Welcome to the 1/27/17 edition of 5-Shot Friday, a return to the regular 5 post linking format.
This first time ever experiment created an embryo that was part pig, part human:
“The experiment, described Thursday in the journal Cell, involves injecting human stem cells into the embryo of a pig, then implanting the embryo in the uterus of a sow and allowing it to grow. After four weeks, the stem cells had developed into the precursors of various tissue types, including heart, liver and neurons, and a small fraction of the developing pig was made up of human cells.
“The human-pig hybrid — dubbed a “chimera” for the mythical creature with a lion"s head, a goat"s body and a serpent"s tail — was “highly inefficient,” the researchers cautioned. But it"s the most successful human-animal chimera and a significant step toward the development of animal embryos with functioning human organs.”
Wide-eyed “that’s so…weird” reactions aside, medical science has been doing similar cross-species hybridization for decades. Modern insulin is identical to human insulin, not because it’s harvested from cadavers, but because vats of pharmaceutical grade bacteria are given “instructions” to produce large quantities of this particular hormone, courtesy of a provided plasmid blueprint of the human insulin gene.
Crossing over the divide from bacteria to Wilbur…more controversy to come.
From a team of scientists at Stanford University:
“In order to teach Google’s AI to spot cancer, the researchers had to create their own database of nearly 130,000 skin disease images, which they took from the internet. They then used that database to train the AI, and after testing the agent, they discovered that not only could the AI recognize skin cancer accurately, it could do so just as well as a trained dermatologist. The AI correctly identified 96 percent of malignant samples, closely matching the 95 percent accuracy of tested human doctors.”
3. Podcast: The Truth Barrel With Guest Kelly Starrett
Lots of heavy hitters in one sweat lodge: the hosts, Gabrielle Reece and Neil Strauss, and their guest for this particular episode, the CrossFit trainer and mobility promoter extraordinaire, Kelly Starrett.
4. Tweet Of The Week From @liftrunlong
“Today, go forward, and be the man that your wife thinks the dog is.”
5. Nom Nom Asian Meatballs
Another winning recipe from Michelle Tam from nom nom paleo.
“This East-West fusion-inspired take on classic Sunday meatballs is a hit with our entire family. These savory balls of meat and minced vegetables are a cinch to prepare, and each bite is bursting with umami from the mushrooms, fish sauce, and tomato paste. (What can I say? This mommy knows umami.)”
Paleo, Whole-30 friendly, and tasty as youguessedit.
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