More bout those blue eggs

So, I looked my into the reason why robins eggs are blue and it isn't really all that much about genetics but more about their pigment glands. And most birds have Pigment gland to help in coloration of the eggs. Now more into the specifics: there are three main types of pigments. One produces reds pinks and browns and yellows the other two green and blue shades. Putting them all in different ratios and proportions yields different shade eggs and marks. It's similar to the process of creating the offspring itself. A combination of sone genes and traits yeild different organisms! A few other cool rhings birds primarily on the ground lay brown eggs, birds that lay then in cavities like tree holes lay the typical white egg and nesting birds will lay green or bluish eggs.The forsake marks cab also help a mommybird identify her eggs, like our own little traits and charscteristics that distinguish us from others.

Next question: how is the ratio of pigments determined? Could it change if sso when?

Somewhat of answer

So a question I had in my previous post was could we genetically modify the robin to produce different color eggs, and could the pigment be used in other organisms as an advantage to other organisms. I'v been trying to think of answers to my own questions before I research it. And I think that the answer to the first part of the question would be yes. I think somewhere in the DNA sequence of a robin there must be a gene for producing the pigment that causes that color. If somehow scientists altered that portion of the DNA chain and were able to cause the gene to creat less of the pigment the eggs would probably turn out to be more of a white color rather than blue because of the lack of the pigment. Then I'm assuming because of he color change the eggs would be more susceptible to predators if the eggs are blue for camouflage reasons. And as for the second part I think maybe more aquatic animals would benefit from a color pigment that yields that color. It could also provide them with camouflage.
Another question: do other animals have this pignebt?
I hope to find out!

Robin's eggs!

So in a recent walk around the side of my house I noticed robins eggs in a nest within a butterfly bush. Three eggs lay there just when my mom was thinking about cutting it down. So I've been recording and taking pictures of them each day since i've seen hem and today is day three. So far I have seen the nest the three eggs and twice I've seen the mother laying on her eggs. I'm not exactly sure how long the eggs have been there but it sparked a few questions related to the birds and biotech that I hope to get answers to or I'f not just share my own opinions on them.
1.) why are their eggs blue- so far I've been reading that it is to help hide the eggs and comes from a pigment in the mothers blood... Leading to my next question
2.) could the birds be genetically modified to produce different color eggs and how would that effect the amount of predators that come across the egg
Could the pigment in the blood that is causing the color of the egg be injected into another organism to create a bluish color and if so would that cor stay with the organism or would it just be there like on the eggs until the birth of the organism
3.) what qualities if any from a robin could be beneficial in DNA recombination genetically modifying organisms or gene therapy even? What qualities do they lack that could enhance or better their lives?
Soon i'll be posting my videos and photos of the eggs on the sidebar

OM GM Rice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of  Japan's major sources of food is rice, and there are many fields and areas dedicated to rice production in Japan. The recent tsuanmi and earthquake has desemated a lot of the fields where rice was grown, debris and other materials scattered all around the fields. In an article written by Jay Alabaster, a rice farmer comments rice production after the disaster, "If we start washing the soil out now, we can start growing our rice seedlings at the end of April at a different location, and plant them here a month later," It's great that people took on such optomistic attitudes after this tragedy,and working hard to rebuild. Knowing that rice is such a big product i wonder if genetically modified rice has been considered. Other than some malnourishment after the tsuanmi, and earthquake radiation poisoning from the nuclear powerplant has also been a major problem. This leads to my next question, : Could there be a way to genetically modify rice in order to help ease some of the symptoms of radiation poisoning?






http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hS2vcOuDBJlV1j5TSx2i2ilifldA

Japan is prepared with technology!

In an article from mytv9.com "Japan's Technology Helps With Recovery Efforts" the author discusses how Japan's preparedness has helped after the earthquake and tsuanmi. So as we all know Japan is has amazing technological advancements. Their buildings are made of earthquake/tsunnami resistant steel and metal. But what is most amazing is how the have developed robots to help find struggling victims. For example the Robocue not only does this but also has oxygen tanks which allow assistants to help victims breathe. The Quince another robot uses the detection of carbon dioxide to track down humans in need.
These are great inventions and applications of science at work helping humans survive. I wonder if a system like that is being used here in the US? And is it posssible to improve on this invention for the future? Could there be an addition to it that measures body temperature, pulse, etc. this way emergency crew members know the exact situation they are dealing .check out the pictures of the robocue.

