March 20, 2007
Years ago, Woody Allen used to joke that he’d been thrown out of college as a freshman for cheating on his metaphysics final. “I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me,” he confessed. Today, the joke … Read More
March 19, 2007
Coroner’s conclusion won’t halt probes into whether a doctor tried to hasten the demise. The San Luis Obispo County sheriff-coroner has concluded that a 26-year-old potential organ donor died of natural causes, complicating a criminal inquiry into whether a transplant … Read More
March 19, 2007
Last year, a widely distributed report from the group Save the Children, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, tied the United States with Malta and Slovakia for the second-worst infant-mortality rate among developed nations (at about six per … Read More
March 12, 2007
Our friends at DoNoHarm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics — AKA stemcellresearch.org — send the following invitation
March 9, 2007
Prison inmates in South Carolina could get up to six months shaved off their sentences if they donated a kidney or their bone marrow, under a proposed bill before the state Senate. “We have a lot of people dying as … Read More
March 9, 2007
If not for umbilical cord blood, Jessica Berry of Macomb Township is convinced her 5-year-old daughter, Olivia, wouldn’t have survived. Born four months premature, Olivia weighed only 1 pound, 2 ounces. She required more than 10 blood transfusions, heart surgery … Read More
March 9, 2007
Imagine lying inert, unmoving, totally paralyzed — and your only way of telling people “I’m not dead!” is the tiny blink of one eye. Imagine hearing the doctors call you a vegetable, and you can’t even whisper back, “I’m still … Read More
March 9, 2007
Doctors have long advised that a good night’s sleep is important for memory – but researchers now say a familiar scent wafting in the bedroom might help sometimes, too. The caveat: In the study, being published Friday in the journal … Read More
March 8, 2007
DoNoHarm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics (stemcellresearch.org) has just posted a PDF entitled “75 New Reasons to Reconsider the Alleged Need for Stem Cell Research that Destroys Human Embryos.†It is a catalog of recent advances in adult … Read More
March 8, 2007
The National Bioethics Committee will convene Friday to discuss such contentious issues as human egg donation, which is important in experiments with cloned embryos. The gathering aimed at ironing our differences between committee members is expected to show whether the … Read More
March 8, 2007
An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea. (BBC)
March 8, 2007
A cloning expert has called for China to give scientists the green light to further develop the technology as the country is not encumbered by the political and religious debates that have put cloning on hold in the United States … Read More
March 8, 2007
Emotiv Systems, an electronic-game company from San Francisco, wants people to play with the power of the mind. Starting tomorrow, video-game makers will be able to buy Emotiv’s electro-encephalograph (EEG) caps and software developer’s tool kits so that they can … Read More
March 8, 2007
A woman who went into a vegetative state in November of 2000 awoke this week for three days, spoke with her family and a local television station before slipping back on Wednesday. “I’m fine,” Christa Lilly told her mother on … Read More
March 8, 2007
The House Wednesday approved by a 422-0 vote legislation named for the late Georgia Rep. Charlie Norwood, that organ donor groups say could lead to many more kidney transplants each year. The “Charlie W. Norwood Living Organ Donation Act,” which … Read More
March 8, 2007
Scientists are preparing for a large clinical trial in 2008 which aims to use stem cells to help 400 patients with spinal cord injuries in Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan grow new cells and nerve fibers. Stem cells from … Read More
March 8, 2007
Cancer is a disease of genes gone awry, but new insights into the “cancer genome” could point the way to effective treatments, an international team of researchers reports. Scientists taking part in the Cancer Genome Project say they’ve identified more … Read More
March 8, 2007
Hundreds of opponents of embryonic stem-cell research crammed the Capitol halls Wednesday urging a statewide election on whether to overturn a voter-approved constitutional protection for such research. Legislative proposals to put a stem-cell research amendment back on the 2008 ballot … Read More
March 7, 2007
Despite its ability to predict dangerous and even deadly drug reactions, a high price tag and lack of familiarity with the technology have prevented doctors from embracing the world’s first DNA chip test to deliver personalized medicine. (Wired)
March 7, 2007
At a laboratory in Germany, volunteers slide into a donut-shaped MRI machine and perform simple tasks, such as deciding whether to add or subtract two numbers, or choosing which of two buttons to press. They have no inkling that scientists … Read More
March 7, 2007
They’re special, those moments of close connection when you become attuned to another person’s mood, and it seems you can sense what he or she feels. This “we’re on the same wavelength” phenomenon is known as empathy, part of the … Read More
March 7, 2007
On Thursday, the biotech firm LifeCell Corp. announced its financial results for 2006. LifeCell’s revenues — $140.6 million for the year, a 51% increase over 2005 — are testament to its remarkable technologies, including a revolutionary skin graft for burn … Read More
March 6, 2007
South Korean researchers are going all out to find alternative ways to extract human stem cells without killing embryos, regarded by some as human life. (ROK Daily)
March 6, 2007
A state ban on all human cloning would give Nebraska a “black eye†and harm some of its research institutions, contends one of the state’s leading stem cell experts. (AP)
March 6, 2007
Supporters of legislation that would regulate government-funded research using embryonic stem cells said they plan to speak up for what they contend is the silent majority on the issue. (The News Journal)
