BEIJING — A cloned pig whose genes were altered to make it glow fluorescent green has passed on the trait to its young, a development that could lead to the future breeding of pigs for human transplant organs, a Chinese university reported. The glowing piglets’ birth proves transgenic pigs are fertile and able to pass on their engineered traits to their offspring, according to Liu Zhonghua, a professor overseeing the breeding program at Northeast Agricultural University. ‘Continued development of this technology can be applied to … the production of special pigs for the production of human organs for transplant,’ Liu said in a news release posted Tuesday on the university’s Web site. Calls to the university seeking comment Wednesday were not answered. The piglets’ mother was one of three pigs born with the trait in December 2006 after pig embryos were injected with fluorescent green protein. Two of the 11 piglets glow fluorescent green from their snout, trotters, and tongue under ultraviolet light, the university said. Robin Lovell-Badge, a genetics expert at Britain’s National Institute for Medical Research, said the technology ‘to genetically manipulate pigs in this way would be very valuable.’ Lovell-Badge had […]
The United States spent a record $2.1 trillion on health care in 2006, nearly 7% more than the year before, according to federal data released Tuesday. Overall, the annual figures show that the nation’s health care spending is growing more slowly that it did in the late 1990s. But some experts are warning that the slowdown won’t last. The $2.1 trillion figure represents the total spent by insurance companies, businesses, families, and individuals, as well as federal, state, and local governments. Overall, the nation spent $7,026 for every American man, woman, and child in 2006. That’s up from per capita spending of $6,649 in 2005. Meanwhile, American households spent $612 billion on health care in 2006, more than 6% more than they spent the year before. Much of the increase comes from new premiums charged by Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, which began at the start of 2006, according to the report. The report comes as health care costs continue to play a major role in presidential debates. Most candidates, including all of those contending in today’s primary in New Hampshire, have proposed plans they say will cut health care costs and improve access to medical insurance. […]
WASHINGTON — Murder fell 6.5% in America’s largest cities during the first half of 2007, a sharp contrast with smaller cities, where murders rose 3.2%, according to a preliminary review by the FBI. Overall, murder declined by 1.1% throughout the USA during the first half of 2007, the report released Monday showed. Violent crime fell by nearly 2% nationwide with drops in every major crime category - including rape, robbery and aggravated assault - suggesting that some recent spikes in violence may be short-lived. Some law enforcement experts say one reason for the disparity in murder rates could be varying crime-fighting strategies, such as targeting juvenile offenders. ‘There is continued volatility, but there are cities that have made (enforcement) changes that are having a significant impact,’ says Chuck Wexler of the Police Executive Research Forum, a police advocacy group. ‘The latest numbers from the FBI are encouraging, though preliminary, and subject to change when the final numbers are released later this year,’ Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said. ‘Some communities, however, continue to face violent crime challenges.’ In cities with populations between 50,000 and 99,999, murder rose 3.2%; in urban counties, murder rose nearly 5%. […]
WASHINGTON — France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday. If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs. Researchers Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tracked deaths that they deemed could have been prevented by access to timely and effective health care, and ranked nations on how they did. They called such deaths an important way to gauge the performance of a country’s health care system. Nolte said the large number of Americans who lack any type of health insurance — about 47 million people in a country of about 300 million, according to U.S. government estimates — probably was a key factor in the poor showing of the United States compared to other industrialized nations in the study. ‘I wouldn’t say it (the last-place ranking) is a condemnation, because I think health care in […]
MUMBAI, India — What does it take to build the world’s cheapest car? For Tata Motors of India, which will introduce its ultra-cheap car on Thursday, the better question was, what could it take out? The company has kept its new vehicle under wraps, but interviews with suppliers and others involved in its construction reveal some of its cost-cutting engineering secrets - including a hollowed out steering-wheel shaft, a trunk with space for a briefcase and a rear-mounted engine not much more powerful than a high-end riding mower. The upside is a car expected to retail for as little as the equivalent of $2,500, or about the price of the optional DVD player on the Lexus LX 470 sport utility vehicle. The downside is a car that would most likely fail emission and safety standards on any Western road, and, perhaps, in India in a few years, when the country imposes tougher environmental standards. But Tata is not looking to ply California’s highways. Instead, the company wants to provide four-wheel transportation for the first time to people accustomed to getting around on two, including hundreds of millions of Indians and others in the developing world. […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
