good or bad?

Scientists close to producing baby from two dads from The Hindu

"Yet this startling idea is now a serious scientific prospect, say
researchers. Breakthroughs in stem-cell technology could soon lead to
`non-traditional' parents having their own offspring, not always with the help
of a woman's genes, some scientists saying within the next four years. The new
technology currently falls outside existing controls on human fertilisation
science."

[...]

"The technique behind this revolutionary science has been developed
over the past two years. "We still have several years to go before we can use it
on humans," said Professor Harry Moore, of Sheffield University's Centre for
Stem Cell Biology. Following pioneering work on mice carried out by American
researchers, teams — including Moore's — have used embryos donated by patients
undergoing IVF.
"You allow the embryo to develop for a short period in the
laboratory. Then you take out the cells from which it is composed," he said.

These cells are known as stem cells and they have the potential to turn
into cells of any type of tissue: skin, heart, kidney or brain, for example.
What researchers are now doing in laboratories round the world is developing
techniques to turn these stem cells into specialised cells.
Thus
insulin-secreting cells could be created for diabetics and brain cells for
Parkinson's patients."

thought

Sometimes you have to let it be, to let it change.

quotes

Never mistake motion for action.
-- Ernest Hemingway

Character develops itself in the stream of life.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Technology and cricket

Cricket can learn from American football from The Hindu

Some very good suggestions to reduce some very frustrating umpiring decisions.

"What to do? Obviously the idea of sending every appeal to a third umpire
must be rejected as slow and belittling. Instead, consideration could be given
to the sort of compromise reached in American Football whereby each coach is
allowed four challenges during a match. To question a decision he must throw a
red flag onto the field, a move that in other circumstances might provoke a riot
in George Bush country. If replays indicate that the ref was right then a
challenge is forfeited. Compelling evidence is needed before a decision is
overturned.
Applying the idea to cricket, captains could be allowed two
challenges an innings. Of course they must not waste them. Shane Warne could get
through the allocation in his first over. Unless all three stumps had been
flattened, Justin Langer would seek a second opinion. Just as well Steve Waugh
has retired. The captain must be firm."

Its all in your brain!!!

This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis from NYTimes

"In medical hands, hypnosis was no laughing matter. In the 19th century,
physicians in India successfully used hypnosis as anesthesia,
even for limb amputations. The practice fell from favor only when ether was
discovered.
Now, Dr. Posner and others said, new research on hypnosis and
suggestion is providing a new view into the cogs and wheels of normal brain
function.
One area that it may have illuminated is the processing of sensory
data. Information from the eyes, ears and body is carried to primary sensory
regions in the brain. From there, it is carried to so-called higher regions
where interpretation occurs. "
...
"According to decades of
research, 10 to 15 percent of adults are highly hypnotizable, said Dr. David
Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford who studies the clinical uses of hypnosis.
Up to age 12, however, before top-down circuits mature, 80 to 85 percent of
children are highly hypnotizable.
One adult in five is flat out resistant to
hypnosis, Dr. Spiegel said. The rest are in between, he said."
...
"Brain scans show that the control mechanisms for deciding what to do in
the face of conflict become uncoupled when people are hypnotized. Top-down
processes override sensory, or bottom-up information, said Dr. Stephen M.
Kosslyn, a neuroscientist at Harvard. People think that sights, sounds and touch
from the outside world constitute reality. But the brain constructs what it
perceives based on past experience, Dr. Kosslyn said.
Most of the time
bottom-up information matches top-down expectation, Dr. Spiegel said. But
hypnosis is interesting because it creates a mismatch. "We imagine something
different, so it is different," he said."

Sounds like Imperious Curse... But only that is is not being used by dark wizards but Aurors of decease, the doctors. For those of you it seems gibberish check out the terms from A Harry Potter Dictionary.
Anything in itself is not good or bad it is its use that makes the difference!

quote

Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances -- it was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at the time, or it was so then, and another day would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

:) Evolution of the evolutionary Darwin.

Darwin Exhibit Makes N.Y. Opening from npr.org Science Friday

Brief look at Charles Darwins scientific life.

