Blocking a certain stomach enzyme that makes you feel hunger can reduce weight gain in mice. This could lead to treatments for obesity in humans that would work by reducing hunger.
We spend over $1 billion a year on weight loss, with so many people who need it. A current focus is fake hormones that mimic gut hormones to control blood sugar levels. Some are already being used in diabetes.
But when you are messing around with hormones, you've got to be careful. They each do multiple things. The enzyme that affects hunger could also affect growth or memory. You don't want to forget who you are when you're just trying to get rid of a couple pounds.
Anyway, this is cool for two reasons. A)I really think this works and can help people better than a lot of other, nastier options, like becoming anorexic, and B) so many people are over weight. I'm going to go on a rant here, so stop reading if you don't care.
We are the fattest country in the world. I wonder why? Sure, there may be some people who have real diseases and problems that stop them from avoiding it, but really, we just eat too much. C'mon, who here has pigged out a lot lately? Raise your hands. I'm guilty too, but dang, you think we could be as bit better than the fattest in the world!
So this really caught my eye. We might now have to be obese with something like this. This could save and improve so many (300 million)lives in the US alone. That;s pretty stinking good right there. This is totally worth it.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Look Closer
Microfluidics can be used to trap just one DNA-enzyme molecule in its native state for analysis without having to immobilise the DNA or the enzyme.
Enzymes are used to chop up DNA so they make useful tools in biochemistry. To see how they recognise and cut up DNA, the enzyme or DNA needs to be immobilised, but this can mess up and change the DNA. To stop this, you put an enzyme to DNA, and feed it through a microfluidic system. This traps the complex, and then stretches it out. Adding Mg2+ then activates the enzyme, cutting the DNA, and letting you see it easily. This can give info about how restriction enzymes act to determine their job to do, which will help us in a DNA-protein experiments.
This is cool since we can now actually see how DNA works and in real tine for once, not after it's cut up and dead-ish. We can learn a lot more this way. Don't you want to look at your DNA? I do. And we can see all the important stuff that makes it work too.
I mean, what if, one day, we could replicate DNA and choose not to have diseases, and create life itself. Yes, it's a go complex, but you could cure every genetic disease and make cloning more exact, not tiny mutations in copies. It would be safer. Every little bit of knowledge can lead to all sorts of ideas, and it's worth trying them all. Or at least I think so. Hmm?
Enzymes are used to chop up DNA so they make useful tools in biochemistry. To see how they recognise and cut up DNA, the enzyme or DNA needs to be immobilised, but this can mess up and change the DNA. To stop this, you put an enzyme to DNA, and feed it through a microfluidic system. This traps the complex, and then stretches it out. Adding Mg2+ then activates the enzyme, cutting the DNA, and letting you see it easily. This can give info about how restriction enzymes act to determine their job to do, which will help us in a DNA-protein experiments.
This is cool since we can now actually see how DNA works and in real tine for once, not after it's cut up and dead-ish. We can learn a lot more this way. Don't you want to look at your DNA? I do. And we can see all the important stuff that makes it work too.
I mean, what if, one day, we could replicate DNA and choose not to have diseases, and create life itself. Yes, it's a go complex, but you could cure every genetic disease and make cloning more exact, not tiny mutations in copies. It would be safer. Every little bit of knowledge can lead to all sorts of ideas, and it's worth trying them all. Or at least I think so. Hmm?
Sunday, November 7, 2010
How to Blow Up the World
This is half a kind of follow up on the last post, and half something I've been curious about for a while. And no, not about blowing up the world, but about what we might do instead with nuclear stuff.
Nuclear is kind of a taboo word, snce everyone always jumps to bombs when they hear it. But all nuclear is not bad nuclear. In fact, most isn't. We've been up-ing the electricity we get from nuclear power plants all over the world, making it a fuel source, if not a big one so far. And the best part: nuclear power is guilt-free. No-one gets hurt, the environment isn't affected, and you don't have to do as much mining.
The downside- all the stuff leftover (waste). Luckily, we're getting better at not killing lots of people and stuff. So let's be a little more optimistic. All we're doing is creating and ripping apart molecules to make electricity. Nothing wrong with that. No, I'm not being sarcastic.
China is starting to pioneer using nuclear in a big way- it's going to replace all of it's coal energy sources in Hong Kong with nuclear power. The city will be the first to run solely on nuclear power. This seems to show that nuclear is looking up, and possiblities are everywhere.
Someday, we may all have mini-reacters in our cars, getting us where we need to go. Yeah that may seem unlikely, but hey, you never know.
Nuclear is kind of a taboo word, snce everyone always jumps to bombs when they hear it. But all nuclear is not bad nuclear. In fact, most isn't. We've been up-ing the electricity we get from nuclear power plants all over the world, making it a fuel source, if not a big one so far. And the best part: nuclear power is guilt-free. No-one gets hurt, the environment isn't affected, and you don't have to do as much mining.
The downside- all the stuff leftover (waste). Luckily, we're getting better at not killing lots of people and stuff. So let's be a little more optimistic. All we're doing is creating and ripping apart molecules to make electricity. Nothing wrong with that. No, I'm not being sarcastic.
China is starting to pioneer using nuclear in a big way- it's going to replace all of it's coal energy sources in Hong Kong with nuclear power. The city will be the first to run solely on nuclear power. This seems to show that nuclear is looking up, and possiblities are everywhere.
Someday, we may all have mini-reacters in our cars, getting us where we need to go. Yeah that may seem unlikely, but hey, you never know.
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