Bioentrepreneurial Product Post

A Bioentrepreneurial product that I would like to see developed and created is an artificial brain, a commodity which would be a marvelous breakthrough of science in the numerous upcoming years of the twenty first century. Although the most technologically advanced of humanity's nano-machines are not yet sophisticated enough to traverse through man's bloodstreams, Japanese scientists and researchers have already developed a prototype nano brain in this year of 2008. Although only a protoype, this nano brain would be the first step in the formation of a true artificial brain for the benefit of all mankind. The potential benefits of an artificial brain having direct control of nano-machines are immense and vast. Not only can an artificial brain highly elevate the processing performances of today's computers to enormous capacity ever imagined, but can also provide advances in medicine. If, one day, a true artificial brain shall be brought into existence, it will have control of swarms of nano-machines, guiding them throughout man's bodies. These nano-machines, under the direct domination of the artificial brain, would have the objective to treat disease and other possible functions while in a man's body. According to Dr Anirban Bandyopadhyay, one of lead scientists in the development of the artificial brain, "If [in the future] you want to remotely operate on a tumor you might want to send some molecular machines there." However, Dr Bandyopadhyay also informs us that nano-machines do have their limitations, "But you cannot just put them into the blood and [expect them] to go to the right place." However, withstanding this minor limitation, the production of a true artificial brain will forever change humanity, having a lasting foundation on its unknown future into the 21st century.

Reflection
The development of an artificial brain truly fascinates and astounds me. I never actually thought the usage of nano-machines, something I have constantly seen in science fiction movies and animations, could be possible. An artificial brain would not only lead to superior computers and a revolution in advanced technology, but to also amazing medical advancements. One day, nanomachines would be able to treat the many diseases and pains which plague the vulnerable bodies mankind, such as tumors and cancer. Nanomachines may also give information to man on how cancer and AIDS can be cured once and for all. One day, men will be able to communicate without uttering a word with the usage of nanomachines and become real cyborgs with advanced nanotechnology, as depicted in many SCI-fi movies. The surprisingly successful and relatively swift development of the artificial brain hints that this future is for mentioned can be possible, if not inevitable.
Links:
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-03/artificial-brain
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7288426.stm

A Scientific Breakthrough: A Biosensor that can detect Explosives

Dr. Danny Dhanasekaran

In the month of May, 2007, researchers from the Temple University School of Medicine produced a new breed of biosensor which has the ability to identify and pinpoint the presence of explosive materials. Thus, dangerous and life threatening explosives such as TNT and claymores can be "sniffed" out by this biosensor before they can commit serious injury or death to individuals. It is furthermore implied that this new biosensor may also be developed to detect land mines and lethal and extremely toxic chemical agents, such as sarin gas. Temple University's Dr. Danny Dhanasekaran spearheaded the development of this revolutionary biosensor alongside his associates.In the first stelp to the development of the biosensor, Dr. Dhanasekaran.In the first step to the development of the biosensor, Dr. Dhanasekaran and his colleagues created some yeast cells wherein they cloned individual rat olfactory receptor. The biosensor would turn fluorescent green once this olfactory receptor smells DNT which is one of the ingredients of TNT.It has been said that once the full capabilities of this olfactory receptor has been exhausted and perfected, all environmental toxins and warfare chemical agents could also be easily detected. One day, it is also implied that the new biosensor will be developed to achieve more than what it can accomplish. According to Dr. Dhanasekaran, “With further genetic fine-tuning of the olfactory receptor pathway, this system could also be used to screen experimental medications, a crucial step in the development of new drugs.”

Reflection

I believe that a biosensor that could detect explosives and someday, chemical weapons and landmines could be very beneficial to mankind. Thousands of lives, military or civilian, could be saved though this simple but yet revolutionary biological breakthrough. I sincerely hope that one day this biosensor can be put into permanent use and be developed to fulfill its full functions. I commend Dr. Dhanasekaran and his staff for their attempts to save human lives through science.

http://www.temple.edu/medicine/biosensor.htm

Merck &Co. Inc.

