As a young biologist studying how wounds heal, Min Zhao found that he could quicken cellular repairs by exposing an injury to electricity. But the process remained enigmatic until an experiment by one of his graduate students failed to achieve the desired result. The more that new tissue drew toward the current on one side of the wound, the more the other side recoiled.
What the student had accidentally found, according to Zhao, is that current directs the movement of cells, and the effect is so ...read more
Gene Therapy for Muscular Dystrophy
We’re one step closer to treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a severe type of the degenerative disorder that breaks down a person’s musculature. The inherited condition, most common in boys, results from a lack of dystrophin, a protein that’s essential for healthy muscles. An international team of experts developed an injection that restored the function of dystophin-expressing genes in 12 golden retrievers. The dogs saw a significant rever ...read more
I don’t remember my first language anymore, or at least not most of it. When I was 2, I immigrated with my family into the United States from South India, and we all spoke Tamil. I didn’t know any English before I started school, so when my teachers noticed I was behind, my parents decided to stop speaking to me in Tamil. This was a common approach in the 1980s. Now, educators are more aware of the value of bilingualism.
I haven’t completely lost my connection to it. I still he ...read more
Experts are uncovering millennia of history under a Turkish megacity’s outskirts.
When Sengül Aydıngün first started surveying the shores of Küçükçekmece Lake in the western suburbs of Istanbul, colleagues doubted she’d find any evidence of ancient human settlement; other researchers had already surveyed the area and hadn’t turned up much. But the area’s geography and water resources looked favorable for early habitation, and he ...read more
It’s Nobel time: Committees traditionally announce the recipients throughout the month of October. In honor of this year’s winners, let’s take a look at some stats on laureates of bygone years. (This data excludes information related to peace, literature and economic sciences prizes.) ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
