Scientists Discover Compound In Baby Diapers Can Enlarge Brain Cells

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Scientists Discover Compound In Baby Diapers Can Enlarge Brain Cells

Posted by samzenpus on Monday January 19, 2015 @03:08AM from the all-the-better-to-see-you-with dept.

An anonymous reader writes with news of a breakthrough in brain imaging thanks to a compound found in diapers. "A team of researchers has discovered that a compound used in baby diapers to absorb the liquids can help enlarge the size of the brain cells for a better imaging. The scientists work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and were experimenting with new ways that could help them enlarge the brain cells for a better resolution photos. They discovered by accident that sodium polyacrylate, a compound in baby diapers can enlarge brain cells and can be used in their research. The scientists termed the new technique of enlarging the brain cells 'expansion microscopy.' This new technique will help the scientists increase the brain cells tissue samples and see it in a better image resolution."

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Jennie McCarty gets right on that - by the_skywise · 2015-01-19 03:11 · Score: 4, Funny

By putting baby diapers on her and her children's head to make them smarter.
1. Re:Jennie McCarty gets right on that - by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-19 03:24 · Score: 1
  
  We'll have to dissect her babies to know for sure.
2. Re:Jennie McCarty gets right on that - by monkeyzoo · 2015-01-19 11:36 · Score: 1
  
  I was too stoopid to learn to use the toilet, so I wore diapers for a much long time. This kemicals must be what made me growed up to be so intellygent.
3. Re:Jennie McCarty gets right on that - by davester666 · 2015-01-19 21:40 · Score: 1
  
  How drunk or high was the person when they said: "Hey, let's see what happens when we put that stuff on brain cells."
  
  --
  Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Used diapers? by PPH · 2015-01-19 03:17 · Score: 1

n/t

--
Have gnu, will travel.
Stop, just stop by Enry · 2015-01-19 03:21 · Score: 4, Insightful

Quit making these dumbass comparisons between everyday products and something scientific unless there's really something to be concerned about. Crap like this leads to people like Foodbabe telling us that the same ingredients in water are also used to degrade iron. It's true, but the fact it's true doesn't mean that water will cause us to rust.
1. Re:Stop, just stop by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-19 03:32 · Score: 1
  
  Water has always been the main reason people die.
  Think of the children!
2. Re:Stop, just stop by chad_r · 2015-01-19 04:02 · Score: 2
  
  ...Or every news site regurgitating the sound bite that "the same chemical in yoga mats is in Subway sandwiches" (which is actually in most bread, and it's hard to find bread without it). What the heck, this is also from foodbabe? Ugh, I just went to her website and I feel gross.
3. Re:Stop, just stop by wonkey_monkey · 2015-01-19 04:04 · Score: 2
  
  Quit making these dumbass comparisons between everyday products and something scientific unless there's really something to be concerned about.
  Quit flipping out over a headline without reading the summary. This is "X in Y discovered to do Z" in a scientifically useful way.
  The brain cells they're talking about are dead ones in samples, not live ones in a baby's brain.
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
4. Re:Stop, just stop by wbr1 · 2015-01-19 04:14 · Score: 1
  
  Be careful there bud. Water is known to always contain dihydrogen monoxide. This dangerous compound is needed by living creatures, but in the wrong doses can lead to low blood pressure, sunken eyes, kidney and other organ failure, spinal and brain swelling and death.
  
  --
  Silence is a state of mime.
5. Re:Stop, just stop by mysidia · 2015-01-19 04:49 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Water has always been the main reason people die.
  Dihydrogen monoxide has been maligned numerous times over the years, but the real culprit is Oxygen; DHMO is just one of the many corrupt forms that Oxygen can take.
6. Re:Stop, just stop by Lumpy · 2015-01-19 05:14 · Score: 1
  
  Di Hydrogen Monoxide is in EVERY pesticide and Chemical solution out there. IT MUST BE BANNED!
  People die from Over exposure to it constantly!
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
7. Re:Stop, just stop by Enry · 2015-01-19 06:09 · Score: 1
  
  I hear it's involved in the production of nuclear weapons. How terrible is it? Hitler was addicted to the stuff.
new meaning for the term.. by Virtucon · 2015-01-19 03:23 · Score: 4, Funny

Shit for brains.

