On the night of June 8, 1998, Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls were in the middle of a grueling practice session in the United Center, running drills after their loss to the Utah Jazz in the first game of the NBA Finals. Dennis Rodman ? the team?s problematic, but effective starting forward ? was some 300 miles away in Auburn Hills, Mich., beating a man with a steel chair.
Less than two weeks away from winning his fifth NBA championship ring, Rodman had opted to blow off practice in favor of appearing on WCW?s Monday Nitro ? then the most-watched program on cable television. ?The Worm? was scheduled to team with ?Hollywood? Hulk Hogan against Diamond Dallas Page and Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone at July 2?s Bash at the Beach pay-per-view. He had to get his licks in when he could.
Watch Rodman in tag team action at Bash at the Beach '98
?They whipped the [hell] out of me with those chairs,? Page told WWEClassics.com. ?But, that night, the highlight of [?SportsCenter?] was what? Dennis Rodman no-shows practice and ends up on Nitro. That was huge.?
The Chicago Bulls organization fined Rodman $10,000 for his actions, but it hardly mattered. For the first time in his career, the famously difficult Rodman was being embraced by an industry that could appreciate a 6-foot-7 dude with hair like a scoop of rainbow sherbet. Not only was Rodzilla being encouraged to play up the flamboyance and arrogance that made him the NBA?s problem child ? he was being rewarded for it.
?The scuttlebutt was he got $1.2 million for the three matches he signed for,? former WCW producer Kevin Sullivan said.
Rodman had made his entry into professional wrestling a year before he skipped practice, pledging his allegiance to The Hulkster?s New World Order in a prerecorded segment on the March 10, 1997, edition of Nitro. It had already been a banner year for The Worm?s growing cult of personality. In those first months alone, he released his second autobiography (complete with a cover photo of him nude and painted like a tiger), co-starred with Jean Claude Van Damme in the action movie ?Double Team? and kicked a courtside cameraman in the crotch, resulting in a $25,000 fine and an 11-game suspension.
Witness Rodman joining the nWo
It was all part of the ?bad as I wanna be? ethos Rodman had been pushing since he came out of his shell during a 1993 run with the San Antonio Spurs. Before that revolutionary year, Rodman had been a janitor-turned-defensive marvel for the hardscrabble Detroit Pistons of the late ?80s and early ?90s. His preternatural rebounding abilities earned him respect, but when he hit the court in Texas with platinum hair, a nose ring and tattoos ? long before inked sleeves were requisite in the league ? he became the NBA?s most recognizable player next to Michael Jordan.
If you were an advertising executive tasked with selling chocolate milk, what approach would you take? Fun cartoon characters? Promoting the health benefits of calcium? Touting its delicious taste? Wrong, wrong, wrong. The right answer is to commission the creation of a fur coat hand-woven from over a million strands of male chest hair. Because nothing pairs better with food than human hairs.
Arla, a British dairy, decided the coat would be the perfect way to promote a line of chocolate milk called Wing-Co marketed directly at men. How exactly did that logic work? Apparently manly features like chest hair have been shunned in recent years, and Arla wanted guys to instead feel proud of being a man?by drinking chocolate milk.
And there's good news if you're not full repulsed by this creation. For a mere $3,800 the one-off creation can actually be yours if you find your shaved chest a little chilly in the winter. Alternately, you can just stop shaving for a year and let nature run its course. [Metro via Oddity Central]
The majority of small employers ? about 60 percent ? believe climate change and extreme weather events are an urgent problem that can disrupt the economy and harm businesses, according to a scientific opinion poll.
The poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling on behalf of Small Business Majority, found four in 10 strongly believe this (see chart). It also found a third of American small businesses have seen extreme weather impact their business or someone around them.
Small businesses want to know the government is equipped to help them rebuild from future extreme weather events, the poll found. Forty-two percent of respondents believe the Small Business Administration should track small business claims related to extreme weather events as a way to increase the amount of aid the government provides small businesses. Meanwhile, 21 percent said they weren?t sure if the SBA should track claims and 37 percent said it shouldn?t.
Small Business Authority notes that the political affiliation of the poll?s respondents was varied, with 37 percent identifying as Republican, 30 percent as Democrat and 33 percent as independent.
Last month, Small Business Majority released additional polling that found a majority of small businesses support the EPA regulating carbon emissions and setting standards for existing power plants, refineries and other major emitters.
Extreme weather events like last summer?s drought and Hurricane Sandy affected businesses and exposed the US? economic vulnerability to climate change, according to the 500 firms including Nike and GM that have signed Ceres? Climate Declaration. The declaration calls upon federal policymakers to address climate change as an economic opportunity.
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Same-sex marriages were set to resume in California on Friday, after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a surprise order lifting an injunction preventing the unions.
