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One scorpion produces at most just two milligrams of venom at a time. Credit: Tola Kokoza, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 ***************************************************************** The most expensive liquid in the world is venom from a scorpion which has potential medical applications, but its extraction and processing are highly specialized and dangerous. The deathstalker is one of the most dangerous scorpions on the planet, and what makes it so dangerous also happens to be the most expensive liquid in the world. This stuff costs $39 million per gallon. The reason is because the liquid is hard to get. Scorpions are milked by hand,...

Ancient mummy opened: Scythian cavalier had bone disease Posted : Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:15:04 GMT Goettingen, Germany - An autopsy on the body of an ancient Scythian cavalier found in the Altai Mountains shows he had a degenerative bone disease for several years before he died, German scientists said Friday. The 2006 find of the preserved body and the man's rich possessions on the Mongolian side of the mountains was a scientific sensation. The Scythians were a nation of horsemen in central Asia. The man, who died about 2,300 years ago at the age of 50 or 60, would...

Using a relatively new technology called RNA interference to turn off genes that regulate cell differentiation, University of Pittsburgh researchers have demonstrated they can increase the propensity of muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) to become bone-forming cells. Based on these results, the investigators believe that by turning off specific genetic factors they can control the capacity of MDSCs as a means of treating various musculoskeletal diseases and injuries. RNA interference is a simple yet powerful technique that uses short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) – small molecules that prevent a gene from being expressed – to turn off the production of specific proteins...