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Researchers Enable Mice To Exhale Fat
destinyland writes "UCLA researchers made a startling discovery: genetic alterations enable mice to convert fat into carbon dioxide.
Mammals digest fats differently than bacteria — so researchers introduced bacteria genes into mouse livers, and 'the excess fat was literally released into thin air.' (One researcher calls it 'an unconventional idea which we borrowed from plants and bacteria.') The research potentially could help treat serious medical conditions including diabetes, heart disease — and of course, obesity."
It's a stunning and amazing medical breakthrough -- finally, people don't have to be fat! In other news, eating a well balanced diet, excercise, seen sulking in the corner for not being hip enough. Dr. House overheard saying "It's stuff like this that makes me want to not dangle anymore."
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
So what happens when you're thin enough? How do you avoid going down to dangerously low amounts of stored fat?
Do genetic modifications go away on their own over time, or do they propagate as the affected cells divide?
The purpost of fat is to ensure an organism survives when there is not enough food, and in worst case, during famine.
During most of the history of the human species, famine has been inevitable and greatly lethal.
Those humans who can best gain the most fat in the shortest amount of time, are most likely to survive - they are superior than the naturally thin people who are the first to die during famine.
'Curing' people of the ability to gain fat would be severely detremental to the species ability to survive as a whole, outside of specific cases as stated in the article, such as disease or specific genetic conditions.
I would wonder if some people already have these organisms as part of their bacteria in their body. If these organisms that convert fat to CO2 were already present in your digestive system, you could just get them to do the work for you.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I inhale cheeseburgers, I guess it would only be right to exhale them too.
One of the fundamental principles of the fast food industry is that the "food" shouldn't require any chewing. Obvious, but only after some careful thought, but wildly successful.
The generic cheeseburger you inhale is constructed from greasy patties of frozen ground meat, a bun that lightly resembles bread, a thick viscous layer of an edible oil product colored to resemble cheese, and copious amounts of additional vegetable oil mixtures (using various combinations of egg products, corn syrup, and flavourings, colour, and gum) that keeps everything soft and wet.
Substitute one or more of the ingredients with the real or fresh versions, and I suspect you won't be able to inhale. Whether chewing is a feature, I'll leave to you to decide.
Scientists just figured this out?
I eat a varied and balanced diet which does include a portion of fat.
I am not putting on weight.
When I cycle to work, where does the carbon dioxide that I exhale come from?
j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
Back when there was significantly more CO2 in the atmosphere different forms of life predominated, and we have evolved during the relatively oxygen-rich period which followed the lengthy period of sequestration of CO2 in trees and underground petroleum.
The CO2 we have been increasingly releasing for the last century and a half is not counterbalanced at all because the number of woody trees which absorb CO2 is being significantly cut back at the same time.
The combination of these factors causes more heat energy to remain in the atmosphere, which means more kinetic energy. Thus we should see an increase in extreme weather, plus an increase in the amount of heat flowing to the polar regions.
As CO2 and heat increase there will be a corresponding increase in the amount of gaseous H2O in the atmosphere, which is also a heat-trapping molecule. Thus we should expect to see an increase in the number of hurricanes and large-scale storms.
What is most feared is a runaway greenhouse effect, in which there simply isn't enough re-uptake of CO2 to counterbalance the domino effect, thus heat and kinetic energy keep going up and up. Ocean levels will most certainly rise, and at an increasing rate, which will lead to the increasing loss of coastal regions, large-scale loss of property, displacement of millions of people throughout the world, and various related crises.
Certainly no one needs to be alarmist, but it is clear that we need to find some solution to regain a reasonable balance, and to do what we can right now. And the most effective thing we can do to slow this trend is alter our behavior and encourage others to do the same.
-- thinkyhead software and media
Humans can already metabolize fat into CO2. This is called aerobic metabolism... high school biology anyone? Every time you breathe out, that CO2 is coming from carbohydrates, fat, and proteins.
The article said nothing about breaking down fat to CO2 without providing caloric energy. Now that would be impressive. This is just shunting fatty acids down a different metabolic pathway, that ends in the same product. Physics dictates that they still have to release the same amount of energy to get there, and guess what that energy is? Calories!
Whine all you want about how New York having a cool day means the world isn't getting warmer; when the corn crops start dying from the longer (and hotter) growing season, you'll be more than "a bit thinner".
Markets don't lie.
Food prices falling across the board
Says to me that there's not a corn shortage.
This is my sig.
Altering the genetic make up of an organism is now a form of teaching? :-)
Yeah. That'll be the f*cked-up NewSpeak they'll use on the 24-hour news drone, as they splice our children with 'obedience training'.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
With the oil/gas prices going back down from their highs last year, using corn to produce ethanol isn't cost-effective, so the artificial (non-food use) shortage is relieved.
we're going to wind up making food a lot more expensive and therefor eating less.
Uh, no. More likely those that are lower on the income scale will end up less able to afford proper nutritional foods, while those on the upper end continue to overconsume. This of course will leads to a greater divide, as nutrition is often one of the biggest bases for physical and intellectual development...
Markets don't lie.
but they are frequently mistaken.
We need a "+1 -- nice sig" moderation.
- Tons of CO released into the athmosphere.
- People learning *nothing*.
- Sugar and other too short carbohydrates without any other vital substances still being the no. 1 unhealthy stuff.
- Very likely other bad side-effects of the bacteria genes.
And all so we all can eat tons of fat.
Wow, what a... uum... great... deal!
I know something better to make people "exhale" the saturated fat* *and* the sugar:
Make them vomit vigorously, as soon as an overdose of saturated fats and short carbohydrates enters their body, without the vital substances and fibers to cope with it.
Or even better, add detector cells to the tongue.
And then watch their eating habits change all by themselves. :)
___
* Because fat all by itself is a good thing. You just should not eat a whole pound of it. ^^
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Oh, so it's you against them and the only reason you care about is what will further your struggle. Well, when you get done tilting at windmills, start looking around.
Because you don't need a car to live where you do need food. And now your lumping tarriffs in with subsidies and the farm program. They aren't the same. But I will tell you what, how about you quit buying food and eating for a month but continue buying non food products. Then when that over, tell me how you liked it (if you can). I will then tell you why.
I mean seriously, try it. If you don't understand why food is more important then manufacturing cars or computers or TVs, you will afterward.
Wow, almost two centuries and you think it is wrong. What makes you so much smarter then the generations of people and politicians who have came before you over a period of almost two hundred years? Your problem seems to be rooted in doing harm to red states, not in the programs itself.
SO now it's the fat people. Ok, I'm starting to get some insight into how your mind works. I don't believe you are right but now I see.
Yep.. But there should be very little free trade when dealing with food. There is no reason for demand to drive the price out of the reach of the poorer citizens. You may think otherwise but you are completely wrong.