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One of my med friends sent me this research article. It is a real article in British Medical Journal.

Objectives To test the hypothesis that, on average, male surgeons are taller and better looking than male physicians, and to compare both sets of doctors with film stars who play doctors on screen.

Design Comparative study.

Setting Typical university hospital in Spain, located in Barcelona and not in a sleepy backwater.

Participants Random sample of 12 surgeons and 12 physicians plus 4 external controls (film stars who play doctors), matched by age (50s) and sex (all male).

Interventions An independent committee (all female) evaluated the “good looking score” (range 1-7).

Main outcome measures Height (cm) and points on the good looking score.

Results Surgeons were significantly taller than physicians (mean height 179.4 v 172.6 cm; P=0.01). Controls had significantly higher good looking scores than surgeons (mean score 5.96 v 4.39; difference between means 1.57, 95% confidence interval 0.69 to 2.45; P=0.013) and physicians (5.96 v 3.65; 2.31, 1.58 to 3.04; P=0.003). Surgeons had significantly higher good looking scores than physicians (4.39 v 3.65; 0.74; 0.25 to 1.23; P=0.010).

Conclusions Male surgeons are taller and better looking than physicians, but film stars who play doctors on screen are better looking than both these groups of doctors. Whether these phenotypic differences are genetic or environmental is unclear.

I can’t believe this article is included in BMJ (British Medical Journal). Results are based only on 12 physicians, 12 surgeons, and 4 film stars. The entire article is hilarious, especially the discussion part.

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Whoa, Fédération Dentaire Internationale (FDI) is going to hold a conference in Dubai this October. I wish I can go there. I’ve been investigating Dubai recently. But still no money yet to get a flight that far yet. Student loans to be paid still. I wonder how hot it is in Dubai…

Oh yea, I wonder if Las Vegas has mini-Dubai. Heheee….

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Tomorrow will be the annual open wide day at UofA dental clinic. Looking forward to it.

Open Wide Day - UAlberta Free Dental Services
When: 7am - 3pm, March 31, 2007
Where: Dentistry/Pharmacy Centre on UofA Campus
More info here.

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Identical Twins: 1 egg fertilized with 1 sperm, and then later splits into two.
Fraternal (non-identical) Twins: 2 separate eggs fertilized with 2 separate sperms

How about 1 egg fertilized with 2 sperms? Semi-identical Twins!

Twins normally share either half or all their genes.

Semi-identical twins discovered

Scientists have revealed details of the world’s only known case of “semi-identical” twins.
The journal Nature says the twins are identical on their mother’s side, but share only half their genes on their father’s side.

They are the result of two sperm cells fertilising a single egg, which then divided to form two embryos - and each sperm contributed genes to each child.

Each stage is unlikely, and scientists believe the twins are probably unique.

These twins were born in the US, but neither their identity or their exact location is being revealed.

Their case is also reported in the journal Human Genetics.

Normally, twins either develop from the same egg which later splits to form identical twins - who share all their genetic material, or from two separate eggs which are fertilised by two separate sperm.

This creates non-identical (fraternal) twins - who share on average 50% of their genetic material.

Sometimes, two sperm can fertilise a single egg, but this is only thought to happen in about 1% of human conceptions.

Most embryos created this way do not survive.

Hermaphrodite

These twins, who were conceived normally, only came to the attention of scientists because one was born with sexually ambiguous genitalia.

The child was discovered to be a hermaphrodite, and has both ovarian and testicular tissue, while the other child is anatomically male.

But genetic tests show both are “chimeras”, and have some male cells - which have an X and Y chromosome, and female cells - which have two X chromosomes.

The most likely explanation for how they were formed is that two sperm cells - one with an X chromosome and one with a Y chromosome - fused with a single egg.

Read more: bbc.co.uk

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Interesting. Pig enamel can be regenerated. The next step is to find out if this is applicable to human enamel. Not sure if the regenerated enamel has the same hardness as the natural enamel.

Tooth anatomy: enamel is the outermost layber in the tooth.

(HealthDay News) - A Japanese team say’s they’ve used cultured cells to grow new tooth enamel.

The breakthrough should boost efforts to produce tissue that can replace damaged or missing enamel, and possibly, even regenerate whole teeth, the researchers say.

Tooth enamel is unable to regenerate because it’s formed by a layer of cells that are lost by the time the tooth appears in the mouth. That means that wear, damage and decay take a toll on enamel over the years.

A team at the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Tokyo created a new technique of culturing cells with the capacity to produce enamel.

They found that epithelial cells taken from the developing teeth of six-month-old pigs continued to proliferate when the cells were cultured on top of special “feeder” layers of cells.

Dental follicle, aka tooth germ, consists of dental epithelium in the periphery (the future enamel) and dental mesenchymal cells in the center (the future dentin and pulp).

The scientists placed the dental epithelial cells, along with cells from the middle of the tooth (dental mesenchymal cells) on miniature collagen sponge scaffolds. The scaffolds were then placed in the abdominal cavities of rats, which provided a favorable environment for the dental cells to interact and develop.

After four weeks, enamel-like tissue formed on the scaffolds.

A report on the technique was expected to be presented March 23 at a meeting of the International Association for Dental Research.

Read more: cbc.ca

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