Category Archives: Immortality Medicine

Director John Boorman will be honored and screen his final film at this year's Cinequest

The thrilling, dangerous visions of British director John Boorman include some of the most distinctive films of the last half of the 20th century.

In Point Blank (1967), the rock-faced Lee Marvin prowls a pop-art California. Boorman's hit Deliverance (1972) is one of the definitive statements of American fantasies of violence. Zardoz (1974) is au courant enough to be the subject of a full-sized Burning Man effigythere, inside the Playa-clay cranium of Zardoz, a one-couch capacity theater played the 1974 film in an endless loop. Boorman's later work is just as vital: the multi-Oscar nominated Hope and Glory (1987), the ripping adventure Beyond Rangoon (1995) beat The Hunger Games to the punch and is one of Patricia Arquette's best films. Le Carre meets farce in The Tailor of Panama (2001), and the nimble, ridiculously entertaining The General (1998) is one of the finest films ever made about Ireland.

Boorman opens this year's 25th annual Cinequest film festival with Queen and Country. The festival will also honor the director, along with actress Rosario Dawson, with the Maverick Spirit Award.

Via telephone, Boorman claims this sequel to Hope and Glory will be his last film, though critics are trying to convince him otherwise. "I've been encouraged to do another oneI'm 82," he says. "I think Clint Eastwood is 84, and Manuel de Oliveira is 100-something years old. That makes me a spring chicken."

I'd swap American Sniper for Queen and Country in a fast minutediscarding Eastwood's movie-derived idea of military life in favor of the fresher, wiser anecdotes of Boorman's own stint in the National Service.

Boorman's surrogate, Bill Rohan (Callum Turner), is praying like hell not to be shipped to fight in the Korean War. On base, he deals with sardonic officers: Richard E. Grant and David Thewlis among them. Boorman being Boorman, the women in the film are loaded with personality: Dawn Rohan as Bill's wild sister and Tamsin Egerton as the self-destructive upper-class student Rohan romances.

Like Rohan, Boorman was indeed charged with "Seducing a Soldier from His Duty." "This boy was the son of Ian Mikardo, a prominent Labor MPafter having listened to my lectures, the son decided he wasn't going to go to Korea," Boorman says. "Mikardo threatened to raise the matter in Parliament. It was a big scandal."

Boorman filmed in Romania, since he couldn't find a period British Army base to shoot in; however, the riverside house at Shepperton is an existing location, not far from the spot where Boorman lived when he was a young escapee of the London Blitz. There he watched movies being filmed at the nearby studio. Seventy years later, it's by the Thames that Boorman indicates his career is closing. "At the end of Queen and Country, you see a camera winding downit's my signal to the world that this is my last movie."

After a noteworthy career in British TV, Boorman worked on a documentary on D.W. Griffith. Both Hell in the Pacific (1968) and Leo the Last (1970) were informed with a silent film aesthetic. Boorman's studies of the impact of the silent cinematic image may have helped make the penultimate shot in Deliverance powerful enough to be stolen by dozens of films. It's a surprise cut to a shocking image, after everything seems peaceful and resolved: a dead arm thrusting out of the water. The graveside finale of Carrie (1976) copied it; a last popup is now mandatory in every horror film. "Jon Voight's nightmare," Boorman explained, "is that the body of the man he killed will come to the surface and betray him. That image comes out of Arthurian legend, and I used it in Excaliburthe arm of the Lady in the Lake. This, to me, is an image of an idea coming out of the unconscious. "

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Cinequest Honors Director John Boorman

Breaking news: Love is no longer the aggresive, beating heart of February! Or at least you wouldnt know that it is just by considering the movies coming out this month. Whereas in past Februarys (Februaries?), we cinephiles have been bombarded with all manner of romantic films --- comedies, dramas, classics and otherwise --- this year Hollywood seems to have given us a much-needed break. So unless you consider Fifty Shades of Grey a love story for the ages (no judgment), there is neither a lovestruck heroine nor a grand romantic gesture in sight. It looks like we dodged a heart-shaped bullet this year...at least until March!