Some things that I picked up while listening to this story...
He and his wife were upset that they will not be able to spend eternity together!
He was sacared as it was as if accepting to murder.
He published his work 20yrs after he discovered it.

Intresting

Polls on Women in Leadership Roles from npr.org News & Notes with Ed Gordon

Brave mouse implies brave human!!!!

Fearless Mice May Shed Light on Fearful Humans from nrp.org Morning Edition

""They're kind of like fearless mice," he says. "They go to open spaces. They explore freely. And really for mice it's not a good thing because some predator can come and eat them."

The mice are fearless because they have been genetically modified. They are missing a gene called stathmin."

good or bad????

The Problem With an Almost-Perfect Genetic World from NYTimes

"MIA PETERSON is not a fan of tests. Because she has Down syndrome, she says, she cannot always think as fast as she would like to and tests end up making her feel judged. A recent driving test, for instance, ended in frustration. The Boston Globe

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS Genetic testing may adversely affect children with Down syndrome. Fewer Born With Down Syndrome

Ms. Peterson, 31, the chief of self-advocacy for the National Down Syndrome Society, prefers public speaking and travel. And her test aversion extends to the latest one designed to detect Down in a fetus. "I don't want to think like we're being judged against," Ms. Peterson said. "Not meeting their expectations."

Heralded in the Nov. 10 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the new prenatal test provides earlier, more reliable results for all women than the current test, which is routinely offered to only older women who are at higher risk. But for people with Down syndrome and the cluster of other conditions subject to prenatal screening, the new test comes with a certain chill.

Because such tests often lead to abortions, people with conditions from mental disability to cystic fibrosis may find their numbers dwindling. As a result, some fear, their lives may become harder just as they are winning the fight for greater inclusion.

"We're trying to make a place for ourselves in society at a time when science is trying to remove at least some of us," said Andrew Imparato, president of the American Association of People With Disabilities, who suffers from bipolar disorder. "For me, it's very scary.""

Or maybe NOT!

Back in Business :)

:)

Mother Nature tops Time person of the year list from Ruters "Oddly Enough"

Everything is fine untill this last section :) :) :)

"Some selections have been notoriously unpopular with Time readers, such as Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1939 and 1942 and Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.
Time's 2004 Person of the Year was U.S. President George W. Bush."

Kansas State Board of Education's definition of science

Philosophers Notwithstanding, Kansas School Board Redefines Science from NYtimes

"The changes in the official state definition are subtle and lawyerly, and involve mainly the removal of two words: "natural explanations." But they are a red flag to scientists, who say the changes obliterate the distinction between the natural and the supernatural that goes back to Galileo and the foundations of science.
The old definition reads in part, "Science is the human activity of seeking natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us." The new one calls science "a systematic method of continuing investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument and theory building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena."
Adrian Melott, a physics professor at the University of Kansas who has long been fighting Darwin's opponents, said, "The only reason to take out 'natural explanations' is if you want to open the door to supernatural explanations.""
...
"There are two equally worthy ways to understand the divine, Galileo said. "One was reverent contemplation of the Bible, God's word," Dr. Holton said. "The other was through scientific contemplation of the world, which is his creation."

Owning internet

Other Nations Hope to Loosen U.S. Grip on Internet from NYTimes

"When Libya lost the use of its Internet domain ".ly" for five days last year, it needed help from an agency in California that reports to the United States Commerce Department.
Anyone looking to do business with an .ly Web site or e-mail an .ly address probably met with a "file not found" or "no such person" message. For anyone on the Internet, Libya was just not there.
In a day when Internet access is critical to world commerce - let alone casual communication - even a five-day lapse is a hardship. And when one government needs the help of another to make its citizens visible again on that network, it can be a damaging blow to its sovereignty, and perhaps a matter of national security, even if the cause was a dispute over payments, as in the Libyan case.
What if, by historical chance, France or Britain controlled country domain names on the Internet? Would the United States settle for asking another government to fix its own addresses?
That kind of power to hinder or foster freedom of the Internet, centralized in a single government, is the crucial issue for many of the 12,000 people expected in Tunis this week for a United Nations summit meeting on the information age."