Zhu et al. Immunosuppression via loss of IL2rγ enhances long-term functional integration of hESC-derived photoreceptors in the mouse retina. Cell Stem Cell, January 2017.

Your ability to read these words relies on your retina, the eye’s nerve center. Light passes through the lens and iris and strikes the retina at the back of the eyeball, which consists of light-sensing rods and cones. This process allows you to see these letters. When things go awry in the retina, people experience partial or complete loss of vision; to date, no efficient treatment has been found to stop or reverse blindness. Researchers have been trying to transplant new photoreceptor cells into the retina for the last decade, but the success has been very limited, and the transplanted cells usually did not survive long enough to restore vision. In a recent study, researchers were able to restore vision in completely blind mice by transplanting photoreceptors derived from human stem cells. They demonstrated that the blind mice were able to perceive light as late as 9-months following the transplantation. The key to their success was simultaneously blocking the immune response that causes transplanted cells to be rejected. The researchers determined that the mice which lack the immunodeficient IL2 receptor gamma (IL2rl), a specific immune cell receptor that rejects transplanted foreign cells, experienced longer-term survival of the transplanted cells. These findings give a lot of hope that the same stem cells used to cure blind mice may also be used to treat humans. It is now possible to identify other small molecules or recombinant proteins to reduce interleukin 2 receptor gamma activity in the body, increasing the possibility the body will accept transplanted stem cells.

The moon may be formed from a group of smaller moonlets

Rufu et al. A multiple-impact origin for the moon. Nature Geoscience, January 2017.

The moon’s formation was a unique event, but it remains poorly understood. However it came to be, our moon – like all the moons in the solar system – has a stabilizing effect on our planet. Scientists have always been puzzled why Earth only has one moon, while other planets have multiple – for instance, Saturn and Jupiter have 62 and 67 moons respectively. A new study suggests that the Earth may have had numerous smaller moons at some point, but they crashed together to form our current moon. Earth was born about 4.5 billion years ago, and scientists think the moon began forming a short time later. The leading explanation for the moon’s origin, known as the giant-impact model, suggests that our moon formed when a large protoplanet, Theia, crashed into Earth 4.4 billion years ago, tearing out a moon-sized cloud of debris. But the new study ran 1000 sophisticated simulations modeling this ancient impact and found that instead of one giant collision, the Earth likely experienced many smaller ones. Each of these smaller impacts would have torn away debris that could have coalesced into a moonlet. The current moon was likely formed by the combination of 20 moonlets over the course of 100 million years. While the new model proposes some compelling ideas, it cannot explain how the Earth got its tilted axis, which was also explained by the giant impact model. Experts say more lunar samples through the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program will help us to differentiate between the two models in the near future.

Food poisoning bacteria eat cancerous tumors

Mehta et al. Bacterial Carriers for Glioblastoma Therapy. Molecular Therapy – Oncolytics. December 2016.

Who doesn’t hate food poisoning? Salmonella is responsible for more than a million cases of food poisoning every year. But a team of researchers found that Salmonella might be our best ally in fighting the most aggressive form of brain cancer known to man, glioblastomas. Glioblastoma is an extremely aggressive form of tumor. Patients diagnosed with it have a mean lifespan of only 15 months. The cancer is protected from conventional drug and radiation-based therapies due to the blood-brain barrier. Surgery is also an imperfect option, because if even a single cancerous cell is left behind, it can spawn new tumors. In a recent study, scientists genetically engineered the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium so that it does not attack the human gastrointestinal tract, but rather the glioblastoma tumors. Specifically, they made the bacteria deficient in the crucial metabolite purine. Since tumors are packed with purine, genetically engineered bacteria were attracted to the tumors like flies to honey.  Scientists also integrated two new genes into Salmonella to produce the compounds Azurian and p53, which both cause cells to self-destruct, specifically in low-oxygen environments such as the interior of a tumor, where bacteria are rapidly multiplying. With this method, both the tumorous cells and bacteria eventually die off over time. A major challenge in treating glioblastomas is that the tumors spread with no clear edge, making them difficult to completely surgically remove. So designing bacteria to actively move and seek out these tumors, and to express their anti-tumor proteins only in hypoxic, purine rich tumor regions, has great therapeutic potential. In rats, the treatment basically doubled the survival rate and lifespan of those suffering from glioblastoma. Although success in rodent-based trials does not guarantee the same for humans, the results are nonetheless impressive and promising.

