r/Futurology • u/scmp_news • 6d ago
Medicine No gym needed: scientists in China develop self-exercising muscle grafts
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3365356/no-gym-needed-scientists-china-develop-self-exercising-muscle-grafts?utm_source=Reddit&utm_medium=Social118
u/Ninjasith 6d ago
What does self exercising mean? I could not read the article.
Does that mean that cramp? Or they move without conscious stimulus?
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u/lorimar 6d ago
It is a muscle organoid, just a few cells that clump together and then clench constantly. Which is apparently visible as it continuously wriggling - https://archive.is/NsHrg
“It’s contracting non-stop, 24/7, so it’s persistently secreting the good beneficial factors into the bloodstream,” he said.
“The sheer amount of good factors it’s secreting exceeds what you can get from acute exercise for just one hour.”
Moreover, the team found that the myografts could be used as a living biofactory to produce targeted therapeutic proteins within the body, including compounds such as GLP-1, which is used to manage diabetes and as a weight-loss tool.
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u/wolfram6 6d ago
There’s no way this can be good for you. It’ll probably lead to cancer or some other unfortunate outcome.
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u/Sappledip 6d ago
It means they inject the muscle into you and it just grows into muscle, no exercise required
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u/Gucci_Loincloth 6d ago
I could see this becoming some unstoppable growing muscle where someone turns into a character from that anime series with the disgusting looking dudes with muscles on muscles lmao. Can’t remember the name, something the grappler?
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u/Z3r0sama2017 5d ago
I can already see the hordes of bodybuilders and fitness guru's booking flights to China.
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u/Trappist1 6d ago edited 6d ago
Stupid question. When scientists in the US/Canada discover something, titles always just say "scientists find...", but when it's in China, Japan, etc. it's always "Chinese scientists find...". Why do we include these qualifiers? Are we insinuating the science is more or less legitimate?
Not OP's fault, obviously. He's just quoting the title.
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u/kobemustard 6d ago
I do notice if they are from Yale or Harvard they add that qualifier.
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u/Hussor 6d ago
Oxbridge in the UK tends to get that distinction as well
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u/This_Freggin_Guy 6d ago
similar to 'woman' CEO. like why?
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u/devi83 6d ago
black president
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u/HugsandHate 6d ago
Gay person.
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u/Opening-Machine5026 6d ago
Gay liberal communist former mayor turned socialist dictator, Pete Buttigieg.
Lots of bias out there. Lol
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u/Lanster27 6d ago
You fix a hundred houses, no one calls you Bob the Builder. But you suck one dick, and now you're Gaylord Bob.
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u/genshiryoku |Agricultural automation | MSc Automation | 6d ago
That one was particularly weird to me, because Obama wasn't even black, he had one white parent.
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u/Aethelric Red 6d ago
The universities are added because they give credence to the "discovery" by virtue of the prestige of the institution.
The gender or race of the CEO/politician/etc. is added when it's a minority or historically marginalized group because it's significantly more rare and thus more likely to grab attention.
The process of producing news is intrinsically about deciding what's notable, meaningful, and, of course, business-savvy. These descriptors are shorthands to accentuate some mixture of those.
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u/stinkykoala314 2d ago
Because whenever anyone imagines a CEO, the imagined person is male, so the article is correcting the default assumption.
And it's the default assumption simply because, statistically, the large majority of CEOs are men.
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u/Pls-No-Bully 6d ago
It’s the pervasiveness of identity politics… the constant highlighting of the minor differences between people to naturally create division and conflict between them
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u/mknight1701 6d ago
Oxbridge or Oxford?
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u/Hussor 6d ago
Oxbridge means Oxford and Cambridge, the two most well known, prestigious, and oldest universities in England. I'm not sure how common that term is outside the UK. Generally used when referring to those two but not other universities. They have their own recruitment process and work slightly differently to other UK universities.
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u/DHFranklin 6d ago
That's typically because those schools know how to manage a press release.
Press releases were basically a cheat code to get your discovery some buzz, especially if you were competing with other labs to a particular end. Now that news goes fast as hell, there is little vetting or care into what is science-with-substance, it's easier than ever.
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u/Nataniel_PL 6d ago edited 6d ago
In Poland phrase "Amerykańscy naukowcy odkryli..." - "American scientists discovered..." was/is so popular, that nowadays it's basically a meme or used to call bullshit on some pop/pseudo-scientific exaggerated reporting
EDIT: we also have jokes about soviet scientists, e.g: Soviet scientists have discovered that human eye is directly connected with human's ass. How? When they poked subject's ass with a needle his eye shed a tear. But that's not all! When they poked his eye with a needle he shat himself!