The order came in response to an opinion released Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court that effectively killed a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages in the state.
Within moments of the ruling, couples, officials and activists began to converge on San Francisco City Hall, where unions were due to resume immediately.
"On my way to S.F. City Hall," tweeted the state's attorney general, Kamala Harris. "Let the wedding bells ring!"
Harris arrived with her arm around a key lawyer in the case, as the couple at the heart of a case challenging the state's ban waited eagerly for their marriage license to be issued.
"This is really a great day," said Cindy Stier, who with her fiancee Kristin Perry filed the lawsuit against Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California in 2008.
The 9th Circuit had been expected to wait 25 days before lifting the injunction so the Supreme Court would have time to release a formal order. But the judges decided to act instead on Friday, a move that would allow the marriages to begin in advance of Gay Pride weekend.
"The stay in the above matter is dissolved effective immediately," the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling.
(Reporting by Dan Levine; Writing by Sharon Bernstein and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Gary Hill and Eric Walsh)
The Pennsylvania State Police is looking for a few good horses.
The force?s 25-horse mounted patrol unit is seeking donations of horses to be used statewide for searches, crowd control, security, and patrol operations of remote areas.
?Pennsylvania troopers have a long history of patrolling from horseback,? Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said. ?Since 1905, state police ranks have included horses ? and since then, with all the advanced technology, the horse is still a reliable tool in police work.?
Horses must be geldings between the ages of 5 and 15 years old. The horse has to stand at least 16 hands tall ? 5 foot 4 inches? at the shoulder, but less than 18 hands tall. Drafts and draft-crosses are preferred. Thoroughbreds and other ?hot bloods? are less desirable.
?The horses are effective in crowds because they elevate troopers, enabling them to see over people?s heads,? Noonan said. ?Mounted troopers also participate in parades, demonstrations and other public relations activities based on availability.?
The animals must have quiet, sound dispositions and be free of serious stable vices.? Horses will be accepted on a 90-day trial basis to determine their suitability. A veterinary examination will also be performed.
The Pennsylvania State Police maintains a stable at the Academy in Hershey and rely solely on donations for animals.
?Horses have been donated over the years from diverse backgrounds ? some were racehorses, others were family pets,? Noonan said.
To make a donation or get more information, please contact Corporal Michael Funk, at 717-533-9111, ext. 321 or at mifunk@pa.gov.
Face it: you might live much longer than you expect. If you?re 40 years old, actuaries expect you to live another 40 years or so. But current lifespan projections don?t account for the likelihood of major advances in medical technology during the coming decades, possibilities like nanobots swimming through your bloodstream to clear plaque from your arteries and break down cancerous tumors, or genome-based treatments, or 3D organ printing. While we don?t know which future technologies will succeed, the multitude of possibilities?and the billions of dollars being invested?make it probable that a few home runs will lengthen the human lifespan significantly. If you planned to live another 80 years, what would you do differently?
The very long life scenario would make all investments in your future more valuable, changing your exchange rate of short-term pleasures for long-term gains, and altering your decisions about finances, health, and education. For example, at a conservative 5% rate of return, an investment of $1,000 now would yield about $7,000 in 40 years. Before reading further, can you guess what that investment would be worth in 80 years, in the very long life scenario? Due to the magical powers of compound interest, your current investment of $1,000 will equal $52,000 in 80 years. Do you think this very long life scenario might help motivate you to save a little extra? And do you think you might take better care of your body, if you knew it might last you 120 years with proper maintenance? And how might a very long life expectancy change your decisions about education?
One of the most common regrets people tend to have is not having gotten more education. And many adults feel they?re too old to go back to school. But if you were going to live 80 more years, might finishing your degree be worth your investment of money and time? The returns to learning in the very long life scenario aren?t limited to a formal education. Investing in life skills is equally, if not more important. Financial literacy? Public speaking? Writing? Even a mundane skill like folding fitted sheets might be worth the time it takes to watch an instructional YouTube video, if you calculate the number of fitted sheets you might be folding before you reach 120. And if you estimate the number of Chinese people you might speak with before reaching 120, learning Mandarin might be almost a no-brainer.
?If you planned to live another 80 years, what would you do differently??
Others have said that the benefit of pursuing a goal isn?t what you achieve, it?s who you become in the process. If you set the goal of living to 120, would it help motivate you to be the person you want to become?
Could understanding our behaviors hold the key to financial security? We think so.?Learn More at The Challenge Lab.
The 2013 Wimbledon tennis tournament is upon us, and naturally a lot of you folks will be glued to the action. Not everyone can make it to Wimbledon, or to a television set, so that means following anyway you can. Thankfully, with your iOS devices in hand, you need never be more than a few taps away from all the latest, if only without the strawberries and cream. Lets take a look at some of the best.