A:

“They are utterly deaf, dumb, and blind; they can no longer recover.” (Al-Baqarah, 2:18)

“They are deaf, dumb and blind, and so they have no understanding of (what is said to them).” (Al-Baqarah, 2:171)

One of the above verses is about hypocrites; and the other is about unbelievers. As clearly expressed in these verses, the state of hypocrites and unbelievers are considered as equal to being deaf, dumb, and blind in their difficulty to digest the truth, in the way they view events, and in their injustice. However, the two verses differ in their essence: one of them implies for these groups inability to find their original disposition (fitrat al-asliya) and former state of being, while in the other verse there is an emphasis on failure in using their reason. What joins these groups in their common deafness, dumbness, and blindness is the fact that both cannot evaluate truly the “book of the universe,” a book laid out before their very eyes in the form of an exhibition so that they can find out about the Almighty Creator; they cannot analyze the cosmos comprehensively, nor can they interpret events by reading between the lines. They do not give the slightest importance to the books, nor do they lend a listening ear to their conscience.

If they had made good use of the books and their conscience, then they would have been able to testify to the truth-as the believers do-by using their intelligence. This way they would also have returned to their original innate nature; as a result, they would have lived their lives according to God’s commands and prohibitions. Truly, they are deaf because, while every creature in the universe announces the existence of God in its unique tongue, they are incapable of hearing that. They are dumb because they are incapable of acknowledging what they feel in their inner consciousness. They are blind because they cannot see the ways which lead humans to the truth of God’s existence and His oneness.

To consider more deeply these verses, “La ya’qilun” is used for the unbelievers, meaning that they do not use their intelligence and they do not actually think. As a matter of fact, if they had taken time to think, then they could have found the ways leading to faith easily. Indeed, the obstinate unbelievers of the city of Mecca had persecuted the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and his companions for long years. Yet, when they truly recognized how Muslims were and how they lived in an environment of peace after the Hudaybiya Treaty, the unbelievers turned their heads towards the right path saying, “We have been in great error!” For such a level of realization to be possible for unbelievers is largely dependent on their endeavor to think and to make a rational assessment of the situation; thus, the Qur’an concludes the verse about unbelievers with the expression “La ya’qilun.”

The Qur’an describes the hypocrites as follows: “Vacillating between (the believers) and (the unbelievers), neither with these, nor with those” (An-Nisa 4:143). In other words, they frequently go from one place to the other; they represent being deprived of light both in their vision and in their conscience. In addition, as they limit their lives to this world, they have been living in indifference and recklessness in this world. Belief and unbelief do not make any difference to them; they desire to live in a place where the living standards are high and where they become comfortable. Hence, they even go to the masjid and pray when necessary; nevertheless, they pray ostentatiously and lazily, as the Qur’an says: “When they rise to do the Prayer, they rise lazily, and to be seen by people (to show them that they are Muslims); and they do not remember God (within or outside the Prayer) save a little” (An-Nisa 4:142). This demonstrates that the hypocrites, in one sense, keep living in an Islamic way and they even follow the Prophet; nonetheless, they are still far from seeing the truth because their hearts are veiled and their thoughts are far from faith and sincerity.

Therefore, the biggest problem of the hypocrites is their insincerity. Accordingly, the Qur’an uses the expression, “La yarjiun” -“they cannot return to the truth and the purity that they originally had”-for the hypocrites as a characteristic. Also, the verses in chapter Al-Munafiqun (The Hypocrites) are concluded either as “La ya’lamun” -“They do not know”- or “La yafqahun” -“They do not understand.” Expressions like “La a’qilun, la yatafaqqarun” -“They do not consider, they do not think”-are not used for hypocrites because those expressions are the attributes of unbelievers.

‘Between my two wrinkled fingers,

a mess of fading, fretted threads

without particular line or colour

or order or significance: What is it?

(And his feet said.) your memories.

A servant as negligent as he can be

while still clinging to his job.

who answers my simplest needs

with slow, mocking disdain: Who is that?

your body.

Long-winded phrases that flap

aimlessly around my head

at home or in my office till (at last)

they find an open window and jump out:

What are these?

Your passions, loves or hates.

A dozen or so strangers who visit

if and only if I’ m very ill,

lay hypocritical hands on my forehead,

feeling my temperature and

their inheritance, then leave

holding their noses.’ Who are they?

your near relatives.

A narrow rectangular edifice

sinking on shallow foundations

designed to that servant’s specification,

open to any scavenging maggot or worm

that happens by: What is that?

The neat sum, the very grand total

of a lifetime’s shrewd, successful

property management – your grave.

The old man huddled his face in his hands, crumpled up like a lost or abandoned child. He heard his wife calling him once again, and complaining that his breakfast was getting cold. But he sat silent, listening to thoughts that voiced themselves inside his head or heart, from far off, as if from another life, a time long gone. And now and again his feet would answer those thoughts, taunting him: 

Before at last the great trumpet sounds

and sounds again,’ before its mighty echo

converts to an irresistible hail that blasts

open each anguished grave: before the hour

when every individual cell, howsoever

dispersed or decomposed. shall by Decree

be re-joined to every other individual cell.

down to the re-perfecting of a fingerprint:

before that hour, may be long before.

you shall hear the angels’ interrogations

howl in your marrowless, hollowed bones:

what is your religion and your worth?

