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It’s October! You know what…Halloween is coming.

It will be exciting to showcase again the customized scary vampire teeth.

Upper left: lip closed with or without halloween teeth
Upper right: pre-op (not wearing vampire teeth)
Lower left: post-op (wearing removable vampire fangs with teeth biting down)
Lower right: Mouth open wide. Great results and tooth color. Shade matched well. Esthetic not compromised. Perfect fit to the adjacent natural teeth. Able to bite down and open the mouth without impinging/damaging/piercing the lip, gum, or surrounding soft tissue. Well fit along the gum line. Able to speak normally without worrying about custom-made fake fangs falling out. Lips are properly supported and not bulky. No adhesive is used to achieve retention. Just pop the fangs in by yourself and they are secured in placed.
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Ever wonder why nerves don’t break when your body stretches? Traditional research model proposes “neurofilaments” provide the strength and flexibility for nerve cells.

But scientists have discovered a new protein that explains why a long nerve doesn’t break upon stretching.

Beta spectrin protein stops nerve cells from breaking.

Nerve cell stretchiness uncovered

US scientists may have discovered why long nerve cells do not break when you move or stretch your limbs.
Experiments in worms showed that when a protein called beta spectrin is missing, nerve cells are brittle and break, leading to paralysis.

The finding may help to explain why people with a condition called spinocerebellar ataxia progressively lose co-ordination and movement.

The University of Utah study is in the Journal of Cell Biology.

Humans have four genes responsible for the production of beta spectrin protein.

Recent studies have shown that people with a condition called spinocerebellar ataxia type 5, a neurodegenerative disease that develops between the ages of 10 and 68, have a mutation in one of the genes.

It was previously thought that the mutation in this protein meant cells could not communicate properly because the necessary proteins would not be anchored in place.

But research by Professor Michael Bastiani and colleagues at the University of Utah suggests that a mutation in or absence of the protein causes long nerve fibres (axons) to lose their flexibility and break.

When nematode worms were bred without beta spectrin their nerve axons died over time and caused paralysis.

In worm embryos only 3% of nerve cells were broken or defective but that grew to 60% by the time the worms were a day old, suggesting the protein is not responsible for initial growth of nerve cells but for preventing breakage later on.

Nerve function

Professor Bastiani said the team found it “incredible” that the one protein was responsible for preventing nerves breaking in your whole body.

“The entire functioning of the nervous system depends on these wire-like axons between nerve cells,” he said.

He added that when the worms were paralysed by a second mutation the nerve axons did not break because the worms were not moving around.

“What was surprising was in the past, it’s always been embedded in the literature that the thing that provides the strength and flexibility was the neurofilaments.

“We’re proposing a completely different model.”

Read more: bbc.co.uk

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Holy, coffee overdose? That’s the first time I heard of this. I guess I’d better restrict my coffee intake, too. I drink quite a bit coffee lately…..

Jasmine was taken to hospital after drinking seven double espressos.

Girl overdoses on espresso coffee

A teenager was taken to hospital after overdosing on espresso coffee.

Jasmine Willis, 17, developed a fever and began hyperventilating after drinking seven double espressos while working at her family’s sandwich shop.

The student, of Stanley, County Durham, was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham, where doctors confirmed she had overdosed on caffeine.

She has since made a full recovery and is now warning others about the dangers of excessive coffee drinking.

Ms Willis, who had thought the coffees were single measures, said the effects were so severe that she began laughing and crying for no reason while serving customers at the shop.

She developed a fever and began struggling to breathe after being sent home by her father.

“My nerves were all over the place.

“I was drenched. I was burning up and hyperventilating.

“I was having palpitations, my heart was beating so fast and I thought I was going into shock.

“I did not realise this could happen to you and I only hope other people learn from my mistake.”

The teenager, who was allowed home after a few hours of observation, suffered side effects for days afterwards and now says she cannot stand the sight of coffee.

