October 31, 2005
The Australian paper, The Age, has a great article that provides brief overview of nanotechnology, and reviews a number of issues related to it, particularly reguloatory issues.
October 31, 2005
The Italian researchers who produced the first horse clone have announced the birth of 14 cloned piglets. More of Italian laboratory clones 14 pigs
October 31, 2005
A new vaccine that protects against cervical cancer has set up a clash between health advocates who want to use the shots aggressively to prevent thousands of malignancies and social conservatives who say immunizing teenagers could encourage sexual activity. More … Read More
October 28, 2005
Yuri Kageyama, a writer for the Associated Press, was recently tested a new device from the Japanese telephone company Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT). The device consists of a special headset (which looks like a pair of large headphones) and … Read More
October 28, 2005
Researchers have stumbled across an unexpected genetic phenomenon in prostate cancer — a discovery that could change conventional thinking on breast, colon and lung malignancies as well. [More]
October 28, 2005
European scientists say they’ve identified the gene responsible for controlling a first key step in the creation of life. The gene, known as HIRA, chaperones the early processes that occur once a sperm cell enters an egg, giving it a … Read More
October 28, 2005
A top Bush bioethics adviser kicked off a new series of discussions about the ethics of stem cell and other scientific research on Thursday (Oct. 20), tangling with Harvard faculty members over the meaning of life and of family, and … Read More
October 27, 2005
Dr. William Hurlbut was trying to have a conversation . Navigating the Pittsburgh, Pa., airport last week with cell phone in hand, he talked while hurrying to the gate, winding his way through security, buying a snack, hopping an intra-airport … Read More
October 26, 2005
The billion dollars in royalties that voters were told could flow to the state if they passed California’s $3 billion stem cell research funding initiative in 2004 may turn into an empty promise. [more]
October 25, 2005
Boulder – When genetics experts gathered for an annual symposium in Aspen this summer, their talks focused on the potential for genetic tests to be sold directly to customers. The group, made up of medical doctors and industry experts, agreed … Read More
October 24, 2005
Historians are drawing some intriguing connections between the contemporary debate over human embryonic stem cell research and California’s unsavory, and mostly forgotten, eugenics movement of the last century. [more]
October 24, 2005
When 5-year-old Gina Rugari started kindergarten in Cincinnati this fall she brought her own crayons, pencils, glue sticks and pink backpack, but the blood flowing through her arteries was not her own. Her red and white cells are the result … Read More
October 24, 2005
Wesley J. Smith has a column on the World Stem Cell Foundation, Korean cloning scientist Woo-Suk Hwang’s project to avoid skirmishes over the ethics of cloning. The plan is to do cloning in areas where it is not forbidden (South … Read More
October 24, 2005
I have frequently written on the gulf between the promise of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and the reality of therapy from adult stem cells (ASCs) — those already in our bodies and umbilical cord blood. ESCs get publicity; ASCs get … Read More
October 21, 2005
Perhaps the last unenhanced human to make a significant contribution in the field of mathematics has already been born. In twenty years, the tenure track at top university mathematics departments may consist entirely of people who depend on drugs, direct … Read More
October 21, 2005
Details are emerging about the deal on healthcare benefits struck between General Motors and the United Auto Workers. Retirees are going to begin paying “deductibles, monthly premiums, and co-payments,” that will add up to as much as $370 per year … Read More
October 21, 2005
The parents of a brain-damaged baby have won a partial victory in their legal battle to have her resuscitated by doctors if she falls seriously ill. A judge has lifted the order not to ventilate Charlotte Wyatt, but said doctors … Read More
October 21, 2005
The Senate won’t vote until early next year on a bill to loosen restrictions on publicly funded embryonic stem cell studies, under a deal struck Friday by the sponsors [more]
October 20, 2005
The Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco is looking for “healthy women in their 20s and early 30s, in good physical and emotional health” who are “willing to give themselves hormone injections.” The pan is to open a “Bay Area … Read More
October 20, 2005
Beyond the well-established principles of informed consent and confidentiality, social responsibility, including improved access to quality health care, figures high in a new Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization … Read More
October 20, 2005
New Jersey will create a storage bank for umbilical cord blood to aid stem cell research, under an executive order signed Tuesday by acting Gov. Richard J. Codey. State officials say it will be the first such program in the … Read More
October 19, 2005
The Chopstick Theory of Scientific Supremacy goes like this: Koreans eat with narrow, metal chopsticks. Nabbing grains of rice with slippery, steel sticks requires a surgeon’s dexterity. That’s why Koreans have mastered extraordinarily precise “micromanipulation” of eggs and embryos required … Read More
October 19, 2005
South Korean scientists are organizing an international consortium, to include laboratories in California and Britain, that will clone human cells for American and other researchers who don’t have access to the controversial stem cell technology. [more]
October 19, 2005
A series of groundbreaking studies has found that embryos created in fertility clinics contain far more genetic defects than previously thought, even if they are created from eggs donated by young, healthy women. [more]
October 11, 2005
— Dutch studies don’t tell whole story about euthanasia practice — Britain & Canada to debate assisted suicide — Marketing death — Peter Singer: Sanctity of life will be destroyed — Missouri cutbacks target feeding tubes, equipment — Cranford & … Read More