Merck &Co., Inc., referred to as Merck Sharp & Dohme(MSD) in nations outside North America, is one of the largest pharmaceutical corporations in the world, both by capital and revenue. Amongst other companies such as Johnson&Johnson, Pfizer, and others, Merck &CO. ranks in the top seven of the wealthiest pharmaceutical corporations. Although a very massive pharmaceutical enterprise indeed, the foundation of Merck &Co. was very humble. Merck &Co. can trace its modest roots and origins in the year 1668, when a German apothecary named Frederic Jacob Merck started a chemical firm in the city of Darmstadt, Germany. Two centuries into the future in 1891, George Merck firmly instituted the roots of his ascendant in the United States, and formally established Merck & Co., Inc in New York. In the beginning, Merck&Co was known as a fine chemicals supplier, providing different entities with a variety of chemical substances. It was in the 1930s when Merck &Co. began researching in pharmaceuticals and eventually entered the industry. For several decades since its commencement, Merck has benefited mankind with reliable and original pharmaceutical products which have improved the health of a variety of people, old and young. Merck helps those who are hooked on hamburgers. Drugs treating ailments associated with bad eating habits -- high cholesterol, hypertension, and heart failure -- are among Merck's biggest sellers. Its drugs include hypertension fighters Cozaar and Hyzaar and cholesterol combatants Vytorin, Zetia, and Zocor. Merck makes drugs in a broad range of other therapeutic areas as well: Propecia treats male pattern baldness, Singulair treats asthma, and Fosamax fights osteoporosis. In addition to pharmaceuticals, the company makes childhood and adult vaccines for such diseases as measles, mumps, hepatitis, and shingles. In 2006 Merck was awarded FDA approval for its cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil. Other than medicines, Merck has also contributed more than 480 million dollars to non-profit and education organizations.

I look up to the work that Merck&Co. has done for mankind through the products that it has created. Gardasil, a vaccine for the Human papillomavirus, has prevented probably millions of people around the world from contracting the painful sexually transmitted disease of HPL. Other Merck products such as Zostavax has furthermore prevented elderly people of 60 years and older from contracting shingles. Although a huge and wealthy corporation, Merck&Co. does not only have the objective of gaining more revenue but also has the goal to palliate and mitigate suffering around the world. I also admire that Merck and Co. has provided millions of dollars to education, something that never occured to me at all. Although Merck& Co., Inc. came to being as a small company, it has risen to possess 70,000 employees in 120 countries and 31 factories worldwide. Merck products are furthermore sold in more than 200 countries around the world. I would compare the rise of Merck& Co., Inc. to the expansion of the holy Knights Templar in the crusades in the medieval era. Both organizations started with humble origins but through many centuries and decades, grew into massive institutions.

http://www.merck.com/
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=MRK

An Audience from Dr. Pamela Fong

Presentation

On the morning of Thursday, April seventeenth, Ms. Pamela Fong came forth to descant upon us information regarding the eyes, essential organs that have the function of detecting light. In her own words, Dr Wong related to us that she has “practiced optometry longer than any of us have lived our lives.” Dr. Wong obtained her O.D. or Doctor of Optometry from the University of California in Berkeley. Furthermore, Dr. Wong also took courses in science such as Biology and Chemistry and received a Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics from San Francisco State University. In the beginning of her lecture, Ms. Wong first informed us that the fascinating organs that give us the sense of sight are truly complex structures. In fact, Dr Wong even reported to us that it took about four weeks for her to teach her college Optometry students all the full parts and functions of the eye. After the four-week lecture, the college students had to write a paper exceeding ten pages just on the eye and all the parts that comprise it. However, Dr. Fong gave into detail only the main parts of the eye, such as the cornea, iris, lens, retina, optic nerve, etc. I was quite baffled to discover that it would take weeks to study the parts and their functions within the eye. There is so much information that one can learn from the eyes, just like fossils from a decayed and deceased organism. By looking into the insides of the eyes, for example, one can determine the age of an individual. The eyes of a young person contain sheen, whitish parts in the eye. As the young person matures and grows, the sheen disappears from the eyes, just as our baby teeth come to be replaced by permanent teeth. You can furthermore discover if a person has a particular disease through his or her eyes. If the veins and nerves of an eye are narrow and thin, then the person whose eyes possess those traits has high blood pressure. Moreover, attenuated blood vessels and the visibility of bleeding in the eye indicate that the individual has diabetes. It was also explained By Dr. Fong that a person's eyes can convey to us their identity. When looking into the insides of the eyes of a blond person, one can see that the aqueous fluid, the fluid that fills the space between the lens and cornea, is colored red. Therefore, it can be determined that the eyes of blond people are reddish in the insides. In addition, I learned that nearsightedness is called myopia and farsightedness is also referred to as hyperopia. Myopia and hyperopia are both refractive errors which depend on how the eye responds to incoming eye. Overall, I learned many new ideas about the eyes from Dr. Fong. The fact that the you can determine age and diseases never occurred and was vague to me. Many interesting inquiries about the eye were answered in great detail by Dr. Fong, enlightening me more about the organ.The eye is such a fascinating and complex organ, and Dr. Fong did a a marvelous presentation about it. Thank you very much Dr. Fong for visiting Mills and thank you Mr. Olson for inviting her.
Dissection

