Category Archives: science and technology

Burying the Truth

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Once again, I feel compelled to tell you all about a serious mistake in logic and ethics that one of my favorite bands, Brother, has made. You may recall that I have thrice (here, here, and here) pointed to their "Concert for Cures" tour. Well, they now have a whole page dedicated to it, and it's full of misconceptions and misinformation. Let's flood them with corrections.

"'If, as the scientific community agrees, there's a real chance to cure not just diabetes, but Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal injury, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis…and the list goes on, then let's get serious and bring it on', says Richardson. 'And let's not drive stem cell research underground by leaving it to private companies to fund. Let's give scientists in our public institutions the resources they need to make the breakthroughs the world so desperately needs.'"

First, be clear about scope. Are we talking about stem cells in general, or embryonic stem cells in particular? Next, define "real chance". Last I checked, embryonic stem cells haven't done squat and adult stem cells have been showing promising results. Lastly, stop begging the question. This is not merely a matter of whether we support scientific progress or not. It's about whether we want progress at any moral or ethical cost.

Dirty Finger Print

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“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds
of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth.'” – Genesis 1:26

“And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master
will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?'”
– Luke 12:42

Satellite produces global air pollution map

Energy and Environment Based on 18 months of Envisat observations, this high-resolution global atmospheric map of nitrogen dioxide pollution makes clear just how human activities impact air quality. ESA’s ten-instrument Envisat, the world’s largest satellite for environmental monitoring, was launched in February 2002. Its onboard Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) instrument records the spectrum of sunlight shining through the atmosphere. These results are then finely sifted to find spectral absorption ‘fingerprints’ of trace gases in the air.

Anybody Game?

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I am here today to go on the record with my bewilderment with opponents of embryonic stem cell research.

Here’s how I understand stem cell research: Fertilize an egg and let it divide a few times. Take the resulting clump of cells and use them to see what kinds of tissues you can grow on command. Repeat until you get something useful. Put cotton in your ears while Christians scream at you for being a genocidal maniac.

So who wants to respond to this?

Jonesing

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Here are two addictions that I’m sure many bloggers suffer from.

Yahoo: Internet withdrawal anguishing
By Jim Hu, Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Tobacco companies, drug cartels and Starbucks beware–the Internet may be giving you a run for the money in the addiction department.

According to a study sponsored by Yahoo and advertising company OMD, Internet detox makes people feel emotionally vacant and lost in life. Twenty-eight participants were asked to record their thoughts and feelings during a two-week period of no Net usage. From studying the subjects’ video and written diaries, researchers noticed that two weeks of Internet deprivation affected social lives and left many feeling bored.

Caffeine withdrawal recognized as a disorder
By BJS

If you missed your morning coffee and now you have a headache and difficulty concentrating, you might be able to blame it on caffeine withdrawal. In general, the more caffeine consumed, the more severe withdrawal symptoms are likely to be, but as little as one standard cup of coffee a day can produce caffeine addiction, according to a Johns Hopkins study that reviewed over 170 years of caffeine withdrawal research.

Results of the Johns Hopkins study should result in caffeine withdrawal being included in the next edition of the DSM or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered the bible of mental disorders, and the diagnosis should be updated in the World Health Organization’s ICD, or The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.

Evolution

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Coinciding nicely with a discussion
about evolution and intelligent design between Jerry and Theomoroph, here are
two interesting stories.

Evolutionism
and the Limits of Science
Interview With Professor Mariano Artigas (Zenit)

Science marks a key achievement in human history, says a philosopher who nevertheless warns of an “imperialism” that tries to judge everything through the sciences. Mariano Artigas, a member of Brussels’ International Academy of the Philosophy of Sciences and of the Vatican’s St. Thomas Pontifical Academy, has just published a book on evolutionism and its relationship with philosophy and religion. Entitled “The Frontiers of Evolutionism” and published by Eunsa, the book states that there are questions that science cannot resolve. Artigas, a professor of philosophy of nature and of sciences at the University of Navarre, spoke with ZENIT.

Engineering
God in a Petri Dish
By Kari Lynn Dean

On a steep, narrow street above Chinatown works Jonathon Keats, a tweed-suited, bow-tied 32-year-old who, with assistance from a phalanx of scientists, is genetically engineering God in his apartment. Advisers to Keats’ organization, the International Association for Divine Taxonomy, include biochemists, biophysicists, ecologists, geneticists and zoologists from the University of California at Berkeley, the Smithsonian and other institutions of scientific repute. The mission: to determine where on the phylogenetic map — the scientific tree of life — to put God.