World
Expo on the Internet
In an attempt to attract people who might otherwise be unable to attend
a World Exposition, the Swedish government and the organization responsible
for running the World Expo are putting together a digital version of the
world fair on the Internet.
The Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions and the Swedish
government have each pledged €200,000 to initiate the project.
September saw the end of the current World Expo in Aichi, Japan. The
next World Expo will be held in 2010 in Shanghai, China, with an estimated
70 million visitors. This World Fair and all that follow it will be
supplemented by the online version.
The online version will run continuously and be updated as new World
Expos are established in the real world. The national pavilions will
be based on their physical counterparts but will also include digital
additions like games, music and chat rooms.
Organizers hope that more than 40 million people worldwide will visit
the site daily.
Living
Memorials
The UK art group, Biopresence, has found a way
to entwine the DNA of a recently departed loved one
with the DNA of a tree, creating a living memorial
of the deceased.
The process will only affect the genotype of the tree and consequently
no visual changes in the tree will occur. These “silent mutations” simply
result in the person’s DNA being replicated and stored in the
tree.
Biopresence hopes that the memorial trees will provide
a setting that is more comfortable than a crowded gray
cemetery where people can remember those who have passed on.
The first attempt will be with a Japanese cherry blossom
tree, which is in the same genome as apple trees.
The artists estimate the cost of the procedure to be about
$35,000. British
Scientist Hope to Reverse Paralysis
British scientists have begun recruiting the first
patients who might benefit from a new technique for
repairing spinal cords.
Using nerve cells from the patients own noses, doctors hope to reverse
paralysis by regrowing nerve cells.
The trials, which are to begin in January, are the result of years
of research by Geoffrey Raisman of the National Institute for Medical
Research.
Professor Raisman’s team will use olfactory ensheathing cells
(OECs), a type of adult stem cell found in the nose which can regenerate
itself. A substrata of OECs will be placed between the severed nerves
and the spinal cord, to help them to regrow and plug themselves back
into the nervous system.
The procedure will first be used experimentally on patients with brachial
plexus avulsion (BPA), an injury in which the nerves are pulled out
of an arm, leaving the limb paralysed. It is typically sustained in
motorcycle accidents and never improves on its own.
Source: The Times Online
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