Speaking of Fifty Shades ---and disastrous press tours aside --- the adaptation of the megaseller E L James novel is clearly the Main Event this month. It stars Jamie Dornan as the titular tortured billionaire with decidedly dark sexual preferences, and Dakota Johnson as the girl who (literally; E L James is not known for her subtle use of metaphor) falls for him. Listen, say what you will about bickering co-stars and on-set tension between director and author, this book has sold over 100 million copies. Meaning, at the height of its popularity, a copy was being boughtevery second somewhere in the world. You cant argue with those numbers. Personally, my inner goddess and I are definitely feeling appropriately acrobatic in anticipation of the movie.

If you dont feel like being a statistic this month (or youre just waiting to watch Fifty Shades on VOD --- the movie version of the more, er, discreet eBook), you can always catch Kingsman: The Secret Service, based on the similarly titled comic series by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. If the trailer is any indication, it looks like a fun, irreverent take on the more buttoned-up Bond movies. And in case you get snowed in, there are plenty of past Books on Screen movies now available on DVD, including The Theory of Everything, Big Hero 6 and Dracula Untold. And iffff you absolutely insist on seeing something romantic this month, the Nicholas Sparks tearjerker, The Best of Me, is also available for at-home viewing.

Television remains consistent, with two new shows joining the fray: The Slap on NBC and The Book of Negroes on BET. Both are being broadcast in a limited capacity as miniseries, so get em while theyre hot. And, of course, our usual menagerie of vampires, detectives and superheroes is still at large on small screens this month.

So whether youre spending Valentines Day with your significant other or renewing your vows of forever to Netflix, theres something for everyone this month. Go out there, Books on Screen readers, and spread the love!

In Theaters:

Fifty Shades of Grey Cast:Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan Director:Sam Taylor-Johnson Distributor:Universal Pictures/Focus Features MPAA Rating:R Release Date:February 13th Based on:FIFTY SHADES OF GREY by E L James

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Anas quiet beauty, wit and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too --- but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Greys singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success --- his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family --- Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Greys secrets and explores her own dark desires.

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February 2015

Biological immortality refers to a stable or decreasing rate of mortality from cellular senescence as a function of chronological age. Various unicellular and multicellular species may achieve this state either throughout their existence or after living long enough. A biologically immortal living being can still die from means other than senescence, such as through injury or disease.

This definition of immortality has been challenged in the new Handbook of the Biology of Aging,[1] because the increase in rate of mortality as a function of chronological age may be negligible at extremely old ages, an idea referred to as the late-life mortality plateau. The rate of mortality may cease to increase in old age, but in most cases that rate is typically very high.[2] As a hypothetical example, there is only a 50% chance of a human surviving another year at age 110 or greater.

The term is also used by biologists to describe cells that are not subject to the Hayflick limit.

Biologists chose the word "immortal" to designate cells that are not subject to the Hayflick limit, the point at which cells can no longer divide due to DNA damage or shortened telomeres. Prior to Leonard Hayflick's theory, Alexis Carrel hypothesized that all normal somatic cells were immortal.[3]

The term "immortalization" was first applied to cancer cells that expressed the telomere-lengthening enzyme telomerase, and thereby avoided apoptosisi.e. cell death caused by intracellular mechanisms. Among the most commonly used cell lines are HeLa and Jurkat, both of which are immortalized cancer cell lines. HeLa cells originated from a sample of cervical cancer taken from Henrietta Lacks in 1951.[4] These cells have been and still are widely used in biological research such as creation of the polio vaccine,[5] sex hormone steroid research,[6] and cell metabolism.[7] Normal stem cells and germ cells can also be said to be immortal (when humans refer to the cell line).[citation needed]

Immortal cell lines of cancer cells can be created by induction of oncogenes or loss of tumor suppressor genes. One way to induce immortality is through viral-mediated induction of the large Tantigen,[8] commonly introduced through simian virus 40 (SV-40).[9]

Tardigrades, also known as "water bears", are highly resilient microscopic animals. They are capable of surviving extremes such as heat, radiation, drought, and the vacuum of space by going into suspended animation, where their metabolism slows to near zero and they simply wait out the harsh conditions until the environment is more favorable.

Bacteria are said to be biologically immortal, but only at the level of the colony. The two daughter bacteria resulting from cell division of a parent bacterium can be regarded as unique individuals or as members of a biologically "immortal" colony. The two daughter cells can be regarded as "rejuvenated" copies of the parent cell because damaged macromolecules have been split between the two cells and diluted. In the same way stem cells and gametes can be regarded as "immortal".