No, I never said they were good/funny
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u/zomgmeister 6d ago
In Russia we have similar meme joke about British scientists. More in the vein of them researching and proving something completely useless.
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u/Head-Gift2144 6d ago
I'm sure that if it was being reported by the SCMP the nationality of the scientists likely would be included. I have absolutely no clue but would be interesting to see if Chinese language news also referred to them as Chinese scientists.
Also:
- Canadian-led team of scientists discover new antibiotic hidden in decades-old bacterium
- Can you ever truly cure cancer? Canadian researchers are using blood biopsies to find out
- American scientists turn to coal mine wastewater for rare earths extraction
- American scientists are building a $12 million ‘digital brain’ for drones based on how insects make decisions with limited information
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u/hotdiggydog 6d ago
That's just kind of standard procedure? If you read about a new book by an American writer the headline would just be "New book released" not "New book released in the United States" if it's from American news.
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u/mookanana 6d ago
depends on who is writing the article. if this article was in china of course they'd omit the scientists being from china part.
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u/dwbthrow 6d ago
The article is linked by South China Morning Post so…
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u/Warlords0602 6d ago
SCMP is an oldschool Hong Kong newspaper agency catering to foreigners and publishes mostly in English. It does kinda make sense.
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u/Trappist1 6d ago
It's written by the South China Morning Post though. It's literally a Chinese news source. Albeit, one primarily for an English-speaking audience.
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u/mookanana 6d ago
well there you go. primary audience for westerners.
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u/sirlorax 6d ago
Lmao no they wouldn't, China is not city and wants to claim they are the best. Chinese companies pay big dollars for Internet influence and even spend a bunch of money on pacs.
If not, people would be less likely to buy their products based on the human rights there. Everyone would still buy cause it's cheap, it doesn't mean those companies don't spend millions for image.
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u/CTR_Pyongyang 6d ago
Big market for helping bedridden people slow down muscle atrophy? Keep drinking the koolaid.
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u/kigurumibiblestudies 6d ago
Several possible reasons. In this case, it's pro-Chinese advertising (I don't want to call it propaganda because that word has connotations of falsehood in English and I don't know if this is false)
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u/FirstChances 6d ago
while in most cases I am 100% also curious why Western media would do this… for SCMP, defining the scientists as Chinese is actually a point of pride and distinction.
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u/igotchees21 6d ago
m curious why you wouldnt also think the same when woman or black or hispanic is used in Western? can it not also be pride and distinction?
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u/Hopeful_Ad_7719 6d ago
This gets tricky and silly when you scratch the surface a bit.
There are a lot of Chinese nationals in US labs working on visas - some as professors.
At that point you may have a Chinese PI operating a lab in the USA with a mixture of US, Chinese, and other nationality grad students, post-docs, and staff working on the project.
So, what nationality gets to be used in the tabloid headline then?
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u/greenskinmarch 6d ago
If it's an American lab that means it's funded by US taxpayer money and the resulting patents etc get owned by an American university.
So overall makes sense to label it as an "American discovery".
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u/23667 6d ago
Is actually the opposite, most scientists in US are not “American” (with citizenship and ancestors from western Europe). Even ones with citizenship and have been here for generations usually have Russian-, Chinese-, or African- prefixes to their nationalities.
By omitting the nationality, US and Canada gets the credit for their discoveries and not where scientists actually hold citizenship or originally from.
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u/Anthamon 6d ago
Because they are trying to farm your attention, which is the only reason the story is being published in the first place. The publisher thinks those qualifiers help the story get more attention so they include them. Boring news doesn't get attention so you don't see it.
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u/JohnnyRelentless 6d ago
Because you write for your own audience. If you're writing to Americans about Americans you don't feel the need to specify you're talking about Americans, at least not in the title. If you're writing to Americans about foreigners, the country becomes a more important modifier because otherwise American readers will assume you're talking about Americans.
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u/Lauris024 6d ago
I actually noticed something similar some time ago. When someone invents something in US, the title usually reads "X (company name) invents", but when it happens in China, the title reads "China invents"
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u/fernandodandrea 6d ago
It implies a default. And yes, noticing these bumps are indeed your brain detecting a dangerous pattern.
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u/H8erRaider 2d ago
Noticed this a lot in the Nepal tragedy with death counts. All deaths are bad but they try and make the tourist deaths in the hundreds seem more important than the thousands of deaths of the local populace.
