After 60 Years, We Finally Know How Fireflies Glow

Megalith

Megalith

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Have you ever wondered how fireflies glow? It is now no longer a secret, and what is really exciting is how the discovery may lead to remedies for ailments such as cancers.

The age-old question has long puzzled scientists. Now Bruce Branchini of Connecticut College and colleagues at Yale University have re-created a firefly's glow in their lab. The work lights the way to more discoveries, and it could lead to exciting applications in medicine.
 
In other news they can now manufacture stem cells and accurately use them to cure cell loss. Particularly the heart where it relies on adult stem cells to replace damaged cells.

You can see more info in the video bellow. They claim that within 3 years we can use this to repair damage hearts and possibly other tissue. Heart disease is the #1 killer in the world and we could be 3 years away from making it a thing of the past.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw_uOLuTiZI
 
Sounds cool, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who is sick of hearing about these new "discoveries" that are supposed to cure tons of stuff, but then having absolutely nothing come of it for the next 10-20 years.

I'm not against advancing science, just tired of exaggerated claims. If we're lucky, this stuff might actually get to the point of helping real people in ~40 years or so. Stem cells? Haven't they been making wild claims about those since the 90's?
 
GotNoRice said:
Sounds cool, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who is sick of hearing about these new "discoveries" that are supposed to cure tons of stuff, but then having absolutely nothing come of it for the next 10-20 years.
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Probably because you have big pharm companies buying up the discoveries, universities and what not who discovered them wants money from it, big pharm wants to make a pill that has a similar effect but requires you take a pill for the rest of your life. Cures are so last century, it's all about treating.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Probably because you have big pharm companies buying up the discoveries, universities and what not who discovered them wants money from it, big pharm wants to make a pill that has a similar effect but requires you take a pill for the rest of your life. Cures are so last century, it's all about treating.
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I really hope that's an exagerated statement.
 
As has been stated, it's more profitable to "treat" than it is to "cure"...

But the flip side of the coin is do we really *want* to cure everyone? This planet is already nearly double its sustainable carrying capacity, and the population is only growing. Once we hit 10 billion it's all down hill from there.

The cures for everything really need to wait until we clear our about 4 billion excess people from the gene pool at this point.
 
GotNoRice said:
Sounds cool, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who is sick of hearing about these new "discoveries" that are supposed to cure tons of stuff, but then having absolutely nothing come of it for the next 10-20 years.

I'm not against advancing science, just tired of exaggerated claims. If we're lucky, this stuff might actually get to the point of helping real people in ~40 years or so. Stem cells? Haven't they been making wild claims about those since the 90's?
Click to expand...

I do not mind hearing about this stuff at all. Heck, technology and its advancements were being spoken of for about 40 years before we saw the results today. It has to start somewhere or it won't start at all.
 
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot said:
As has been stated, it's more profitable to "treat" than it is to "cure"...

But the flip side of the coin is do we really *want* to cure everyone? This planet is already nearly double its sustainable carrying capacity, and the population is only growing. Once we hit 10 billion it's all down hill from there.

The cures for everything really need to wait until we clear our about 4 billion excess people from the gene pool at this point.
Click to expand...

Do you have any idea how much excess of everything there is in the world?

How many billions of pounds of food is thrown out each year in the USA alone?

Double it's sustainable carrying capacity? What?

Oh, and a lot of countries where there is unbearable poverty, hunger, disease, etc. It is not because of limitations of the planet. It is because of the people who are ruling over everybody else.
 
It's kind of disturbing to see how many people really believe there are all these amazing discoveries and cures just locked up somewhere, take off the tinfoil hat. If that was the case once the patent expired it would be free to use. And trust me someone out there would have a motivation to use it. Even if insurance companies themselves started getting in the game to increase their own profits. If a company has a serious cure to a major disease they are going to make use of it because they could charge tons of money even for 1 pill look at the hepatitis C fiasco. The bigger problem is that massive regulation and a burden and risk of class actin law suits really makes companies too cautious, and they don't have much interest in the dumping the hundreds of millions of dollars into treatment or cures for things that are less common.

Regardless there are not a ton of slam dunk cures just chilling out. This reminds me of the conspiracy theory nuts who think that auto companies are hiding 100 mpg cars since the 70s. If such a thing was out there eventually it would leak and even if no auto company used it there would become a market for home brewed cars.
 
cyclone3d said:
Do you have any idea how much excess of everything there is in the world?

How many billions of pounds of food is thrown out each year in the USA alone?

Double it's sustainable carrying capacity? What?

Oh, and a lot of countries where there is unbearable poverty, hunger, disease, etc. It is not because of limitations of the planet. It is because of the people who are ruling over everybody else.
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Actually there is a very specific formula... I can't recall all of it, but it takes into account the average amount it takes to feed a human, the amount of waste we produce, the space we need, the total amount of land available for growing food (which is doubly fucked when you take into account current industrial farming that is largely geared towards a food system based around an unsustainable corn growing and cattle farming standard) and all other kinds of statistics and numbers that are way beyond either me or you... but it basically boils down to what we have, what we use, and what we need on a planet wide basis for the long term survival of the human species.

