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• • June 23,
2006
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House
Republicans Vote AGAINST Science Integrity Amendment Last week Representative Brad Miller (D-NC) tried to introduce an amendment that placed science integrity safeguards on the administration. At that time, Chairman Sherwood Bohlert pulled the bill that it was going to be attached to from consideration by the House Science Committee to regroup Republicans. Today we saw the results of his effort; the amendment went down in flames with all Republicans on the committee voting against the amendment. |
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Hobbits: Happy, Healthy, Human? It's been twenty months now since scientists reported discovering fossils on the Indonesian island of Flores belonging to a three-foot-tall hominid with a brain the size of a chimp that lived recently as 12,000 years ago. Homo floresiensis, as this hominid was dubbed, has inspired two clashing interpretations. Its discoverers declared it a separate species descended from another branch of hominids. In others words, the most recent common ancestor we share with Homo floresiensis lived two or even three million years ago. Skeptics argued that the fossils belonged to human pygmies. The one fossil of a Homo floresiensis brain-case belonged to a female with a rare genetic defect. In brief: healthy hominid versus deformed human. Now comes a third theory. In brief: healthy human. |
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Brain
'Traffic Jams' Drive Parkinson's Symptoms Using a zoo of animals from yeast to rats, US scientists have shown that speeding the flow of proteins in cells might relieve one of the underlying causes of Parkinson's disease. During the disease, brain neurons that make the chemical dopamine wither and die, causing the movement problems that characterize Parkinson's. The condition affects around 1% of people aged over 60. |
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Neurons
Self-Organise to Make Brain Chips Brain cells can be enticed into forming uniform functioning patterns using a nano-engineering trick. The technique could allow the development of sophisticated biological sensors that use functioning brain cells, the researchers say. This type of device would identify a compound – a deadly nerve agent or poison, for example – by measuring its effect on a functioning network of neurons. |
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Battle
in the Brain: How We Make Tough Choices If you've ever had a headache while trying to choose between a sure thing and a more risky option with higher rewards, it might be because conflicting parts of your brain are waging war against each other. A new study found regions in the brain that are active when a person decides whether to exploit a known commodity or explore a potentially better option. The finding, published in the June 15 issue of the journal Nature, suggests that in order to explore new and potentially rewarding options, the brain must override the desire for immediate profit. |
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'End
Times' Religious Groups Want Apocalypse Soon For thousands of years, prophets have predicted the end of the world. Today, various religious groups, using the latest technology, are trying to hasten it. Their endgame is to speed the promised arrival of a messiah. For some Christians this means laying the groundwork for Armageddon. |
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Two
Reedies' Long-Shot Quest for Scientific Immortality Mark Bedau ’76 and Norman Packard ’77 used to stay up late nights at Reed pondering the nature of life. What makes organisms alive? Is there a knowable organizing principle behind living cells? Can life be broken down into its constituent parts? Thirty years later, Bedau and Packard are on a quest for answers. Surrounded by powerful computers and sophisticated equipment in a high-tech industrial park on the outskirts of Venice, Italy – and bankrolled with millions of euros – they are trying to produce actual cells. The two Reedies are part of a long-shot entry in the race to create artificial life. |
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The One Hundred
Most Influential Works in Cognitive Science from the 20th Century Here is the list of the one hundred most influential works in cognitive science from the 20th century as selected by a panel of esteemed judges from all the nominations received. The works on the list are rank ordered, with #1 being the most influential. |
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