A high-tech armband is helping athletes find their rhythm on the basketball court by playing a special tune when the athletes move their arms correctly. The “interactive throwing sleeve” extends from the knuckles to above the elbow and is form fitting, like a compression garment. It has two sensors, one at the wrist and another at the elbow, that are connected by thin conductive fibers. As the athlete shoots the ball, the sleeve measures the position, velocity, and acceleration of the arm. The information is wirelessly transmitted to a laptop so that the athlete can be monitored in real time. (Technology Review)

The scientist who first isolated stem cells more than 25 years ago has hit back at opponents of embryo research.

Professor Sir Martin Evans called their stance “not acceptable”, adding that properly regulated research was needed to develop lifesaving treatments. (BBC)

Government advisors meet this week to discuss designs for embryonic stem cell testing in humans. (CNN)

Twenty percent of scientists admit to using performance-enhancing prescription drugs for non-medical reasons, according to a survey released Wednesday by Nature, Britain’s top science journal. (AFP)

Science’s task is to explain the natural world: what it is, how it works and why it is the way it is. Ethics is about the oughts and the shoulds. Most ethicists — religious and secular — agree that knowledge of the natural world helps us make better, or at least better-informed, ethical decisions. But, as David Hume, Thomas Henry Huxley and G. E. Moore have noted, a particular understanding of nature does not dictate a unique moral stance. For every Alexander Pope declaring “Whatever is, is right,” there is a Rose Sayer (from the film The African Queen) retorting, “Nature … is what we are put in this world to rise above!” (Nature)

Can employers put you on a diet? No, but they can make it more expensive to be fat. New ways companies are monitoring employee health habits and rewarding those who shape up. (Newsweek)

A new study suggests that a genetic fingerprint associated with normal embryonic stem cells may be important for the development and function of cancer stem cells. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 10th issue of Cell Stem Cell, demonstrates that embryonic stem cells and multiple types of human cancer cells share a genetic expression pattern that is repressed in normal differentiated cells, a finding that may have significant clinical implications for cancer therapeutics. (GEN)