While hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on masking and treating male pattern baldness, surprisingly little is known about its cause at the cellular level.
A Journal of Clinical Investigation study has found that stem cells play an unexpected role in explaining what happens in bald scalps. Using cell samples from men undergoing hair transplants, researchers compared follicles from bald scalps and non-bald scalps and found that bald areas had the same number of stem cells as normal areas in the same person but noted that another, more mature cell type called a progenitor cell was markedly depleted in the follicles of bald scalps.
In an ideal energy future, man-made solar cells would mimic much of the functionality of efficient plant life. Currently solar cell technology is expensive and a maintenance headache but Purdue researchers are working a new type of solar cell that uses carbon nanotubes and DNA to come closer to plant life that can be durable enough for commercials use,
Their design exploits the unusual electrical properties of structures called single-wall carbon nanotubes, using them as "molecular wires in light harvesting cells," said Jong Hyun Choi, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the Birck Nanotechnology and Bindley Bioscience centers at Purdue's Discovery Park.
