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News Analysis: Rethink Stem Cells? Science Already Has
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, March 10, 2009
With soaring oratory, President Obama on Monday removed a substantial practical nuisance that has long made life difficult for stem cell researchers. He freed biomedical researchers using federal money (a vast majority) to work on more than the small number of human embryonic stem cell lines that were established before Aug. 9, 2001.
In practical terms, federally financed researchers will now find it easier to do a particular category of stem cell experiments that, though still important, has been somewhat eclipsed by new advances.
( Read More )
Really? The Claim: Daylight Saving Time Can Affect Your Health
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR, The New York Times, March 10, 2009
THE FACTS
Daylight saving time, which began this week in most of the United States, has long been promoted as a way to save energy. Whether it does is still a matter of debate. But it does seem clear from studies that a one-hour time adjustment can have unintended health consequences.
( Read More )
Global Update: Viruses: Malaria Drug Is Found to Curb Deadly Infections Spread From Animals
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, March 10, 2009
Scientists have discovered that an old antimalaria drug is effective against two fatal viruses that recently jumped from animals to humans.
The closely related viruses, Nipah and Hendra, live in the fruit bats sometimes called flying foxes and are believed to infect animals that eat fruit contaminated with the bats’ urine or saliva.
( Read More )
Findings: What Do Dreams Mean? Whatever Your Bias Says
By JOHN TIERNEY, The New York Times, March 10, 2009
Suppose last night you had two dreams. In one, God appears and commands you to take a year off and travel the world. In the other, God commands you to take a year off to go work in a leper colony.
Which of those dreams, if either, would you consider meaningful?
Or suppose you had one dream in which your friend defends you against enemies, and another dream in which that same friend goes behind your back and tries to seduce your significant other? Which dream would you take seriously?
Tough questions, but social scientists now have answers — and really, it’s about time. For thousands of years, dreamers have had little more to go on than the two-gate hypothesis proposed in “The Odyssey.” After Penelope dreams of the return of her lost-long husband, she’s skeptical and says that only some dreams matter.
( Read More )
Tools That Leave Wildlife Unbothered Widen Research Horizons
By JIM ROBBINS, The New York Times, March 10, 2009
You may remember Senator John McCain’s criticism of a study of grizzly bear DNA as wasteful spending. And you may have wondered how the scientists got the DNA from the grizzlies.
The answer is hair. The study, which Mr. McCain referred to during his run for president, was a large one, and it provided an estimate of the population of threatened grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, in and around Glacier National Park.
( Read More )
By NICHOLAS WADE, The New York Times, March 10, 2009
With soaring oratory, President Obama on Monday removed a substantial practical nuisance that has long made life difficult for stem cell researchers. He freed biomedical researchers using federal money (a vast majority) to work on more than the small number of human embryonic stem cell lines that were established before Aug. 9, 2001.
In practical terms, federally financed researchers will now find it easier to do a particular category of stem cell experiments that, though still important, has been somewhat eclipsed by new advances.
( Read More )
Really? The Claim: Daylight Saving Time Can Affect Your Health
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR, The New York Times, March 10, 2009
THE FACTS
Daylight saving time, which began this week in most of the United States, has long been promoted as a way to save energy. Whether it does is still a matter of debate. But it does seem clear from studies that a one-hour time adjustment can have unintended health consequences.
( Read More )
Global Update: Viruses: Malaria Drug Is Found to Curb Deadly Infections Spread From Animals
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., The New York Times, March 10, 2009
Scientists have discovered that an old antimalaria drug is effective against two fatal viruses that recently jumped from animals to humans.
The closely related viruses, Nipah and Hendra, live in the fruit bats sometimes called flying foxes and are believed to infect animals that eat fruit contaminated with the bats’ urine or saliva.
( Read More )
Findings: What Do Dreams Mean? Whatever Your Bias Says
By JOHN TIERNEY, The New York Times, March 10, 2009
Suppose last night you had two dreams. In one, God appears and commands you to take a year off and travel the world. In the other, God commands you to take a year off to go work in a leper colony.
Which of those dreams, if either, would you consider meaningful?
Or suppose you had one dream in which your friend defends you against enemies, and another dream in which that same friend goes behind your back and tries to seduce your significant other? Which dream would you take seriously?
Tough questions, but social scientists now have answers — and really, it’s about time. For thousands of years, dreamers have had little more to go on than the two-gate hypothesis proposed in “The Odyssey.” After Penelope dreams of the return of her lost-long husband, she’s skeptical and says that only some dreams matter.
( Read More )
Tools That Leave Wildlife Unbothered Widen Research Horizons
By JIM ROBBINS, The New York Times, March 10, 2009
You may remember Senator John McCain’s criticism of a study of grizzly bear DNA as wasteful spending. And you may have wondered how the scientists got the DNA from the grizzlies.
The answer is hair. The study, which Mr. McCain referred to during his run for president, was a large one, and it provided an estimate of the population of threatened grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, in and around Glacier National Park.
( Read More )
