Today mice: Tomorrow the world

PinkNews: Female mice can be turned lesbian by deleting a single gene, South Korean researchers have found.

The study, published in the BMC Genetics journal, found that when the FucM gene, which influences oestrogen levels in the brain, is disabled, female mice lose interest in males and try to mate with other females.

Researchers believe that when the gene is deleted, the mice are exposed to extra oestrogen. In mice, this masculinises the brain, although the effect does not occur in humans.

Professor Chankyu Park of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejon, who led the research, told the Daily Telegraph: “The mutant female mouse underwent a slightly altered developmental programme in the brain to resemble the male brain in terms of sexual preference.”

He added that he hoped to investigate further to see what effect the enzyme produced by the gene has on human sexual orientation, although he admitted it could be difficult to find volunteers.

Pig bladder pixie dust helps soldiers grow body parts. No, not THAT part

DailyMail: A powder nick-named “Pixie Dust” is being used to save the limbs of war heroes who have been wounded in Afghanistan.

Surgeons have already used the dust to save several soldiers so badly mutilated that they were at risk of amputation.

Made from pig bladders it has the ability to help the human body grow new tissue to replace large areas of a leg or arm destroyed by blast damage.

Many British and American soldiers have lost limbs to roadside bombs in the bitter battle for control of Afghanistan.

Now there is hope that limbs that would have been previously amputated can be saved.

Pig bladders contain a substance called extra cellular matrix, which is made up largely of collagen.

Scientists have already used powdered pig bladders help grow replacement human bladders.

But researchers working for the American military realised the substance might also help hundreds of wounded soldiers.

Professor Steve Wolf  one the US’s top plastic surgeons -is carrying out a trial in Houston, Texas on victims of the Afghan fighting and has already treated several young soldiers whose limbs were so badly damaged they were unable to walk or faced amputation.He said: ‘The word has got around about how this substance from pig bladders has got this magic ability to grow new tissue. Then one day one of the patients used the phrase ‘pixie dust’ to describe it and the name stuck

‘We don’t quite know how it works which adds to its magical qualities. We think that it attracts cells in the body that have the ability to multiply and gives them a chemical signal to make new tissue.’

Professor Wolf said medical experts were not entirely sure how the ‘pixie dust’ worked

Professor Wolf – chief of clinical trials at the American Army’s Institute for Surgical Research is just about to start a formal trial using ‘pixie dust’ on bomb victims after the successful treatment of a handful of blast victims last year.

Scientists Develop Feminizing Nasal Spray

Gawker: Fiendish German and British “scientists” have put the cuddly-wuddly hormone Oxytocin into a nasal spray. They say that men who use it become more empathetic and better able to learn from positive feedback. [BBC]

Chickens Have Sexual Identity Issues

While one mirror reflects a hen and the other a rooster, the reflections are not a Photoshop trick, but actually come from the same bird.
The Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh

Discovery: THE GIST:

• Some chicken appear to be half-hen, half-rooster.
• Although these birds’ gender is mixed up, individual cells are strongly male or female.
• These findings suggest that a chicken cell’s genetic identity trumps hormonal instructions.

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On rare occasions chickens don’t cross the road; they get stuck right in the middle, between male and female. A new study of these odd birds sheds light on the developmental processes that determine sex.

Contrary to an old view of sexual development, Michael Clinton and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh say in the March 11 Nature, individual chicken cells can maintain their own strong male or female identities during development instead of being directed by hormones.

Clinton says his research group ended up considering hormones and sexual identity in the course of studying three peculiar chickens donated to the Roslin Institute. Each bird looked like a rooster on one side, with a long wattle jiggling under its chin, robust legs and bulging muscles. The other half of the same bird — the right side on two birds and the left on the third — had the darker plumage, reduced wattle and dainty ankles of a hen.

Human evolution, the sexy way

Reuters: I have a question about the whole Darwinism/creationism debate, and I know you are educated in both science and theology.

My problem is, I think both of those theories are kind of gross. I mean, amphibians, apes, men’s ribs, neanderthals crawling out of slime…

So where on earth did really attractive people come from? You think models like Gisele Bundchen evolved from a frickin’ chimpanzee?

You raise a very valid point, and timely as well. Runway models clearly evolved separately from regular mortals.

You should go see a very special Fashion Week tableau in Milan, which addresses this dilemma.

Check out the combo shot above. Slender, gorgeous models did once crawl on all fours, but in a graceful way.

Then, with considerable poise, they rose to their knees, discovered sizzling hot stiletto shoes, put them on and walked away, pouting and flouncing.

Hmmm. I don’t know.