Another cool thing check out this other blog that discusses the robocue:
http://dd-idham.blogspot.com/2011/03/robocue-robot-seeker-of-japan.html#comment-form
http://www.my9tv.com/dpps/my9_news/japan-earthquake-technology-helps-with-recovery-efforts-dpgoh-20110314-fc_12303803

Japan!

So it's been nearly a month since the earthquake and tsunami in japan. Yet this already tradgic story got worse with the nuclear power plant leak/ explosion. After listening to so many news reports on what's being done to help ( like donations being made, servicemen and women out there supplying Japanese with necessities) I'm wondering how the uses of science technology and biotechnology could be or is being used in this situation. For example in another disaster, the oil spill in the gulf a bacteria that "ate" oil was used to help in cleaning the area.
What can be done to prevent the harmful effects of radiation?
How can technology be used to rebuild their society?
These are some questions I'm hoping to find answers to, about the subject.

Seeing as how I found the article about stem cells from discover magazine so interesting I decided to look into some of their other articles. This one in particle sparked my intrest it discussed medicine. We constantly compare medicine with finding a cure. But as seen in the stem cell article with Hina treatments and mrdicines may not always have the best of affects this week i'll be discussing this according to what I've read in the article!
P.S. Jeanne Lenzer was also a writer o n this article too, she wrote the stem cell article.

Stem cells- finally

To end stem cell week I just want to say:
It's awesome that now we can get stem cell treatment without destroying an embryo. What's next?

the world of biotech is ever changing, one new discovery after another, but there is so much backlash  and controversy over these discoveries and topics. I think that while these things may need more research we're humans and its in our nature to want to change and better ourselves, so why not take the opportunities given to us!!

What drives these cells?

Stem cells are just undifferentiated cells( meaning they haven't been made into any one specific cell yet such as a hair skin or nerve cell. If they have th possibility of becoming any cell then doesn't it have the possibility of becoming a cancer cell and replicating and producing more cancer cells. The paragraph titled "the long road ahead" in the Super Cell article discusses the control of these cells. Like your brain tells your body what to do stem cells need instruction too.

Look at the potential for these cells

They need to receive signals telling them when to grow when to stop etc. Imagine being on a road trip and taking one false turn, there is always the possibility of finding another route. What if the stem cell receives a wrong direction? Then the cells can uncontrollably divide and grow. Making matters even worse if the stem cells are undifferentiated the will be clumps of different types of cells. This is called a teratoma, like a tumor of cell types.

Questions:
1.)Is there possible that in future research there could be a way for stem cells to automatically make right a wrong in the programming?
2.)could there possibly be an enzyme or something created to break up teratomas?
3.)How many if any times has this occurred in stem cell therapy patients?

Doesn't work?

So the article also discussed the potential of stem cell treatment not working. A girl named Hina also had sickle cell, and got stem cell treatment. However it didn't work for her. She also had a bone marrow transplant. Her body reacted differently to the treatment. Instead of the cells repairing the messed-up cells she got a reacted called, Grapht-versus-host disease, where the donated cells basically attack her body. Its a scary thought. And the article also goes on to say, " The inability to predict who will flourish and who will not raises enormous conundrums".  As it should!

Questions:
1.) What makes the difference in these reactions?
2.) Will researchers reach a point where they can predict the outcome based on tests run on the patients?
3.)What is the success rate of stem cell treated patients?

Stem Cells-Continued

So yesterday I discussed what exactly stem cells are. Today I will breifly explain the risks and outcomes. In the article I mentioned yesterday Lenzer disucusses the affect they had on a 15 year old named Paizley. Diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, stem cell treatment was one option that the family chose to take. Their first option involved regularly scheduled blood transfusion-the body became immuned and it stopped working. So a bone marrow donor donated her bone marrow which contained healthy, properly functioning blood cells.
" Paizley's recovery highlights just one miniscule part of the potential of stem cells..." (Lenzer 32- discover magazine). Seems all well and good but what if it doesn't work.


