Interesting Stuff Thread

joseph brand

I hope this is the correct tread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFw5TsAi1Mk

Delirium

Spotted the transcript below and thought some of you might be interested in it.

Transcript of a talk by Kenan Malik on blasphemy and the sacred.

I gave a talk called ‘Beyond the sacred’, on the changing character of ideas of the sacred and of blasphemy, at a conference on blasphemy organised this weekend by the Centre for Inquiry at London’s Conway Hall on Saturday. Here is a transcript.

Mark Hamill

Jernal wrote: »

Apologies if this is a repost as it is quite old.

Snake Oil Pic

I would be a little wary of what the makers of this graphic consider to be strong evidence if probiotics are on the top. I made an official complaint a year or two back against actimel ads on RTE and in return, I got sent their supporting data (50 or 60 references, if I remember right) and it was pretty poor evidence, if I do say so myself. There was some good in vitro results, but live results were either mildly positive (when done on sick kids in India) or mildly negative (the largest study on healthy subjects - 400 or so Israeli soldiers - actually showed an increase in throat irritation). One in vitro study specifically showed no interaction between the pro-biotic and intestinal flora (the aim was to show it was safe to eat) which contradicts the notion that it helps it in any way. At best, you could conclude that there was a use for treating mild intestinal issues, but no evidence for preventative measures that they usually claim.

This is in addition to the EU food agency throwing out 180 pro-biotic health claims at around the same time, 170 of which because the pro-biotic itself was not clearly identified (and many more they couldn't examine, because the companies making the claims withdrew them so they couldn't be tested). They've thrown out 80% of 442 health claims (NB antioxidants and other health foods, not just probiotics) last year too.

mikhail

Mark Hamill wrote: »

I would be a little wary of what the makers of this graphic consider to be strong evidence if probiotics are on the top.

Agreed. I remember Ben Goldacre talking about probiotics (I can't find this via google, so I presume he was speaking rather than writing) and saying that basically the evidence amounted to it maybe being slightly useful in cases where you've been quite sick and your gut flora are in a bad way but that in most cases you're just drinking yoghurt.
I also note this quote from the Grauniad about the conclusions of a EFSA study:

Out of hundreds of "probiotic" strains of bacteria under consideration, not one was shown to improve gut health or immunity. Taurine, the amino acid added to energy and sports drinks, was not found to boost energy. Nor was there evidence to support the claim that glucosamine is beneficial for joints, although it is widely marketed as such.

Turtwig

Well, I must be honest I never really looked through that chart.:( Omega 3 deserves to be closer to the bottom as do probiotics and green tea and vitamin D actually I'm sorry that chart isn't accurate at all. I've taken it down. Apologies all.

Turtwig

Well, this is the best I can do to make up for that erroneous post. Please don't resign from A&A just yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH2tHv4hqBY

robindch

^^^ Don't want to diss a man who survived the Hindenburg Disaster, but there are a lot of suspicious edits in that clip

.

Turtwig

robindch wrote: »

^^^ Don't want to diss a man who survived the [http://www.its-behind-you.com/bendova.html]Hindenburg Disaster[/url], but there are a lot of suspicious edits in that clip

Diss away! That's what skeptics are for. Thought the same meself.:)

darjeeling

Jernal wrote: »

Well, I must be honest I never really looked through that chart.:( Omega 3 deserves to be closer to the bottom as do probiotics and green tea and vitamin D actually I'm sorry that chart isn't accurate at all. I've taken it down. Apologies all.

I'm not sure about down-grading Omega 3 and vitamin D. The chart said it graded supplements on whether there were 'tangible health benefits when taken orally by an adult with a healthy diet'. However, the thing is that many adults don't have a fully healthy diet, but rather one that is deficient in both Omega 3 and vitamin D.

Omega 3 fatty acids turn out to be somewhat complex, in that there are multiple forms. Many supplements contain short-chain, plant-derived omega 3 that isn't efficiently converted in humans into the longer, more beneficial forms that we would get directly from eating oily fish. And while many claims have been made for these long-chain omega 3s, one that does seem to stand up is protection against cardiovascular disease.

