First stem-cell therapy approved for medical use in Europe

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This treatment will only be allowed under carefully defined conditions, however, so that the outcomes can be carefully monitored to see if the treatment works and doesnt have any unexpected side-effects.

Stem cells can act as a repair system for the body.

Limbal stem cells are located in the eye at the border between the cornea the clear front part of the eye - and the sclera the white of the eye.

Physical or chemical burns can cause loss of these stem cells, resulting in limbal stem cell deficiency, LSCD, a condition that is estimated to affect about 3.3 out of 100,000 people in the European Union and around 650 people in Britain.

Symptoms include pain, sensitivity to light, inflammation, excessive blood vessel growth, clouding of the cornea, and eventually blindness.

In LSCD the limbal stem cells become so diminished that they eyes can no longer make new cells to repair damage.

The new treatment takes a small sample of the patients healthy cornea, removes the stem cells and grows them until there are sufficient numbers to put back into the eye. The cells themselves then repair the damage.

Moorfields Eye Hospital in London has successfully treated around 20 people with Holocar so far in trials.

Prof Chris Mason, from University College London, told the BBC: "This move would enable far more people to access it, you could now prescribe this."

The EMA decision to approve Holoclar will now be sent to the European Commission for market authorization. It will then be up to Nice to decide whether to approve the therapy for use on the NHS.

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First stem-cell therapy approved for medical use in Europe

A Collection of Russell Brand Interviews On Meditation And Spirituality – Video

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A Collection of Russell Brand Interviews On Meditation And Spirituality
I have compiled a number of Russell #39;s best interviews where he talks about the benefits of Transcendental Meditation and how it has impacted his own life. Find us on Facebook : https://www.faceboo...

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A Collection of Russell Brand Interviews On Meditation And Spirituality - Video

Stunning, seductive Sri Lanka lures with rich cultural heritage

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Women sashay past, saris fluttering and hips swaying rhythmically to the thumping drums. The high-pitched whining of a wind instrument draws me like the call of the Pied Piper. I'm swept along by the crowd of spiritual devotees circling a massive white Stupa at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka's Cultural Triangle. The region, in the centre of the island, was the seat of two powerful kingdoms, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. It's the place to visit for statues, relics, ruins and to soak up Sri Lanka's days of glory.

There's an air of mystery around the Cultural Triangle and although more than 2000 years have passed, I can still feel the seductive tug of power from a long-gone kingdom that was once great.

The sacred city of Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura was established as Sri Lanka's first capital in 377BC by King Pandukabhaya and remained the capital until the 12th century AD.

White bell-shaped Stupas, some 60 metres high, soar towards the sky and are almost as impressive as Egypt's pyramids or Myanmar's pagodas. But unlike the pagodas, these Stupas and Dagobas of Anuradhapura are mound-like structures filled with Buddhist relics.

Buddhism has influenced the kingdom's culture, laws, and rule so it's not surprising that one of the main attractions at Anuradhapura is the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi tree, a sacred fig tree believed to have been planted from a cutting of the Sri Maha Bodhi tree in Bodhi Gaya in India where Buddha attained enlightenment.

It's obvious - from the stream of devotees offering flowers, prayers and chanting around the tree - that this is the drawcard.

The tree was planted in 288BC and part of its supernatural mystique is that it is believed to be the oldest tree planted by man.

Ancient Polonnaruwa

Another ancient capital, Polonnaruwa, was the island's seat of power during the 11th and 12th centuries. The Polonnaruwa era was a period of engineering and construction. Shrines and Stupas were made of brick and temples were built for Hindu gods.

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Stunning, seductive Sri Lanka lures with rich cultural heritage

Minecraft Mapstravaganza! Crew Space Station, Pixel Land and Parkour Race! – Video

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Minecraft Mapstravaganza! Crew Space Station, Pixel Land and Parkour Race!
Welcome to Minecraft Mapstravaganza, A series where we play your user/fan/viewer created maps, review and enjoy! Creation, Wild Card and Competitive! It #39;s YOU who will make the maps and YOUR.

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Minecraft Mapstravaganza! Crew Space Station, Pixel Land and Parkour Race! - Video

Minecraft: X-Craft "Space Station – EXTREME SKY DIVING MOON MISSION" (3) – Video

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Minecraft: X-Craft "Space Station - EXTREME SKY DIVING MOON MISSION" (3)
Chrisandthemike - Military Guy/Specialty: Weapons CyanideEpic - Engineer/ Specialty: Tech CarFlo - Scientist/ Specialty: Plant/Animal Life Next Ep: COMING SOON Prev Ep: ...

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Minecraft: X-Craft "Space Station - EXTREME SKY DIVING MOON MISSION" (3) - Video

NASA just emailed the space station a new socket wrench

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Astronauts on the International Space Station have a new socket wrench. But it didn't come via cargo ship. It was emailed from planet Earth -- beamed up into space and then printed by the ISS crew using their new 3-D printer.

In late September, space's first zero-gravity 3-D printer was delivered to the International Space Station by a SpaceX resupply mission. In November, astronauts finally got around to assembling the machine, designed and manufactured by California-based company Made In Space. Astronauts successfully tested the printer in late November, and now the new technology is being used with a purpose.