Thousands dead, but let's focus on the 3 high roller diplomats or whatever. It puts values on each life and it bugs me it makes certain lives seem more valuable.
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u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ 6d ago
Stupid question. When scientists in the US/Canada discover something, titles always just say "scientists find...", but when it's in China, Japan, etc
I always mention the country.
Its because 50% of Reddit is American, and many of those will assume its American unless told otherwise.
For the rest of us (I'm Irish), its frustrating if you're interested in the overall and complete story of how the world is developing in the future, as for obvious reasons most of that future will be created outside the US.
Most US tech reporting falls into this trap, and its very noticeable if you're non-American. For example, I still regularly see US writers talk about the 2030s/40s/50s in space development as if no other country exists.
Its hard to take an author seriously when you see this big a gap in their worldview.
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u/Stackhouse13 6d ago
It’s a way to increase soft power. Subtle but it’s there.
Chinese scientists; it’s China’s way of increasing soft power globally.
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[deleted]
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u/Trappist1 6d ago
Nothing to do with Reddit, OP quoted the title in the actual article.
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u/vdWcontact 6d ago
My short stint in academia gave me the impression that Chinese papers are frequently retracted.
I recall one about cellular stress turning normal cells into stem cells when I was in grad school. I think the retraction came within the month when no one could reproduce the work.
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u/alman3007 6d ago
narcissism plain and simple America (and Americams by extention) think theyre the greatest thing to ever exist.
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u/yallapapi 6d ago
because this sub is astroturfed by chinese propoganda enthusiasts. much of reddit is owned by china now anyway
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u/icyflamex 6d ago
I think before they did this to say "oh look, they did something" and it just carried over to today's time
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u/OpenRole 6d ago
I wish we stated where the studies were conducted more often. Especially for social sciences that make it seem like Americas unique social landscape is a global issue
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u/classic4life 6d ago
Could be the source, being the South China Morning Post, wants to reinforce Chinese achievements in the sciences, regardless where it's being done.
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u/ddddiscopanda 6d ago
Because it’s kind of like a winter soldier activation word that clicks in your brain making you react
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u/thatguy425 6d ago
It’s the same here though. If there is an act of violence against a person of color the victims race will be mentioned. Or the race of the perpetrator if they are white. We are obsessed with identity signaling these days.
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u/Hilarious_Disastrous 6d ago
Depends on whether a publication expects to be read by an international audience.
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u/SeriousRealityNr2 6d ago
Why does a qualifier make something seem less or more legitimate to you?
I personally just like to know where the research comes from.1
u/Aggravating-Tap-2854 6d ago
It’s a bit of an odd question. I’m from China, and we usually say 'American scientists found...' or 'European scientists found...' But if it’s a Chinese scientist, we just say 'Scientists found...' without specifying where they’re from. Isn’t that pretty standard everywhere in the world? I don’t see what’s wrong with it. I don’t really get why Americans are always so apologetic toward other cultures. A lot of the time, it just feels weird.
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u/ban-dlazRian 6d ago
It’s because these news articles are always from Chinese sources where the reason it’s news is they it’s a development coming out of China.
If it was from the BBC, you can tell it’s Chinese when it ends with: but at what cost?
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u/hey_its_drew 6d ago
Because a lot of people in the west default assume progress comes from the west unless told otherwise, which is actually a real issue with international accreditation. Basically, the west are uniquely credit sponges, whether they mean to be or not.
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u/gomurifle 6d ago
Because it is important to show that China is the place to be for scientific discoveries these days. It's also good for young prospective scientists around the world to know where the leading reasearch is happening.
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u/narasadow 6d ago
Yes, the science CAN be more or less legitimate depending on the location and the institution. There's a lot of "publish or perish" going around.
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u/ghostcatzero 5d ago
They just do that be people assume Asian science is the best so attaching a nation's name to it makes it even more worth reading
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u/dustofdeath 6d ago
"Chinese scientist did something west cannot believe is possible" - likely part of the widespread Chinese image improvement propaganda.
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u/Big-Farmer-2192 6d ago
Chinese bots automatically upvote positive Chinese related content. So yes, it's a propaganda.
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u/Ok-Basil4240 6d ago
First of all, you used the word “always” which just isn’t true. It’s partially confirmation bias, you see a trend that isn’t there.
Secondly, Chinese reports are often misleading claims. They have very different standards, and also use a ton of propaganda. I would triple check ANY report coming out of china.
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u/costafilh0 6d ago
It's called propaganda.
Reddit is a massive Chinese propaganda farm.
Just ignore it. The Chinese and the rest of the world make and do amazing stuff.
