moon phases

Started this before change to "New Blogger", as backup in case of trouble with digiphoto blog "In a Small Dark Room", or rants & links blog "Hello Cruel World" . Useful - at one stage Dark Room was there, but like the astrophysical Dark Matter, we could't see it ... better now, but kept Just In Case.

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There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought.
Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death)
[me, on a bad day]

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(and my Wish List)

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A good use for genetic manipulation techniques  
Flies help unlock the secrets to diseases such as Alzheimer's
By Michael Bradley
July 13, 2004

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/12/1089484306328.html

Scientists have found a way of successfully treating flies that were given
human degenerative brain diseases.
The Genetic Society of Australia conference in Melbourne yesterday heard how
an insect best known for its insatiable appetite for rotting fruit has been
catapulted to the forefront of attempts to prevent and cure conditions such
as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases.
US researchers have identified the human genes responsible for brain
degeneration and put them into the humble vinegar fly.
Nancy Bonini, a biologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "What
these mutant genes do is give the fly something which very much looks like
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or Huntington's disease.
More importantly, Dr Bonini said she had identified compounds capable of
controlling these conditions in the insects. Dr Bonini has spent more than
six years working with the impaired flies.
She said geldanamycin - a naturally occurring compound that is being
trialled as an anti-tumour agent in humans - had been shown to stimulate
genes in the fly that helped its body in times of high stress.
"We gave the flies these compounds and, as a result, it prevented the
build-up of plaque in the fly's brain and stopped their degeneration," Dr
Bonini said. "What we have really done is use fly genetics to prevent these
diseases."
About 162,000 Australians suffer from some form of dementia or brain
degeneration.
A report by Alzheimer's Australia titled The Dementia Epidemic estimates
that more than 500,000 people will suffer from dementia by 2041 [I assume
this means 500,000 in Australia.]


[permalink] posted by Mez at 5:39 pm