Hydras are a genus of simple, freshwater animals possessing radial symmetry and no post-mitotic cells. All hydra cells continually divide. It has been suggested that hydras do not undergo senescence, and, as such, are biologically immortal.[10] However, this does not explain how hydras are consequently able to maintain telomere lengths.

Turritopsis dohrnii, or Turritopsis nutricula, is a small (5 millimeters (0.20in)) species of jellyfish that uses transdifferentiation to replenish cells after sexual reproduction. This cycle can repeat indefinitely, potentially rendering it biologically immortal. This organism originated in the Caribbean sea, but has now spread around the world.

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Biological immortality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Immortal Jellyfish Provides Clues for Regenerative Medicine

If asking nicely doesn't work, maybe science can reveal the secrets of the immortal jellyfish!

The search for the fountain of youth has been ongoing ever since man decided that dying wasnt all that appealing. And now, it appears that this elusive holy grail has been found, albeit by a species that is not ours! So who is the lucky winner of the everlasting life sweepstakes? None other than the humble and dime-sized jellyfish known as Turritopsis nutricula. This creature has accomplished what no other biological being on our planet has ever been known to do: reverse its aging to become young again after reaching full maturity! As early as 1992, scientists had observed this phenomenon in Turritopsis and research into its secrets was ongoing. However, a recent spike in the numbers and geographic distribution of this species has once again brought it to the attention of the greater scientific community because of the many important breakthroughs we have witnessed in stem cell research in the past decade. As regenerative medicine continues to grow into the future of medicine, its clear that this tiny jellyfish may hold the answers to not only addressing the many aging-related ailments we face, but also our own mortality!

In the picture below, you can see the typical lifecycle of a jellyfish. It starts out as a larva that eventually sinks to the bottom of the ocean and attaches to a sturdy substrate and continues development into a polyp that resembles a sea plant. The polyp then matures to become a free-floating medusa, what we commonly recognize as jellyfish resembling an upside down saucer with tentacles. Not much excitement so far, but Turritopsis has put an interesting twist to this process. It undergoes development much like what Ive described above and what many of its relatives go through. However, during times of stress like a shortage of food, Turritopsis responds by beginning to reverse the process before eventually becoming a polyp again. From this point then, it can again develop into a sexually mature medusa when conditions become more favorable. Theoretically, it can repeat this process indefinitely as its cells undergo a process called transdifferentiation, a rare biological process whereby any non-stem cell can become a different cell entirely. It is still unclear whether only specific cells can only become other specific cells or if any cell in Turritopsis has the potential to become any other cell.

The typical lifecycle of a jellyfish. Exciting, isn't it?

Ok, what Turritopsis does is admittedly cool, but why would we care? As you know, here at the Hub, one of our favorite topics are stem cells and all the promise they hold for regenerating tissue and treating a vast array of ailments. And while stem cells are one avenue to reach the goal of regenerating damaged or diseased tissues, transdifferentiation is another option that can get us to that goal.

Allow me to digress here and clarify the difference between these two systems (also see the below figure). Stem cells are cells that can differentiate into any type of cell. They can be isolated from a natural state i.e. embryonic stem cells (ESCs), or created by taking already differentiated cells and coaxing them to undifferentiate into stem cells, becoming induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These stem cells can then differentiate into another type of cell. On the other hand, transdifferentiation doesnt require the middle step of becoming a stem cell. Any differentiated cell can become any other differentiated cell, given of course that it receives the correct signals.

If transdifferentiation can be harnessed in the lab, we may be able to avoid using stem cells altogether.

Much of the advances in stem cell technology have come from having an understanding of how stem cells naturally develop into different cell types. Thus, natures methods are teaching us how to manipulate stem cells and turn them into the desired cell type. And when it comes to transdifferentiation, the hope is that we will eventually be able to learn how creatures like Turritopsis skip the stem cell step and go directly from one cell type to another. As such, a recent breakthrough in using transdifferentiation for therapeutic purposes was reached in the laboratory of Dr. Deepak Srivastava of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at the University of California, San Francisco. In a recent article in the journal Cell, Dr. Srivastavas group describes their success in getting architectural cells in the heart called fibroblasts to differentiate into cardiomyocyte-like cells. In case youre rusty on your cardiac anatomy, cardiomyocytes are the cells in the heart that contract and result in it's rhythmic beating. And as Dr. Srivastava explains in the video below, it is the loss of these cells and the development of scar tissue that is debilitating to those fortunate enough to survive a heart attack. So by just switching on three genes in the fibroblasts, the researchers were able to coax them to transdifferentiate into cardiomyocyte-like cells that looked and behaved like cardiomyocytes. Taking it one step further, they implanted these cells into the hearts of mice and found that they behaved just as one would expect them to. In a previous post, we had described similar results, but in that work, the researchers had to first produce stem cells from skin cells before producing the cardiomyocytes. Clearly, Dr. Srivastava's group has taken this to another level.