The Championships, Wimbledon 2013
All good sporting events need an official iOS application, and Wimbledon is no exception. As you may expect from an official application, this one is jam packed with just about everything you need to keep up with every match, every day, as it happens. One criticism is that text is quite small, so not the easiest to read on an iPhone. But, it's designed with the tournaments colors of green and purple in mind, and the live scores are all dressed up like actual Wimbledon scoreboards.
The iPad app is even better looking, but still features the same important content. It makes full use of the extra screen real estate and offers maps of the grounds, with pins dropped on each court there's currently something happening on. Perhaps the best feature of all is the included live video and radio, which is available to users in the UK, USA, Canada, South America (excluding Brazil), Netherlands, Belgium, Cyprus and New Zealand.
The BBC Sport app is one of, if not the best, general sports news app available for UK iOS users. It mimics the BBC website extremely well, and provides the same high level of quality content. Specifically for Wimbledon, since the BBC is the official UK coverage provider, the BBC Sport app is packed full of tennis related goodies. This includes live streaming of the matches currently being shown on TV, which should take care of everything on the two feature courts.
Live Score Tennis is a third-party tennis specific application, and it looks fantastic. A simple, yet striking interface available in a dark or a light theme, Live Score takes away all the bloat, and gives you exactly the information you want. You can either have it all, or you can choose specific combinations of players and tournaments that you want to keep up to date with.
Live Score also promises the "fastest push notifications in tennis" in getting you what you want to see on your lockscreen as it happens. Perfect for those breaking moments. Push notifications can also be set per player, or per tournament, and can cover a wide range of items from live scores and results through to draw information and when the final is due to begin. Extremely useful to have on your iPhone throughout Wimbledon, but definitely one for the tennis fans out there to keep year round.
Not to be confused with the previous app at all, SofaScore is from a different developer and as with BBC Sport is an all round sports news app. But it deserves a mention here because it's a very good looking application, that also provides a good level of information on all the goings on at Wimbledon. You can turn on live scores for all the current matches, look at what's happening in each of them individually, and even see the current odds if you happen to like a little bet or two. And, since it covers so many different sports, it's well worth a look as a source of your beyond-Wimbledon sporting news fix.
So, those are a few of our picks that'll be helping us get through Wimbledon 2013. If you've got any that we haven't talked about, be sure to drop into the comments and let us know what you'll be using!
June 26, 2013 ? All stars begin their lives in groups. Most stars, including our Sun, are born in small, benign groups that quickly fall apart. Others form in huge, dense swarms that survive for billions of years as stellar clusters. Within such rich and dense clusters, stars jostle for room with thousands of neighbors while strong radiation and harsh stellar winds scour interstellar space, stripping planet-forming materials from nearby stars.
It would thus seem an unlikely place to find alien worlds. Yet 3,000 light-years from Earth, in the star cluster NGC 6811, astronomers have found two planets smaller than Neptune orbiting Sun-like stars. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, shows that planets can develop even in crowded clusters jam-packed with stars.
"Old clusters represent a stellar environment much different than the birthplace of the Sun and other planet-hosting field stars," says lead author Soren Meibom of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "And we thought maybe planets couldn't easily form and survive in the stressful environments of dense clusters, in part because for a long time we couldn't find them."
The two new alien worlds appeared in data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft. Kepler hunts for planets that transit, or cross in front of, their host stars. During a transit, the star dims by an amount that depends on the size of the planet, allowing the size to be determined. Kepler-66b and Kepler-67b are both less than three times the size of Earth, or about three-fourths the size of Neptune (mini-Neptunes).
Of the more than 850 known planets beyond our solar system, only four -- all similar to or greater than Jupiter in mass -- were found in clusters. Kepler-66b and -67b are the smallest planets to be found in a star cluster, and the first cluster planets seen to transit their host stars, which enables the measurement of their sizes.
Meibom and his colleagues have measured the age of NGC 6811 to be one billion years. Kepler-66b and Kepler-67b therefore join a small group of planets with precisely determined ages, distances, and sizes.
Considering the number of stars observed by Kepler in NGC 6811, the detection of two such planets implies that the frequency and properties of planets in open clusters are consistent with those of planets around field stars (stars not within a cluster or association) in the Milky Way galaxy.
"These planets are cosmic extremophiles," says Meibom. "Finding them shows that small planets can form and survive for at least a billion years, even in a chaotic and hostile environment."
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin, evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.
Windows developers itching to get their hands on Xbox One's new Kinect are in luck. Pre-orders for the new Kinect's development kits?going at $399 a pop?have just opened up.
SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida judge ruled on Wednesday that jurors in the murder trial of George Zimmerman should hear telephone calls the neighborhood watch volunteer made to police in the months before he killed the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.
