Technology & Society
The below text is from a speech given by Hawking at TED in 2008. He expects that humans will be able to repair and alter themselves, which will create new political issues. That just happens to be the topic of
This is a fantastic step towards healing heart damage. “Doctors at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute announced the completion of the first procedure in which a patient’s own heart tissue was used to grow specialized heart stem cells that were then
From Wired: “By tracking individual cells in genetically modified salamanders, researchers have found an unexpected explanation for their seemingly magical ability to regrow lost limbs. Rather than having their cellular clocks fully reset and reverting to an embryonic state, cells
That’s a headline one doesn’t expect to see, yet that’s the conclusion some are reaching from a recent OECD and FAO report.
This month, the Federal Communications Commission begins drafting a national broadband plan as part of the 2009 stimulus package. This is not the first government attempt at broadband ubiquity, so the FCC can learn from past failures. The commissioners have
This video, recorded at the World Science festival, shows Nobel Prize winner Paul Nurse telling his fascinating family history. How is it that a brilliant scientist grew up in a family where no one else went to school past 15
From The Scientist (registration required): “New York has become the first and only state to opt to pay women for eggs donated for human embryonic stem cell research. The Empire State Stem Cell Board (ESSCB), which oversees New York’s $600
This article from the Singularity Hub is a fabulous roundup of the state of organ growing technology. Great job, Drew!
From the Singularity hub: “Researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands have created a prototype device that is capable of detecting viruses and bacterium within the body in a matter of minutes rather than the week or two
This is a good summary of David Sinclair’s work (purchased by GlaxoSmithKline) in Forbes Magazine. “Glaxo has concocted sirtuin boosters far more potent than resveratrol. Among other effects, the compounds lower blood sugar, and Glaxo is testing them to treat
America’s winemakers have won a victory for online wine sales in Kansas, but the legislative battle demonstrates the challenges that e-commerce, a key force for economic recovery, still faces from outdated thinking and entrenched political institutions. Signed into law in
From the Independent: “Researchers have developed a technique to create genetically modified monkeys that suffer from human illnesses. … The “transgenic” monkeys were created by inserting a gene from a jellyfish into their embryos to make them glow under ultraviolet
Interesting op-ed from the LAT by Marion Roach. Most relevant graph: “When he campaigned, Obama said he supported the “therapeutic cloning of stem cells.” But as president, he has already traded that position for one that some see as more
Some diabetics could forgo self-injected shots for several months or even years by treating their diabetes with stem cells from their own blood. Here’s the story at Voice of America and at SU.
From The Week (a magazine I love): Men can make sperm until they die, but women are born with a finite number of eggs in their ovaries—or so scientists have long believed. But a new study by Chinese scientists has
From the FT. The number was 15%, but has gone up with the recession.
Here’s a detailed chart with the answer from the Economist. Japan, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and France are at the top.
From the BBC: “US scientists say they have successfully reversed the effects of Alzheimer’s with experimental drugs. The drugs target and boost the function of a newly pinpointed gene involved in the brain’s memory formation. In mice, the treatment helped
Here’s an informative article from h+ magazine on how the FDA currently argues that culturing adult stem cells amounts to the creation of a new drug. This of course would mean long time lags for getting stem cell procedures approved,
Voters are still reeling from tax day in a tough recession, and taking to the streets in protest, but state governments and their allies aren’t listening. In fact, they are gearing up to squeeze more money out of the nation’s