So while we still have some hurdles to overcome before this type of treatment is available for use in humans, it is indeed on its way. The amazing work being done in laboratories such as Dr. Srivastavas are inching us closer to the day when perhaps well be able to not only treat various ailments, but also to turn back the hands of time and reverse our aging like Turritopsis has been able to do. A recent press release by Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) hints at some potentially new technologies they are developing to take advantage of transdifferentiation. While most of their work thus far has focused on stem cell-based treatments, its encouraging to see companies like ACT put time and money into exploring transdifferentiation-based treatments as well. Sure everyone is working to get to the same goal, but there may be more than one way to get there!

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Immortal Jellyfish Provides Clues for Regenerative ...

[Immortal Technique] Hypocrites, hookers, sex offenders Y'all niggaz wanna be pimps and players? This ain't 1997 nigga

I'd rather be rich and unhappy than broke and miserable Cause the game don't give a FUCK if you lyrical And that's pitiful, so my position is pivotal You can hate me all you like but you worship the principle I inspire revolution, the government's not invincible Vietnam to Venezuela, trick knowledge, they pimpin you All up in the hood like McDonald's and liquor Selling AIDS medicine, when we know you got the cure nigga (woo!) You leery of conspiracy theory but hear me Throw a business perspective, it makes more sense clearly Cause moreover, that's what we go to war over And numbers don't lie unless we do Bush and Gore over Free markets make money disingenuously But I invest in agriculture, biochemistry Smart nigga from the hood, pussy, what type of crime is that? But exec's are like, "You from Harlem? Where your diamonds at?" Stupid

[Mojo] Can't dodge the game If you lookin for the money or the fame (oh-ohh) The players and the rules ain't changed (oh no) But see we tryin to leave a name So we're turnin out

[Immortal Technique] Yeah, this is how pimps get pimped and players get played Rich people get robbed and, broke niggaz paid New York, London, Chicago, Philly and L.A. Miami, D.C., B-more and out in the Bay

[Mojo] We're tearin it out of the frame See we deserve to stake that claim If we didn't it's a cryin shame What we're concerned about is how to turn it out

[Immortal Technique] Show me a pretty girl, with the world stuck to her And I bet you there's a brother that's tired of fuckin her Lots of niggaz girls is someone else's one night stand I probably made some bitches nervous listenin with they man (ha ha) And if that offends somebody, I'm sorry, fuck you! What you think, revolutionaries don't like to fuck too? You just gotta beware of dangerous coochie Cover ya head like a kufi, some rappers think that they live in a movie Until they get herpes or clap from a groupie And I don't need to shout you out, nigga you know who you be Look, most people are only players cause they got played And have not, let go of that, shit since the 7th grade Yeah you got your heart broke, life sucks, doesn't it? But you shouldn't fuck up someone else's life because of it Someone did your mother like that, that's why you fatherless Before jail or racist cops, that's what the problem is

[Mojo] Recognize the game See who's the one to place that blame We gettin trapped in a cycle of pain With a generation headed down the drain Time we turn it out

[Immortal Technique] This is how pimps get pimped and players get played Beautiful women get, cheated on and gangstas sprayed Jersey, Detroit, Denver, Phoenix, Atlanta Texas, Vegas, Seattle and fuckin Louisiana

[Mojo] Regardless of money you payin Just spendin, hold a watch and a chain But can't offer your children a thang What the hell is goin on in your brain? We gon' turn it out

