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Objective Research Funding? An Approach to quantify the Value of Experiments
The distribution of research funds is clearly not based on purely objective criteria. Most countries have different ways of how to deal with this issue – all face different, but serious problems. Bruce Knuteson (MIT) has developed a formula of which he claims is able to estimate the scientific merit that a proposed experiment will
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I’m Not a Number; I’m a Human Being: RFID Tags and Our Personas
Swedish athletes Carolina Klüft and Stefan Holm (currently reigning Olympic champions in the heptathlon and high-jump events) recently suggested that elite athletes might have an obligation to implant chips or carry GPS transmitters in order to allow anti-doping organisations to track them. Meanwhile medical researchers debate whether patients should be tagged implanted chips for identification
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To push or not to push? Choosing to deliver by caesarean section.
Research published this week in the British Medical Journal shows that babies born by elective caesarean section are more likely to have breathing trouble after birth. This is especially the case for babies who are mildly premature (1 to 3 weeks early). These results are important, since the rates of elective caesarean sections are high
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Lights out! For our Climate! For what else?
Last Saturday, people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were asked to switch off the lights for five minutes between 20.00 and 20.05. “Lights out! For our Climate!” was the motto. Similarly, on February 1 this year – the day of the publication of the latest scientific report of the IPCC – people all over the world
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Race, IQ and James Watson
A couple of months ago, James Watson – who, together with Francis Crick, was awarded the Nobel Prize for deciphering the double helix structure of DNA – claimed that black people are less intelligent that white He invoked the authority of science to make his claim. Of course, if the claim had simply been that
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Who is your hard drive working for?
Western Digital, a producer of networked hard drives that enable users to access their files across the net, has blocked customers from sharing media files from their drives. Needless to say, users are not amused and hard at work at finding workarounds. The move is possibly a pre-emptive way for the company to avoid being
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Private genetic tests, and the case for ‘Genetic education’
An advisory body to the UK government, the Human Genetics Commission has called for more regulation of genetic tests that are available for the public to buy privately. The completion of the human genome project, and the advances (and economies) in genetic technology have led to a burgeoning industry in private genetic tests. In the
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Restoring Sensation to Amputees’ Lost Limbs
Scientists at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University made two amputees ‘feel’ their lost arms by rerouting to their chest the key nerves that transfer sensations from hand to brain. After several months, stimulation to the area of the nerves would produce rich sensations experienced as if occurring in the missing limbs. Interestingly,
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Exercise Cures Depression: Mens Sana In Corpore Sano
Exercise has long been recommended to alleviate depression, but now scientists from Yale University have isolated a gene (VGF) within the hippocampus area of the brain which is responsible for these effects, leading to hope of a new, more effective cure for depression.
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Dirty work but someone hasn’t got to do it anymore
Today’s UK papers trumpet articles on robots made in Japan to do the ‘D-work’ — dirty, dangerous and difficult. The tone is upbeat with a slight sense of amusement reserved for futuristic ideas. Yet these developments may not be so ridiculous, and may be the thin edge of a difficult wedge.