Run, old man, run!

Where will you run?

Who came with clear warnings, reiterated,

and truth you recognized? Offered forgiveness

and you preferred your sins? Pointed you

to eternal light and you ran in to darkness?

Whose teaching called you the many times

you turned

away to make a killing in the market-place,

or to play hide and seek with your intentions.

promising to be virtuous after you were

wealthy?

or shame you dare not name him, still less

claim a corner/n his protecting shade!

Run, old man, ran!

Where will you run?

The order of things is not as it was.

There, in this life, your heart knew

it’s deepest need for forgiveness.

and you couldn’t careless. Here too,

your heart knows it’s deepest need,

but here the order is truth and justice.

A command joins every conscience 

to every sin, forgotten in this life or

remembered, slight or significant.

the whole chain of it’s circumstance.

antecedent or consequent, actual or

potential. Here your closest secrets

are opened. elaborated, pronounced out loud!

old man, old man!

those you betrayed know it now:

those you robbed know it now:

those you could have helped

but did not help, they are here

staring in your face! Where now,

Where will you run?

Here no hiding or seeking, no turning

aside from the Command: your limbs.

Eyes, ears, tongue, heart, brain, each

obedient, each omniscient tells all

it enacted or endured. Self-accused.

self-condemned, you sit whimpering

like a kitten trapped in traffic ,lost.

desolate, in a pool of shame smelling

worse than your own excrement!

Stinking, stupid feet! Why did you

lead me astray?’ Stinking, stupid man.

we obeyed your every command!

Run, then, if you can, run!

And do you remember the kitten?

Remember the blind man at the roadside

who, gesturing wildly with his stick,

made you stop your important car.

delayed your important appointment

You got out shouting at the blind man.

He only pointed down and said:

I can hear but cannot see to help

the poor thing, it’s hurt. You do it.’

Only then you saw the kitten, it’s tail

broken, it’s nerves shattered by the noise

of passing cars, trembling dreadfully.

covered in the dust of the road.

Do not deny that you considered

carrying the little thing to safety.

Do not deny that you knew what to do.

You knew. But wouldn’t dirty your hands

on it’s dusty fur, not before a business

appointment .So you drove round it

fast leaving the kitten in it’s little agony

and the blind man in confusion.

Run, old man run!

But you have nowhere to run!

The man took his hands from his face

and stared at his feet and said: ‘I will run

to the forgiveness of my Lord. There is no

sin so great that it is greater than His

mercy’. His feet did not reply. Then, much to

his surprise, the old man saw bed and bed

ding disappear from beneath his feet Two

shackles of massive iron rose up and locked

upon each of his ankles: from the shackles

enormous chains, likewise made of massive

iron, descended into a bottomless dark

ness. But the man kept his wits about him

and said in his heart atubu ilayk,

Allahumma, atubu ilayk. The chains fell

away and the darkness closed up. Only the

shackles remained and their weight was

such that the man could not move his legs.

let alone his feet. So he repeated what he

had said in his heart, ever more earnestly.

until the shackles opened. He could now

move his feet but dared not waiting for the

shackles to disappear as the chains had.

But they remained open upon his bed. his

ankles resting in them. Indeed, no matter

how often he urged the words of repen

tance, the shackles remained. So he accepted

them as they were, to serve as a

reminder of the jaws of death.

He heard his wife call him a third time to

come down for breakfast. He got up from bed

briskly and went to wash himself. Not in

preparation for work but, for the first time since (so

long ago, alas) his father had given him a choice

in the matter, in preparation for

prayer.

Their need is most dire whose minds have strayed the furthest.

A needy conscience is healthy: its need is faith in Him,

Minds lost in bewildering ways are recovered in search of Him.

Abstract knowledge cannot, nor formal reasoning,

Nor subtle logic, content the human need for faith.

Scholars, scientists, philosophers-disputing, deviant

Voices, so void of meaning while so full of words,

Knowing nothing revealed about the other world,

Ignorant of the beginnings of things-have understood

So little, yet have, by conjectures and frail hypotheses,

Snared and confounded whole nations of human beings.

This is truth: every colour and sound is a message from Him.

The subjection of existence to man is a portion of His wisdom.

Existence originates in or radiates from His Light

Who initiates all things. Only souls who apprehend this

Are contented, and only the contented reach Him.

Though the insightless are blind to Him, His sight reaches,

And His presence is, everywhere. And this is truth:

That man most deeply feels His relatedness to all being.

Those with senses alert to Him know how near He is.

The universe is a fountain overflowing with the meanings

Of His Names, with diverse, prolific harmonies

Of God and man, continually played and resonant.

Realizing this, the human mind is wed to the human heart

And nightly finds a different path to take its way to God.

The spirit that thus leaps over the hurdles of matter,

To enter upon this realm, finds the true identity

At last of man, conjoined fulfillment of self and soul.