[Immortal Technique] Yeah, I'm not a crack rapper, I'm not a backpacker (ha ha ha) I'm not a wack rapper, moonlighting as a bad actor I treat labels like the projects, cause I'm a hater (what!) Go to the Sony building and piss in the elevator Cater to hustlers, crooks and cheap smugglers Bootleg my own album, to reach customers (yeah) Every city, state and country, the hood love me Even Aborigines, in Australia bump me They say underground fans are all the color of talcum But who the fuck you think buy 50 and Jay albums? Who the fuck you think made Snoop and Dre platinum? Call up any major record label and ask 'em But there's some, devils in disguise in hip-hop that belong at Republican fundraisers with Kid Rock (bitch!) I hope one of my fans has one of your kids shot And blames it on Acid, Prozac and Slipknot You a pussy actin hard like a bitch cop I'll drop you to the floor like a reverse wristlock Eat your food and shit on you, like a highway pit stop And make, revolutionaries out of kids that used to flip rocks The government, pimped 9/11 to go to Iraq And history, repeats itself right on track (how?) First as a tragedy, and then the comedy begins (why?) Cause it's funny, motherfuckers don't see it come around again

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IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE LYRICS - Reverse Pimpology

Immortals are a group of fictional characters seen in the movies and series of the Highlander franchise. Since they are immune to disease and stop aging after becoming Immortal, they can live forever and they only die when they are beheaded.

The Immortals were first introduced in Highlander in 1986. They were created by script writer Gregory Widen who, according to Bill Panzer, producer of the Highlander franchise, "was a student at film school, and he wrote this as his writing class project. (...) He was apparently travelling through Scotland on his summer vacation and he was standing in front of a suit of armor, and he wondered, 'What would it be like if that guy was alive today?' And that's where everything fell into place the idea that there are Immortals and they were in conflict with each other, leading secret lives that the rest of us are unaware of."[1]

In the Highlander universe, the origin of the Immortals is unknown. Panzer states, "We don't know where they come from. Maybe they come from the Source."[2] It is not known yet what the Source actually is. An attempt to explain the origin of the Immortals was made in the theatrical version of Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), which revealed that Immortals are aliens from the planet Zeist. Yet this was edited out of the director's cut of the film made in 1995, Highlander II: The Renegade Version, in which the Immortals are from Earth, but from a distant past. Neither of the two versions is mentioned in either later movies or the television series.

In either version of Highlander II, Immortals themselves do not know where they come from or for what purpose they exist. In Highlander, the Immortal mentor Ramrez, when asked by newly Immortal Connor MacLeod about their origins, answers, "Why does the sun come up? Or are the stars just pinholes in the curtain of night? Who knows?" In Highlander: Endgame, protagonist Connor MacLeod says, "We are the seeds of legend, but our true origins are unknown. We simply are." In the television series episode "Mountain Men", protagonist Duncan MacLeod expresses the same ignorance when he tells Caleb Cole, a fellow Immortal, "Whatever gods made you and me... made us different," and his next line, deleted from the episode, has him say, "They're just having a little fun."[3]

Wherever they come from, the Highlander franchise assumes that there have always been Immortals on Earth, well before the beginning of civilization. In Highlander, Ramrez's narrative starts, "From the dawn of time we came; moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives..." and in Highlander: Endgame, Connor's narrative says, "In the days before memory, there were the Immortals. We were with you then, and we are with you now."

The Immortals do not live as a united people on a territory of their own, but are scattered around the world and across history. The only bond between them are oral traditions called the Rules transmitted from teacher to student.[4] The creator of the Rules is unknown. The Rules are never enumerated, like a body of laws, but they are quoted according to the circumstances. They are taught to newborn Immortals by Immortal mentors called First Teachers (see below). The main Rules are:

Creative Consultant David Abramowitz says, "When you do a show like this [Highlander: The Series], what you do is you make up a lot of it as you go along. The fans used to ask, 'Do you know all the rules from the beginning?' and it's just like in life: You don't know any of the rules. You make them up as you go along and you try your best to be consistent and so that no one turns around, and says, 'Wait a minute, you're cheating!' Because that's one thing we didn't want to do. We didn't want to ever cheat."[5]

