No seriously!
Just a few caveats: by "drink" I mean "inject", by "babies" I mean "umbilical cord", and by "your" I mean "rats".
(Oh, cut me some slack. How often does one get the chance to report science news in a death metal context?)
Hard details after the jump.
Continue reading 'Hail Satan! Drink babies' blood to keep your brain young' >
My girlfriend always said I was useless, but this is ridiculous: British scientists at the University of Newcastle have coaxed female embryonic stem cells to develop into primitive sperm cells. They'd previously done it with male bone marrow cells, but this new development opens up the door to lesbian couples having children that share genes from both parents.
That same University of Newcastle team is applying for permission to turn female bone marrow into sperm cells, which one lesbian partner could donate to be turned into stem cells, which would then be used to impregnate the other partner. The next step for Prof. Karim Nayernia and team is to encourage the sperm to undergo meiosis to ensure they have enough genetic material to fertilize an egg. Nayernia first flirted with the possibility of deriving sperm from stem cells when he used sperm taken from male embryonic stem cells to fertilize mice to produce seven offspring, six of which survived to adulthood, though they did suffer from side effects.
“I think, in principle, it will be scientifically possible,” Prof Nayernia told New Scientist.
But Prof. Nayernia's methods aren't without technical and ethical detractors.
Continue reading 'Sperm created from female embryo; men now irrelevant' >
Today's 60 Second Science podcast is brought to you by Highlights for Children:
Babies can tell Gallant from Goofus [podcast]
Full transcript after the jump...
Continue reading 'Babies can tell Gallant from Goofus [podcast]' >
If six-month-old babies could cast their vote next November, they'd pick the bleeding-heart candidate.
Babies as young as six months old prefer helpers to those who interfere, according to researchers at Yale.
Continue reading 'Babies discriminate between evil-doers and do-gooders' >
New York babies born in the weeks and months after September 11th may have suffered. Researchers say the babies had a low birth weight, which may be due to the effects stress had on their pregnant mothers.
For babies in utero during the attack on the World Trade Center, the odds of being born underweight in New York City and Upstate New York significantly increased, according to a new study from the Center for Children's Environmental Health Research at the University of California Berkeley. The study appeared in the November issue of the journal Human Reproduction.
Continue reading '9/11 babies weighed less than they should' >
Today's 60 Second Science podcast is brought to you by the species Cucurbita pepo and the wavelength 595 nanometers:
Mom's baby talk crucial for baby
Full transcript after the jump...
Continue reading 'Learning to speak via baby talk [podcast]' >
In a few decades, the dating scene in Canada could get tricky and air pollution may be to blame. More girls are being born in some towns in the country than boys.
Researchers have linked the rise in baby girl numbers to dioxins, airborne pollutants from oil refineries, paper mills, and other sources as far as 15 miles away. The health risks of these pollutants spread farther distances than scientists previously estimated.
Continue reading 'Dioxin making more baby girls in Canada' >
