"Until Leonard Hayflick came along, everyone thought cells were immortal. That they’d divide over and over again, forever. Hayflick torpedoes that theory and proved that there is limit. A very predictable limit: a magic number. To thank him, science textbooks everywhere now refer to that as ‘the Hayflick limit.’ "
From http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/06/15/segments/71875
(Thematically tied to my previous posted show from SciFri.)
"Medical researchers often use cells known as HeLa cells in their work. The ‘immortal cells’ are used to study cancer, aging, AIDS, and more. The name HeLa is a shortening of the name Henrietta Lacks — a woman whose cervical cancer cells were used to create this research cell line, without her knowledge or permission. In this segment, Ira talks with author Rebecca Skloot about ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,’ a tale of biology and medical ethics."
From http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201002125
This is an interesting coincidental accompaniment to a RadioLab segment (will add next) about ‘cell immortality’ of a cluster of cells (scientifically known as WI38) derived from a single woman’s aborted child. Those cells now live in over a billion people though the majority of vaccines given over the last 50 years.
Researchers are using cellular machinery to turn E. coli bacteria into little computers. By creating on/off switches that are similar to electronic transistors, scientists can control each microbe’s behavior.
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/29/175604770/tiny-dna-switches-aim-to-revolutionize-cellular-computing
Tagged with technology biotech
“Everything in our cells is either made by the ribosome, or made by another molecule that itself was made by the ribosome” says Professor Venki Ramakrishnan, one of the handful of experts to unpick the secrets of this powerhouse of life.
And as well as being a universal fabricator – shared in essence by every living thing – the ribosome could be the most direct connection within us to the very origins of life, that warm pond of chemicals 4 billion years ago, where self-replicating molecules, perhaps made of RNA like the heart of the ribosome, started the long ascent to complexity.