The Rules dictate that all Immortals are to fight and behead each other until only one of them remains. As Ramrez reminds Connor MacLeod, "If your head comes away from your neck, it's over."[4] This concept of Immortals beheading each other to be the "last man standing" is referred to as "the Game" and is summarized in the signature Highlander motto, "In the End, there can be only one."[4] As a result, Immortals who live long enough develop strong fighting skills, usually transmitted from teacher to student, as Ramrez did with Connor in Highlander.[4] Most Immortals can fight with several kinds of weapons (axe,[6]sickle,[7]machete,[8]mace,[9] etc.), but the most common is the sword. Consequently, Immortals are usually very fond of their weapons, and almost always have them handy. The script of the Highlander: The Series pilot episode "The Gathering" says about Duncan MacLeod: "Seemingly out of nowhere MacLeod lifts a beautiful Samurai sword. We can see that it is as familiar to him as a .38 Police Special would be to a cop."[10] When he gives a similar sword to Immortal Felicia Martins, Duncan tells her, "Take good care of it. Make it a part of you. It may be the only friend you have." She later breaks the sword in a fight with Duncan, showing neglect of the sword and henceforth demonstrating the student-teacher relationship throughout the series.[11]

The Rules also dictate that when one challenges another to combat, the two Immortals are supposed to duel one-on-one. For example, in "The Gathering", Slan Quince challenges Duncan MacLeod then gets challenged by Connor MacLeod at the same time. He protests to them both: "Not two on one!", Connor MacLeod answers, "Thanks, Slan. I know the rules. You and me. Now!"[12] This does not always happen and battles may be unfair, cheating is usually a sign of an evil Immortal. Examples of cheating include the group of Immortals who served under Immortal Jacob Kell in Highlander: Endgame, Slan Quince's modified sword which fires a dagger from its hilt,[12] and Zachary Blaine keeping a gun to slow down his adversaries.[13] If the Rules are interpreted strictly, once two Immortals begin dueling, no outside interference is permitted, even to save a friend or innocent. For example, Duncan warns Richie that if he engages the vengeful Annie Devlin or the relentless Mako in a duel, Duncan will not permit himself to intervene.[14][15] However there is also a way around the one-on-one rule that even good Immortals have been known to invoke. The Quickening that the winning Immortal receives at the end of a fight is extremely draining, and leaves the recipient unable to protect themselves, allowing another Immortal an easy kill. Therefore some Immortals will travel in pairs or groups to discourage challenges, or will attack an opponent in pairs; while one fights, the other will await the outcome to take revenge if necessary.

The Immortals play the Game in accordance with their personalities. Some, like Slan Quince, go head hunting full-time;[16] some others, like Methos, only fight when they are challenged, to defend their head (which seems to be rather common with extremely old Immortals). Immortals are free to play the Game or not and some chose to "retire" for various reasons. Duncan MacLeod temporarily retires in 1872 because he is tired of death after his wife and adopted son are murdered.[12] Some Immortals, like the pacifist Darius and the epicurean John Durgan, even attempt to retire from the game completely.[17][18]Darius, who was a great general in Late Antiquity, retires permanently because he turned his back on war.[17] Some retired Immortals chose to get on with their life without carrying a sword, like Grace Chandel,[8] but they are in particular danger of losing their heads. A safe option for Immortals who wish to retire from the Game is to live on Holy Ground. However, this leaves them vulnerable to the Hunters.

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Immortal (Highlander) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today I found out there was once a woman who had immortal cells. These immortal cells have multiplied to the point that if you were to weigh all of them that live today, theyd weigh about 50 million metric tons, which is about as much as 100 Empire State Buildings.

So who was this woman and why are scientists keeping about 50 million metric tons of her cells supplied with fresh nutrients so they can live on? The woman was Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cells have been essential in curing polio; gene mapping; learning how cells work; developing drugs to treat cancer, herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, Parkinsons disease, AIDS The list goes on and on and on. If it deals with the human body and has been studied by scientists, odds are, they needed and used Henriettas immortal cells somewhere along the way. Her cells were even sent up to space on an unmanned satellite to determine whether or not human tissue could survive in zero gravity.

Go to just about any cell culture lab in the world and youll find billions of Henriettas cells stored there. Whats unique about her cells is that, not only do they never die, in contrast to normal human cells which will die after a few replications, but her cells can also live and replicate just fine outside of the human body, which is also unique among humans. Give her cells the nutrients they need to survive and they will live and replicate along forever, apparently (almost 60 years and counting since the first culture was taken). They can even be frozen for literally decades and later thawed and they will go right on replicating.