--
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
shit for brains by AndyKron · 2015-01-19 03:33 · Score: 1

The title should have been "shit for brains".
discovered by accident by seededfury · 2015-01-19 03:34 · Score: 2

How does one get diaper mixed in with their brain cells by accident?
1. Re:discovered by accident by BarbaraHudson · 2015-01-19 03:42 · Score: 2
  
  They didn't. The chemical is used in diapers to increase absorption. No diapers were killed in the making of this experiment. Hope that clears the air :-)
  
  --
  "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
2. Re:discovered by accident by mysidia · 2015-01-19 04:53 · Score: 1
  
  The chemical is useful for its ability to hold water. I guess they're just trying to relate the fact that this is a newly-discovered use for a chemical that is already widely used for other purposes, and the availability to apply this commonplace substance to a hard problem was "hiding right under our nose".
  It's an inspiring tale that should be encouraging to would-be inventors that there are still new innovative uses waiting to be discovered for simple everyday things.
3. Re:discovered by accident by TemporalBeing · 2015-01-19 06:27 · Score: 1
  
  How does one get diaper mixed in with their brain cells by accident?
  One of the team members forgot to wash their hands after changing their kiddo's diaper.
  
  Inadvertently, they might have spread Hand-Foot-Mouth to the entire team...
  
  --
  Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
It's basically a water absorption compound by azav · 2015-01-19 03:44 · Score: 2

This compound is used in many areas where holding water is important. It's used in transport of seedlings to provide a water reservoir and keep them moist. It's used in diapers. It's used in many creative areas to absorb and hold water.

--
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
1. Re:It's basically a water absorption compound by boristdog · 2015-01-19 05:13 · Score: 1
  
  It also makes really cool fake snow.
it's interesting to note a compound's everyday use by circletimessquare · 2015-01-19 03:58 · Score: 2

the fact that someone uneducated will think uneducated things based on noting a compound's everyday use simply means that uneducated people need to educate themselves
in fact, even if we censored such notable common uses as you ask us to, uneducated people will still think stupid, dangerous, and fearful things. so what you ask us to do doesn't even provide the protection you think it does

--
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Tissue samples. not live brain by 140Mandak262Jamuna · 2015-01-19 04:05 · Score: 3, Insightful

No, it is not enlarging live brains. It enlarges the cells in tissue samples.

--
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
1. Re:Tissue samples. not live brain by The+Real+Dr+John · 2015-01-19 05:13 · Score: 1
  
  exactly, it is only being used to swell up a block of tissue that is going to be used for confocal microscopy. So they are just using the properties of sodium polyacrylate to swell the tissue block and hopefully retain the micro-architecture in order to see smaller details.
  
  --
  A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
bullshit by DJCouchyCouch · 2015-01-19 04:33 · Score: 1

I've been eating diaper liners for YEARS and I still haven't gotten any smarter.
Spread the word on Slate and Salon now! by Applehu+Akbar · 2015-01-19 04:50 · Score: 1

Get all the hipsters eating baby poop to enhance their intelligence. No GMOs or gluten!
1. Re:Spread the word on Slate and Salon now! by some+old+guy · 2015-01-19 05:05 · Score: 1
  
  They already eat hummus, should be an easy transition.
  
  --
  Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
Re:How this might be effecting babies ? by mysidia · 2015-01-19 05:04 · Score: 1

Being close contact with diapers, how this chemical might be effecting babies ?
The chemical is basically a harmless salt not too different from sodium chloride (Unless you were to start eating quantities of it), and there is not a large amount of it in a diaper, so obviously the chemical is specifically used for its beneficial affects.
Use of the chemical improves sanitary conditions and comfort for babies wearing diapers, since it reduces undesirable moisture and wetness in contact with their skin: this is a health and quality-of-life improvement and helps defend against promoting possible rashes or fungal infections of the skin by keeping the skin dryer.
In reality, the baby will be more comfortable, so they will likely be requiring a change less often, which will spare plastic from the landfills.
I think the only real alternatives would be to either use no diapers at all... monitor babies closely and make sure the diaper is changed immediately if they wet themselves in the slightest, or use porous cloth diapers.
Obviouse joke in 3..2..1.. by RogueWarrior65 · 2015-01-19 05:07 · Score: 1

Soooo....sh*t for brains?
Is this also found in adult diapers? by hax4bux · 2015-01-19 05:41 · Score: 1

Asking for a friend.
Re:it's interesting to note a compound's everyday by tlhIngan · 2015-01-19 06:25 · Score: 1

the fact that someone uneducated will think uneducated things based on noting a compound's everyday use simply means that uneducated people need to educate themselves
The problem isn't the uneducated, it's the ignorant. And especially the willfully ignorant.
The uneducated can educate themselves. The ignorant cannot, and the willfully ignorant resist attempts at education.
Is this an actual news post... by retrorogue · 2015-01-19 06:34 · Score: 1

...or just an exercise in how many times one can put "enlarge brain cells" in a single paragraph?
It's obvious to me that... by ambrose.carracho · 2015-01-19 07:26 · Score: 1

...MIT does crap research.
Re:How this might be effecting babies ? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-01-19 07:37 · Score: 1

