World's First Scar-free Appendectomy

The world's first scar-free appendectomy has been successfully performed at University of San Diego Medical Centre, USA. Jeff Scholtz, a former U.S. marine, has recently secured his place in medical history, becoming the first patient in the world who had his appendix through mouth removed.

The operation, which is a major advance in the quest for scar-free surgery, was performed by doctors in San Diego, California, who used a flexible tube to thread miniature surgical instruments down the 42-year-old's throat to his stomach.

A tiny incision was then made in the stomach wall to get at the appendix - a small worm-like pouch attached to the large bowel.

The inflamed appendix was cut away, bagged and pulled back into the stomach - and out of the mouth.

Source: DM

Flesh-eating Caecilian

The Caecilian [wiki] is an amphibian that superficially resemble earthworms or snakes. But because it mostly lives hidden in the ground, it has become the least explored order of amphibians, and widely unknown. Not until recent, scientists discovered that it has a bizarre parental behaviour--the caecilian mother allows her young to peel off and eat her skin. It has been filmed on camera by building a set which resembled the creature's living environment for the broadcasting network's  Life In Cold Blood series.

One of the strangest meal-times in the animal kingdom has been caught on film by a BBC crew.

The female caecilian's skin becomes thicker and more nutrient-rich when she bears offspring.

And the young have specialised teeth for tearing and removing it.

The crew was able to catch this behaviour

It took several attempts to capture the footage; the caecilian babies would only eat their mother's skin for about 10 minutes, once every three days, and often at night.

Source: BBC. Click here to watch the footage.

Mercury Spider Is a Spidery Crater on Mercury

Mercury Spider (picture above, credit: NASA) is not any known spider species on the Earth, but a unique geologic formation called the Spider sits at the center of the Caloris Basin[wiki] on Mercury. It was just revealed to the world in one of more than 1200 pictures taken from from the unseen side of Mercury by NASA's MESSENGER probe during a recent flyby on January 14. The spidery shape is "unlike anything we've seen anywhere in the solar system," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The image showing what looks like a large crater with [25 miles wide] faint lines radiating out from it demonstrates that Mercury had volcanic eruptions millions of years ago and is a shrinking, aging planet. Link

Naked Mole Rats Hold Clues To Human Pain

Naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber), also known as the sand puppy, or desert mole rat, may help scientists to unlock the secrets of pain reception in humans, because they appears to lack a neurotransmitter that is crucial to the sensation of certain types of pain, a recent research revealed that.

The research was published in the journal PLoS Biology on January 29. It was under the lead of Thomas Park, a professor of of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The study revealed the curious adaptations of naked mole rats that altered the way they experience pain.

In this study, the investigators stimulated the naked mole rats with those substances such as acid and capsaicin, but the rats completely didn't care the pain.

They found that the phenomenon may be linked to substance P, a neurotransmitter which is a common component of pain responses in nearly every mammal, including humans.  #Link

Men Born Short Increased Risk of Attempting Suicide

A new study done by scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that male babies who are born short in height, are more prone to commit suicide than those born at normal height. Excerpts from Earthtimes.Org

The Swedish study involved 713,000 people of whom 320,000 were males. The researchers tracked the date of birth, attempted suicide if any, death or emigration from the country till the year 1999. The researchers used national registries in order to track down these men.

Surprisingly researchers found that shorter babies with a height of 47 cm or less were more likely to attempt suicide as adults. This statistic was independent of what height they eventually reached as adults. Furthermore men who were short of height as adults were also 56 percent more likely than their taller counterparts to attempt suicide.

Lead researcher Dr Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz opined that low levels of serotonin in the brain was the key to this behavior.

New Palm Tree Species Found in Madagascar

Palm Tree Tahina spectabilis (picture credit: AP via BBC)

A new species of giant self-destructing palm was found  in Madagascar by botanists from Kew Gardens of London. Scientists believe it is possible that the palm has quietly gone through a remarkable evolution since Madagascar split with India some 80m years ago.

The tree, which only exists in the remote north-west of the island country in Indian Ocean, is 20m (60ft) high with leaves 5m (16ft) long, the tallest tree of its type in the country, and has a lifespan of around 100 years.

In the living memory, the tree was never seen blossoming not until 2007. But botanist only found that the tree expends so much energy on flowering that it eventually collapses and dies.

The palm has been named Tahina spectabilis, which is Malagasy for "blessed" or "to be protected". It is also one of the given names of Anne-Tahina Metz, the daughter of Xavier Metz, a Frenchman who manages a cashew plantation in remote northwestern Madagascar and discovers the palm in 2006. Source: BBC

Solar System's Shape Is Not Round But Dented

Scientists have long suspected the solar system was bent, but never had direct evidence until now the unprecedented founding was made by NASA's 30-year-old unmanned nuclear powered Voyager 2 [wikipedia]. The probe  has crossed into a sweeping region called the termination shock in our solar system this August. Tags: voyager 2, solar system, bent, shape, nasa, cit

Mummified Dinosaur With Clear Remains of Scales Found in North Dakota

Fossilized hadrosaur Dakota skin picture (Tyler Larson/National Geographic)

The partially mummified hadrosaur [wiki], dubbed Dakota, were found in 2000 by Tyler Lyson, then a 17-year-old boy, on his uncle's ranch in North Dakota.

The creature is fossilized, with the skin and bone turned to stone. But unlike most dinosaur fossils, tissues are preserved as well.

Scientists believed the Dakota hadrosaur should be the most complete dinosaur ever found, with intact skin where clear remains of scales were visible.

"This is not a skin impression. This is fossilized skin," paleontologist Phil Manning of the University of Manchester said. "When you run your hands over this dinosaur's skin, this is the closest you are going to get to touching a real dinosaur, ever." Source: Reuters

Sperm Donor Ordered to Pay Child Support 18 Years Later

A New York doctor who donated his sperm to help a gay colleague conceive in the late 1980s, and allowed his name to be put on the birth certificate, has been ordered to pay child support for the boy, his biological son now an 18-year-old who lives with his mother in Oregon.

For several years after the boy's birth in 1989, the doctor sent the child gifts and money and cards signed "Dad" and had regular contact with the child, the Post reported. However, when the boy moved to Oregon with his mother and her partner in 1993, regular contact stopped. Since then, the man's contact with the child consisted of seven phone calls and one brief meeting over the past 15 years.

A New York family court judge ruled last month that the man must now pay child support for the boy, now 18 and heading to college.

Source: FOX ; Liveleak Tags: Sperm Donor, Pay Child Support

First Moon Surface Picture by China's Chang-E 1 Lunar Probe

The black and white picture showing rough surface scattered with big or small pits was made public at a gala ceremony in Beijing Aerospace Control Center on November 26 by Premier Wen Jiabao, who hailed it as a major step in "the Chinese race's 1,000-year-old dream" of exploring the moon.

Wen asserted in a passionate and inspiring speech on Monday that China has joined the select group of world powers with the capabilities to engage in deep-space exploration.

The success, he said not only manifested China's rising national strength and technical innovation capability but also elevated the country's international status and cemented national cohesion.

"It showcases eloquently that the Chinese people have the will, the ambition and the capability to compose more shining new chapters while ascending the science and technology summit," Wen said.

Citing a letter from an overseas Chinese, Wen said that the farther the China-made satellite flew, the higher would the overseas Chinese hold their heads.

The area covered by the picture, about 460 km in length and 280 km in width--- about half the size of the United Kingdom, is within a location of 70 to 54 degrees south latitude and 83 to 57 degrees east longitude. Source: Chinadaily & CNN-IBN Tags: china, chang e, lunar probe, moon picture