Technology & Society
This op-ed by Brian Greene makes the eloquent case that science is more than just details, facts, and figures. He says that it also helps explain why we are here, why the sky is blue, and other important questions perennially
The WSJ today reported that “New genetic research emerging from a major cancer meeting [annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology] could help doctors better identify the drugs most likely to work in their patients — but sharply
A brain-computer interface was implanted in a Japanese man’s motor cortex. Signals that would have made his own arms and legs move instead went to the avatar’s, making it move. Here’s the video and the story.
CMU researchers may be creating technology that speeds up the progress of medical advances that can help us live longer. From Bio IT world: “The researchers published their findings in a paper last month (“Graphical Models for Structured Classification, with
This should be an interesting conference. The invite says: “At Aging 2008 you will engage with top scientists and advocates as they present their findings and advice, and learn what you can do to help accelerate progress towards a cure
Last week, President Bush signed into law the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which will protect individuals from employer and insurance discrimination based on the results of high-tech gene tests. Fighting discrimination is a good idea, but the lack of
If you didn’t get a chance to clone your cat before Genetic Savings & Clone shut down, you now have a chance to clone your Dog. New company, BioArts, is having Woo Suk Wang of Seoul, South Korea perform the
The NYT reports that Dr. Andrew Schwartz, professor of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University have managed to get monkeys to control a robotic arm with their thoughts in order to put food
This op-ed by James A. Bianco, president and CEO of Cell Therapeutics, makes a lot of sense. He says: “What’s missing from the debate is the public policy encouragement to produce more “smart” medicine.” I agree. All too often, anti-aging
This news story from the NYT is good news for John McCain.
That’s a lot of 6’s, but this author argues that despite passing the 6 billion mark, population is not a problem. He writes, “the world’s population will soon peak, and then plummet downward at an ever-increasing rate. Many countries have
At last week’s UCLA Technology & Aging Conference, representatives from Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Toyota and other big-name firms discussed how technology is reshaping lifestyles for older individuals. However, important policy implications directly connected to these new tools went unspoken. RFID
This is an interesting column by David Brooks (NYT registration required). He argues that because of the current scientific revolution, a cultural effect will take place in religious circles, but not the one you expect. Everyone expects to see the
From the UK Times: “THE British doctor who pioneered test-tube babies has forecast that within decades stem-cell technology will make it possible to grow replacements for virtually any part of the human body. Robert Edwards, 82, said the emerging field
Here is an interesting post from my friend Auren Hoffman on Coke’s inability to do math.
Here’s an interesting article in the SF Chronicle about medical tourism. According to the article, ” No official statistics are kept on how many Americans travel overseas for medical care, but one estimate places the number at 150,000 in 2006.”
Last week, GlaxoSmithKline announced it will buy Sirtris Pharmaceuticals for US$720 million, giving weight to the claim that antiaging biotech firms can be a good bet. This is good news for Americans, given that a recent Harvard-affiliated study showed that
Here is a recent Congressional Budget Office report on how wealth and education are linked to life expectancy.
While life expectancy is going up overall, there are some areas of the US where it has actually decreased. It is difficult to pinpoint a single reason, but regions affected include the deep south, along the Mississippi river, in Appalachia,
This is good news, not only for those with the Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis disease, but also for the entire field of gene therapy which had suffered setbacks when a a teenager named Jesse Gelsinger died of organ failure just days