August 27, 2013
That Linda Ronstadt would lose her powerful voice after a four-decade singing career is the ironic curse of Parkinson’s disease. The neurological degenerative condition affects more than 1 million Americans, robbing them of speech, mobility and their cognitive abilities. (ABC … Read More
August 27, 2013
Dr. Peter Huttenlocher, a pediatric neurologist and neuroscientist whose innovative research counting billions of brain synapses — the microscopic information highways of the mind — revealed that brains develop rapidly in young children and later “prune†themselves as they mature, … Read More
August 16, 2013
“Public intellectuals, much of the time at least, should be party poopers,” Jean Bethke Elshtain declared in 2001. Elshtain, who died Sunday at age 72, formally spent her last 18 years at the University of Chicago Divinity School, but throughout … Read More
August 12, 2013
Two weeks after announcing that he and his wife had welcomed a baby girl, new dad Jimmy Fallon reveals their daughter Winnie Rose was born via surrogate. (People)
August 9, 2013
Paul Knoepfler, who runs his own research lab at University of California, Davis, will receive special recognition by the Genetics Policy Institute for his advocacy of stem cell research via the blog that he’s been hosting since 2009. (Forbes)
August 9, 2013
[Interview with Craig Venter] Where are we in the hype cycle of synthetic biology? My complaint is that there are more books and news articles than there are primary scientific papers. I am probably the biggest critic of the hypesters, … Read More
August 6, 2013
Lindisfarne Centre Faithful Judgements: The Role of Religion in Laypeople’s Ethical Evaluations of New Reproductive and Genetic Technologies September 2, 2013, 10:30am – 4pm St. Aidan’s College, Durham University Durham DH1 3LJ, UK For more information, see here.
July 12, 2013
The Neumann case provides a stark reminder that some beliefs can literally endanger children’s lives. Religion and science equally fuel this kind of fear-mongering and reckless parenting. When combined with celebrity, real people get hurt. (The Atlantic)
July 12, 2013
The family of Nelson Mandela, who has been lying at the edge of death in a South African hospital for more than a month, might in the days or weeks to come face the same awful decision that has confronted … Read More
July 9, 2013
Hannah Warren died on Saturday at Children’s Hospital of Illinois, hospital spokeswoman Shelli Dankoff said. The hospital said in a statement that Hannah couldn’t “overcome additional health issues that were identified as her care progressed”. (Herald Sun)
July 5, 2013
Christian de Duve, 1917-2013; Christian de Duve shared the 1974 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine with Albert Claude and George Palade for discoveries about the internal workings of the cell that have helped to shed light on the causes … Read More
July 1, 2013
The emotional pain and practical demands facing Nelson Mandela’s family are universal: confronting the final days of an elderly loved one. There are no rules for how or when the end may arrive. Some choose to let go with little … Read More
June 20, 2013
Edmund D. Pellegrino, a physician and former Catholic University president who was a leading figure in bioethics, a field of inquiry that has pushed doctors, patients and society at large to confront essential quandaries of caring for the sick, died … Read More
June 18, 2013
The beleaguered Susan G. Komen Foundation has named a nationally known health policy and research expert in Washington, D.C. to replace founder Nancy Brinker as its chief executive, the breast cancer charity announced Monday. (Washington Post)
June 17, 2013
One of the most prominent founders of the field of bioethics and a longtime professor and professor emeritus at Georgetown passed away yesterday at the age of 92. Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino, who would have been 93 on June 22, … Read More
June 13, 2013
U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin says she plans to step down next month after four years as “America’s doctor.†(Washington Post)
June 10, 2013
Rao tells Sulogna Mehta of TOI about his experiences of curing ‘given-up’ cases and medical ethics, healthcare in rural and tribal areas, and the stigma associated with HIV. (Times of India)
June 10, 2013
Chenara, Aaron and Jessica Guare – the world’s first triplets born through IVF technology – turn 30 today. (News.com.au)
May 30, 2013
Ken Tada married Joni Eareckson in 1982 for better, for worse and for all the things that were uniquely her — including the fact that she was a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. (ABC News)
May 30, 2013
Dr. Henry Morgentaler, Canada’s most heralded and vilified abortion doctor, who was assaulted and imprisoned for defying restrictive laws but who won the landmark Canadian Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationally in 1988, died on Tuesday at his home … Read More
May 27, 2013
The death of Angelina Jolie’s aunt, Debbie Martin, has once again highlighted the genetic risk of breast cancer. Martin, 61, was the younger sister of Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died from ovarian cancer at the age of 56. Martin’s … Read More
May 14, 2013
MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance … Read More
May 7, 2013
What is science revealing about the nature of the criminal mind? Adrian Raine, a professor at the university of Pennsylvania, is an expert in the expanding field of “neurocriminology.†He has written The Anatomy of Violence, a sweeping account of … Read More
May 7, 2013
Eminent Belgian scientist Christian de Duve, aged 95, a winner of the Nobel prize for medicine, died on Saturday after committing euthanasia, which is legal in Belgium, his family said. (Times of India)
May 6, 2013
The veteran 73-year-old arts critic, novelist and broadcaster was deeply affected by watching Alzheimer’s take its toll on his 95-year-old mother for five years until her death last year, and said assisted suicide was an issue for people his age. … Read More
