Word: organism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...What if we could create mosquitoes, those flying hypodermics, that instead of spreading malaria spread a vaccine protecting humans against it? Back in 1965, scientists fused mouse and human cells. Today whole animals are being patented; pigs are bred with human cells in hope of finding a source of organ transplants for the 70,000 people on waiting lists in this country alone. And that raises the question: If an Australian biotech company creates a creature that is part human, part pig, what law would apply to it? Should a company be allowed to patent a cloned human embryo, then...
...promise as a medication for nausea, which is why it was given to pregnant women in the 1960s to curb morning sickness. But it also caused terrible deformities in their babies. By the time thalidomide was banned in 1962, it had been blamed for severe handicaps - severely misshapen limbs, organ defects - in more than 5,000 children. Today researchers are investigating the interactions that caused those deformities to discover whether the drug can be safely harnessed to provide a new weapon in the war against cancer...
...brain, after all, is only another organ, and it operates on the same biochemical principles as the thyroid or the spleen. What we experience as feelings, good or bad, are at the cellular level no more than a complex interaction of chemicals and electrical activity. Depression represents an imbalance in that interaction, one that can kill just as directly as more obviously physical ailments. Each year in the U.S., an estimated 30,000 people commit suicide, with the vast majority of cases attributable to depression. But depression's physical toll goes far beyond the number of people who take their...
That could explain why drugs that improve serotonin chemistry don't always work on depression--and why Parkinson's and depression can feed on each another. Epilepsy, stroke and Alzheimer's, which, like Parkinson's, involve physical alteration of the brain, probably also affect that organ's ability to make or process neurotransmitters--not only serotonin and dopamine but also glutamate and norepinephrine, all of which may be involved in different forms of depression...
Mind and body, psychologists and neurologists now agree, aren't that different. The brain is just another organ, albeit more intricate than the rest. The thoughts and emotions that seem to color our reality are the result of complex electrochemical interactions within and between nerve cells. The disembodied voices of schizophrenia and the feelings of worthlessness and self-hatred that accompany depression, although they seem to be based on reality, are no more than distortions in brain electrochemistry. Researchers are learning how these distortions arise, how to lessen their severity and, in some cases, how to correct them...