Science
Jay Fitzgerald of the Boston Herald reports on a long-shot but interesting economic development project for Rhode Island…Woburn’s Terrafugia Inc. hopes its futuristic car-plane business takes off in Massachusetts. The maker of the hybrid car-plane contraption – which theoretically will both drive on roads and soar through the sky – plans to meet with officials…
Yes, unless Ben Stein didn’t simply neglect to enunciate a qualifier (such as the one that I’ve inserted in the following quotation) in which he actually believes, then he may, as Glenn Reynolds puts it, have “completely lost it”: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers, talking about how great…
An unsigned editorial in Saturday’s Projo had this to say about the coming transition to digitial television…The government is taking away the analog spectrum to boost wireless services (which are becoming ever more important) and for public-safety needs. That’s why the Feds (i.e., taxpayers) are even offering to help pay for those converter boxes. So…
I missed last night’s Tiverton Town Council meeting because, on top of dealing with some essential technology problems with my arsenal, we had a bit of toxic contamination in the home. Well, that’s probably exaggerating: we broke one of those energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs and, realizing that they contain mercury, the obsessive in…
Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts has issued a statement on the stem cell breakthrough that was reported last week in two major scientific journals…As a strong advocate for all forms of stem cell research, I am excited to learn that scientists are able to manipulate skin cells into embryonic cells that could lead to…
It would have been too much, I suppose, to hope that the New York Times would take the opportunity of the recent stem-cell breakthrough to correct a longstanding falsehood in its analysis spin of the issue to date. It is, nonetheless, disappointing that it persists: Early in the controversy, opponents, including Mr. Bush, often said…
1. Remind me what all the hubbub surrounding stem cells is again. Theoretically, illnesses caused by damaged or destroyed cells can be cured, if replacement cells can be created. Stem cells are a promising source of replacement cells. 2. So why don’t we use already cell therapies, wherever new cells would help? Finding replacements is…
In preparation for Thanksgiving (I’m in training right now…), here is some reassurance for those of you (well, me) who tend to over-indulge: Eat as much as you want: Katherine Flegal and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute…used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is…
Upon reading some British scientist’s prediction of two species of humans thousands of years hence — a genetically solidified separation of the haves and have-nots — commenters have seemed to overlook the possibility that the haves are rapidly divesting themselves of the only thing that is actually worth having as they rend themselves from the…
The following blurb (from page 12 of this PDF of the 10/11 Rhode Island Catholic) reminds us that stem-cell research can be moral and miraculous: Three year-old Andrew Mueting of Dodge City is a bright, happy-golucky, energetic little boy. But when he was four months old, doctors gave him a bleak prognosis. Born with malignant…