Sickle vs. Regular Bloob Cell



P.S.: Bone marrow obviously comes from bones and to access the blood you need a big bone(femur), so you'd have to have your leg cut open so that the surgeon could access your femur. - talk more about this next week maybe

Questions:

1.) If diseases are caused by viruses infecting cells, can't the stem cells get infected.

2.) Why aren't these stories being discussed more publically? Is it a fear of the public fearing the outcome?









What exactly are stem cells

Here's one definition of what stem cells are: ''They are characterized by the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division and differentiating into a diverse range of specialized cell types. ..". The idea behind stem cells is that they can be used to regenerate new cells and help treat some diseases. A lot of information is covered on this topic in an article titled, The Super Cell, by Jeanne Lenzer. These stem cells aren't specialized to a specific function (undifferentiated). Embryoinic stem cells created a big controversy due to the fact that it used to be you would have to sacrafice an embryo. My next question would've been, "if there are somatic stem cells why not store them for individuals in case they need them at a later date?" Well the article continues on to say, " Moreover because foreign stem cells would be rejected by the body, much like a foreign heart or kidneys, scientists had proposed literally cloning the patients..." ( Lenzer, DiscoverMagazine.com pg 32). It all seems well and good but what are the affects? (Next blog topic)

Questions:

Where would they store these stem cells? Could it be possible that scientists create a library stem cells to house them, and categorize them?

If somatic stem cells are used to repair old cells etc. why don't they automatically correct cell mutations?

Humulin

For A project I researched biotechnological milestones in history. One in particular I found very interesting so I did some further research and that was the development of synthetic human insulin. First of all insulin is secreated from the pancreas to regulate blood sugar, when the levels are too high you get Diabetes and then when they are too low you get Hypoglycemia.

Then with diabetes there are different levels ( sort of off topic but interesting) depending on how severe the condition is. Anywho people who could not produce enough insulin would need to get their insulin from somewhere else. Back in the 1960-70s and even to this day pig and cow insulin were used as a supplement? They sometime had bad sideffects in patients because they were foreign materials. So scientists got the ideas to create artificial human insulin. They did this by genetically modifiyng the DNA of e.Coli bacteria to produce insulin. In the late 70s to the 80s it was like a race to see who could create it first and Eli Lilly and Company was the first company to commercialize on it and sell it to the public. They also used their technologies to develop and create Humatrope which is used to stimulate growth hormones for people with growth deficiencies. Pretty cool!

Question:
Although the insulin is human insulin why can't the body sense that it has been genetically modified?
If the genetics of a bacteria to produc the insulin wasn't used is it possible to take a human sample of insulin and replicate it, which would be more effective which would-be faster?

No to GMOs - really?

After doing more research on GMOs I've come across a website that doesn't support genetically modified food. They make some pretty interesting points of discussion, mainly about safety and health risks.

 So a soya bean was genetically engineered with a gene from a brazil nut. If people are allergic to nuts the result would be an allerigic reaction- dangerous. However as long as there is a some type of label explaining this information it wouldn't be a problem. This is another problem GM foods aren't labeled? Should they be?
I think that labeling them would be appropriatet, however if consumers see that things are genetically modified I think they'll probably avoid buying them and then what will be the point in creating them. According to raw-wisdom.com, GMO companies are required to do their own testing and the FDA does not review the tests. If tess and research outside of the companies are performed then how do we know for sure that genetically modified foods are good?

Quesitons:

• Why aren't GMOs or GM foods a big controversial issue in politics?
• Why is GM food approved for sale without safety and health administrations testing its affects?
• What would labeling these products do for the community, would it decrease certain health problems?

GMOs- Golden Rice

GMOs are genetically modified organisms. Biotechnologists have studied certain organisms and made an effort to modify their genetics in order to alter certaing characterists among it. ut why alter its genetics? Altering the genetics of food or crops for example can produce more of it or enhance its nutrients. For example golden rice is an example of a gmo. This rice has been made more nutritous by inserting a gene in its genetics that gives it the ability to produce beta-carotene ( something like a vitamin). It also makes it that yellowy color. Making the rice more nutritious is beneficially to humans because the impoverished can get more nurishment out of this rice.

See the difference in color

Questions:
How do they mass produce the golden rice?
Is it really a good thing to have food genetically modified?
Could genetically modified foods and crops possibly solve world hunger?
If rice can be genetically modified to be more nutritious can candy be?