NASA predicted that ISS might become a machine shop with arrival of the new printer. And sure enough, the first printed product of note is a ratcheting socket wrench. It's the first time hardware has ever been emailed into space.

"If the printer is successful, it will not only serve as the first demonstration of additive manufacturing in microgravity, but it also will bring NASA and Made In Space a big step closer to evolving in-space manufacturing for future missions to destinations such as an asteroid and Mars," NASA wrote in a September blog post.

What began as a simple CAD file on computers back on Earth, created by engineers and computer scientists at Made In Space, is now a usable plastic wrench aboard the International Space Station.

"On the ISS, this type of technology translates to lower costs for experiments, faster design iteration, and a safer, better experience for the crew members, who can use it to replace broken parts or create new tools on demand," Mike Chen, Made In Space founder, wrote on Medium's Backchannel.

"When we do set up the first human colonies on the moon, Mars and beyond," Chen added, "we won't use rockets to bring along everything we need. We'll build what we need there, when we need it."

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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NASA just emailed the space station a new socket wrench

Astronaut prints 3-D wrench in space

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By Sarah LeTrent, CNN

updated 5:29 PM EST, Fri December 19, 2014 |

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Bringing supplies to astronauts on the International Space Station can be a little screwy, leaving astronauts waiting for the next costly and risky resupply mission.

This week, thanks to 3-D printing, astronaut and ISS commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore had a wrench he needed manufactured by a printer in just four hours.

The ratcheting socket wrench was the first "uplink tool" printed in space, according to Grant Lowery, marketing and communications manager for Made In Space, which built the printer in partnership with NASA. The tool was designed on the ground, emailed to the space station and then manufactured.

From start to finish, the process took less than a week.

Made in Space's 3-D printer is the first to operate in zero gravity, and printed its first object in orbit -- a part for the printer, ironically -- in November.

"This means that we could go from having a part designed on the ground to printed in orbit within an hour to two from start to finish," Niki Werkheiser, NASA's 3-D print manager, said in a press release when the printer was sent to the ISS in September. "The on-demand capability can revolutionize the constrained supply chain model we are limited to today and will be critical for exploration missions."

The goal for the project is to create in-space manufacturing, especially as missions venture farther from Earth.

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Astronaut prints 3-D wrench in space

USA space camp: Beam me up, Scotty

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Mar 29 2014 at 4:00 AM

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Do you get sick? asks the boiler-suited boffin strapping me into what looks like a high-tech human hamster ball. As all good astronauts would concur, theres only one way to find out.

Sitting in a metal seat with my wrists strapped down and a five point harness sucking all the air out of my lungs, I am about to be put through the kind of training Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins experienced before their Apollo mission to the moon.

As the motors whirr, I tip slowly backwards, a gentle introduction to what would soon be a wild ride.

The multi-axis trainer quickly gets going, and my body is spinning faster and faster, my eyes starting to lose focus as the NASA sign attached to the frame flies past my face at what seems like the 100th different angle. How are you feeling? I hear the controller shout, the direction of his voice lost in a blur. Yeah, pretty good, I lie.

Great. Well take it up another notch then. Ugh. Really? After five minutes that seem like five hours, the human gyroscope coasts to a halt. My eye balls settle. I am, I think, back up the right way.

OK, calls the boffin. Time to go walk on the moon. Huntsville, Alabama, has near legendary status in Americas space story. Here, at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Centre, engineers designed and built the rockets for the Apollo program in the 1960s and 70s, and it is now the place from which the US manages all the activities of the astronauts on the International Space Station. It is also home to Space Camp, a training centre for aspiring astronauts, both young and old.

The buzz begins on arrival, when visitors are welcomed by a 36-storey Saturn rocket model that towers over the interstate highway at the entrance. A fully assembled Space Shuttle launch craft sits beside the car park and thats just the start.

The US Space and Rocket Centre Museum is NASAs original visitor centre and still its most impressive, with more than 1500 items of space memorabilia.

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USA space camp: Beam me up, Scotty

Space station team eager to begin record year-long flight

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NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are gearing up for launch March 27 to kick off a record one-year stay aboard the International Space Station, an orbital marathon both men say is crucial for planning future flights beyond Earth orbit and, eventually, to Mars.

While four cosmonauts logged flights longer than one year between 1987 and 1999, the upcoming flight will be a first for the international lab complex and the first to focus on the long-term biological effects of the space environment using state-of-the-art medical and scientific research equipment and procedures.

"If we're ever going to go beyond low-Earth orbit for longer periods of time, spaceflight presents a lot of challenges to the human body with regard to bone loss, muscle loss, vision issues that we've recently realized people are having, the effect on your immune system, the effect of radiation on our bodies," Kelly said Thursday during a news conference in Paris. "Understanding those effects are very important.

"If a mission to Mars is going to take a three-year round trip, we need to know better how our body and our physiology performs over durations longer than what we've previously on the space station investigated, which is six months. Perhaps there's a cliff out there with regards to some of these issues that we experience and perhaps there aren't. But we won't know unless we investigate it."