In the case of vitamin D, repeated studies have shown widespread deficiency in the UK and Ireland, where limited sunlight in the winter months means that people don't produce enough endogenously through UVB irradiation. This wouldn't be a problem if - like people in the Arctic - we consumed foods rich in vitamin D (chiefly oily fish), but the national diet has moved away from such foods.

In consequence, we've seen a resurgence of rickets in the UK, and concern over poor bone density throughout the population. Additionally, there's evidence (both epidemiological and genetic) that multiple sclerosis is caused at least in part by vitamin D deficiency, and hints that low levels may cause other auto-immune disorders such as Crohn's disease. General inflammatory conditions and some infections also seem linked to low vitamin D.

The evidence for the health benefits of vitamin D is now strong enough that, for example, there's serious talk of fortifying Scotland's food supply.

dmw07

Delirium

Skin transformed into brain cells

Skin cells have been converted directly into cells which develop into the main components of the brain, by researchers studying mice in California.

The experiment, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, skipped the middle "stem cell" stage in the process.

The researchers said they were "thrilled" at the potential medical uses.

Far more tests are needed before the technique could be used on human skin.

Stem cells, which can become any other specialist type of cell from brain to bone, are thought to have huge promise in a range of treatments. Many trials are taking place, such as in stroke patients or specific forms of blindness.

One of the big questions for the field is where to get the cells from. There are ethical concerns around embryonic stem cells and patients would need to take immunosuppressant drugs as any stem cell tissue would not match their own.

An alternative method has been to take skin cells and reprogram them into "induced" stem cells. These could be made from a patient's own cells and then turned into the cell type required, however, the process results in cancer-causing genes being activated.

Direct approach

The research group, at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, is looking at another option - converting a person's own skin cells into specialist cells, without creating "induced" stem cells. It has already transformed skin cells directly into neurons.

This study created "neural precursor" cells, which can develop into three types of brain cell: neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.

These precursor cells have the advantage that, once created, they can be grown in a laboratory into very large numbers. This could be critical if the cells were to be used in any therapy.

Brain cells and skin cells contain the same genetic information, however, the genetic code is interpreted differently in each. This is controlled by "transcription factors".

The scientists used a virus to infect skin cells with three transcription factors known to be at high levels in neural precursor cells.

After three weeks about one in 10 of the cells became neural precursor cells.

Lead researcher Prof Marius Wernig said: "We are thrilled about the prospects for potential medical use of these cells.

"We've shown the cells can integrate into a mouse brain and produce a missing protein important for the conduction of electrical signal by the neurons.

"More work needs to be done to generate similar cells from human skin cells and assess their safety and efficacy."

Dr Deepak Srivastava, who has researched converting cells into heart muscle, said the study: "Opens the door to consider new ways to regenerate damaged neurons using cells surrounding the area of injury."

Source

Turtwig

Cloning scientists create human brain cells
Scientists in Edinburgh who pioneered cloning have made a technological breakthrough that could pave the way for better medical treatment of mental illnesses and nerve diseases

The news that Edinburgh scientists had created the world's first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, at the university's Roslin Institute made headlines around the world 16 years ago. Her birth raised hopes of the creation of a new generation of medicines – with a host of these breakthroughs occurring at laboratories in the university over the following decade.

And now one of the most spectacular has taken place at Edinburgh's Centre for Regenerative Medicine, where scientists have continued to develop the technology used to make Dolly. In a series of remarkable experiments, they have created brain tissue from patients suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar depression and other mental illnesses.

The work offers spectacular rewards for doctors. From a scrap of skin taken from a patient, they can make neurones genetically identical to those in that person's brain. These brain cells, grown in the laboratory, can then be studied to reveal the neurological secrets of their condition.

