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November 19, 2008
Woman given windpipe created in laboratory - CNN.com
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue engineered from her own stem cells in what experts have hailed as a "milestone in medicine."
Claudia CastilloClaudia Castillo, 30, suffered from tuberculosis for years.
The breakthrough allowed Claudia Castillo, 30, to receive a new section of trachea -- an airway essential for breathing -- without the risk that her body would reject the transplant.
Castillo was given the stem cell surgery, the controversial branch of medicine that some say could lead to human cloning, after suffering a severe lung collapse.
Woman given windpipe created in laboratory - CNN.com
Posted by thdyck at November 19, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 16, 2008
BBC NEWS | Health | 'Love handles' risk early death
An increase in risk of death could be plotted every time the belt was let out by another two inches - for two people with the same BMI, every additional 2ins (5cm) on their waistband added up to a 17% increase in risk for men, and 13% for women.
Professor Elio Riboli, from Imperial College London, said: "We were surprised to see the waist size having such a powerful effect on people's health and premature death.
"There aren't many simple individual characteristics that can increase a person's risk of premature death to this extent, independently from smoking and drinking."
BBC NEWS | Health | 'Love handles' risk early death
Posted by thdyck at November 16, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 15, 2008
Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian
This idea - that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice - surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.
"In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals," writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, "this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years... No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery."
Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian
Posted by thdyck at November 15, 2008 | Comments (0) | TrackBack