"Defense objection to relevancy is denied, the tapes will come into evidence," Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson said.
Prosecutors say the calls, in which Zimmerman reported what he described as suspicious activity by black men, demonstrated "profiling" and were key to understanding the defendant's state of mind on February 26, 2012 when he called police to report Martin, minutes before shooting him in the chest at point-blank range.
Defense attorneys have objected to the use of the tapes in the trial, describing the phone calls made between August 2011 and February 2012 as "irrelevant," and contending that they would tell jurors nothing about Zimmerman's thinking on the night he shot the 17-year-old Martin.
At the time of the killing, Zimmerman, 29, and part Hispanic, was a neighborhood watch coordinator in the Retreat at Twin Lakes community in Sanford, Florida.
He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and could face life imprisonment if convicted.
The killing of Martin and the decision by police not to arrest Zimmerman for six weeks sparked protests and complaints about what many see as racial bias in law enforcement in this central Florida town and in major cities across the country.
To win a conviction for second-degree murder, the prosecution must convince jurors that Zimmerman acted with "ill will, hatred, spite or an evil intent," and "an indifference to human life," according to Florida jury instructions.
In four of the Zimmerman phone calls, played in court on Tuesday before jurors were called into court, Zimmerman can be heard reporting what he describes as suspicious behavior by various black men, using words or phrases similar to those he used to report Martin to the police.
"They typically run away quickly," he said in one call, referring to two men whom he said matched the description of suspects in a recent neighborhood burglary.
The six jurors and four alternates hearing the case were selected last week, and opening statements began on Monday.
In a surprise announcement on Wednesday, Nelson said one of the alternate jurors, identified as a male known only as B-72, had been dismissed "for reasons totally unrelated to this case."
The six-member panel of acting jurors who will decide Zimmerman's fate are all women, five of whom are white and one Hispanic.
Martin, who was a student at a Miami-area high school, was staying with one of the homeowners at the gated community in Sanford when he was killed. He was walking back to the house when he encountered Zimmerman.
In opening statements on Monday, the prosecution portrayed Zimmerman as a man with a concealed weapon who committed a vigilante-style killing, while Zimmerman's defense team laid out the self-defense argument.
Under Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which was approved in 2005 and has since been copied by about 30 other states, people fearing for their lives can use deadly force without having to retreat from a confrontation, even when it is possible.
We constantly grow new skin and slough off the old. Until now, scientists have never agreed on exactly how this works, but new research from the University of Sheffield may provide the answer.
Engineers and biologists at the University of Sheffield have shown how a recent theory-- that skin has 'sleeping' stem cells which can be woken up when required-- best explains how our skin constantly regrows. The research-- conducted in collaboration with The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), makers of Olay, and published in Nature Scientific Reports-- has implications for combating the effects of aging and perhaps even skin cancer.
The Sheffield/P&G team developed an "in silico" (computer) model of human skin biology, capturing how the outer layers of the skin are developed and maintained over time. This model simulation or "virtual" skin was then used to test the three most popular theories of how skin cells function to regenerate our skin, the largest human organ, over a three-year period. When the simulation was run according to two of the theories, the virtual skin failed to fully regenerate. Only one theory enabled the virtual skin to still be in good shape after three years, as Dr. Xinshan Li (University of Sheffield Faculty of Engineering) and Dr. Arun Upadhyay (P&G), the lead co-authors explained in their research.
"The theory which seems to fit best says that skin has a population of 'sleeping' stem cells, which sit in the lowest layer of the skin but don't constantly divide to make new cells," Dr. Li said. "However, these sleeping cells can be called into action if the skin is damaged, or if the numbers of other types of more mature skin cells decrease, ensuring that the skin can be constantly regenerated under all conditions."
The model showed that we gradually lose these sleeping stem cells over time-- which would explain why our ability to regenerate our skin reduces as we age. "Each time we wake up these cells, to heal a wound or replenish stocks of other cells, a few of them don't go back into sleep mode, so the population slowly reduces," says Dr. Li. "This explains why older skin is slower to heal and in part why our skin changes as we age. By understanding this mechanism better, it might be possible to find ways to combat the effects of aging on our skin."
Computer modelling of skin biology is the latest step in the evolution of skin science. It allows scientists to project the activity of tissues like skin that are difficult to follow in live systems for extended periods. Currently, 3-dimensional cultures of engineered human skin are viable for only a few weeks and clinical studies in humans are only practical for a few months. With the development of in silico models scientists can predict for the first time what happens in skin as it ages year by year even as it ages decade by decade.