I'm pretty sure that diapers are one of the things that definitely don't effect babies.
Diapers may not cause babies, but the mere existence of diapers (and other modern conveniences) are certainly factors that increases the desirability of effecting said baby...
Wrong End Hats by pubwvj · 2015-01-19 07:44 · Score: 1

Let me explain how it works, shit-for-brains...
Ooo... Bad.
Acrylamide monomer by synaptic · 2015-01-19 08:48 · Score: 1

Maybe unrelated, but acrylamide monomer is known to be highly toxic to the nervous system.
See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm...
Re:If you can't eat it, don't put it on your skin. by surd1618 · 2015-01-19 09:59 · Score: 2

Nonsense, malarkey, and hocus pocus. That's 5 links to articles, all of which make assertions that are not tested or are too vague to be easily testable.

"Putting chemicals on your skin is actually far worse than ingesting them.

Which chemicals? This statement could be true for some, and patently false for others. Ditto for all the stuff you said about the liver. (IANAD but I've taken biochem, so, come at me if you like)
That Dr. Hyman article is BS.... I can't believe how hard that fucking vaccine myth is to stamp out. THE RESEARCH WAS FRAUDULENT! (and abusive!)
Concerning autism and vitamin D, correlation and causation....
If I seem shrill about this, well, my brother is autistic, and I am extremely BS-averse.

"That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."
-Christopher Hitchens
Re:If you can't eat it, don't put it on your skin. by monkeyzoo · 2015-01-19 11:38 · Score: 1

Bigger brain cells -> bigger brain -> bigger smarts. So everyone should obviously PUT the diapers on their babies!
"Accident" by gwstuff · 2015-01-19 15:50 · Score: 1

> They discovered by accident that sodium polyacrylate
Looks like somebody took his/her work home, or took the baby to work and let it waddle around freely....
Not related to any risk from wearing diapers! by monkeyzoo · 2015-01-20 02:02 · Score: 1

Very misleading for people to conclude from this headline that diapers somehow pose a risk of "brain swelling" for babies! I found a New York Times article about the process the researchers used. It requires a sequence of steps that begins with a tissue sample. The scientists "infuse" the tissue with the chemical **building blocks** of the polymer (not the polymer), making sure they evenly permeate the sample. The polymer forms inside the tissue (destructively chopping it up in the process at the chemical level), and then they add water causing the polymer to swell. The polymer itself does not ever cross the cell barrier, and it can't. That is why they inject the chemical building blocks. This is not something that can happen by touching or ingesting the polymer itself.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01...
1. Re:Not related to any risk from wearing diapers! by Paul+Fernhout · 2015-01-20 02:41 · Score: 1
  
  You may well be right in this case. Probably you are. I don't know much about this specific issue. But I have heard or read from history similar reassurances saying about other things (cocaine in Coca Cola, lead in gasoline, trans fats, smoking, PCBs, MTBE, mercury, etc.) which we have now reconsidered as human health risks. Fracking was supposedly harmless; now it turns out it can cause earthquakes and pollute the groundwater...
  At the end of the excellent 1980s video series "The World of Chemisty" (in the last or second to last episode) Nobel-prize winner Roald Hoffman talks in passing about the wonders and great value of a new plastic called BPA (bisphenol A).
  http://www.learner.org/resourc...
  We now know that BPA can affect developing human brains:
  http://www.mayoclinic.org/heal...
  "Some research has shown that BPA can seep into food or beverages from containers that are made with BPA. Exposure to BPA is a concern because of possible health effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children. "
  See also:
  http://science.slashdot.org/st...
  "The number of chemicals known to be toxic to children's developing brains has doubled over the last seven years, researchers said. Dr. Philip Landrigan at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and Dr. Philippe Grandjean from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, authors of the review published Friday in The Lancet Neurology journal say the news is so troubling they are calling for a worldwide overhaul of the regulatory process in order to protect children's brains. 'We know from clinical information on poisoned adult patients that these chemicals can enter the brain through the blood brain barrier and cause neurological symptoms,' said Grandjean. 'When this happens in children or during pregnancy, those chemicals are extremely toxic, because we now know that the developing brain is a uniquely vulnerable organ. Also, the effects are permanent.'"
  Unless people actually look for these materials in human brains directly, it is hard to be 100% sure there is no way they could get into the brain somehow. Although even if they get there, to be fair, then "the dose makes the poison" and what is the effect relative to the benefits? While Roald Hoffman was not more cautious about BPA, nonetheless, modern chemistry has produced all sorts of modern wonders, and it is hard to imagine modern life without it (including safe food storage against insects and bacteria).
  Even (life saving) antibiotics are now seen as having a down side that suggests they be used more precisely and also in the context of pro-biotics and/or fermented bacteria-rich foods etc. For example:
  "How Your Gut Flora Influences Your Health"
  http://articles.mercola.com/si...
  A link from a comment there:
  "The microbiome-gut-brain axis during early life regulates the hippocampal serotonergic system in a sex-dependent manner."
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
  "Bacterial colonisation of the intestine has a major role in the post-natal development and maturation of the immune and endocrine systems. These processes are key factors underpinning central nervous system (CNS) signalling. Regulation of the microbiome-gut-brain axis is essential for maintaining homeostasis, including that of the CNS. However, there is a paucity of data pertaining to the influence of microbiome on the serotonergic system. Germ-free (GF) animals represent an effective preclinical tool to investigate such phenomena. Here we show that male GF animals have a significant elevation
  