"A patient's neurones can tell us a great deal about the psychological conditions that affect them, but you cannot stick a needle in someone's brain and take out its cells," said Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, the centre's director.

"However, we have found a way round that. We can take a skin sample, make stem cells from it and then direct these stem cells to grow into brain cells. Essentially, we are turning a person's skin cells into brain. We are making cells that were previously inaccessible. And we could do that in future for the liver, the heart and other organs on which it is very difficult to carry out biopsies."

The scientists are concentrating on a range of neurological conditions, including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and motor neurone disease. In addition, work is being carried out on schizophrenia and bipolar depression, two debilitating ailments that are triggered by malfunctions in brain activity. This latter project is directed by Professor Andrew McIntosh of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, who is working in collaboration with the regenerative medicine centre.

"We are making different types of brain cells out of skin samples from people with schizophrenia and bipolar depression," he said. "Once we have assembled these, we look at standard psychological medicines, such as lithium, to see how they affect these cells in the laboratory. After that, we can start to screen new medicines. Our lines of brain cells would become testing platforms for new drugs. We should be able to start that work in a couple of years."

In the past, scientists have studied brain tissue from people with conditions such as schizophrenia, but could only do so once an autopsy had been carried out. "It is very difficult to get primary tissue to study until after a patient has died," added McIntosh.

"Even then, that tissue is affected by whatever killed them and by the impact of the medication they had been taking for their condition, possibly for several decades. So having access to living brain cells is a significant development for the development of drugs for these conditions."

In addition, ffrench-Constant is planning experiments to create brain cells from patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, a disease that occurs when a person's immune system turns on his or her own nerve cells and starts destroying the myelin sheaths that protect the fibres that it uses to communicate with other nerve cells. The condition induces severe debilitation in many cases.

"The problem with MS is that we cannot predict how patients will progress," said ffrench-Constant. "In some, it progresses rapidly. In others, the damage to the myelin is repaired and they can live quite happily for many years. If we can find out the roots of the difference, we may be able to help patients."

The brain cells that make myelin and wrap it around the fibres of nerve cells are known as oligodendrocytes. "We will take skin samples from MS patients whose condition has progressed quickly and others in whom it is not changing very much.

"Then we will make oligodendrocytes from those samples and see if there is an intrinsic difference between the two sets of patients. In other words, we will see if there is an underlying difference in people's myelin-making cells that explains, when they get MS, why some manage to repair damage to their brain cells and others do not."

Once that mechanism is revealed, the route to developing a new generation of MS drugs could be opened up, he added. "It is only a hypothesis, but it is a very attractive one," said ffrench-Constant. "Crucially, stem cells will be the means of proving it."

The technology involved in this work is a direct offshoot from the science involved in making Dolly the sheep. Dolly showed that adult cells in animals were more flexible than previously thought. This paved the way for research that allows scientists to turn adult cells, such as those found in the skin, into stem cells that can then be converted into any other type of cell found in the human body.

Four basic uses for stem cells have been found: to test the toxicity of drugs; to create tissue for transplanting, for example for Parkinson's disease; to try to boost levels of a patient's own population of stem cells in order to improve their defences against diseases; and to make models of diseases that will lead to the development of new drugs, as is being done with the Edinburgh research on brain cells.

"That is why the stem cell revolution is so important," said ffrench-Constant. "It has so much to offer, not just in the area of creating material for transplants but in areas such as making models of diseases which should then allow you, hopefully, to develop all sorts of new treatments for a condition."

Source.

Pretty neat.

Turtwig

Ha Ha! Did you really think I'd be that nice!? Keep Looking

Sarky

Jesus f*ck buggery!

MagicMarker

I shall sleep with the light on tonight.

strobe

Jernal wrote: »

http://richardwiseman.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/image.jpeg

Sarky wrote: »

Jesus f*ck buggery!

MagicMarker wrote: »

I shall sleep with the light on tonight.