"These models permit exploration of hypotheses in very short periods of time, relative to the lab based bench work," says Dr. Upadhyay. "In silico modelling can significantly shorten R&D programs, and help focus subsequent lab or clinical work on the options with the greatest likelihood of succeeding. This is another reason why in silico models are an effective complement to more established research tools and methods."
The ability to follow virtual skin models over decades may be especially important to skin cancer research. Environmental damage caused by UV exposure or chronic wounding can cause sleeping cells to harbor the mutations which cause skin cancers such as basal cell carcinoma, a very aggressive type of skin cancer.
"The stem cells can harbor mutations throughout the years, but with no effect if they're still in sleep mode," explains Dr. Li. "However, when they start to divide to heal a wound for example, this could trigger the cancer. If it's possible to study this phenomenon for long periods of time it may be possible to find ways to prevent the activation of mutated cells and therefore reduce the risk of developing the disease."
Other parts of the body, such as the lung or gut lining and the cornea, also regenerate in the same way as our skin. Research is already underway at the University of Sheffield to look at the healing process of the lung lining following asthma attacks.
This study is an excellent example of how computer modelling can enhance our long-term understanding of complex processes such as skin aging. Dr. Upadhyay, a physicist-turned-computational biologist, drew inspiration from the great physicist Richard Feynman in summarizing the study, noting that, "You really don't understand something until you have built it from scratch. By building the virtual skin model from a few cells into a tissue capable of self-renewal, we have moved a big step in our understanding of stem cells and skin renewal."
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About P&G Beauty & Grooming
P&G Beauty & Grooming offers trusted brands with innovative technologies and a full complement of impactful products that make a real difference for women and men around the world, including Pantene, Olay, Head & Shoulders, Max Factor, Cover Girl, DDF, Rejoice, Sebastian Professional, Herbal Essences, Koleston, Clairol Professional, Nice 'n Easy, Venus, Gillette, SK-II, Wella Professionals, Braun, Crest, Oral B, Always, and Tampax, as well as a leading Prestige Fragrance division that spans from point of market entry consumers to high end luxury with global brands such as Hugo Boss, Lacoste, and Christina Aguilera. With 12 billion-dollar brands, and products available in over 130 countries, P&G Beauty and Grooming delivered sales of over $37 billion in fiscal year 2011/12, making it the world's largest beauty and grooming companies. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G (NYSE: PG) and its brands.
Media Contact
P&G: Dayna Hochstein, Spectrum
tel 202.955.6222 x2524
email dhochstein@spectrumscience.com
1. The paper covering the research is: Skin Stem Cell Hypotheses and Long Term Clone Survival Explored Using Agent-based Modelling X. Li, A. K. Upadhyay, A. J. Bullock, T. Dicolandrea, J. Xu, R. L. Binder, M. K. Robinson, D. R. Finlay, K. J. Mills, C. C. Bascom, C. K. Kelling, R. J. Isfort, J. W. Haycock, S. MacNeil & R. H. Smallwood Scientific Reports 3, Article number: 1904 doi:10.1038/srep01904
2. P&G serves approximately 4.6 billion people around the world with its brands. The Company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Always, Whisper, Pantene, Mach3, Bounty, Dawn, Fairy, Gain, Charmin, Downy, Lenor, Iams, Crest, Oral-B, Duracell, Olay, Head & Shoulders, Wella, Gillette, Braun, Fusion, Ace, Febreze, Ambi Pur, SK-II, and Vicks. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 75 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.
3. The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sheffield-- the 2011 Times Higher Education's University of the Year-- is one of the largest in the UK. Its seven departments include over 4,000 students and 900 staff and have research-related income worth more than 50M per annum from government, industry and charity sources. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) confirmed that two thirds of the research carried out was either Internationally Excellent or Internationally Leading.
The Faculty of Engineering has a long tradition of working with industry including Rolls-Royce, Network Rail and Siemens. Its industrial successes are exemplified by the award-winning Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and the new 25 million Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC).
The Faculty of Engineering is set to ensure students continue to benefit from world-class labs and teaching space through the provision of the University's new Engineering Graduate School. This brand new building, which will become the center of the facultys postgraduate research and postgraduate teaching activities, will be sited on the corner of Broad Lane and Newcastle Street. It will form the first stage in a 15 year plan to improve and extend the existing estate in a bid to provide students with the best possible facilities while improving their student experience.
To find out more about the Faculty of Engineering, visit: http://www.shef.ac.uk/faculty/engineering/
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Virtual skin model reveals secrets of skin agingPublic release date: 26-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
We constantly grow new skin and slough off the old. Until now, scientists have never agreed on exactly how this works, but new research from the University of Sheffield may provide the answer.
Engineers and biologists at the University of Sheffield have shown how a recent theory-- that skin has 'sleeping' stem cells which can be woken up when required-- best explains how our skin constantly regrows. The research-- conducted in collaboration with The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), makers of Olay, and published in Nature Scientific Reports-- has implications for combating the effects of aging and perhaps even skin cancer.
