October 15, 2007
Not content with running your computer, Microsoft now wants to read your mind too. The company says that it is hard to properly evaluate the way people interact with computers since questioning them at the time is distracting and asking … Read More
October 15, 2007
Women giving birth in Pittsburgh will have the option to make an altruistic decision with life-saving potential starting today. The region’s first public-private umbilical cord blood collection service is being offered through Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland, officials are expected to … Read More
October 15, 2007
A newly developed blood test can identify those at risk of Alzheimer’s disease up to six years before symptoms would become apparent, researchers say. (BBC)
October 15, 2007
In the difficult debate over human embryonic stem-cell research, the concept of the soul is sometimes invoked to defend the dignity and inviolability of human life even in its earliest beginnings. Although a complete exploration of this idea is beyond … Read More
October 15, 2007
In his first public comments since being tainted by a South Korean stem cell cloning scandal, University of Pittsburgh scientist Gerald Schatten said Friday he wants to leave the controversy in the past and focus on research. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
October 14, 2007
Republican presidential candidate John McCain this week outlined a proposal to provide Americans with a refundable $2,500 tax credit as an incentive to buy health insurance. (Reuters)
October 14, 2007
As readers of SHS know, I am pretty disgusted with the KC Star and its political reporter Kit Wagar, based on my belief that the paper in general, and Wagar in specific, are biased in their reporting of the great … Read More
October 14, 2007
The NIH will soon be funding research into obtaining pluripotent stem cells from non embryonic sources. Wherever one stands on the Bush funding policy or human cloning research, this should be cause for celebration. After all, don’t the scientists always … Read More
October 13, 2007
I have this theory; well not even a theory, perhaps better stated, a mere notion. I believe that human cloning is profoundly and intrinsically wrong in that it reduces human life to a mere malleable and exploitable commodity. It is … Read More
October 12, 2007
Well, my little blog entry of yesterday taking the MO Secretary of State to task for bias for the Orwellian language she is using to describe the proposed ballot initiative to enact a real cloning ban in Missouri made a … Read More
October 12, 2007
Readers of SHS and those who keep up with disability rights issues will remember “Ashley’s case,” which I covered extensively (for example here, here. and in NRO here). The controversy concerned a little disabled girl given a non therapeutic hysterectomy, … Read More
October 12, 2007
The human-cloning fight rages on in Missouri and state officials are once again taking sides and tricking voters. But possibly the worst fraud yet came Wednesday from Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. (National Review Online)
October 12, 2007
There are bagels and fruit in the morning, sandwiches at lunch, fresh cookies in the afternoon and an occasional restaurant dinner, but many of the doctors who routinely accept these goodies from pharmaceutical sales representatives say they see sales people … Read More
October 12, 2007
Genetics pioneer J. Craig Venter is preparing to sequence the genomes of as many as 50 people — possibly including millionaires who pay for the privilege — by the end of 2008. Within a decade, he hopes the number of … Read More
October 12, 2007
Experts have condemned the “appalling” lack of progress made in reducing the number of women worldwide dying during pregnancy and childbirth. (BBC)
October 12, 2007
New cancer drugs offer hope, but the price may be too high for some. (MSNBC)
October 12, 2007
Ten years ago, Adrian Owen, a young British neuroscientist, was working at a brain-imaging center at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, at the University of Cambridge. He had recently returned from the Montreal Neurological Institute, where he used advanced scanning technology to map … Read More
October 12, 2007
A group that supports lifting restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in Michigan has filed paperwork with the state that could lead to a ballot proposal for its effort. (Chicago Tribune)
October 12, 2007
Indian scientists have called for the development of regulations on the safe use of nanotechnology in healthcare and the environment. (SciDev)
October 11, 2007
Public health regulators reversed yesterday a controversial limit on stem cell research imposed during the administration of Governor Mitt Romney, a restriction that caused scientists to fear criminal penalties if they conducted certain kinds of laboratory studies. (Boston Globe)
October 11, 2007
This story gets the eye roll of the year award: The University of Maastricht in the Netherlands is awarding a doctorate to a researcher who wrote a paper on marriages between humans and robots. David Levy, a British artificial intelligence … Read More
October 11, 2007
The proprietor of a Japanese how-to-commit-suicide WEB site has been arrested for murder, apparently for killing a woman who asked to be murdered. From the story: Saito, a 33-year-old electrician in Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture, opened the bulletin board site in … Read More
October 11, 2007
The MO Secretary of State has released ballot language to describe a potential initiative to outlaw human somatic cell nuclear transfer cloning. And of course, it is utterly biased, scientifically inaccurate, and disrespectful of the democratic process. The ballot initiative … Read More
October 11, 2007
John McCain is proposing a sweeping health care system overhaul aimed at giving people more control and more choices while fostering greater industry competition in hopes of lowering costs and improving services. (AP)
October 11, 2007
NEXT May, several hundred neurologists and philosophers will gather in the resort of Varadero, Cuba, for the fifth International Symposium on the Definition of Death. At first sight, defining death might not seem like something that requires much scientific or … Read More
