Welcome!!!!!

Biology in the News is presented by Dr. Lamar's Biology A/B classes. Each student is responsible for posting ONE blog entry and commenting on ONE post submitted by a fellow student.

About your initial posting . . . . . (approximately 150- 300 words)

Your initial posting is worth 30 points. It must be submitted by October 15th. - Locate an electronic article about a new finding in biology. Article must be been written in the last 12 months. Your posting should include 1) the name of the article (3 point), 2) article source - be specific (3 point), 3) date of article (2 point), 4) link to article (2 points), 5) summary of article in your own words (0-10 points), and 6) significance of article (0-10 points). Comments on significance of article can include (but not be limited to) importance of article to self, to society, or to the further advancement of a particular area of biology.

NOTE: To add link, select text in post that you want to link, click on link icon above posting field, and then paste URL information into appropriate field.

About your comments to a fellow classmate's posting . . . . (approximately 100 - 200 words)

Your comments to another student's posting is worth 20 points. Comments must be submitted between October 16 and November 19 - "The more you know, the more you realize there's a lot more to know" is certainly true to science. Read our Biology in the News blob posts. Pick one post (not your own) and submit comments about this post. Comments should included 1) A question that is raised in your mind by the post. The question should have scientific relevance (0 - 5 points) 2) a response to your question. (0-15 points) Research your question and answer it. If the answer is currently unknown, provide additional background information, describe research that is being done in this field, and/or research that is required for the question to be answered.

Friday, October 15, 2010

'Firefly' stem cells may help repair damaged hearts

Article: 'Firefly' stem cells may help repair damaged hearts

Source: University of Central Florida

Date: September 29th, 2010

Link: http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2010/09/29/firefly_stem_cells_may_help_repair_damaged_hearts.html

Summary: This article discusses the importance of the stem cells that can help with damaged hearts. Steven Ebert, a scientist from the University of Central Florida engineered stem cells with the same enzyme that makes fireflies glow. by doing htis he noticed that the brighter the glow, the healthier the heart muscle is. Researchers are extremely interested in this idea because traditonally, stem cells tend to morph to the organs where they are transplanted. From Ebert's discovery, scientists can now physically see the cells in action which can lead to further study on how to repair damaged hearts. If doctors can figure out how to repair and regenerate the caridiac tissue, it could help the 17.6 million Americans who suffer from coronary disease. Not only can the stem cells from the fireflies help repair damaged hearts, they can also significantly reduce the number of surgeries that require cutting into patients chests. With the information Ebert already has, he plans to use it to determine how to heal damaged hearts, and also to figure out what conditions are most suitable for the stem cells to survive.

Significance: The significance of this article to society would be having new discoveries like these make doctor's one step closer to finding a cure for this like coronary disease. Findings like these are extremely important because they help contribute to finding cures for things noy only related to coronary disease, but also other heart problems. I believe that if scientists continue to further the study of stem cell research they will be able to help other patients that suffer from things not directly related to the heart. Discoveries like this are just the beginning, and can open many doors to helping patients survive.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)