Test-Tube Babies Start Inside Mom, Thanks to Anecova Silicon Womb

Human trials are about to begin on a new device that goes inside a woman's body for up to four days, holding fresh IVF embryos in place like an artificial fallopian tube. Developed by Swiss company Anecova, the 5mm-long "silicon womb" is pierced with hundreds of 40-micron holes, the better to expose the embryos to the natural environment of the uterus, rather than having to be developed artificially in an incubator. Scientists hope this will improve the chances of successful pregnancy from in-vitro fertilization.

Billiards

The Heart-Warming Story About A Little Girl & Her Goldfish

Sperm damage 'passed to children'

Sperm defects caused by exposure to environmental toxins can be passed down the generations, research suggests. Scientists say fathers who smoke and drink should be aware they are potentially not just damaging themselves, but also their heirs. Tests on rats showed sperm damage caused by exposure to garden chemicals remained up to four generations later. The US study was presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It suggests that a father's health plays a greater role in the health of future generations than has been thought. A team from the University of Idaho in Moscow tested the effects of a hormone-disrupting fungicide chemical called vinclozolin on embryonic rats. The chemical altered genes in the sperm, including a number associated with human prostate cancer. Rats exposed to it show signs of damage and overgrowth of the prostate, infertility and kidney problems.The defects were also present in animals four generations on. The scientists admitted that the rats were exposed to very high levels of vinclozolin.

But they argued that their work shows that once toxins cause defects in sperm they can be passed down the generations. Professor Cynthia Daniels, from Rutgers University in New Jersey, said men who drank a lot of alcohol had been shown to have increased rates of sperm defects; and nicotine from tobacco found its way into seminal fluid as well as blood.Professor Daniels said: "We need to open up our eyes and look at the evidence. "My advice to young couples would be moderation. Substances that have an impact on reproduction are often also carcinogenic. "If I was a young man I would not drink very heavily and not smoke two packets of cigarettes a day while I was trying to conceive a child."

Professor Neil McClure, a fertility expert at Queen's University Belfast, UK, said the DNA in sperm cells was more tightly packed than in other cells, and so, to some extent, was protected from damage. However, once sperm cell DNA was damaged, it had no mechanism by which to effect repairs. He said: "There is no doubt that if you smoke like a chimney or drink vast amounts of alcohol it will result in sperm damage, and probably damage in the DNA of the sperm. "My advice to any man trying for a baby would be to lead as healthy a lifestyle as possible."

The Great Indian "i-store" rush

There's a huge push in India right now by Reliance Digital to open 60 iStores across the nation's top twenty cities. The iStores will sell Apple products exclusively, and carry the full line, from consumer products to pro hardware.

Expect to see all sixty stores up and running within the next 18 months. We wonder how the interior design will look, and if it will resemble official Apple Stores.

If you visit one of these stores, please let us know! We'll be happy to share your photos and stories. More so, because we are an exclusive "Apple" clinic!

Aquafit Gymnasium-Spa Hybrid is Watery, Ironic

Apparently, sitting at your chair all day whilst blogging about gadgets is not supposed to be so good for your health. That's where Dimension One Spas' Aquafit 19 Dual Temp comes in. The $40,000 gymnasium/spa allows users to have a full, underwater cardiovascular workout by using the included rower, tricep pull down and simulated jogger or swimming facilities.

The exercise area maintains the water temperature at levels that are ideal for the body's thermoregulation during an intensive workout, whilst the spa area heats up to get things steamy and soothing. Additionally, the spa area is positioned so close to the gymnasium portion of the tub, you won't have to expend any more calories than is necessary to get there, which is kind of ironic for a gym. So ironic, it's giving us muscle ache just thinking about it.

A step towards three-parent babies?

Scientists at the University of Newcastle are developing a technique that they hope will enable women with a group of devastating hereditary illnesses - known as mitochondrial diseases - to have children without passing on their genetic disorders. Because the method involves sperm from one man and two eggs from different women it has been dubbed by the press as the creation of 'three-parent' embryos.
Mitochondria are tiny structures that provide cells with energy. Every cell in the body has between 1000 and 10,000 mitochondria. Whilst the vast majority of a cell's DNA is contained inside its nucleus, a handful of genes are found in the mitochondria - just 37 genes out of around 25,000 genes in total. Mutations in mitochondrial genes cause a range of disorders that affect one person in every 6,500 and include fatal liver failure, stroke-like episodes, blindness, deafness, diabetes and forms of epilepsy and muscular dystrophy. Sperm do not contribute any mitochondria to the embryo (as they are all present within the tail, which falls off after fertilisation) and, consequently, children inherit all their mitochondrial genes from their mother.
The Newcastle researchers are working on a technique that takes the DNA from the nucleus of a newly-fertilised egg, and transplants it into an egg from another woman which has had all of its nuclear DNA removed. The resulting embryo would have mitochondria from one woman, but its remaining 25,000 or so genes would come from the mother and father who provided the fertilised egg. In this way, a mother could have a child without passing on her faulty mitochondrial genes.
The work is as yet unpublished, but at a recent scientific meeting of the researchers reported successful transplants in ten embryos, which were then grown in the laboratory for five days before they were destroyed. However, all these experiments were done by exchanging DNA between two 'failed' embryos left-over from IVF, which have abnormal amounts of nuclear DNA and so are inappropriate for implantation. It is not yet known if the technique will work with healthy embryos and eggs, although experiments in mice have been successful. Team leader Professor Patrick Chinnery said: 'there are still a number of scientific issues we've got to resolve, in terms of efficiency, and in terms of whether we can do this in eggs rather than in other embryos'.