  --
  A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
2. Re:Not related to any risk from wearing diapers! by monkeyzoo · 2015-01-20 06:37 · Score: 1
  
  I don't have a problem with a general attitude of being cautious with chemicals. I do as well. In addition to your list, there are also countless examples of feared things that were ultimately and definitively found NOT to be dangerous at all. One must use *both* prudent caution and reasonable cynicism in evaluating risks.
  What one cannot do is read a headline which is talking about a procedure used to prepare a microscope slide in a lab and jump to the conclusion that there is a danger to wearing diapers containing some material that happens to be formed in the process. Water is also used in the procedure. Should I be afraid of touching water?
  CRITICAL TO UNDERSTAND: The scientist did not apply the polymer to cells. They intentionally created the polymer INSIDE the cells.
  Silica gel (you know, the stuff in every pair of shoes that comes in a packet labeled do not eat) has a common property to the polymer described here: it absorbs water. Should I be worried that holding silica gel will make my brain swell? I hope you don't think so, because I don't have the inclination to dispel all the chemical fallacies that would be involved in that fear.
  Did you read the article I linked to? Let me reiterate the key components of the process the scientists describe that are not compatible with a misleading and fear-mongering headline:
  1) This discovery has nothing to do with research on health risks. It was a process developed in a context of intending to find a way to expand tissue samples in a laboratory for microscopic examination.
  2) The scientists apply polymer PRECURSORS to tissue samples. The POLYMER is not applied. (Already, completely different chemicals being talked about.) I would say in prudence: don't apply the polymer precursors to a wet area of your body like your mouth. ;-)
  3) As the polymer forms it chops up the cell. In a living cell, it is now dead at this point, not "swollen."
  4) The precursors are applied directly to the cells they want to examine. The precursors beginning forming polymer, which is not membrane permeable and therefore would not be able to migrate from your groin to your brain.
  5) THEN water is added so the polymer will absorb it and expand uniformly in all directions and "stretch out" the structures for microscopic examination.
  I hope you see why even applying the polymer precursors to the moist environment of your groin would not cause your brain to swell. Perhaps you could be concerned it might increase your risk of dry skin and diaper rash! Oh the horror.
3. Re:Not related to any risk from wearing diapers! by monkeyzoo · 2015-01-20 06:43 · Score: 1
  
  I hope people also notice the "brain cells" has nothing to do with this news. It just so happened the researchers were studying brain cells when they developed this technique to blow up cells. It could work equally well on any cell from bamboo stalks to chicken sperm.
4. Re:Not related to any risk from wearing diapers! by monkeyzoo · 2015-01-20 06:50 · Score: 1
  
  p>I hope you see why even applying the polymer precursors to the moist environment of your groin would not cause your brain to swell. Perhaps you could be concerned it might increase your risk of dry skin and diaper rash! Oh the horror.
  Ooops, I meant to say: "Perhaps you could be concerned the *polymer in diapers* might increase your risk of dry skin and diaper rash! Oh the horror." I wasn't referring to the precursors used in this discovery in that sentence. I still wouldn't put those on my skin for no good reason!
Re:If you can't eat it, don't put it on your skin. by wolja · 2015-01-20 10:03 · Score: 1

Nonsense, malarkey, and hocus pocus. That's 5 links to articles, all of which make assertions that are not tested or are too vague to be easily testable.

"Putting chemicals on your skin is actually far worse than ingesting them.
Which chemicals? This statement could be true for some, and patently false for others. Ditto for all the stuff you said about the liver. (IANAD but I've taken biochem, so, come at me if you like)
That Dr. Hyman article is BS.... I can't believe how hard that fucking vaccine myth is to stamp out. THE RESEARCH WAS FRAUDULENT! (and abusive!)
Concerning autism and vitamin D, correlation and causation....
If I seem shrill about this, well, my brother is autistic, and I am extremely BS-averse.

"That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."
-Christopher Hitchens
Oh I like this person. Short, sharp and surgical.
zzzing

--
Wolja Future Tombstone: Shit happened then I died