Her father Gary, who runs The Sandwich Bar in Stanley, said: “She did not realise she was drinking double measures.

“I have always stressed to my children the importance of moderation but Jasmine got caught out on this occasion.”

Read more: bbc.co.uk

So, how much is too much coffee? What are the medical risks and health benefits of drinking coffee? Here is another article from BBC, that explains all these.

Indulging in a few mugs too many could result in symptoms such as restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, nausea, vomiting and a flushed face. The symptoms of a serious overdose include delirium and seizures.

Among its effects on the human body, caffeine is commonly thought to increase alertness, attention and mental ability by stimulating the central nervous system.

But too much could be lethal. Such a dose is dependent on an individual’s weight and sensitivity, but for the average person is about 90 milligrams per two pints of blood, according to coffee website Cofcaf.co.uk. This is about 200 cups of instant coffee in a day for an average sized person, it says.

Death from an extreme overdose would tend to be due to ventricular fibrillation - an uncoordinated contraction of heart muscles, which could stop blood pumping.

People can also become addicted to coffee. Caffeinism is thought to occur if you have an intake of above 600mg to 750mg of caffeine per day, says the DoH. That’s roughly five to six cups of ground coffee or eight to 10 cups of instant.

But coffee has also been found to have health benefits. Drinking a daily cup or three may reduce the risk of liver diseases in heavy drinkers and one study has shown it could protect against the onset of Alzheimer’s. Last month a study suggested it could help protect skin from the sun.

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Almost everyone knows about the notorious story of this Korean stem cell researcher. However, that Korean research team didn’t realize they actually made the world first discovery in stem cell research. They accidentally obtained stem cells from non-fertilized human eggs—the first parthenogenesis discovery in human cell.

I’m wondering if they can do the same from sperm cells, though. Dividing eggs give rise to females only. Without Y chromosome, only females are produced.

Furthermore, men do not have eggs, so how do they get their own stem cells? I think deriving stem cells from non-reproductive cells such as skin cells is more valuable.

Dr Hwang went from national hero to national disgrace

A scientist who faked his research may have actually made a groundbreaking advance - without even realising it.

South Korean Woo Suk Hwang became famous after claiming to have extracted the world’s first stem cells from a cloned embryo.

It emerged he had lied about his work, and the source of the cells.

But analysis in the journal Cell Stem Cell reveals he may have produced stem cells from human eggs alone - potentially even more useful.

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Hwang said that he had created cloned human embryos by placing the nucleus from the cell to be cloned into a “hollowed out” human egg, then managed to extract stem cells from the resulting embryos.

Scientists are excited about the potential of stem cells because they are the body’s “master cells”, with the potential to become any cell type in the body, perhaps replacing those lost through ageing or disease.

However, it later became clear that he had used eggs from young female researchers at his laboratory to create the embryos, itself a major ethical breach - and that the resulting stem cells did not come from cloned embryos.

With his research discredited, he was dismissed from his post at the university, and charged with fraud and embezzlement.

The latest twist came from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in the US, who looked closely at his data, and found the cells were actually from a different type of embryo.

Researchers said that the distinct “genetic fingerprint” of the stem cells means they may be the first in the world to be extracted from embryos produced by the so-called “virgin birth” method, or parthenogenesis.

This happens when eggs are stimulated into becoming embryos without ever being fertilised by sperm, and has been achieved in animals.

However, before Hwang, no one had managed to produce a human embryo using parthenogenesis which lived long enough to allow the extraction of viable stem cells.

Dr George Daley, who led the analysis, told the BBC’s Science In Action programme: “Unfortunately at the time they published their work they did not know what they had done so they had mistakenly isolated these parthenogenic embryonic stem cells, and yet misrepresented them as true clones.

“In fact they had produced the world’s first patient-specific embryonic stem cell, and that is very valuable.

Read more: bbc.co.uk

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This tooth fairy story is hilarious. See what else you’ll get for the lost tooth!
View this humorous tooth fairy video clip.

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