Mouse brain cells lived twice as long as mouse
One of the concepts we have about living things is that every living thing has its predetermined time it will live and when it reaches that limit, all cells start wilting and dying. One of the problems we thought we faced with living very long is a deteriorating dying brain, but researchers made an experiment where they grabbed a mouse's brain cells and inserted them into a rat's brain and found that the brain cells lived as long as the rat lived, which was twice as long as the mouse did. This means that long lives don't mean a deteriorating brain and this could also be applied for other mammals and even humans, the results of this experiment are very promising and bring us to the question of can neurons live longer if we prolong our life spans? This experiment suggests that the answer to that question is yes. This study could also be of great help in the advancement of a cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348600/description/Mouse_brain_cells_live_long_and_prosper
NOS themes
Science is subject to debate- It can be debated whether or not this could work in other mammals or humans, and to what extent can the neurons live.
Role of motivation and curiosity- To come up with the idea of putting mouse brain cells in a rat's brain is very creative and to get them to live in the rat's brain lots of hard work.
Science is based on evidence- They watched the brain cells and tinted them Glow green to differentiate them and make sure they were living as long as the rat's
This research could lead to a greater understanding of Alzheimer disease. Another NOS theme to add would be the role of repeatability. It is important that we can repeat the results. If we cannot repeat the event then the results could have been a fluke. To prove this connection we need to repeat the experiment.
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that we might be able to lengthen our life spans and treat neurological disorders in the near future. I read in another article that one of the reasons the mouse neurons lived so long was because of the microevronment in the rat brain. It will be interesting to see where this goes in the future.
ReplyDeleteLink to the artice I mentioned: http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/130225_brain.htm
This research could be life altering. It is so interesting how the brain cells can outlive the human body, however, Tia Ghose, a LiveScience writer states: "just because brain cells may be able to live indefinitely doesn't mean humans could live forever" Every organism has to have an end to its life at some point.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.livescience.com/27423-brain-cells-outlive-bodies.html
I found this article interesting and did some searching on the topic of brain cells living forever. biologists and scientists that predict sometime in the future, it could be decades or some massive amount of time only noticeably by galactic measures, it will be possible to download yourself into the internet and exist as virtually living software. Even if it would be partial living things or even simulated life instead of transferring someone digital, the process of simulating such a complex organ will give countless technological advancements.
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/12/05/will-you-live-foreveror-until-your-next-software-releaseby-uploading-your-brain-into-a-computer/
I thought this article was really interesting. I mostly thought it was interesting because scientists could insert mice cells in a rat's brain. I can't imagine how that would work. It makes sense that life spans of humans is getting longer if the brain still lives. It wouldn't be possible if the brain died. However, life expectancy could only be growing because of the advancement in medicine and health.
ReplyDeleteI do not understand how a brain cell can be so susceptible to damage yet live that long. I think that importance of repeatability should be applied here to determine whether that really is true or not.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/brain/Neuron.shtml