is just how many black swans are found in those experiments.

TITCM. There is no such thing as 'useless" science. Ok, it's useless if you are doing an experiment for the millionth time and still get the same result. That's kinda useless. But other than that...

[Freeky]

What do you mean by a ''black swan''?

Something so often forgotten in the attacks on 'useless' science is just how many black swans are found in those experiments.

[Requia ☣]

A black swan is something you didn't know to look for.  IE, finding black swans in Australia, thus invalidating the theory that all swans are white.

The best example in science I can give is and experiment that was done on the effect of low current on bacteria.  It killed them all, which had never happened in earlier iterations.  Turned out they had changed the metal of the electrode, and the new chemical that was produced was toxic.  This ended up leading to better Chemotherapy treatments for cancer, even though cancer cures weren't on the agenda.

[Freeky]

Oh. That's neat.

[Triple Zero]

Another (perhaps better or more accurate) term for that kind of thing is "serendipity", btw.

[Telarus]

Stem cells can also be harvested from amniotic fluid, although I think they're not quite as versatile (haven't really dug into the subject yet):

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/06/offstage-ethical-stem-cell-work-advances/?feat=home_headlines

http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&um=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=non-embryonic+stem+cells

[Freeky]

Stem cells can also be harvested from amniotic fluid, although I think they're not quite as versatile (haven't really dug into the subject yet):

Also cord blood, although is that the same thing? I don't know.

[Cramulus]

tangent note re: alzheimer's

I used to work in alzheimer's drug research. The neurologist I worked under said that my generation wouldn't have to worry about Alzheimer's ... as long as you get an early diagnosis.

There are already pretty good drugs for Alzheimer's. Better ones come out every few years. They can really slow down the disease's progression. The problem is that most elderly people don't like letting on that their mind is starting to go, so they don't tell anyone they're having memory problems until the loved ones are forced to intervene and get a diagnosis. By this time, the disease has progressed and the drugs won't be as useful.

[LMNO]

A black swan is something you didn't know to look for.  IE, finding black swans in Australia, thus invalidating the theory that all swans are white.

The best example in science I can give is and experiment that was done on the effect of low current on bacteria.  It killed them all, which had never happened in earlier iterations.  Turned out they had changed the metal of the electrode, and the new chemical that was produced was toxic.  This ended up leading to better Chemotherapy treatments for cancer, even though cancer cures weren't on the agenda.

Simpler:  Viagra was developed as a blood pressure medicine.  That fact that it gave men erections was completely unexpected, and had a major unforseen impact on our society.