Infection Is Growing in Scope, ResistanceIt all began with what looked like a spider bite on Eileen Moore's left thigh. Nothing to worry about, she figured.
Within 24 hours, the "bite" became a 6-inch welt with a bubble of pus that eventually ripened into a black wound. Over the next few months, scabs dotted her face. A hangnail caused her middle finger to bloat like a sausage. Her pierced ears oozed pus.
The cause of Moore's ordeal was a bacterium known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, whic... (more)
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''Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Mutants'': BioEthics and the Pandora's Box of Genetic EngineeringThis article appeared in the March 2006 issue of Lumpen
Few people who have seen David Cronenberg's 1986 classic, The Fly, could ever wish upon themselves the horror and personal tragedy that the genetic disaster in that film ultimately created. This touching, yet profoundly disturbing gross-out fest told the story of eccentric scientist Seth Brundle who, in pursuit of teleportation technology, accidentally has his DNA fused with that of a common housefly. The resulting mut... (more)
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The Queen's Death Star: Depleted Uranium Measured in British Atmosphere from Battlefields in the Middle EastThe Sunday Times Online, February 19, 2006, reported on a shocking scientific study authored by British scientists Dr. Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan: "Did the use of Uranium weapons in Gulf War 2 result in contamination of Europe? Evidence from the measurements of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK". The highest levels of depleted uranium ever measured in the atmosphere in Britain, were transported on air currents from the Middle East and Central Asia; of special... (more)
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Ruling May Undercut Google in Fight Over Its Book ScansA recent federal court decision in California might undermine a pillar of defense for Google in its dispute with publishers and authors who are challenging the company's right to scan books that are still under copyright.
Representatives of publishers and authors who have filed lawsuits against Google over its Book Search program said they believed that the decision raised questions about a case that Google had cited in its defense of the Book Search program.
Some i... (more)
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Jabs for everyone if avian flu pandemic strikes?The UK Government has announced plans today designed to innoculate every person in the country in the event of an avian flu pandemic.
Health care companies will be asked to produce 120 million doses of a new vaccine should the deadly bird-flu virus mutate into humans. That's enough for two jabs for everyone in the UK - once the exact strain of a pandemic virus is known.
This morning the Department of Health handed out £33 million contracts to two companies to ... (more)
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U.S. technology has been used to block, censor Net for yearsInternet users in Yemen can't get to beer.com because of technology from a couple of U.S. companies.
Surely this is a human rights violation, keeping innocent civilians from a website devoted to beer and women. Why, the Yemeni Netizens - all 150,000 of them - are also blocked from getting to gayegypt.com. They're denied spikybras.com! Which, by the way, ya gotta check out - it's hilarious, and no more racy than an I Dream of Jeannie episode. (More Tech: Kevin Maney's blog)
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Company develops shocking shotgun shellStun-gun maker Taser International of Scottsdale, Ariz., is developing a shotgun shell that will be far more powerful than current ones, a report said.
Taser's eXtended Range Electro-Muscular Projectile, or XREP, is meant to combine the blunt-force trauma of a fast-moving baseball with the electrical current of a stun gun, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.
It will truly cause incapacitation, said company spokesman Steve Tuttle. The product, expected to be available ne... (more)
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Enzyme Computer Could Live Inside YouA molecular computer that uses enzymes to perform calculations has been built by researchers in Israel.
Itamar Willner, who constructed the molecular calculator with colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, believes enzyme-powered computers could eventually be implanted into the human body and used to, for example, tailor the release of drugs to a specific person's metabolism.
The team built their computer using two enzymes - glucose dehydrogenase... (more)
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Women create first man-made prostate: Scientists have grown a human prostate in a mouse using embryonic stem cells AN all-woman team of Australian scientists has achieved a breakthrough for the world’s males, by creating the first “man-made” prostate.
The team from Melbourne’s Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR) – comprising scientists Prue Cowin, Professor Gail Risbridger and Dr Renea Taylor – are claiming a world first by growing a human prostate in a mouse using embryonic stem cells.
The medical breakthrough came after three years ... (more)
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Super-Repellent Plastic: With GE's new plastic, self-washing buildings, cheap diagnostic chips, and free-flowing honey jars are possible.If you've ever despaired over getting the last drop of ketchup or detergent out of a plastic bottle -- or happen to be a microfluidics researcher wondering how you'll ever mass-produce a cheap diagnostics chip -- scientists at GE may have a plastic for you.
Company researchers have come up with a way to process a common polymer so that it repels fluid, even drops of honey roll right off. The resulting property is called "superhydrophobicity" -- or extreme repelling of water-based ... (more)
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Astronomers spot weird near-Earth explosionA mysterious new kind of cosmic explosion has been spotted by scientists, according to NASA. The baffling blast was detected about 440m light years away in the constellation Aries, on 18 February.
Investigators using NASA's space-based Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope say the signal is similar to a gamma-ray burst. However, the phenomenon is much closer and, at over half an hour, lasted 100 times longer than a typical gamma-ray burst.
Rather than portent that the... (more)
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Surprise: Chickens Can Grow TeethChicken will grow teeth when pigs can fly.
Well, better start searching the skies for flying pork—scientists have discovered a mutant chicken with a full set of crocodile-like chompers.
