Technology & Society
What a weird story. Brings to light the problems that can occur if we start to think that genes explain everything. From the New Scientist: “A judge’s decision to reduce a killer’s sentence because he has genetic mutations linked to
From the Mail Online: “Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood. It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer
I was stunned last week when I saw many prominent tech VCs and CEOs from Silicon Valley sign letters endorsing the FCC’s move towards Net Neutrality, since, if the rule making goes ahead, it will mean regulating the Internet. I
This is a fabulous demonstration of how stem cells were used to grow cheek bones for a boy born without them due to a genetic condition. As with many stem cell procedures, the stem cells were injected into a scaffold
Story in Science Daily and Science Alert, among others. Hat tip to James Clement to posting this on FB. “A major breakthrough study, published 15 October in Nature, has provided a complete roadmap of the human epigenome and has major
“I could make a mouse that has your liver. That’s incredibly valuable,” said stem cell researcher Stephen A. Duncan (at the Medical College of Wisconsin). That’s an impressive claim, and it’s based on newly released data from his lab that
Cross-posted from H+: This is an interesting piece in the BBC about how complex tasks enhance the structure of the brain. Time to take up juggling! Hat tip to Ramez Naam who posted this earlier today on Facebook.
As many of you know, I am on the board of directors of H+. We re-worked some things with our blog recently, so you will see me posting and cross-posting between here and there more often.
Researchers led by Irina Conboy at UC Berkeley have completed some very interesting research on human muscle. Essentially, they found that it is possible to regenerate old human muscle by activating an enzyme called mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). MAPK regulates
This is an interesting piece in the NYT on caloric restriction research in humans. The researchers are studying biomarkers in humans who commit to caloric restriction for two years. It would take too long to do a longitudinal study on
I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday, but I thought I would also blog about this WSJ story since they have a nice graphic showing how telomeres work. One of the three winners of the Nobel prize, Elizabeth Blackburn, is local
A press release today says that “IBM Research Aims to Build Nanoscale DNA Sequencer to Help Drive Down Cost of Personalized Genetic Analysis”. The release goes on to say that “This advanced research effort to demonstrate a silicon-based “DNA Transistor”
That was the headline from a recent AP story. Depending on how the research goes, that could be a very conservative estimate. Here’s more from the article: “James Vaupel of the Max Planck Institute in Germany and colleagues in Denmark
The proponents of Net neutrality say that government regulation is necessary for a free and open Internet, but history doesn’t support that argument. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, for example, was supposed to bolster competition. Instead, by compelling companies to
From Rockefeller University via Kurzweil AI.Net: “The human brain is made up of 100 billion neurons — live wires that must be kept in delicate balance to stabilize the world’s most magnificent computing organ. Too much excitement and the network
That was the headline in a NYT article today. The reality is that scientific respect for life-extending research has been there for quite a while, it’s just that the NYT recently noticed. In any case, here’s an interesting prediction that
This is one way. Dr. Samuel Preston (after whom the Preston curve is named) says that the US health care system isn’t the reason for the longevity divide between the US (78 years) and countries like Japan (83 years). Instead,
The father of the “Green Revolution,” Norman Borlaug, died yesterday. If you didn’t know about him, you should. By creating new types of high-yield, disease-resistant wheat, he saved millions from starvation. This is a good story about him, and you
This is great news from the Economist: “More children are surviving beyond their fifth birthday, according to a new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). The child mortality rate—the number of under-fives dying per thousand live births—declined from
14 genomes were sequenced for about $4000. That’s down from the $250,000 that it used to cost. Pretty cool. From the Mercury news: “Complete Genomics, a Mountain View startup, announced Tuesday that it had deciphered 14 full human genomes for