The carrying capacity of this planet is considered to be no more than 4 billion humans, with 2-3 billion being a much more "ecological friendly" and "manageable" number.

5 billion is the tipping point towards ecological disaster, and 10 billion is basically when we begin to go extinct.

Human arrogance dictates we have "all these untapped resources" but fails to grasp the big picture of what it costs to *get* those resources, let alone the byproducts of an entire system that has been built on a fragile house of cards for more than half a century now... and the ongoing costs to maintain it all.

Climate change wasn't even a factor in this calculation by the way, but "carrying capacity" is a well know factual number among scientists for quite some time now. It's just not something people talk about much, because if they do everyone realizes we are basically all fucked and it all falls apart.
 
Thank God they are cannibals. I was feeling guilty for kids sticking them in jars all the time, but I guess they deserve it.
 
Lol. More profitable to treat than cure. That is the most laughable thing I have heard today. Do you not think for one second that if one company creates a treatment that another company won't be trying to make a buck by outdoing them with a cure?
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Lol. More profitable to treat than cure. That is the most laughable thing I have heard today. Do you not think for one second that if one company creates a treatment that another company won't be trying to make a buck by outdoing them with a cure?
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If you're doing research on curing a disease you can't say it's to cure an age related phenomena otherwise you won't get funded. There are companies making drugs that are different than an already existing drug in the market just to avoid patents. That drug may not necessarily be better either, just different to avoid patents. Money doesn't always progress science linearly.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Lol. More profitable to treat than cure. That is the most laughable thing I have heard today. Do you not think for one second that if one company creates a treatment that another company won't be trying to make a buck by outdoing them with a cure?
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Since it's a business, the incentive is to make as much money as possible. You're assuming that a "treatment" is just one final step away from curing. I don't think that's necessarily true.
 
dgz said:
Since it's a business, the incentive is to make as much money as possible.
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Exactly.. if they made a cure the money would stop flowing eventually.

Think about it, some of us go to the doctor for say.. high blood pressure. Since it's possibly because you're overweight and don't exercise (this is hypothetical of course). Does the doctor tell you he/she would rather have you start exercising, losing weight, and eating better and come back in 2 months to see if it came down? No, they give you a prescription and up it until it lowers. It's all about the money that prescribing you medications brings in.

Now granted.. I imagine not every doctor would be like this.
 
Ashbringer said:
In other news they can now manufacture stem cells and accurately use them to cure cell loss. Particularly the heart where it relies on adult stem cells to replace damaged cells.

You can see more info in the video bellow. They claim that within 3 years we can use this to repair damage hearts and possibly other tissue. Heart disease is the #1 killer in the world and we could be 3 years away from making it a thing of the past.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw_uOLuTiZI
Click to expand...

This is some incredible research.
 
Private_Ops said:
Exactly.. if they made a cure the money would stop flowing eventually.

Think about it, some of us go to the doctor for say.. high blood pressure. Since it's possibly because you're overweight and don't exercise (this is hypothetical of course). Does the doctor tell you he/she would rather have you start exercising, losing weight, and eating better and come back in 2 months to see if it came down? No, they give you a prescription and up it until it lowers. It's all about the money that prescribing you medications brings in.

Now granted.. I imagine not every doctor would be like this.
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Say WUT? Do most of you forum DR's not understand how medicine works? These are CURES, they don't stop people from getting diseases. People will still get them and the health industry will keep charging a ton of money for the cure(s). Same as paying for long term medicine now days. They would offset the cost of a lifetime of pills/treatments and charge just as much for the cure. And people will be happy to pay. There are no dark conspiracy's here. Dr's always tell people to lose weight with HB but 99% don't listen so they have to subscribe pills. I swear topics like this should come with a minimum IQ limit.
 
Private_Ops said:
Exactly.. if they made a cure the money would stop flowing eventually.

Think about it, some of us go to the doctor for say.. high blood pressure. Since it's possibly because you're overweight and don't exercise (this is hypothetical of course). Does the doctor tell you he/she would rather have you start exercising, losing weight, and eating better and come back in 2 months to see if it came down? No, they give you a prescription and up it until it lowers. It's all about the money that prescribing you medications brings in.

Now granted.. I imagine not every doctor would be like this.
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Almost everyone I know has their doctor telling them to diet and exercise first. Pills are saved until you fail to make progress through other means. Also most companies are so near sighted now days I find it hard to believe they would take one for the team by passing up a cure. I think you just don't understand how most things work. There are plenty of diseases and problems that can hit you at any point, then you can take drugs to cure it, but it could come back again. I mean one of the largest most sold classes of drugs antibiotics is a cure. I think its easier for laymen to make these false accusations because they don't understand at all what's going on. Many of the things that require constant treatment are genetic, that means their only cure is going to be a genetic cure and though we are pouring money into researching that we have not achieved it yet. There is so much paranoia in this thread.
 
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