Before her cells were discovered and widely cultured, it was nearly impossible for scientists to reliably experiment on cells and get meaningful results. Cell cultures that scientists would try to study would weaken and die very quickly outside the human body. Her cells gave scientists, for the first time, a standard that they could use to test things on. Even better, her cells can survive being shipped in the mail just fine, so scientists across the globe can all use the same standard from which to test against.

Henrietta Lacks herself was an impoverished black woman who died on October 4th, 1951 of cervical cancer at the age of just 31 years old. It was during getting her cancer treated that a doctor at Johns Hopkins took a sample of her tumor without her knowledge or consent and sent it over to a colleague of his, Dr. George Gey; Dr. Gey had been trying for 20 years, unsuccessfully, to grow human tissues from cultures. A lab assistant there, Mary Kubicek, discovered that Henriettas cells, unlike normal human cells, could live and replicate outside the body.

Henrietta died of uremic poisoning, in the segregated hospital ward for blacks, about eight months after being diagnosed with cervical cancer; never knowing that her cells would become one of the most vital tools in modern medicine and would spawn a multi-billion dollar industry where her replicated cells would be bought and sold by the billions.

She was survived by her husband and five children, the surviving members of which still to this day live in poverty (one who is homeless on the streets of Baltimore) and were long ignorant of the importance of Henriettas cells to modern medicine.

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There Was Once a Woman Who Had Immortal Cells

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What happens in the brain when you seereally seea friend's smile or scowl

MICHAEL WOLOSCHINOW

The serial number of a human specimen is the face, that accidental and unrepeatable combination of features. Milan Kundera, Immortality,1988

Faces are the glue that holds us together and that gives us our identity. All of us but the visually impaired and blind are experts at recognizing people's identity, gender, age and ethnicity from looking at their faces. First impressions of attractiveness or competence take but a brief glimpse of somebody's face. Newly born infants already tend to fixate on faces. This bias also turns up in art. Paintings and movies are filled with faces staring at the viewer. Who can forget the endless close-ups of the feuding husband and wife in Ingmar Bergman's Cimmerian masterpiece Scenes from a Marriage?

Because recognizing a face is so vital to our social lives, it comes as no surprise that a lot of real estate in the cerebral cortexthe highly convoluted region that makes up the bulk of our brainis devoted to a task crucial to processing faces and their identity. We note whether someone looks our way or not. We discern emotional expressions, whether they register joy, fear or anger. Indeed, functional brain imaging has identified a set of adjacent regions, referred to as the fusiform face area (FFA), that are situated on the left and the right sides of the brain, at the bottom of the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The FFA turns up its activity when subjects look at portraits or close-ups of faces or even when they just think about these images.

Two just published studies of the brain's visual networks, including the FFA, enlarge what we know about the physical basis of face perception. Both explore the unique access to the brain afforded by patients whose epileptic seizures have proved resistant to drugs. A surgical treatment finds the locations in the brain where the hypersynchronized activity that characterizes a seizure begins before spreading from its point of origin to engulf one or sometimes both hemispheres. If a single pointa focus where the seizure beginscan be found, it can be removed. After this procedure, a patient usually has significantly fewer seizuresand some remain seizure-free. To triangulate the location of the focus, neurosurgeons insert electrodes into the brain to monitor electrical activity that occurs during a seizure.

This clinical setup is the starting point for these two related but quite different studies that provide fascinating new details about whether the brain, like a camera, captures a literal rendition of a face or whether that image is synthesized in the brain by neurons in the cortex.

Prez 42 Morphs into Prez 43 To describe the first experiment, it is best to re-create what happened to the subjects. Keep your eyes steady on the red square in the top panel of the figure at the right for a fraction of a minute. Out of the corner of your eyes, you will see Bill Clinton on the left and his successor on the right. Now quickly shift your gaze to the bottom red square and note what you see. Don't hesitate. Just go for it! Most people see George W. Bush in the image on the left and his predecessor on the right. Yet when you compare the two photographs, you will realize that they are the same, a morphed image of the two presidents. Call this hybrid Clintush, the 42nd and a half president. This illusion is an instance of a general class of phenomena, called sensory adaptations, that are a hallmark of the mind. As you stare at the face, the neuronal mechanisms supporting its perception undergo a process of recalibration. The longer you stare at the same image, the more it changes. So when you look for a while at Clinton and then quickly glance at Clintush, you will perceive Bush, although this illusory perception quickly dies away, and the picture becomes ambiguous again.

