Technology & Society
During his homily this Easter, Pope Benedict argued that medical science, in trying to defeat death, is leading humanity toward likely condemnation. It’s a position at odds with the value of life, one that the Church will likely revise years
A gene that controls racism appears to exist. However, if you disable it, you get something called Williams syndrome, a disorder where people have problems identifying others with malevolent intentions. Here’s the story, which cites research from Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg of
In his Easter homily, Pope Benedict argues that attempting to prolong life is not a goal worthy of our efforts. Here’s how he put it: Modern medical science strives, if not exactly to exclude death, at least to eliminate as
Here’s a rather disturbing article published by CNN today. Apparently, many “states mandate that newborns be tested for anywhere between 28 and 54 different conditions, and the DNA samples are stored in state labs for anywhere from three months to
From the NYT: “The National Institutes of Health said Wednesday that it had approved 13 new human embryonic stem cell lines for use by federally financed researchers, with 96 more under review.” and “Researchers’ interest in human embryonic stem cells
Another innovative idea from Ray Kurzweil. He proposes, “a collaborative technology incubator between Israel and Palestine.” According to reports, the proposal was widely met with enthusiasm and support in both public and private sessions. Would it work? Maybe, and it
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
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
“We’re at the beginning of an unmanned revolution.” That’s what Gary Kessler, who oversees unmanned aviation programs for the US Navy and Marines, told the AFP. According to the article, “Robots or “unmanned systems” are now deployed by the thousands
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
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
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,
From NewScientist: “SPERM should be subject to the same product liability laws as car brakes, according to a US judge who has given a teenager with severe learning disabilities the go-ahead to sue the sperm bank that provided her with
My friend RU Sirius is the editor for this new magazine, and the website just went live. It’s a great collection of tech, science, and cultural trends that are changing humans and the world. And, if you are interested, you
And guess what? One of them happens to be the topic of the book I am currently writing.
A doctor in NY wants the kidney he donated to his wife back (or the financial equivalent) as part of the divorce settlement. He says a kidney is worth 1.5 million, so that’s what he’s looking to get. Pretty interesting.