The Sheffield/P&G team developed an "in silico" (computer) model of human skin biology, capturing how the outer layers of the skin are developed and maintained over time. This model simulation or "virtual" skin was then used to test the three most popular theories of how skin cells function to regenerate our skin, the largest human organ, over a three-year period. When the simulation was run according to two of the theories, the virtual skin failed to fully regenerate. Only one theory enabled the virtual skin to still be in good shape after three years, as Dr. Xinshan Li (University of Sheffield Faculty of Engineering) and Dr. Arun Upadhyay (P&G), the lead co-authors explained in their research.
"The theory which seems to fit best says that skin has a population of 'sleeping' stem cells, which sit in the lowest layer of the skin but don't constantly divide to make new cells," Dr. Li said. "However, these sleeping cells can be called into action if the skin is damaged, or if the numbers of other types of more mature skin cells decrease, ensuring that the skin can be constantly regenerated under all conditions."
The model showed that we gradually lose these sleeping stem cells over time-- which would explain why our ability to regenerate our skin reduces as we age. "Each time we wake up these cells, to heal a wound or replenish stocks of other cells, a few of them don't go back into sleep mode, so the population slowly reduces," says Dr. Li. "This explains why older skin is slower to heal and in part why our skin changes as we age. By understanding this mechanism better, it might be possible to find ways to combat the effects of aging on our skin."
Computer modelling of skin biology is the latest step in the evolution of skin science. It allows scientists to project the activity of tissues like skin that are difficult to follow in live systems for extended periods. Currently, 3-dimensional cultures of engineered human skin are viable for only a few weeks and clinical studies in humans are only practical for a few months. With the development of in silico models scientists can predict for the first time what happens in skin as it ages year by year even as it ages decade by decade.
"These models permit exploration of hypotheses in very short periods of time, relative to the lab based bench work," says Dr. Upadhyay. "In silico modelling can significantly shorten R&D programs, and help focus subsequent lab or clinical work on the options with the greatest likelihood of succeeding. This is another reason why in silico models are an effective complement to more established research tools and methods."
The ability to follow virtual skin models over decades may be especially important to skin cancer research. Environmental damage caused by UV exposure or chronic wounding can cause sleeping cells to harbor the mutations which cause skin cancers such as basal cell carcinoma, a very aggressive type of skin cancer.
"The stem cells can harbor mutations throughout the years, but with no effect if they're still in sleep mode," explains Dr. Li. "However, when they start to divide to heal a wound for example, this could trigger the cancer. If it's possible to study this phenomenon for long periods of time it may be possible to find ways to prevent the activation of mutated cells and therefore reduce the risk of developing the disease."
Other parts of the body, such as the lung or gut lining and the cornea, also regenerate in the same way as our skin. Research is already underway at the University of Sheffield to look at the healing process of the lung lining following asthma attacks.
This study is an excellent example of how computer modelling can enhance our long-term understanding of complex processes such as skin aging. Dr. Upadhyay, a physicist-turned-computational biologist, drew inspiration from the great physicist Richard Feynman in summarizing the study, noting that, "You really don't understand something until you have built it from scratch. By building the virtual skin model from a few cells into a tissue capable of self-renewal, we have moved a big step in our understanding of stem cells and skin renewal."
###
About P&G Beauty & Grooming
P&G Beauty & Grooming offers trusted brands with innovative technologies and a full complement of impactful products that make a real difference for women and men around the world, including Pantene, Olay, Head & Shoulders, Max Factor, Cover Girl, DDF, Rejoice, Sebastian Professional, Herbal Essences, Koleston, Clairol Professional, Nice 'n Easy, Venus, Gillette, SK-II, Wella Professionals, Braun, Crest, Oral B, Always, and Tampax, as well as a leading Prestige Fragrance division that spans from point of market entry consumers to high end luxury with global brands such as Hugo Boss, Lacoste, and Christina Aguilera. With 12 billion-dollar brands, and products available in over 130 countries, P&G Beauty and Grooming delivered sales of over $37 billion in fiscal year 2011/12, making it the world's largest beauty and grooming companies. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G (NYSE: PG) and its brands.
