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The Antennae

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered rich deposits of neon, magnesium, and silicon in a pair of colliding galaxies known as The Antennae. The deposits are located in vast clouds of hot gas. When the clouds cool, say scientists, a great number of stars and planets should form. These results may foreshadow the fate of our own Milky Way and ...

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TheAntennae
Chemistry

Table Salt - It's All In The Ions

All elements are defined by their individual atoms, which are in turn identified by the number of protons in the nucleus of each atom. Since protons are carriers of positive electrical charge, there ... Continue reading

TableSaltItsAllInTheIons
Medicine

Encephalitis and Meningitis

Encephalitis and meningitis are inflammatory diseases of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord and are caused by bacterial or viral infections. Viral meningitis is sometimes called ... Continue reading

EncephalitisandMeningitis
Biology

What's Blindsight?

Some people become blind after suffering an injury to their primary visual cortex at the back of their brain. Since the visual processing part of their brain is damaged, they can't see. Or can they? ... Continue reading

Blindsight
Biology

The Great Permian Extinction

More than 250 million years ago, when the current continents formed a single land mass, known as the Pangea and there was one super-ocean called Panthalassa, something extraordinary happened. Nearly ... Continue reading

PermianExtinction

What Are Stem Cells?

StemCellsWhen an egg is fertilized by a sperm cell, it quickly becomes a single cell from which all cells of the body-to-be will be created. This 'mother of all cells' is what biologists call a totipotent stem cell, meaning that it has unlimited creative power. Within a few days, the totipotent stem cell begins a process of division into a hollow sphere (a blastocyst) containing a slightly more specialized level of stem cells. These stem cells are known as pluripotent, meaning that they are capable of generating most, but not all, the cells of the developing organism - all the cells except for the placenta and other supporting tissues a developing fetus would need to survive in the uterus.

From the pluripotent stem cells, further levels of increasingly specialized cells are created, leading ultimately to each individual cell of the body. Some types of stem cell continue to exist in the body after birth - indeed, throughout the life of the organism. Blood stem cells, for example, generate new red blood cells, white blood cells, and blood platelets ad infinitum. They cannot generate all the types of cell in the body, so they are not totipotent or pluripotent, but they are still multipotent, capable of generating a number of different kinds of cells of a general type, such as blood or skin.