A Cure for Epilepsy?

Scientists at UCSF have discovered a way of dramatically reducing epileptic seizures in half of the mice tested, and getting rid of seizures completely in the other half.

Here's how it works: the scientists inject a certain type of cells into the hippocampus region of the brain. During a seizure, muscles will contract forcefully, and sometimes conscience is lost. The cells that are injected into the brain make those muscles that contract be less excited, so that they won't contract. This is a one-time injection, because instead of treating the symptoms, it actually treats the problem. This procedure could eventually be used on humans, reducing the number of seizure-related injuries and deaths.

Article:  http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2013/05/05/epilepsy_cured_in_mice_using_brain_cells.html

NOS themes:
1. Science is collaborative. A team worked on this project.
2. Science is based on evidence. The way the scientists know this works is through experiments.
8. Importance of repeatability. Many mice were used, and the scientists got similar results every time.

Autism: Written in the genes, or something else?

Students from King's College, in London, have been researching Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). People with ASD have a harder time with social skills, sometimes have communication impairments, and sometimes have repetitive behaviors. King's College students tried to find whether people with ASD have it in their DNA or if some environmental factor gave them the disorder while in the womb or after birth. They studied identical twins for the project. Sometimes both of the twins had it, sometimes one, sometimes neither. 70% of the time, if one twin has ASD, the other will as well, making a case for ASD being environmental, as identical twins are usually genetically the same. The researchers found that excessive amounts of the protein DNA Methylation contributes to ASD.

My brother has Asperger's, which is part of the Autism Spectrum. I hear people making fun of Asperger's and Autism in general a lot. Ha ha Asperger's it sounds funny right? No. It's not. It's offensive to make fun of people with disabilities.  Don't do it.

link: http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2013/04/23/epigenetic_changes_shed_light_on_biological_mechanism_of_autism.html

NoS:

1. Science is collaborative. A team of students from a college worked on this study together.

2. Science is based on evidence. There was research done on people with ASD.

8. Importance of repeatability. The research was done with 100 people, to make sure the experiments were repeatable.