Scientist ‘spots’ ghost universe from before the Big Bang hidden in microwaves

A renowned scientist says he has spotted evidence that a universe existed before the Big Bang.

Professor Roger Penrose from Oxford University says concentric circles discovered in the background microwaves of the universe provides evidence of events that took place before the universe came into being.

The cosmic microwave offers us a ghostly look at the the universe just 300,000 years after the Big Ban’ – a microscopic amount of time compared to the universe’s estimated age of 13.7billion years.

The research by Penrose, who was awarded the 1988 Wolf Prize along with Stephen Hawkings for adding to our cosmic knowledge, adds evidence to the theory that the universe has expanded (‘the Big Bang’) and contracted (‘the Big Crunch’) many times.

The cosmic radiation background (CMB) is believed to have cooled to a temperature of -270C in the near 14 billion years since the birth of the universe.

Stars and galaxies started to form around 300 million years later. Our Sun was born around five billion years ago, and life first appeared on the Earth around 3.7 billion years ago. …

via Is the secret of the ‘previous’ universe hidden in the microwaves? Scientist ‘spots’ ghost from before the Big Bang | Mail Online.

Living Stem Cells Discovered in 17-Day-Old Human Corpses

Stem cells can remain alive in human corpses for at least 17 days after death, researchers say.

Stem cells give rise to all other cells in the body, a property that makes them extraordinarily valuable in potential therapies. These potent cells are often rare, only present in small numbers in tissue samples from patients and difficult to distinguish from other cell types in many cases. As such, scientists are investigating novel ways to procure stem cells and improve the viability of the ones they can get.

Past research had suggested that stem cells could actually survive in up to 2-day-old cadavers, but researchers had thought that dead bodies would be poor homes for any cells, lacking the oxygen and nutrients the body’s cells need to stay alive. Nevertheless, histologist and neuropathologist Fabrice Chrétien at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and his colleagues were curious to see how long stem cells might keep ticking after a person died.

The researchers only had access to remains 17 days old, suggesting they have not yet seen the limits that stem cells ca reach. “Maybe they can also resist longer,” Chrétien told LiveScience.

The cadavers in question had been kept at 39 degrees F (4 degrees C) to keep from rotting. The stem cells the researchers isolated give rise to skeletal muscle, the kind connected to the bones, as opposed to the kind in the heart or other internal organs.

Apparently the stem cells were able survive in the total absence of oxygen. “These cells are so resistant to extreme and deleterious conditions that they stay alive up to 17 days after death,” Chrétien said.

The researchers also recovered viable stem cellsfrom mice 14 days after death. These cells appeared to function properly after they were transplanted into living mice, helping regenerate damaged tissues.

Although these findings could suggest that old cadavers could supply stem cells for therapies, “we are not saying that we will use old cadavers for treating patients,” Chrétien stressed. “For clinical applications we don’t have to wait so long, but just obtain cells from cadavers only a few hours after death.” …

via Living Stem Cells Discovered in 17-Day-Old Human Corpses | Stem-Cell Therapies | LiveScience.

Most Dangerous Health Scams: Cavitation Surgery

Most Dangerous Health Scams: Cavitation Surgery

Multiple online dental sites proffer this treatment for headaches and neuropathy in the facial nerves. It involves scraping or removing parts of the jaw bone to rid the sufferer of toxic “cavitations,” or holes that reportedly hinder blood flow and “block the body’s energy meridians,” according to one Web site.

- Forbes

Yesterday I witnessed two “cavitation surgeries” where the dentist (a registered California DDS) used “muscle testing” to verify the need for this surgery. The cost was $1,100 for both.

The patient specifically said she wanted only one done, but the biological dentist did both, because he thought it was better to do them both and not one at a time. He stated that there was no cyst, but it was “like a cyst” and that every extracted wisdom tooth needed to later be drilled out and allowed to heal correctly to get rid of trapped anaerobic bacteria. He said what he found was a pocket of soft tissue about the size of his pinky that was yellow or white indicating a problem, but that there was no bad smell from bacteria. If the area was as it should be, he said that what he should find is bone instead of tissue. The idea of the cavitation surgery was to get the bone to grow back in the area he had cleaned out.

Her x-rays appeared to me to show no missing jaw bone in the area of the previous wisdom tooth extractions.

A second dentist I consulted said there would be a cyst if there was bacteria and that performing an surgical procedure without a valid reason could result in a loss of one’s license. This biological dentist has been practicing in California for many years, however, and I found no complaints against him.

In my view the surgery was unnecessary and the muscle testing is not valid, but rather, is a subjective mechanical trick used to verify to the patient that she needed to spend $1,100 on a procedure. While drilling to remove the “bad” tissue and bone, the dentist used “muscle testing” along with probing while the patient was numb to verify that he had cleaned out the area correctly. The muscle testing consisted of the patient holding her arm out and pushing against the doctor’s hand as he tried to move her arm.

The patient has no complaints about the procedure and believes it will help. She will likely return to have the other two more cavitation surgeries done.

I’d be interested to hear your experience and advice.