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Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory

nature.com

41–50 of 64 posts

Re: Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is the entry point to a new piece of dark speculative fiction, in which extreme age is venerated, and the number of goats attached to your back becomes a symbol of your wealth and power.

Perhaps a larger animal. Detachable coupling of course and some sort of programmatic control of the beast. The coupling would include devices which would increase the concentration of life giving material and turn back less desirable properties of the blood. I would ride upon a great blood engorged elephant and take pity upon all the unwashed goat tethered masses.

I storm through the seas like Poseidon himself, a conquering champion, grafted to the back of a 24-foot baby blue whale. Next time around, though, I'll ask the doc to position me in front of the blow hole. Rookie mistake.

Re: Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how come?

A paucity of alternative facts, perhaps?

Are you saying that NPR doesn't have many alternative facts?

I think the point the original comment was trying to make was more that NPR doesn't have much in depth coverage when it comes to science. You'll think NPR does an exemplary job when it comes to content you don't know much about. But when you're more knowledgeable about the field being covered, you start to see minor inaccuracies to "dumb down" the concepts.

Which isn't a bad thing necessarily, it gets the point across without being too wrong.

Re: Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory

#44
post #32

Can young animal blood also make old humans smarter (sheep, goats, pigs, ...)? If so, and without adverse effects [1], an opportunity is discovered. Human cells might be better but a protein from animals might be cheaper and less ethically challenged, thus more accessible to the masses. [1] An expert please have a say whether that is plausible or not.

Maybe, like in the mice studies, we could just graft baby goats to our backs after we hit 50. Sure, it will look odd, but that will just be the price to pay to stay young. The real trick will be to keep the goats from chewing on your shirt collars.

> The real trick will be to keep the goats from chewing on your shirt collars. That's easy. Duct tape it solves everything.. Or you can genetically engineer a goat without a mouth. :-)

Re: Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory

#45
post #28

It's apparently a thing now. Peter Thiel has purportedly invested millions in anti-aging. A company called Ambriosa in particular matches older people with younger people for blood routine blood transfusions. While this study may or may not work with humans, the Ambriosa project does seem to have legs.

Nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan.

Re: Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory

#47
post #28

It's apparently a thing now. Peter Thiel has purportedly invested millions in anti-aging. A company called Ambriosa in particular matches older people with younger people for blood routine blood transfusions. While this study may or may not work with humans, the Ambriosa project does seem to have legs.

If the studies on humans works you could put to use the amount of blood that goes bad based on the shelf life of 49 days. That blood could go to good use .

Re: Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory

#48
I generally trust Nature, but unfortunately i can only access what appears to be more of an abstract, but i hope it addresses the concerns of http://news.berkeley.edu/2016/11/22/young-blood-does-not-rev... and similar research suggesting these claims could be anomalies.

Re: Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory

#49
post #9

So, it's like a real life "Flowers for Algernon". Let's hope for a better ending. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Algernon

http://itsalwayssunny.wikia.com/wiki/Flowers_for_Charlie so aptly named as the book was "flowers for algernon" and the movie adaptation was simply called "charly"

Re: Mice treated with a protein from umbilical cord plasma showed improved memory

#50
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A paucity of alternative facts, perhaps?

Are you saying that NPR doesn't have many alternative facts? I think the point the original comment was trying to make was more that NPR doesn't have much in depth coverage when it comes to science. You'll think NPR does an exemplary job when it comes to content you don't know much about. But when you're more knowledgeable about the field being covered, you start to see minor inaccuracies to "dumb down" the concepts.…

You are speculating as much as I am about what f4ker's cryptic and uninformative post actually meant. If he meant what you think he meant, he could simply have written a note about what, specifically, in the NPR article is simplistic.

I do not see any way around news sources being simplified, to some extent, about everything, and you appear to agree. Do you think NPR's news is notably "not great" in that regard? Its liberal bias shows, but not in a way that strikes me as deceptive.

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