A biotech company seems to have done it. But early signs are the scientific achievement is not the slam-dunk solution the company had hoped. Stem cell opponents said Wednesday that the new method still doesn’t satisfy their objections. And on the other side, many scientists and supporters of federal funding for the research called the technique inefficient and politically wrong-headed.
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Science & Policy News
August 2006
Swissinfo, August 31st 2006 The Swiss scientist
said one of the new threats was what he called
"large slope instabilities" caused by thawing
permafrost which could set off "rock and ice
avalanches impacting naturally and artificially
dammed lakes, generating impact waves and
floods".
NPR, August 31st 2006 Alltrack's Mark Allbaugh says when a teen driver is speeding, parents can remotely flash the car's light or honk the horn, until the teen slows down. Many experts believe such tracking devices will soon be as mainstream as cell phones.
New Scientist, August 29th, 2006 Early press reports of the breakthrough, including a press release from the journal Nature, where the research was published, gave the impression that human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) had been obtained from early-stage embryos (blastocysts) without destroying them.
The New York Times, August 25th, 2006 Nationwide over-the-counter sales of the drug, Plan B, are expected to start by the end of the year. It will be sold in pharmacies and health clinics only, and buyers must show proof of age. Anyone under age 18 will still need a prescription. Men may also buy Plan B for a partner.
The Washington Post, August 25th, 2006 The fight over Pluto's status at a meeting in Prague of the International Astronomical Union, the body that sets standards for the field, became a vicious battle that ultimately broke along scientific, linguistic and historical lines. The result was hailed by some as a victory of rationality over sentiment, but came as a huge disappointment to others, including the head of a panel charged with coming up with a new definition for "planet."
MSNBC, August 23rd, 2006
Wired Magazine, August 21st, 2006 Paul Crutzen, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, has a very different idea: He recommends injecting massive amounts of sulfur into the upper atmosphere so less sun will penetrate it.
The New York Times, August 15th, 2006 Biologists at Stanford University say they have discovered a coordinate system in human cells that defines their position in the body. This seems to be the first time a cell-based positioning system has been reported for the adult body of any animal, though positioning systems that guide cells in embryogenesis are well known.
Wired Magazine, August 8th, 2006 In the course of a contract dispute, the city of Hoboken had police escort the Robotic employees from the premises just a few days before the contract between both parties was set to expire. What the city didn't understand or perhaps concern itself with, is that they sent the company packing with its manuals and the intellectual property rights to the software that made the giant robotic parking structure work.
The Washington Post, August 4th, 2006 While it is impossible to attribute any one weather event to climate change, several recent studies suggest that human-generated emissions of heat-trapping gases have produced both higher overall temperatures and greater weather variability, which raise the odds of longer, more intense heat waves.
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