An interesting thing is although I now see what the main thing to see is. At first glance I saw a few very detailed (to me at least) things in the markings on the furniture, outside the window etc it could have been. Then after reading Sarky and MM's posts and deciding it must be something more shocking than what I could see, went back to look at it again and could see several other (real creepy this time) things it may have been. So is a good example of that Hyperactive Agency Detection thing that often comes up in the forum (Zombrex in particular is mad for going on about it). Also shows how strongly it can be effected by very slight influence, as well as being a nice example of people generally seeing stuff that isn't there if they really want to see it enough.

I can't believe I have to be up for work in 3 and a half hours...

Delirium

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQIMGV5vtd4

robindch

^^^ Wonder how many times they video'd the figure-of-eight before they got one without a crash

sephir0th

robindch wrote: »

^^^ Wonder how many times they video'd the figure-of-eight before they got one without a crash

Did you ever see those basketball compilation vids where they get like 1000 crazy shots throught the hoop? Take #732.

cyberwolf77

recedite

I can imagine a swarm of those Quadrotor things chasing some Al-Quaeda guy around a house somewhere in the middle east, in the not too distant future.

Genghiz Cohen

recedite wrote: »

I can imagine a swarm of those Quadrotor things chasing some Al-Quaeda guy around a house somewhere in the middle east, in the not too distant future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAEQX5ErnhM

magicbastarder

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16859421

Dades

magicbastarder wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16859421

"Rock Beyond Belief concert"?

Give me a break.

fitz0

I don't think I can accurately descibe how cool I find this.

http://images.4channel.org/f/src/589217_scale_of_universe_enhanced.swf

CiaranMT

Seen that before, it's brilliant

joseph brand

fitz0 wrote: »

I don't think I can accurately descibe how cool I find this.

http://images.4channel.org/f/src/589217_scale_of_universe_enhanced.swf

Mind = Blown!

Talk about 'perspective'.

robindch

Good rehash of an old favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyOHJa5Vj5Y

dmw07

Not strictly A&A but

"Russian scientists drill into Antarctic lake sealed off for 15 million years

Sampling the waters of Lake Vostok could reveal clues about evolution and reveal unknown forms of life"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/06/russian-scientists-drill-antarctic-lake

Liamario

dmw07 wrote: »

Not strictly A&A but

"Russian scientists drill into Antarctic lake sealed off for 15 million years

Sampling the waters of Lake Vostok could reveal clues about evolution and reveal unknown forms of life"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/06/russian-scientists-drill-antarctic-lake

SWEET JEEBUS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Shark_Versus_Giant_Octopus

Turtwig

Liamario wrote: »

SWEET JEEBUS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Shark_Versus_Giant_Octopus

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought this. Fascinating documentary that.:D

darjeeling

Daily Mail turns on own readership:

Right-wingers are less intelligent than left wingers, says study

• Children with low intelligence grow up to be prejudiced
• Right-wing views make the less intelligent feel 'safe'
• Analysis of more than 15,000 people

link

Charlie Brooker laughs:

When the Daily Mail calls rightwingers stupid, the result is dumbogeddon
On and on the comments went – a chimps' tea party of the damned

link

joseph brand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQ0i3nCx60

Part 1 of 3.

She certainly gathered a lot of medals for her Trophy Cabinet, on her trips all over the world. I always thought she was just stationed in some slum continuously, not Jet-setting all over the globe.

robindch

dmw07 wrote: »

"Russian scientists drill into Antarctic lake sealed off for 15 million years

Not so fast there, Valery...:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16907998

Sarky

I'm actually a little bit excited about those drilling projects, those lakes are sure to provide fascinating data. <watching closely>

robindch

Sarky wrote: »

I'm actually a little bit excited about those drilling projects, those lakes are sure to provide fascinating data. <watching closely>

Or nothing at all... Let's hope!

