ScienceDaily Picks

First Method For Testing, Assessing Drug Treatments For Chagas’ Disease Identified: (Apr. 22, 2008 — Chagas’ disease is a tropical parasitic sickness that currently affects more than 16 million people, with a staggering 100 million at risk, largely in the tropical areas of South and Central America. And yet the main drug used to [...]

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Does science make belief in God obsolete?

There is a conversation at JTF’s website, one of those “Big Questions” that replaced the “Science & Religion” slogan : Does science make belief in God obsolete?
Well, that smells like “Science & Religion” after all, isn’t it? For the short version, click the image. For the long one, continue the reading here.

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Tiny Magnets Offer Breakthrough In Gene Therapy For Cancer

Tiny Magnets Offer Breakthrough In Gene Therapy For Cancer: (Apr. 21, 2008) — A revolutionary cancer treatment using microscopic magnets to enable ‘armed’ human cells to target tumours has been developed. A new study shows that inserting these nanomagnets into cells carrying genes to fight tumours, results in many more cells successfully reaching and invading [...]

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Son-Of-A-Bitch Mouse Solves Maze Researchers Spent Months Building

IOWA CITY, IA—University of Iowa neuroscientists studying spatial learning and the effects of stress on memory announced Tuesday that a little son-of-a-bitch mouse ruined an experiment on cognitive performance by effortlessly navigating a maze that researchers spent nearly a year designing and constructing.

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Pleiotropic scaling of gene effects and the ‘cost of complexity’

Je me demande si je ne dois pas faire une nouvelle catégorie pour y ranger certains articles “se sont tiré une balle dans le pied”. Un peu long mais il en faut au moins ça. Pour l’instant je garde “jtf funded” en tant que tag.
La John Templeton Foundation, qui occupe un pourcentage appréciable de mes [...]

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ScienceDaily Picks

Are Humans Hardwired For Fairness?: (Apr. 18, 2008 — Is fairness simply a ruse, something we adopt only when we secretly see an advantage in it for ourselves? Many psychologists have in recent years moved away from this purely utilitarian view, dismissing it as too simplistic. Recent advances in both cognitive science and neuroscience [...]

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Mouse Study Can Illuminate How Tumors Manipulate The Human Vascular System

Mouse Study Can Illuminate How Tumors Manipulate The Human Vascular System: — Tumors use the body’s blood system for their own purposes: They stimulate the growth of blood vessels that supply the tumor. Medical treatment blocks this process in order to restrain tumors. Scientists have now developed a method for producing a complex human vascular [...]

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Just Like Penguins And Other Primates, People Trade Sex For Resources

Just Like Penguins And Other Primates, People Trade Sex For Resources: (Apr. 15, 2008) — Female penguins mate with males who bring them pebbles to build egg nests. Hummingbirds mate to gain access to the most productive flowers guarded by larger males.”
What do they mean by “penguins and other primates” So, prostitution is natural? [...]

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Science with coffee :-)

Caffeine blocks disruption of blood brain barrier in a rabbit model of Alzheimer’s disease
Xuesong Chen , Jeremy W. Gawryluk , John F. Wagener , Othman Ghribi and Jonathan D. Geiger
Journal of Neuroinflammation 2008, 5:12doi:10.1186/1742-2094-5-12

High levels of serum cholesterol and disruptions of the blood brain barrier (BBB) have all been implicated as underlying mechanisms [...]

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Eugénisme Nazi, Darwin, Platon et Aristote

Le commentaire de Timothée sur les réactions de PZ Myers face à Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, m’a fait sourire dans un premier temps, puis en y réfléchissant un peu plus je me suis dit que ça vaudrait la peine de reprendre cette affaire de l’eugénisme.
ou pire encore, ce que fait Myers, en critiquant un film [...]

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