$3m grant for TCM research

Was really pleased to hear this piece of news. Govt has grant $3m for TCM research focusing on chronic diseases, so that TCM can work alongside Western medicine to improve patient outcome.

This would provide all of us reliable info on which TCM therapy is safe effective & complimentary with western medicine.
It's about time right????

Science behind decision making

Game theory is one common way people analyze decision making, but one facet of game theory is based on the idea that the decision is being made by someone with perfect knowledge of what they’re doing. That’s not always the case, in fact that is probably never the case. Most often people act irrationally or even randomly.

Studies done on game play and show that some games are too complex to be fully understood, and that affects the decision making of the players.

 If you’ve ever played poker with anyone who thinks they’re very good at poker, you’ve probably heard that person say they lost a hand because their opponent didn’t make the move they were supposed to. That’s because your friend who thinks they’re great at poker is assuming everyone is thinking like they are. This is known as the equilibrium point, and  it’s not always the best thought process for decision making.

 This could have implications in the financial world as well. Many analysts study the stock market and make predictions based on the equilibrium theory. They assume the traders know what they’re doing and are making the best possible moves and trades.

With trading on the stock market, for example, you can have thousands of different stock to choose from, and people do not always behave rationally in these situations or they do not have sufficient information to act rationally. This can have a profound effect on how the markets react.

Basically, assuming people always make the best decision can lead to inaccurate predictions, because obviously people don’t always make the right decisions.

China & research

It is reported China has experienced the strongest growth in scientific research over the past three decades & it’s not slowing down. It is only second place to the US now. And if it continues like this, it will be the largest producer of scientific knowledge by 2020.

Experts in the field said China is out on its own, far ahead of the pack. Although its quality remains mixed, Chinese research has also become more collaborative, with almost 9 per cent of papers originating in China having at least one US-based co-author.

The Thomson Reuters figures show not only the “awe-inspiring” expansion of Chinese science but also a very powerful performance by Brazil, much slower growth in India and relative decline in Russia.

 Three main factors are driving Chinese research.

First is the government’s enormous investment, with funding increases far above the rate of inflation, at all levels of the system from schools to postgraduate research.

Second is the organised flow of knowledge from basic science to commercial applications.

Third is the efficient and flexible way in which China is tapping the expertise of its extensive scientific diaspora in north America and Europe, tempting back mid-career scientists with deals that allow them to spend part of the year working in the west and part in China.

Research using animals

Lately in Singapore, a national facility to provide large animals such as monkeys and pigs to research groups has been given the thumbs up, following an extensive feasibility study. We needed that as this  move will help speed up the development of new drugs and treatments, and take Singapore's biomedical capabilities up a notch.

Large animals are needed for such work because a compound that looks like a successful drug in the petri-dish or on a mouse might not work as well in larger creatures and humans. E.g. Before clinical trials on people, research on vaccines and diseases including glaucoma, myopia and HIV infection is carried out on monkeys such as macaques, which are genetically similar to humans.

Pigs, with their physiology and anatomy relatively similar to humans, are used to test new drugs and medical devices such as artificial knee joints and dental implants, and for surgical training. Generally, rats, mice and fish are used in experiments, although rabbits, dogs, pigs and monkeys are also used in some. Most are euthanised at the end of a trial.

But scientists say that while they continue to develop alternatives to animal testing, in many cases it is still impossible for a computer or test tube to substitute a complex biological system when studying a disease, vaccine or drug for efficacy and side effects. "Monkeys are more similar to us than mice, and pigs are closer in size. Sometimes, it's a necessary evil and there's no way around it."

“Such a facility will enhance Singapore's overall capability in translating discoveries to the clinic .  It will increase our strength in pre-clinical research such as drug discovery, drug development, testing of biomarkers and medical technology, prior to first-in-man studies”  said Professor Wong Tien Yin, group director of research at SingHealth , who is also executive director of the Singapore Eye Research Institute.

But research using animals has long been condemned by animal welfare groups. Thank goodness this is spore, we are probably more practical.....hahha... do we even have such groups active here?

 

 

No more dyes?????

Researchers are in hot pursuit of a "cure" for gray hair—and they're getting closer.

 A study published last year showed that gray is caused by hydrogen peroxide and other cell-damaging molecules that build up as we age, bleaching color from the hair. The absence of an enzyme called catalase allows these molecules to accumulate, but EXT Life Sciences, a Michigan-based biotechnology company, believes it has found a chemical compound that can restore catalase and thus return hair to its original color.

 The company is working to incorporate the ingredient into leave-in conditioners and serums, says cofounder Stanley Terlecky, PhD, professor of pharmacology at Wayne State University School of Medicine.

 And across the Atlantic, L'Oréal's Paris-based hair biology research group recently identified a pair of genes that may determine the longevity of the cells that give hair its color. L'Oréal scientists are hard at work developing a treatment (either a pill or a topical formula) to block the progressive decline in these color-giving cells and stop—or at least slow—the graying process, says group director Bruno Bernard, PhD. Lets hope they make it!!!!

Christmas Shopping!!!!!

Went shopping today. Time to buy Christmas gifts for family & friends.

I'm lazy, so for the girls I'll get them perfume this year. Why? Because that cant go wrong. Just go for the most beautiful bottles & there are lots to choose from. Even if the scent is wrong or they hated it, no one can say no to a beautiful bottle....lol..... it's all about packageing!!!!

For guys ...hmm..... that's hard but I'll go with perfume also.....lol..... Come on, I've got not much time & dont particularly like shopping so....? Not very creative???? What you expect? They'll understand!!!

Sea horses & dragons

Prior to these recent intersex discoveries in male frogs , only a few other male animal species demonstrated pregnancy. Probably most famous among these species is the male seahorse, which takes on a reproductive role that is opposite to what is most commonly seen in nature. Male seahorses compete with each other not to impregnate female seahorses but to be impregnated. During sea horse mating the female deposits unfertilized eggs into the male’s brood pouch. The male seahorse then fertilizes the eggs with his own sperm, thus initiating a three-week pregnancy that is marked by an inability to move around and search for food. After 3 days of labor, the male seahorse will give birth to 200 baby sea horses.

A member of the same Syngnathidae family as seahorses, male pipe fish also carry eggs in a protective pouch before giving birth. A few years back, researchers discovered a specific gene that supports the protective pouches and allows male pipefish pregnancies to occur. Called patristacin, this gene sustains male pipe fish pouches, which help regulate the amount of saline in the womb. Interesting but not surprising, the patristacin gene is also found in seahorses and even in the kidneys and livers of other bony fish.

There is more to the eye when it comes to the leafy sea dragon another relative to the seahorse. Not only looking like a piece of floating seaweed, the male leafy sea dragon cares for roughly 250 bright pink eggs that are attached to its tail via a long tube stemming from the female leafy sea dragon partner. After attaching to the male’s brood pouch, the eggs take nine weeks to hatch, changing in color to either purple or orange during this time period. When ready to give birth, the male leafy sea dragon shoots the baby sea dragons out of its tail during a 24-48 hour period. Only 5% of the leafy sea dragons survive, and those that do are pretty much independent from birth.

Beautiful Leafy Sea Dragon

Fascinating isnt it????