November 18, 2007
Despite concerted efforts to fight two-tier medicine in Ontario, new evidence suggests that it is far more prevalent than anyone believed. But the kind of two-tier medicine highlighted in a study to be published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal … Read More
November 18, 2007
British couples could soon be able to have babies created using DNA from two women and a man as part of a revolutionary human cloning technique. Controversial legislation due to be debated by politicians this week sets out ways to … Read More
November 18, 2007
The scientist who created Dolly the sheep, a breakthrough that provoked headlines around the world a decade ago, is to abandon the cloning technique he pioneered to create her. Prof Ian Wilmut’s decision to turn his back on “therapeutic cloning”, … Read More
November 16, 2007
Well, this is some unexpected good news: Ian Wilmut is turning his back on human cloning. Wilmut has had several positions on this morally contentious and volatile issue. In his book The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological … Read More
November 15, 2007
Forget Disneyland. South Korea hopes to draw interest to its burgeoning robotics industry with robot theme parks. The Commerce Ministry announced a proposal Tuesday to build two parks by 2013 for $1.6 billion. South Korea regards robotics — which includes … Read More
November 15, 2007
Scientists say they may be on the brink of translating into words the thoughts of a man who can no longer speak, after a pioneering experiment. Electrodes have been implanted in the brain of Eric Ramsay, who has been “locked … Read More
November 15, 2007
Anyone who suffers from chronic pain knows that the experience is fundamentally different from enduring a scratch or a broken toe. Growing evidence from brain-imaging studies supports this notion: people with chronic pain show fundamental differences in both the structure … Read More
November 15, 2007
Researchers have made an important leap in designing DNA-based circuits, reports this week’s Science. They’ve created the first system that allows amplification of desired DNA sequences without using enzymes — a step towards creating artificial biochemical circuits inside cells. “They’ve … Read More
November 15, 2007
Geneticists have long thought that for most human genes, alleles from both paternal and maternal chromosomes are equally expressed within a cell. But according to a study published this week in Science, the allelic contribution from either parent can be … Read More
November 15, 2007
Crucial parts of brains of children with attention deficit disorder develop more slowly than other youngsters’ brains, a phenomenon that earlier brain-imaging research missed, a new study says. Developing more slowly in ADHD youngsters — the lag can be as … Read More
November 14, 2007
The Colorado Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for an anti-abortion group to collect signatures for a ballot measure that would define a fertilized egg as a person. The court approved the language of the proposal, rejecting a challenge from … Read More
November 14, 2007
What a dumb headline from the AP: “Court Clears Way for Egg Rights Showdown.” No, there is no attempt to give eggs any rights. The story actually involves the court’s approval for backers of an initiative in Colorado to obtain … Read More
November 14, 2007
College and high school students are helping MIT scientists develop an open source development kit for biological systems that could do for cells what Linux has done for computers. As part of the International Genetically Engineered Machines competition held in … Read More
November 14, 2007
A troubling case in which a high-risk organ donor infected four patients with the AIDS virus and hepatitis has led medical ethicists to warn that patients need to know more about whose organs they’re getting. Public health officials said Tuesday … Read More
November 14, 2007
What do Chuck Colson, Brandon Keim, and Carl Zimmer have in common? They each had much to say on 13 November 2007 about humans and animals, although with very divergent opinions. Some might call this “being unequally yoked.†Colson, in … Read More
November 13, 2007
Motorized prosthetic arms can help amputees regain some function, but these devices take time to learn to use and are limited in the number of movements they provide. Todd A. Kuiken, M.D., Ph.D., a physiatrist at the Rehabilitation Institute of … Read More
November 13, 2007
The company that makes art from DNA has turned a bit more Andy Warhol for an encore. DNA 11, an online company that creates personalized oil paintings from the buyer’s DNA or fingerprint, introduced a new way for people to … Read More
November 13, 2007
The channels on the surface of the University of Michigan’s microfluidics device allow scientists to carefully regulate the flow of liquids to the cells that are cultured on it. Scientists have modeled the lungs’ tiniest airways on a microchip device … Read More
November 13, 2007
Faces of Risk: Nanopolicy and the Agenda for Safety and Society November 30, 2007 1:00 – 5:30 p.m. National Press Club Washington, D.C. Co-sponsored by The Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies & The Center on Nanotechnology and Society
November 13, 2007
Time is running out for Massachusetts residents without health insurance to sign up for the state-mandated program or miss out on a $219 tax break. An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 people still have not enrolled in health insurance plans offered … Read More
November 13, 2007
Precision tooling at the micro-molecular level — is being used to create the next generation of artificial kidneys, ones that would be small enough to be implanted and engineered to more closely simulate the function of human kidneys than current … Read More
November 12, 2007
Debra J. Saunders, the syndicated columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle (better known as Secondhand Smokette), had a good column in yesterday’s paper (“”American Vampire””) about the growing problem of buying and selling human organs. (This follows up on a … Read More
November 12, 2007
This story in The Independent could mean that the attempt to clone human embryos–so far pretty much a bust–could get a big boost: A technical breakthrough has enabled scientists to create for the first time dozens of cloned embryos from … Read More
November 12, 2007
A few years ago, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a non-binding (as are all UN pronouncements) resolution urging all member nations to outlaw all human cloning. But now, UN bureaucrats ignore this approach–the only one that would truly … Read More
November 12, 2007
A new article from Biomedical Microdevices is available by subscription only. Abstract Implantable neural microsystems provide an interface to the nervous system, giving cellular resolution to physiological processes unattainable today with non-invasive methods. Such implantable microelectrode arrays are being developed … Read More