There was a great documentary on Lake Vostok a few years back, I think on CBC and a quick google throws up this, which looks like it:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-lost-world-of-lake-vostok/

Galvasean

Just so long as they dont drill to deep and unleash demons from hell! :eek:

robindch

Galvasean wrote: »

Just so long as they dont drill to deep and unleash demons from hell! :eek:

You might laugh. Others don't:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iPIXq_jGMQ

I know people who think this is true

Sarky

robindch wrote: »

Or nothing at all... Let's hope!
[/url]

Even if there's nothing living in there it's water that hasn't been touched in 14 million years, so the water itself will have a unique selection of trace elements dissolved in it, that'll keep the geologists and chemists happy.

But I'm sure there'll be microbes at least. Little buggers grow everywhere given enough time.

dmw07

robindch wrote: »

Not so fast there, Valery...:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16907998

A bit premature alright. Must have been afraid the americans would release a documentary showing grainy footage of them reaching the lake first ;-)

robindch

What Dr Seuss actually wrote:

joseph brand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsZy8CfE6C0

Dades

Picard you legend.

(Was great on Graham Norton a few weeks back...)

muppeteer

Dades wrote: »

Picard you legend.

(Was great on Graham Norton a few weeks back...)

Many many moons ago I was asked what a humanist was. Having only recently applied the label to myself I didn't have an answer that wouldn't take a rambling 5 minuets to explain.
So I resorted to using the example of Jean Luc Picard as being a humanist in a humanist society.
Seemed to help to get the explanation across:)

Added an article that suggests the Star Trek universe as a kind of atheistic/rational mythology.http://sidmennt.is/2006/08/16/every-religion-has-a-mythology/

Though I'm starting to think The Culture does it better.

robindch

dmw07 wrote: »

A bit premature alright. Must have been afraid the americans would release a documentary showing grainy footage of them reaching the lake first ;-)

Valery reaches for the vodka:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16907998

sephir0th

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nzs13

Sarky

This lightning strike has been doing the rounds on Google+. It's amazing to compare this with shoddy grainy footage you'd get from a nature documentary ten years ago. Oh how technology has come along...

Cossax

May be a repost, I haven't gone through 127 pages buuuuuut

Delirium

Earliest human paintings dated at 42,000 years old in a Spanish cave.

According to new radiocarbon dating tests, these are the first paintings ever made by humans. They are seals painted more than 42,000 years ago, located in the Cave of Nerja, in Málaga, Spain. And they may turn our idea of humanity upside down.

Until now, paleontologists thought that the oldest art was created during the Aurignacian period, by modern humans. But these are way older, way more primitive than the ones in Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave, the 32,000-year-old paintings featured in Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

According to the latest dating of the charcoal found next to the paintings—used either to make the paintings or illuminate them—these seals may have been made more than 42,300 years ago. In fact, they may be as old as 43,500 years.

It’s a mindblowing academic discovery, according to project leader José Luis Sanchidrián, professor at the University of Córdoba, one that can revolutionise our understanding of our history, culture and evolution:

Our latest discoveries show that neanderthals decorated their bodies with paint and had an aesthetic sense, and that’s a scientific revolution because, until now, [we] homo sapiens have attributed our selves every achievement, showing [the neanderthals] almost like monkeys.

We thought art history was only part of us, that our sensibility was “an intimate part of ourselves, the sapiens, because we think we are the thinkers.” This discovery, if confirmed with further testing, proves this sapiens-centric idea wrong.

According to Sanchidrían, all the available scientific data shows that these pictures could only have been made by Homo Neanderthalensis instead of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, something completely unthinkable until this finding. “The charcoals were next to the seals, which doesn’t have any parallelism in paleolithic art” said the professor, “and we knew that neanderthals ate seals.” And there is no proof of homo sapiens in this part of the Iberian Peninsula.

Researchers think that this cave was one of the last points in Europe in which neanderthals—who lived from 120,000 to 35,000 years ago—sought refuge, escaping the push of the Cro-Magnon, the first earliest homo sapiens.

Source

robindch

sephir0th wrote: »

Clever Chimp:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nzs13

That's not just clever, that f*cking amazing.