1.	Cornea	7.	Ciliary Body
2.	Sclera	8.	Choroid
3.	Optic Nerve	9.	Tapetum Lucidum
4.	Iris	10.	Retina
5.	Pupil	11.	Lens
6.	Ora Serrata	12.	Vitreous Humor

It is said to fully understand the human eye, you must dissect it and look into its anatomy. That is what we certainly did after the guest lecture except we handled sheep eyes, which are nearly identical to the human eye itself. To my surprise, cutting through the parts of the eye, especially the cornea and the retina, was not easy task. The eye is a very tough and hardened structure and organ, not delicate and easily broken as I imagined. When I teared through the retina, the vitreous fluid spewed forth. The vitreous fluid itself was colored black, and resembled the blood color of a pig. I would have never expected that result but you learn something new everyday. In the midst of the oozing vitreous fluid and the uncanny odor came the pretty retina. The retina itself was a pretty bluish green which resembled the insides of a clam. It is true that in the midst of all ugliness, there is always something beautiful to behold.

http://www.tedmontgomery.com/the_eye/

Flatworms (Phylum Platyhelminthes)

The 75th plate from Ernst Haeckel' s Kunstformen der Natur (1904), depicting organisms classified as Platodes

Bedford's Flatworm (Pseudobiceros bedfordi)
An example of a marine flatworm

Scientific Taxonomy and Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Sub- Kingdom: Eumetazoa
Superphylum: Platyzoa
Phylum: Platyhelminthes

Classes that make up Phylum Platyhemlminthes:

Class Turbellaria (Flatworms and Turbellarians)
Class Monogenea (Parasitic Flukes)
Class Trematoda (Parasitic Flukes)
Class Cestoda(Tapeworms)

Orders from the Class Turbellaria:

• Catenulida
• Macrostomida
• Licithoepitheliata
• Rhabdocoela
• Prolecithophora
• Proseriata
• Tricladida
• Polycladida
  

There are about 20,000 to 25,000 species of Phylum Platyhelminthes, making these creatures widespread and extant across the world. This fact also makes flatworms the largest phylum of acoelomates.

Habitat of Flatworms
Flatworms are primarily in freshwater, marine, and damp terrestrial environments. Marine flatworms of the Turbellaria class, referred to as Polycladida, subsist in the littoral and sublittoral areas of the sea, becoming common amongst tropical corral reefs. Only a few species of Polycladida dwell in freshwater areas such as rivers, ponds, and lakes. Many Polyclad flatworms are to dominantly be found in large and immense salt water bodies of water such as the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Indo-Pacific Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean. Parasite flatworms of the other Monogenea, Trematoda, and Cestoda flatworm classes populate the digestive or gastrointestinal tract of vertebrates when they have fully matured. As they develop through their juvenile years, parasite flatworms abide in the bodies of various animals.Humans may contract these parasites by eating the carcasses of parasite infested animals.

The Prey of Flatworms
As an free-living organisms, Polyclad( Marine) flat worms are often joined in the common enterprise of other invertebrates such as sponges, corals, bivalve mollusks and other sea creatures without a backbone. Therefore, Polyclad flatworms may use the other mentioned vertebrates as a source of food. As voracious carnivorous predators, Polyclads use eversible mouth parts referred as pharynx to attack and digest prey. Oysters are often a favorite meal amongst the Polyclad flatworm, who also hunt ea squirts, bryozoans, small worms, crustaceans, or snails. Some Polyclads are even cannibalistic to one another. Parasite flatworms will automatically absorb and consume the food predigested by their host, human or animal.