Media Contact
P&G: Dayna Hochstein, Spectrum
tel 202.955.6222 x2524
email dhochstein@spectrumscience.com
1. The paper covering the research is: Skin Stem Cell Hypotheses and Long Term Clone Survival Explored Using Agent-based Modelling X. Li, A. K. Upadhyay, A. J. Bullock, T. Dicolandrea, J. Xu, R. L. Binder, M. K. Robinson, D. R. Finlay, K. J. Mills, C. C. Bascom, C. K. Kelling, R. J. Isfort, J. W. Haycock, S. MacNeil & R. H. Smallwood Scientific Reports 3, Article number: 1904 doi:10.1038/srep01904
2. P&G serves approximately 4.6 billion people around the world with its brands. The Company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Always, Whisper, Pantene, Mach3, Bounty, Dawn, Fairy, Gain, Charmin, Downy, Lenor, Iams, Crest, Oral-B, Duracell, Olay, Head & Shoulders, Wella, Gillette, Braun, Fusion, Ace, Febreze, Ambi Pur, SK-II, and Vicks. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 75 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.
3. The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sheffield-- the 2011 Times Higher Education's University of the Year-- is one of the largest in the UK. Its seven departments include over 4,000 students and 900 staff and have research-related income worth more than 50M per annum from government, industry and charity sources. The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) confirmed that two thirds of the research carried out was either Internationally Excellent or Internationally Leading.
The Faculty of Engineering has a long tradition of working with industry including Rolls-Royce, Network Rail and Siemens. Its industrial successes are exemplified by the award-winning Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and the new 25 million Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC).
The Faculty of Engineering is set to ensure students continue to benefit from world-class labs and teaching space through the provision of the University's new Engineering Graduate School. This brand new building, which will become the center of the facultys postgraduate research and postgraduate teaching activities, will be sited on the corner of Broad Lane and Newcastle Street. It will form the first stage in a 15 year plan to improve and extend the existing estate in a bid to provide students with the best possible facilities while improving their student experience.
To find out more about the Faculty of Engineering, visit: http://www.shef.ac.uk/faculty/engineering/
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President Barack Obama gestures while speaking in San Jose, Calif. , Friday, June 7, 2013. The president defended his government's secret surveillance, saying Congress has repeatedly authorized the collection of America's phone records and U.S. internet use. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama gestures while speaking in San Jose, Calif. , Friday, June 7, 2013. The president defended his government's secret surveillance, saying Congress has repeatedly authorized the collection of America's phone records and U.S. internet use. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama pauses while speaking in San Jose, Calif. , Friday, June 7, 2013. The president defended his government's secret surveillance, saying Congress has repeatedly authorized the collection of America's phone records and U.S. internet use. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
This undated photo made available by Google shows the campus-network room at a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Routers and switches allow Google's data centers to talk to each other. The fiber cables run along the yellow cable trays near the ceiling. (AP Photo/Google, Connie Zhou)
FILE -- In this file photo taken Wednesday, April 21, 2010, shows Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence James Clapper. Clapper called the disclosure of an Internet surveillance program "reprehensible" Thursday June 6, 2013 and said it risks Americans' security. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
This undated photo provided by Facebook shows the server room at the company's data center in Prineville, Ore. The revelations that the National Security Agency is perusing millions of U.S. customer phone records at Verizon and snooping on the digital communications stored by nine major Internet services illustrate how aggressively personal data is being collected and analyzed. (AP Photo/Facebook, Alan Brandt)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama declared Friday that America is "going to have to make some choices" balancing privacy and security, launching a vigorous defense of formerly secret programs that sweep up an estimated 3 billion phone calls a day and amass Internet data from U.S. providers in an attempt to thwart terror attacks.
He warned that it will be harder to detect threats against the U.S. now that the two top-secret tools to target terrorists have been so thoroughly publicized.
At turns defensive and defiant, Obama stood by the spy programs revealed this week.
The National Security Agency has been collecting the phone records of hundreds of millions of Americans each day, creating a database through which it can learn whether terror suspects have been in contact with people in the U.S. It also was disclosed this week that the NSA has been gathering all Internet usage ? audio, video, photographs, emails and searches ? from nine major U.S. Internet providers, including Microsoft and Google, in hopes of detecting suspicious behavior that begins overseas.
"Nobody is listening to your telephone calls," Obama assured the nation after two days of reports that many found unsettling. What the government is doing, he said, is digesting phone numbers and the durations of calls, seeking links that might "identify potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism." If there's a hit, he said, "if the intelligence community then actually wants to listen to a phone call, they've got to go back to a federal judge, just like they would in a criminal investigation."
While Obama said the aim of the programs is to make America safe, he offered no specifics about how the surveillance programs have done this. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., on Thursday said the phone records sweeps had thwarted a domestic terror attack, but he also didn't offer specifics.
Obama asserted his administration had tightened the phone records collection program since it started in the George W. Bush administration and is auditing the programs to ensure that measures to protect Americans' privacy are heeded ? part of what he called efforts to resist a mindset of "you know, 'Trust me, we're doing the right thing. We know who the bad guys are.'"
But again, he provided no details on how the program was tightened or what the audit is looking at.
