This week, researchers announced that results from a large study in Africa had determined that men who were circumcised nearly halved their risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The findings were hailed by officials from health organizations around the world who suggested that the age-old practice of circumcision may become one of the newest and most effective weapons in the fight against AIDS in the Third World. Dr. Ron Gray, an epidemiologist from Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, was one of the principal investigators on the study. He talked to NEWSWEEK’s Peg Tyre about the discovery and what it means in the battle against the deadly virus. Excerpts: NEWSWEEK: Tell our readers about the study. Ron Gray: In August of 2003, we launched a randomized trial of 5,000 uninfected Ugandan men between the ages of 15 and 49 who agreed to either receive information about HIV prevention and immediate circumcision, or get the information about HIV prevention and wait two years before receiving circumcision. Two years later, we followed up with them in order to determine the rates of HIV and other infections. An independent analysis of our data showed that the […]
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday formally endorsed the meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs and goats as safe, but the agency’s 678-page report failed to satisfy critics who cite concerns rooted in ethics, not science. ‘Neither the agency nor animal scientists are qualified to tell us whether and when it is ethically acceptable for humans to alter the essential nature of animals,’ said Carol Tucker Foreman of Washington-based Consumer Federation of America’s Food Policy Institute. She and others said it was time for a national discussion on whether tailor-making animals in laboratories was wise. ‘Congressional hearings might start a robust societal dialogue on those issues,’ said Gregory Jaffe, biotechnology director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Polls show Americans are hardly clamoring for bacon cheeseburgers made from cloned animals or their offspring. In a survey released this month by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, 64% of respondents were at least somewhat ‘uncomfortable with animal cloning.’ Such sentiments were outside the scope of the FDA’s scientific review. The agency’s Center for Veterinary Medicine focused on the health of cloned animals and their progeny, tracking them with physical examinations […]
Scientists are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of ‘gay’ sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans. The technique being developed by American researchers adjusts the hormonal balance in the brains of homosexual rams so that they are more inclined to mate with ewes. It raises the prospect that pregnant women could one day be offered a treatment to reduce or eliminate the chance that their offspring will be homosexual. Experts say that, in theory, the ‘straightening’ procedure on humans could be as simple as a hormone supplement for mothers-to-be, worn on the skin like an anti-smoking nicotine patch. The research, at Oregon State University in the city of Corvallis and at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, has caused an outcry. Martina Navratilova, the lesbian tennis player who won Wimbledon nine times, and scientists and gay rights campaigners in Britain have called for the project to be abandoned. Navratilova defended the ‘right’ of sheep to be gay. She said: ‘How can it be that in the year 2006 a major university would host such homophobic and cruel experiments?’ She said gay men and […]
LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed nearly $95 million in state spending on ‘clean’ energy, biotech and nanotech research, the governor’s office said on Wednesday. Much of the proposal — $40 million — would be spent only if California universities win a $500 million grant for research from oil giant BP to develop alternatives to fossil fuels. Lease revenue bonds would be used to fund $70 million of the proposals, including the $40 million to chase the BP grant. The proposed spending will be part of Schwarzenegger’s state budget plan which will be presented in January to the state legislature. Schwarzenegger is recuperating from surgery performed on Tuesday for a broken right femur. He was injured while on a skiing holiday on Saturday with his family in Sun Valley, Idaho. Schwarzenegger three months ago signed a landmark global warming law to make California the first U.S. state to mandate cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent, which would be 1990 levels. Four projects are center in the proposals. They are: — Lease revenue bonds totaling $40 million if BP picks either the University of California-Berkeley or the University of California-San […]
BEIJING — Global warming threatens to intensify natural disasters and water shortages across China, driving down the country’s food output, the Chinese government has warned, even as its seeks to tame energy consumption. A forthcoming official assessment of the effects of global climate change on China will warn of worsening drought in northern China and increasing ‘extreme weather events’, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Web site (www.most.gov.cn) on Wednesday. A deputy director of the National Climate Center, Luo Yong, was blunt about the risks for China’s food production. ‘The most direct impact of climate change will be on China’s grain production,’ he said on Tuesday, according to the Science Times newspaper. ‘Climate change will bring intensified pressure on our country’s agriculture and grain production.’ The official report promises to stir debate about whether and how China can balance its ambitious goals for economic growth with steps to rein in rising greenhouse gas emissions from industry and cars, which keep heat in the atmosphere and threaten to dramatically increase the planet’s average temperatures. Scientists have been uncertain about the effects of rising global temperatures on China’s farming, unsure whether greater average rainfall […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