The Predators of Flatworms

Having a high amount of toxicity and a very bad taste, marine flatworms are highly unpleasant and undesirable to many predators. However, there are some organisms that can hunt and eat these interesting creatures.
Acording to the website http://www.wetwebmedia.com/flatworms.htm , these are the feared flatworm predators:

Chelidonura varians Eliot 1903, THE Flatworm Eating Sea Slug! Tropical Indo-West Pacific. To seven cm. in length. This one off of Heron Island, Queensland, Australia.

Lysmata wurdemanni (Gibbes 1850), Peppermint Shrimp, Caribbean Cleaner Shrimp. Tropical West Atlantic. Lives singly or in groups. Gets along with all aquarium species. Commercially produced. A reclusive, sometimes misidentified species (there are other shrimp from the area that are similar) used in the fight to limit Aiptasia Anemones in aquariums.

Halichoeres chrysus Randall 1981 (1), is a fish of two "good" and one bad common name. It should be called the Golden or Canary Wrasse for its bright bold sun-yellow color, but is most often listed as the Yellow Coris Wrasse (Arggghhh!, it is not a Coris genus member of course). This is an exemplary aquarium species that is suitable for peaceful fish-only and reef systems. To a mere 4 inches or so total length. Aquarium & S. Sulawesi photos. Eastern Indian

Pseudocheilinus evanidus Jordan & Evermann 1903, the Pin-Striped or Striated Wrasse (2). I like this fish’s other common names, the Disappearing or Vanishing Wrasse for its bashfulness. To a grand size of three inches. Indo-Pacific, including Red Sea and Hawai'i. Two in the Red Sea.


Pseudocheilinus hexataenia (Bleeker 1857), the Sixline Wrasse (2). A feisty, though small (to 4") a reef tank species. Indo-Pacific, including the Red Sea in its distribution. Aquarium and Queensland, Australia images.

The Anatomy of a Flatworm

"Of the worms, the Platyhelminthes ("flat worms") are considered the prototypes, having developed such innovations as bilateral symmetry, a head, tail, and three germinal tissue layers (stinging celled animals, comb-jellies... only have two). These simple soft-bodied animals use their skin to breath through and only have one body opening, the mouth serving also as an anus."

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/flatworms.htm

A Presentation From Ms. Lousie Mead

Last Thursday on the twenty fourth of January, Dr. Louise Mead, representing the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), came forth to our classroom to discuss upon Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Informing us first about the NCSE as a nonprofit organization seeking to uphold the education of evolution in public schools, Ms. Mead then went into great detail of lecturing us the very important ideals concerning Darwin's most controversial theory. Defining evolution in the most abrupt terms as "descent with modification and common ancestry," Ms. Mead informed us that you must think of evolution as a pattern and process. The processes or mechanisms of evolution include natural selection, genetic drift, evolutionary development, and mutations. These aspects of evolution have led to the development of many different varied species in the millenniums of these aged world. Ms. Mead further in her lecture corrected the common misconception that in evolution, humans did not unnecessarily evolve from apes and chimpanzees. The human race and those other mentioned mammals shared a common ancestor and ascendant with another primate who lived many centuries ago. To prove this, Ms. Mead told us of the fact that humans possess only forty six chromosomes, gorillas and other primates have 48 chromosomes, demonstrating that humans could not have directly evolved from apes. Another subject that Ms. Mead pondered about was the approaches to understanding divergence, or the process of one species diverging over time into more than one species. To understand divergence in a species, you must examine the patterns, assess the reproductive behavior, and test for sexual variations amongst other subjects to uncover divergence in a particular group of animals. In addition to explaining the processes of evolution and genetic divergence, Ms. Mead also informed us of a special species of salamander that she discovered and observed which surprisingly had ancestors in the East Asian nations of Japan and China. Through comparative anatomy, biochemistry, and fossil records, Ms. Mead was able to determine and pinpoint the ancestors of this particular breed of Californian salamander. The observation of these species of Californian salamanders is a study of biogeography, a branch of evolutionary science which centers on how animals can be related even when in isolation from one another. Overall, Dr. Mead's presentation of the Darwinian theory of evolution was very informative and enriched my knowledge of that branch of science even more. Dr. Mead's use of pictures and charts really assisted me in stomaching the information which she bestowed upon us. I only wish to learn more from her in regards to the aspects of Darwinism and evolution.