Thursday, August 29th, 2013
ALOK JHA, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: This is at once fascinating and, at the same time, yet another example of how science is far outpacing the ethics as to how that science should be used.
Scientists have grown miniature human brains in test tubes, creating a ‘tool’ that will allow them to watch how the organs develop in the womb and, they hope, increase their understanding of neurological and mental problems.
Just a few millimetres across, the ‘cerebral organoids’ are built up of layers of brain cells with defined regions that resemble those seen in immature, embryonic brains.
The scientists say the organoids will be useful for biologists who want to analyse how conditions such as schizophrenia or autism occur in the brain. Though these are usually diagnosed in older people some of the underlying defects occur during the brain’s early development.
The organoids are also expected to be useful in the development and testing of drugs. At present this is done using laboratory animals or isolated human cells; the new organoids could allow pharmacologists to test drugs in more human-like settings.
Scientists have previously made models of other human organs in the lab, including eyes, pituitary glands and livers.
In the latest work researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna started with stem cells and grew them into brain cells in a nourishing gel-like matrix that recreated conditions similar to those inside the human womb. After several […]
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Thursday, August 29th, 2013
AAMER MADHANI, - USA TODAY
Stephan: Here is some good news about Marijuana. Patrick Leahy is one of the few members of the senate -- Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders are two others -- who take the job seriously and work for the benefit of the many, not the profit of the few. Senator Leahy is trying to force the Obama Administration to take a position they are doing everything in their power to avoid. Yet another example of Obama's words living in one reality, and his actions in another.
Sen. Patrick Leahy wants top Obama administration officials to clarify how conflicting state and federal marijuana laws should be handled.
The Vermont Democrat announced Monday that he’s invited Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole to address the issue at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing next month to discuss the conflict in statutes in the aftermath of Washington and Colorado legalizing marijuana for recreational use in November and 19 states and the District of Columbia allowing the drug to be used for medicinal purposes.
Particularly, Leahy wants to know what assurances the administration are willing to give to state officials responsible for the licensing of marijuana retailers to ensure they will not face criminal penalties for carrying out their duties under those state laws.
‘It is important, especially at a time of budget constraints, to determine whether it is the best use of federal resources to prosecute the personal or medicinal use of marijuana in states that have made such consumption legal,’ Leahy said in a statement. ‘I believe that these state laws should be respected. At a minimum, there should be guidance about enforcement from the federal government.’
Last week, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama doesn’t advocate any […]
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Wednesday, August 28th, 2013
Stephan: This story sounds too good to be true, and that usually means it is bogus. But the quality of the people involved, for all the extraordinary claims, suggests it is true, and the implications for agriculture are profoundly good news. I am struck also by the resemblance this story bears to homeopathy's view of water.
A groundbreaking new Irish technology which could be the greatest breakthrough in agriculture since the plough is set to change the face of modern farming forever.
The technology – radio wave energised water – massively increases the output of vegetables and fruits by up to 30 per cent.
Not only are the plants much bigger but they are largely disease-resistant, meaning huge savings in expensive fertilisers and harmful pesticides.
Extensively tested in Ireland and several other countries, the inexpensive water treatment technology is now being rolled out across the world. The technology makes GM obsolete and also addresses the whole global warming fear that there is too much carbon dioxide in the air, by simply converting excess CO2 into edible plant mass.
Developed by Professor Austin Darragh and Dr JJ Leahy of Limerick University’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, the hardy eco-friendly technology uses nothing but the natural elements of sunlight, water, carbon dioxide in the air and the minerals in the soil.
The compact biscuit-tin-sized technology, which is called Vi-Aqua – meaning ‘life water’ – converts 24 volts of electricity into a radio signal, which charges up the water via an antennae. Once the device is attached to a hose, thousands of gallons […]
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Wednesday, August 28th, 2013
Stephan: There are many ways to be a human being.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Inca Empire was the largest South America had ever known. Rich in foodstuffs, textiles, gold, and coca, the Inca were masters of city building but nevertheless had no money. In fact, they had no marketplaces at all.
Centered in Peru, Inca territory stretched across the Andes’ mountain tops and down to the shoreline, incorporating lands from today’s Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru – all connected by a vast highway system whose complexity rivaled any in the Old World. The Inca Empire may be the only advanced civilization in history to have no class of traders, and no commerce of any kind within its boundaries. How did they do it?
Many aspects of Incan life remain mysterious, in part because our accounts of Incan life come from the Spanish invaders who effectively wiped them out. Famously, the conquistador Francisco Pizzaro led just a few men in an incredible defeat of the Incan army in Peru in 1532. But the real blow came roughly a decade before that, when European invaders unwittingly unleashed a smallpox epidemic that some epidemiologists believe may have killed as many as 90 percent of the Incan people. Our knowledge of […]
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Wednesday, August 28th, 2013
JODIE GUMMOW, - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: The quality of American life has become so degraded, little-by-little, step-by-step. Yet we continue to think of ourselves as leading the world. In a military sense perhaps. But otherwise we are falling further and further behind the quality of life experienced in many other nations.
Americans as a society generally don’t take vacations. While many of us would love to travel, we live in an economy where job security is rare and most of us live in fear that if we take any time off work, our job may not be waiting for us upon our return. We live on part-time and temporary job contracts where we don’t always know where our next source of income will come from. Our work culture prevents us from taking long vacations abroad and instills within us a sense of guilt for seeking the simple pleasure of time away from the office.
Moreover, America is the only developed nation that doesn’t legally guarantee any paid vacation time for its workers. In a recent study, The Centre for Economic and Policy Research [3], found that in the absence of government standards, almost one in four Americans have no paid vacation (23%) and no paid holidays (23%) and the average worker in the private sector receives only 10 days of paid vacation per year. Contrast this with European countries where most employees are legally entitled to at least 20 days of paid vacation per year.
What’s more, here in the US we work […]
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