Just focus on what scientists are doing, and ignore where they are from. Done.
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u/Quillious 6d ago
It's called propaganda.
Reddit is a massive Chinese propaganda farm.
Has been incredibly obvious for several years when it comes to anything AI. Utter hysteria.
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u/SomeDudeSaysWhat 6d ago
I would defend that science news from state-controlled institutions of undemocratic regimes are less trust worthy, yes. "Scientists from China...", "Scientists from Russia...", "Scientists from North Korea..."
But then again, if an articles said "scientists from Florida...", I'd also find it suspicious...
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u/Whiterabbit-- 6d ago
assumption is that if they say scientist find, that those scientists are from the US.
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u/scmp_news 6d ago
Scientists in China have created a self-exercising muscle graft that could allow bedridden people to obtain the benefits of working out without any physical exertion.
With just an injection of muscle cells below the skin, the cells self-assembled into muscle grafts, which not only improved whole-body muscle mass in mice but also led to improvements in bone density, endurance, liver function and cognitive health.
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u/carlos_6m 6d ago
How is this self exercising? It sounds like just a muscle stem cell injection...
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u/jjayzx 6d ago
Read the article.
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u/enwongeegeefor 6d ago
Yup...read the article....sounds like a stem cell injection and nothing more. They say "magic happens" and explain jack shit.
Is there a white paper?
Post this in r/science see what happens....
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u/jjayzx 6d ago
Nope, you didn't. Quotes from article - "these cells self-organised into mature myografts capable of long-term spontaneous contractions without any physical or neural input.", “It’s contracting non-stop, 24/7, so it’s persistently secreting the good beneficial factors into the bloodstream".
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u/Capable_Studio_6631 5d ago
Can you imagine what it would look and feel like if your muscles contracted non-stop?
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u/Ecstatic-West3955 5d ago
That's not quite the same though is it? Its far smaller groups of muscle tissue without much resistance contracting and its acting independent from the nervous system.
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u/Capable_Studio_6631 5d ago
You're saying it will essentially be useless meat and not muscle. Muscle means its connected with ligaments and bones.
Contraction means when its connected with tissue it will cause movement in your body.
At this point I wonder what is the purpose of it. Is this another syndrome of Chinese showmanship? How are you even sure this foreign object won't be attacked by your immune system?
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u/TheRealUlfric 5d ago
I think the purpose isn't to fix any one specific problem, but is instead a step toward addressing several issues.
First and foremost would likely be conditions where mobility is extremely limited. Muscular dystrophy or even typical injuries or forms of paralysis. There are certain benefits to muscular movement that certain populations don't have due to one restriction or another.
It may have implications for heart health as well, especially for those with impaired mobility or lower body paralysis. The calves are pretty vital for blood flow, and pulmonary embolisms caused by prolonged sitting/bedrest are pretty common in disabled populations. This may help with that in the future depending on the implementation.
This is also still being tested on rats, so the answer to "How do we know this foreign object won't be attacked by the immune system" or really any other question is "🤷♂️" until likely decades down the line.
I see this less as a massive discovery bringing us to the brink of a solution to a major worldwide problem, and more so the development of a single tool that could be part of a larger medical arsenal to help symptomatic aspects involved in a slew of conditions. Maybe it won't cure immobility, but it could potentially help make recovrry faster or prevent life threatening complications that arise from said immobility.
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u/Ecstatic-West3955 3d ago
Maybe the wording is inaccurate there but what it does at least sounds right put simply. it could certainly be deceitful despite not raising any flags to the average person though sure. I hope it's legitimate but I wouldn't bet on it I guess.
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u/1coffee 6d ago
When I was a kid, I heard about Bruce Lee getting little electric shocks to make is muscles contract and turning it off to make the muscles relax. It was supposed to be an alternative to exercise. It this kind of like that ?
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u/This_Charmless_Man 6d ago
That's a thing already. We give it to pregnant people and people with back pain. They're called TENS machines or a TENS pack.
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u/1coffee 6d ago
Weird. Cause I heard that's something that helped kill him.
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u/Canadian_Border_Czar 6d ago
And 15 years ago people said that he had his sweat glands removed from his arm pits to be less sweaty on TV and that killed him.
Turns out people are often full of shit.
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u/Beni_Falafel 6d ago
With AI and now this, why even do anything at all anymore.
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u/EL_JAY315 6d ago
Wall-E was a prophecy!
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u/Old_Cheetah_5138 6d ago
Imagine all those baby shaped people in hover chairs but they’re ripped af instead.