A veteran of three previous space flights, including a shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and a 159-day stay aboard the station in 2010-11, Kelly is the twin brother of Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut who flew four shuttle missions and who is married to former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Kornienko also is a station veteran, logging 176 days aboard the outpost in 2010.

Astronaut Scott Kelly, left, and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko strike a pose during training for launch next year on a record year-long mission aboard the International Space Station.

NASA

"The last long-time space mission was on the Mir (space) station and it brought major data for investigations and research about how humans will feel during long-term flights into space," he said. "I hope that our mission will be an opportunity for others who will follow in our footsteps and take space exploration further."

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Space station team eager to begin record year-long flight

Review: Avenue Theater's "Santa's Big Red Sack" is back

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Jeff Kosloski, with a in festive Christmas yarmulke, and Jane Shirley in "Santa's Big Red Sack."

The sixth edition of Avenue Theater's "Santa's Big Red Sack" is bursting with merriment, much of it directed at seasonal excesses including chirpy, well-meaning folks, passive-aggressive bell-ringers and PG-13 jokes.

* * * comedy

The improv-style show is a series of sketches escorted by Christmas music (real carols, not parodies). The four cast members set the tone before the show by forcefully distributing Hershey's Kisses and spray-cheese on crackers.

Two uber-cheery carolers break into "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," thoughtfully providing the cold with jackets and scarves, feeding the hungry, then helping an awkward stoner light his pipe, and kindly handing a mugger the handbag he's dropped.

"Merry Hanukkah" continues that earnest theme as a Christian couple, wearing lookalike argyle sweaters, visits a bewildered Jewish neighbor. They warble a Hanukkah tune and proudly offer a festive Hanukkah ladle and handmade green-and-red yarmulke that definitely would turn heads at temple.

The jaunty smugness continues with an increasingly frustrated father reading "The Night Before Christmas" to children whose questions reinterpret the phrase "threw up the sash" and snigger at "breast of newfallen snow." Then come a cannabis-inspired rearrangement of "Carol of the Bells" and an innovative Spanish-to-English translation of the word "Christmas."

And the cast throws in a repeating white-elephant joke based on Sarah MacLachlan's tear-jerking commercials for the American Humane Society, finding new, seasonally relevant causes to champion. (Is there anything sadder than a mall Santa surprised by his own rapidly cooling soaked lap?)

The show continues through Sunday, comic relief from more earnest productions. If you go, wear a Christmas sweater ironic or not and you might get a stocking stuffer-size reward.

Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin

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Review: Avenue Theater's "Santa's Big Red Sack" is back

New Red Sox pitcher Miley: Gluten-free? What would the Babe say?

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Updated DEC 20, 2014 12:28p ET

Wade Miley kind of has a point.

Miley, whom the Boston Red Sox acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks last week, said earlier this week that he butted heads with his former club last season because of a disagreement concerning its stance toward players' diets.

The new Red Sox pitcher clarified things Thursday, suggesting his initial comments were overblown.

"I said something a little sarcastic, and I guess it got taken a little further than it needed to be taken," Miley said Thursday on WEEI's "Hot Stove Show" in reference to the idea Arizona required him to be gluten-free.

"They did not require you to be gluten-free. They would like you to be a little healthier than I would think, than I would expect, but no, they definitely don't require you to be gluten-free. They just really worry about your health a lot."

Miley, 6 feet tall and 220 pounds, struggled a bit in 2014 after back-to-back solid seasons, including a 2012 campaign in which he earned a National League All-Star selection. The left-hander doesn't see his preparation or diet as being an issue, though.

In fact, Miley was able to make light of the supposed beef.

"I'm a big fan of old-school guys," Miley said. "You can't tell me Babe Ruth ever stopped eating gluten."

Well played, Wade.

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New Red Sox pitcher Miley: Gluten-free? What would the Babe say?

Red Soxs Wade Miley Jokes About Babe Ruth While Explaining Diet Drama

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Miley, whom the Boston Red Sox acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks last week, said earlier this week that he butted heads with his former club last season because of a disagreement concerning its stance toward players diets. The new Red Sox pitcher clarified things Thursday, suggesting his initial comments were overblown.

I said something a little sarcastic and I guess it got taken a little further than it needed to be taken, Miley said Thursday on WEEIs Hot Stove Show in reference to the idea Arizona required him to be gluten free. They did not require you to be gluten free. They would like you to be a little healthier than I would think, than I would expect, but no, they definitely dont require you to be gluten free. They just really worry about your health a lot.

Miley struggled a bit in 2014 after back-to-back solid seasons, including a 2012 campaign in which he earned a National League All-Star selection. The left-hander doesnt see his preparation or his diet as being an issue, though. In fact, the 220-pounder was able to make light of the supposed beef.

Im a big fan of old-school guys, Miley said. You cant tell me Babe Ruth ever stopped eating gluten.

Well played, Wade.

Thumbnail photo via Benny Sieu/USA TODAY Sports Images

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Red Soxs Wade Miley Jokes About Babe Ruth While Explaining Diet Drama