The mutant chick, called Talpid, also had severe limb defects and died before hatching. It was discovered 50 years ago, but no one had ever examined its mouth until now.
The researchers recently created more Talpids by tweaking the genes of normal chickens to gro... (more)
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Mind Control by ParasitesHalf of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma, parasites in the body—and the brain. Remember that.
Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite found in the guts of cats; it sheds eggs that are picked up by rats and other animals that are eaten by cats. Toxoplasma forms cysts in the bodies of the intermediate rat hosts, including in the brain.
Since cats don't want to eat dead, decaying prey, Toxoplasma takes the evolutionarily sound course of bei... (more)
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First Americans May Have Been EuropeanST. LOUIS—The first humans to spread across North America may have been seal hunters from France and Spain.
This runs counter to the long-held belief that the first human entry into the Americas was a crossing of a land-ice bridge that spanned the Bering Strait about 13,500 years ago.
The new thinking was outlined here Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The tools don’t match
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Thwart burglars with sticky DNAPolice in the London borough of Richmond upon Thames have launched a burglary-reduction scheme using DNA to trap light-fingered ne'er-do-wells. Kits will be distributed later this month to allow householders to mark property with synthetic sequences that last for up to 30 years.
The unique DNA stretches are suspended in an adhesive, and can be compared to sequences held in a database when stolen goods are recovered for easy identification. As a backup, the glue also contains spy-s... (more)
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Tollbooths on the Internet HighwayWhen you use the Internet today, your browser glides from one Web site to another, accessing all destinations with equal ease. That could change dramatically, however, if Internet service providers are allowed to tilt the playing field, giving preference to sites that pay them extra and penalizing those that don't.
The Senate held hearings last week on "network neutrality," the principle that I.S.P.'s — the businesses like Verizon or Roadrunner that deliver the Internet to y... (more)
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UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shellsRADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report.
Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents to Britain.
Government officials, however, say the sharp rise in uranium detected by radiation monitors in Be... (more)
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Shrouded in mystery: Technology developed in Lawrence helped researchers study alleged burial cloth of Jesus in Olympic cityAs the world turns its attention to Turin, Italy, for the Winter Olympics, Pete Schumacher has been thinking about Turin for other reasons.
In 1976, Schumacher found himself in the middle of one of the greatest mysteries and debates of the Christian faith.
Equipment he helped develop for a company in Lawrence was used to examine the Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be the burial cloths of Jesus Christ. The research led to the most exhaustive scientific study on ... (more)
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EU: Europe Defends Stance on Genetically Altered FoodsThe European Commission defended its current practices on screening genetically altered foods in the wake of a report from the World Trade Organization that criticized its past action in restricting the entry of modified products into the European Union.
The W.T.O. report, which was leaked to the news media Tuesday night, drew sharp criticism from environmental groups, which contend that the European Union's rules on biotechnology are too lax and that health safeguards are not a t... (more)
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Snakemen Stone Reliefs Discovered in JiroftTehran, 2 February 2006 (CHN) -- Recent archeological excavations in Kenar Sandal area in Jiroft resulted in the discovery of two stone reliefs. The reliefs depict two men with human faces but snake tails instead of legs.
“These reliefs were carved on soapstones. They are 25 by 17 centimeter in size with a thickness of about 1.5 centimeters,” said Yousof Majidzadeh, head of excavation team in Jifort.
“This is the first time that such stone reliefs ... (more)
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Science invents invisible buildingsEVER since Superman wowed the world by using x-ray vision to fight crime, the ability to see through walls has been a dream. Now scientists believe they may have discovered the first steps towards making it happen.
Research involving microscopic crystals has prompted the theory that walls could be built using materials which homeowners could render transparent at will.
Such a discovery would revolutionise 21st-century building techniques. Contractors would be able t... (more)
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Flying car ready for takeoff?This summer, graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will try to get an idea aloft that has intrigued people for decades: the flying car.
The Transition is designed for 100- to 500-mile jumps. It will carry two people and luggage on a single tank of premium unleaded gas. It will also come with an electric calculator (to help fine-tune weight distribution), airbags, aerodynamic bumpers and of course a GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation unit.
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Call to allow body organ sellingTwo US doctors have suggested the sale of organs such as kidneys should be legalised to meet the rising demand.
They said bids to increase the donor pool were failing, and a black market in organ sales was booming.
Writing in Kidney International the pair said, while it remained a taboo, legalisation should be considered.
But experts in the UK - where selling organs is illegal - said such a move was unnecessary and would exploit the poorest sections o... (more)
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Proposed Missouri Cloning "Ban" Would Allow for Human Experimental CloningMissouri voters will soon get to vote on a Constitutional amendment that will allow for human cloning for the purposes of experimentation and death of the embryo. Drafters of the proposed amendment, however, have crafted language that may fool some voters into thinking they are voting for a total ban on human cloning.
The trick of the proposed language is that it would define cloning as only those embryos created through the cloning process that are actually implanted into a woman... (more)
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Climate change: On the edgeA satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far faster than scientists had feared - twice as much ice is going into the sea as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels - and climate change - could be dramatic.
Yet, a few weeks ago, when I - a Nasa climate scientist - tried to talk to the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling for prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the Nasa public affairs tea... (more)
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