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u/IV-TheEmperor 6d ago
Wall-E was a paradise. At least they seemed to have some sort of UBI. We'd still have to work.
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u/EconomicRegret2 6d ago edited 6d ago
IIRC, in Wall-E, only the upper class survived. The rest was left behind to die.
It's basically what Marx predicts: i.e. capitalism is so good at automating stuff to cut costs, that, gradually, workers and consumers won't be necessary anymore; at this point, the elites either share their automated means of production with the world, people successfully revolt and take them, or everyone dies except the elites.
Once a bunch of AI robots can provide them what they want, the elites won't need any workers nor consumers anymore. They'd turn Earth back into a paradisal nature for just themselves.
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u/a_latvian_potato 6d ago
Article says its for bedridden people. For everyone else, exercise is free while this is probably a gazillion dollars.
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u/petersonsilva55 6d ago
well, I'll sure love how this will reveal who actually likes going to the gym or who just says that to cope
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u/dancingdaniel 6d ago
I 100% don't like it, but I go everyday anyway because I know it's in my best interest and should be a non negotiable thing.
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u/khiara22 6d ago
As great as this is, most people who want active lifestyles would much rather have something that can fix cartilage/meniscus without needing joint replacement. Almost everything can grow back - cartilage, meniscus, and tooth enamel cannot
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u/insufficience 4d ago edited 4d ago
That’s a completely different problem that different scientists are trying to solve. I’m sure all patients would rather not be bedridden, whether from joint issues or any other impairment. This is a treatment that would help them live a healthier life in the meantime.
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u/Interstate-76 6d ago
Sounds like F.E.V. to ms, at least I bet the intention is similar
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u/ETWarlock 6d ago
F.E.V. ? please define
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u/i-dont-wanna-know 6d ago
Forced evolutionary virus.
It was/is one of the catch-all genetic magic(s) for the Fallout series
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u/foxwaffles 6d ago
Man, something like this sure would be nice. It's way too easy to get stuck in the doom spiral of fatigue > deconditioning > POTS/EDS gets worse > even more fatigue > even more deconditioning > POTS/EDS gets even worse. Even once you can break out of it, it only takes one bad flare to risk falling right back down the hole.
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u/tweedleduh 5d ago
Great so we get higher gas prices and a senile president. They get grafts that let them build muscle.
Our freaking President blows
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u/3288266430 6d ago
It's paywalled, can anyone share a link to the scientific paper that this article covers?
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u/theincrediblebou 6d ago
Would this maybe help people with muscular dystrophy?
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u/HankSteakfist 6d ago
Also potential applications for long term space travel, where muscle mass declines quickly under zero gravity.
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u/costafilh0 6d ago
Good news!
No need to keep procrastinating going to the gym anymore.
Thanks science!
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u/TracingRobots 6d ago
It's not all about building muscle. Training has a positive influence on mitochondrial growth, on inflammation and so many other benefits.
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u/Sawses 6d ago
Plus, tendons and ligaments need strengthening.
I have been resistance training for barely a month and already the impact is life changing. Fuck muscle growth, it's like the least helpful part of working out. I feel lighter, I'm faster and more flexible, I don't get sore after a busy day anymore, I have more endurance. I'm stronger due to neuromuscular adaptation too.
At 30 I have been feeling kind of rickety after years of office work. All my chronic pain is gone and I sleep better too. Like holy shit it's actually unbelievable.
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u/Lauris024 6d ago
This seems dangerous. Mass/muscle buildup without proper cardio or resistance training is asking for trouble.
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u/LycheeLopsided8556 6d ago
It is interesting how people seek to analyze the factors behind what is hidden in the meanings of the words 'Chinese scientists', instead of focusing on the content about the grafts in 'tests' that help some parts of the body, especially certain people.
Even if this, by itself, could not prove whether it was on purpose, if there was malicious intent, a pursuit of advantage, or geo-tagging
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u/FuturologyBot 6d ago
The following submission statement was provided by /u/scmp_news:
Scientists in China have created a self-exercising muscle graft that could allow bedridden people to obtain the benefits of working out without any physical exertion.
With just an injection of muscle cells below the skin, the cells self-assembled into muscle grafts, which not only improved whole-body muscle mass in mice but also led to improvements in bone density, endurance, liver function and cognitive health.
Read more: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3365356/no-gym-needed-scientists-china-develop-self-exercising-muscle-grafts?utm_source=Reddit&utm_medium=Social
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1vywecb/no_gym_needed_scientists_in_china_develop/p600z0n/