Worm Can Regenerate Entire Body With One Cell

You might have heard of stem cells being the future for medicine. This is because certain types of stem cells, called pluripotent stem cells, can generate into an kind of cell in the body. However, these cells are only found in embryos and therefore, are extremely rare. Stem cells found on adults have more specificity. For example, blood stem cells can generate into any cell type that constitutes blood but cannot generate into, for example, a nerve cell.

In a recent discovery, scientists in MIT and Howard Hughes Medical Institute found that flat worms, or planarians, have pluripotent stem cells in adults. This is first time any such cells have been found in an adult animal.

Flat worms have been known to regenerate themselves from a just a chunk of tissue. This amazing regenerative ability resulted in a study by scientists to figure whether this is attributed to a bunch of specialized stem cells working together or just an "all purpose" cell. To do this, scientists exposed several worms to radiation that stops their cells from diving. A certain type of cell, called the cNeoblast, was spared of the radiation exposure to see if this is the cell responsible for regeneration. As the other cells slowly died out because they cannot reproduce, the scientists watched as the cNeoblasts took over and generated a new batch of healthy, replacement tissue.

However, even with this information in hand, it did not stop the scientists from doing something truly weird. They implanted a single cNeoblast cell from one type of planarian in another type which did not have its own cNeoblasts. The latter worm, was exposed to a lethal dose of radiation beforehand that stopped reproduction in all its cells. As the worm started to die, the cNeoblast cell started multiplying and specializing into different cells and "ultimately replaced all the host's tissues" with new healthy ones. The resulting worm was an exact genetic copy of the original cNeoblast donor.

Scientists hope that some day, they can figure out how these cells work and possibly study ways to use these cells for human tissue regeneration.

Reversing Marine Dead Zones

Marine dead zones are areas where little or no marine life reside. This is the result of overgrown algae from fertilizer and biowaste run offs enter the oceans. When the algae dies and decomposes, it takes up a lot of oxygen from the water and suffocates or asphyxiates marine life. This is a process called eutrophication. Today, there are up to 405 marine dead zones in the world. The good news is, marine dead zones are not permanent and can be reversed.

What we can do today to reduce eutrophication is by having improved wastewater treatment to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous entering the oceans. However, what would greatly help in reducing eutrophication is by farmers adopting "no-till" methods. These farming methods skip plowing altogether. Instead, farmers using this method plant new seeds using modern seed drills and deposit fertilizer beneath the soil using fertilizer injectors. This reduces fertilizer run off greatly as the fertilizer is beneath the surface instead of on the soil, which is easily washed off by rainwater.

Stats show that "no-till" methods can reduce phosphorous run off by 40%, half the amount of nitrogen released, as well as reduce overall erosion by 98%. The best part of "no-till" methods is that it produces the same yield while using half the energy.

Unfortunately, most of the world have not adopted this method yet. However, these methods are relatively new and involve advanced equipment that not every farmer has access to. Still, it is great to know that it is possible to reverse the hundreds of marine dead zones that exist in the world today.

Marine Dead Zones - Fertilizer's Effect On Marine Life

Our oceans nowadays are polluted with a myriad of harmful chemicals, as well as the crude oil from the oil spills. These pollutants are killing marine creatures as well as destroying their habitat. One kind of pollutant that I find surprising is fertilizer and biowaste from agricultural run off. These substances, which mainly consists of nitrogen and phosphorous, can actually boost algae growth. However, even though algae provides shelter and is a source of food for many marine creatures, they can also drastically harm marine ecosystems. This happens when large amounts of overgrown algae dies and decomposes. This takes up a lot of oxygen from the waters and suffocates or asphyxiates marine life. This process is called eutrophication.

Areas affected by eutrophication are called dead zones and at least 405 of such areas have been located. In first world nations, the main culprit for eutrophication is human sewage while in third world nations, where agriculture is prevalent, agricultural run off is the main culprit.

Dead zones, fortunately, are not permanent. They can be reversed by reducing the amount of waste entering the oceans. One example is in the Soviet Union in the 1980's. The Black Sea at that time contained the world's largest dead zone. However, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the farmers there could not obtain synthetic fertilizers and as a result, by 1996, the dead zone in the Black Sea is almost non-existent.

Click here to learn more about ways we can reduce marine dead zones.

All You Need to Know About Micro Pigs - Unique Pets

Micro pigs were first developed in Europe for medical research in organ transplant. In the 1980's, the pigs were introduced to the United States as pets. Micro pigs were originally bred from Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs that were sent to zoos in Western nations in the 1960's. These pigs were then bred for smaller for scientific research.

Miniature pigs generally weigh less than 150 pounds and stand less than 21 inches (53 cm) tall.

Pigs are considered quite intelligent animals. Like dogs, they can pick up tricks rather quickly and are quite loyal and social animals. An example of their intelligence is that micro pigs can open cupboards, which means that owners must make sure that their cupboards are "micro-pig proof". Pigs are also easily potty trained.

One of the reason pigs are not adopted as pets is because of their size. As adults, they can be quite unwieldy living in small houses. The micro pigs, with their smaller size, elegantly solves this problem.

The average price of a micro pig is $ 500 - 2000.