The furor this week has divided Congress, and led civil liberties advocates and some constitutional scholars to accuse Obama of crossing a line in the name of rooting out terror threats.
Obama, himself a constitutional lawyer, strove to calm Americans' fears ? but also remind them that Congress and the courts had signed off on the surveillance.
"I think the American people understand that there are some trade-offs involved," Obama said when questioned by reporters at a health care event in San Jose, Calif.
"It's important to recognize that you can't have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience," he said. "We're going to have to make some choices as a society. And what I can say is that in evaluating these programs, they make a difference in our capacity to anticipate and prevent possible terrorist activity."
Obama said U.S. intelligence officials are looking at phone numbers and lengths of calls ? not at people's names ? and not listening in.
The two classified surveillance programs were revealed this week in newspaper reports that showed, for the first time, how deeply the National Security Agency dives into telephone and Internet data to look for security threats. The new details were first reported by The Guardian and The Washington Post, and prompted Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to take the unusual and reluctant step of acknowledging the programs' existence.
Obama echoed intelligence experts ? both inside and outside the government ? who predicted that potential attackers will find other, secretive ways to communicate now that they know that their phone and Internet records may be targeted.
"The bad folks' antennas go back up and they become more cautious for a period of time," said former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican who sat on the House Intelligence Committee for a decade, including as chairman for nearly three years. He said he approved the phone surveillance program but did not know about the online spying.
"So right now, with these organizations and individuals we're trying to track, we'll see a drop-off in the ability of these tools to get beneficial or meaningful intelligence," Hoekstra said Friday. "People will start putting in protocols to protect themselves from intelligence gathering. It will have a negative effect. But we'll just keep coming up with more sophisticated ways to dig into these data. It becomes a techies game, and we will try to come up with new tools to cut through the clutter."
For example, extremists could start using online providers that do not have servers based in the U.S. and therefore do not have to comply with American court orders.
In the immediate years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the government began collecting data from U.S. telephone companies, looking at whether overseas terror suspects were calling phone numbers in the U.S. The program does not allow the government to listen in on calls, but it can track where a call was placed and how long it lasted. If intelligence officials single out phone numbers that they want to target for eavesdropping, they must return to court to get approval.
In 2006, after the telephone surveillance was first revealed and amid a public outcry, a secret court was tasked with approving all of the government requests for the records ? amounting to as many as 3 billion phone calls daily. But until this week, it was not widely known how many phone records were noted, or how often.
The NSA seizure of website and Internet provider records was even more secretive, and began only in the past few years. Clapper said those records, too, are released only with secret court orders, and monitors look only for documents that appear to have come from overseas. The data are not to be used to target U.S. citizens, and the government must try to minimize any information that was mistakenly taken from Americans.
It was not immediately clear how intelligence analysts weed out Americans' online documents from those sent by a citizen of another country. And it's unknown if Internet communications from citizens of the closest U.S. allies ? like Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand ? are examined.
Several of the Internet companies, including Apple and Facebook, denied in carefully worded statements that they provided the government direct access to their servers, and said they would not have done so without a court order. But their involvement remained unclear Friday, as the surveillance program was authorized by a court and likely would have set up a designated route to transfer data so that direct access to the servers would have been unnecessary.
In a statement, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg encouraged all governments to be more transparent about programs to keep the public safe.
"It's the only way to protect everyone's civil liberties and create the safe and free society we all want over the long term," Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook page.
The new details of the broad surveillance have brought criticism from civil liberties and privacy advocates, as well as re-igniting a long-simmering debate in Congress over government power in security issues.
"Tell our nation's leaders to stop spying on calls, email," the Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote to its followers on Friday. The American Civil Liberties Union demanded a congressional investigation.
In his comments Friday, Obama said that "every member of Congress" had been briefed on the spy programs. However, only members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees and the leadership, who have high security clearances, are routinely briefed and oversee the surveillance.
Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona called the programs "a serious breach of faith between the federal government and the American people." He demanded the Obama administration limit the surveillance. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said the telephone data collection is "an astounding assault on the Constitution," and he introduced legislation to require a warrant before any government agency could search Americans' phone records.
But a number of other lawmakers, including Democrats and Republicans who sit on the Intelligence committees, vociferously defended the programs as necessary safeguards against terror threats that the public never knows about.
Obama said he would be happy to join a new debate in Congress over whether the surveillance programs are appropriate, noting that lawmakers continually authorize the measures that some now are criticizing.
But he, too, warned that making the programs public now risks security: "It's very hard for us to be as effective in protecting the American people," Obama said.
___
Superville reported from San Jose, Calif. Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.
Follow Lara Jakes and Darlene Superville on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP and https://twitter.com/dsupervilleap
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Public release date: 26-Jun-2013
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