How do the myriad nerve cells that make up the visual brain respond to such images? Neurons early on, say, in the eye, will respond to the chiaroscuro patterns of the photographs no matter what the brain the eye is attached to sees. That is, they register an image of the outside world. But somewhere in the upper reaches of the brain, there must be neurons that actively construct what the mind's eye sees when looking at Clintush. And depending on circumstances, that can be a picture of Bush or of Clinton.

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The Face Is An Entryway to The Self

By Lisa M. Krieger lkrieger@mercurynews.com

The moment will come, we know, when we're whisked off life's stage.

But when? It's a mystery that has haunted humans since the dawn of civilization. If it's soon, we can cancel that dental appointment, quit the job and take a dream vacation. If not, plan for decades of decrepitude.

For me, a clue -- perhaps -- arrived in my e-mail from a Menlo Park company, Telomere Diagnostics. Its test measures the length of a protective cap, called a telomere, at the end of each strand of DNA, the genetic blueprint of life.

My telomeres are shrinking right now. So are yours. Every time a cell divides, its telomeres shorten until they reach a critical length, and the cell dies. Their shrinking serves as a kind of clock that counts off a cell's life span. They tell us: Time's running out.

These tiny telomeres are so important to human biology that their discovery earned three American scientists the 2009 Nobel Prize.

So I leapt at the chance to have my telomeres measured -- and get paid $50 per test -- in Telomere Diagnostics' yearlong study to identify normal telomere lengths and rates of change.

A telomere test is not yet -- and will likely never be -- life's crystal ball. There are other theories to explain aging, such as damaged cell membranes and mutated DNA.

But a fast-growing body of research is finding that telomere length in leukocytes, the white blood cells of the immune system, reliably predicts age-related disease -- and can be affected by genetics, chronic stress and health behaviors, such as exercise and diet.

Since then, several testing companies have been founded by respected scientists, such as Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn of UC San Francisco and George M. Church, director of Harvard University's Molecular Technology Group.

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Testing for mortality: Why I measured my telomeres. Should you?

They are sons of immigrants. One's Italian surname ends with a familiar vowel. The other's Polish name ends with an equally familiar "ski." Forever sons of immigrants, and they embrace that birthright with all their being.

They, too, are the godfathers of college and USA basketball. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and UConn women's coach Geno Auriemma are revered and envied, placed on the ultimate treadmill where even the greatest NCAA and Olympic championships are met with the stern notion they have merely broken even.

As Krzyzewski landed his historic 1,000th college victory Sunday against St. John's at Madison Square Garden, Auriemma was notching No. 897 in Cincinnati. And while the Y chromosome may separate their players and 113 victories separate their resumes, Auriemma found a common thread in their pursuits of coaching immortality.

Their mothers.

Emily Krzyzewski and Marsiella Auriemma.

"Listening to Mike talk all these years, whenever I've had an opportunity to be around him, he references his mom a lot," Auriemma said. "Coach K is going to go down as a great team-builder. That's how I see Mike, as a great, great team-builder. It's a reflection of going to West Point, obviously, using a lot of the methods they use there.

"The similarity I see is the huge influence my mom had on me and his mom had on him. It has given us a sense of compassion for people. From an X's and O's standpoint, I don't think coaches are that much different, separating one from another at the highest level. But in terms of building teams and growing young men, I don't know that anybody has done it better than he has."

Krzyzewski, 67, becomes the first Division I men's coach to reach 1,000 victories. There was a time before expanded schedules added more W's, before advanced medicine and multi-million dollar contracts led to longer careers, when 1,000 seemed impossible.

"I think Mike is looked upon as the best coach in modern basketball," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, second behind Coach K with 962 victories, told Syracuse.com columnist Bud Poliquin. "John Wooden is in a class by himself. I think everybody realizes that. But I think it's understood that Mike is the best coach other than John Wooden to coach basketball. I think that's clear. I think everybody believes that. He's recognized as the face of college basketball."

"If John Wooden was the coach of that generation, Mike might be the coach of our generation," Auriemma said. "Very rarely has there been the perfect coach at the perfect place to do as close a perfect job as you can for as long as he has done it. Add in all his USA Basketball stuff, to sustain it for this long, I think he represents the way every coach would want to do it if they could."

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It's Easy For Geno Auriemma To Get To Root Of Coach K's Success