S.Korean panel says stem-cell result fabricated - Yahoo! News

S.Korean panel says stem-cell result fabricated - Yahoo! News: "SEOUL (Reuters) -
South Korea's most famous scientist quit under a cloud on Friday and could face prosecution after investigators said results in a landmark 2005 paper on producing tailored embryonic stem cells were intentionally fabricated."
=============================

That guy's career is pretty much ruined now. Very hard to recover from this sort of thing.

New Scientist Grasshoppers brainwashed into suicide by a worm - News

New Scientist Grasshoppers brainwashed into suicide by a worm - News: "THE trick by which a parasitic worm brainwashes its host into killing itself has been revealed.

The nematomorph hairworm (Spinochordodes tellinii) develops inside land-dwelling grasshoppers and crickets until the time comes for the worm to transform into an aquatic adult. At that point it somehow persuades the insect to jump into water, allowing the adult worm to swim away.

David Biron and his colleagues at the Institute for Development Research in Montpellier, France, have found the worms produce proteins that mimic some of the grasshoppers' own (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3213). Some of the proteins affect neurotransmitter activity and response to gravity."
============================

That's a pretty wild trick. Can Biotech Induced Zombieism (BIZ Syndrome) be far off?

Year of disasters speeds drive to pool knowledge - Yahoo! News

"LONDON (Reuters) - From tsunamis and earthquakes to hurricanes and bird flu, the natural disasters of the past year have underlined the urgency of a global project to pool knowledge that could limit the damage.

In Johannesburg in 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development highlighted the need for coordinating data on the state of the earth."
===============================
Now, if only they had a clandestine paramilitary force composed of special forces operators from around the world. Then they could enforce the necessary policies "with extreme predjudice".

GenomeWeb Daily News

Team Led By UCSC’s Haussler to Reconstruct Whole Genome of Distant Mammalian Ancestor
By Bernadette Toner, BioInform editor

COLD SPRING HARBOR, NY, Oct. 31 (GenomeWeb News) - It's technically possible to computationally reconstruct the genome of the ancestor of all placental mammals, according to David Haussler of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who is spearheading a collaborative effort to deliver the assembly of such a genome to the research community.

Haussler, a professor of biomolecular engineering at UCSC, said that an effort to "reconstruct the evolutionary history of each base in the human genome" from the time of the so-called Boreoeutherian ancestor, which lived around 75 million years ago, is "the grand challenge of human molecular evolution."
=========================

I see a lab in a remote location. I see scientists creating the ancient DNA sequences. I see artificial wombs. I see a theme park with protobeings living as they must have. I see things running amok. Oh wait, it's been done.

Remote Control Device 'Controls' Humans - Yahoo! News

Remote Control Device 'Controls' Humans - Yahoo! News: "ATSUGI, Japan - We wield remote controls to turn things on and off, make them advance, make them halt. Ground-bound pilots use remotes to fly drone airplanes, soldiers to maneuver battlefield robots.
But manipulating humans?

Prepare to be remotely controlled. I was.

Just imagine being rendered the rough equivalent of a radio-controlled toy car.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind."
===============================

More sinister applications? No joke! I got plenty of yer more sinister applications right here!

"I'm really hopeful Apple Computer will be interested in this technology to offer it in their iPod."

Hmmm, an IPOD for the girlfriend for Christmas this year... ;)

Giant 'corpse flower' blooms in Germany - Yahoo! News

Giant 'corpse flower' blooms in Germany - Yahoo! News: "BERLIN (Reuters) - The world's tallest -- and smelliest -- flower has bloomed, reaching a height of 2.94 meters, 18 centimeters more than the previous record for the species, the Stuttgart botanical garden said on Friday.

The Titan Arum, or Amorphophallus Titanum, nicknamed "corpse flower" because of its putrid stench, blooms rarely and briefly."
=================================

I rarely run across science news items that spark ideas for the Zook Terpin series, but this sure qualifies.

I got myself a Roomba. It is sweet. I just hope it doesn't become sentient and kill me in my sleep. That would suck.

Human-like skin gives robots sense of touch -study - Yahoo! News

Human-like skin gives robots sense of touch -study - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A flexible, electronic skin could provide robots, car seats and even carpets the ability to sense pressure and heat, Japanese researchers reported on Monday.

They described a new 'skin' that not only senses both heat and pressure, but that is flexible, cheap and easy to make."
=========================

Ewww, freaky.

Mystery Illness Kills at Least 17 in China - Yahoo! News

Mystery Illness Kills at Least 17 in China - Yahoo! News: "BEIJING - An unidentified illness has killed 17 farmers and sickened 41 others in southwestern China after they butchered sick pigs or sheep, China's official news agency said Sunday.

Those affected had symptoms including high fever, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, and 'became comatose later with bruises under the skin,' Xinhua news agency said.

Over the past four weeks, 58 people from areas around the cities of Ziyang and Neijiang in China's southwestern Sichuan province were hospitalized with such symptoms, Xinhua said."
===================

Odd...

Japanese robot guards to patrol shops, offices - Yahoo! News

Japanese robot guards to patrol shops, offices - Yahoo! News: "TOKYO (Reuters) - Burglars beware, robot guards are here.

In an idea straight out of science fiction, robots could soon begin patrolling Japanese offices, shopping malls and banks to keep them safe from intruders. Equipped with a camera and sensors, the 'Guardrobo D1,' developed by Japanese security firm Sohgo Security Services Co., is designed to patrol along pre-programmed paths and keep an eye out for signs of trouble."
================================

And you thought Protedyne was bad...

Nanotech advances need more safety screening-study - Yahoo! News

Nanotech advances need more safety screening-study - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nanotechnology, an engineering science that holds hope for scores of new products and processes, is not being properly evaluated for human and environmental risks, a study released this week has found.

The rapidly evolving science, which involves scores of start-ups, corporations and universities seeking to engineer materials on a molecular level, carries both actual and perceived environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks.

But without a full and continuing assessment of those risks, the nascent industry expected to employ thousands of people and generate billions of dollars in revenue may be hobbled by public opposition or corporate mishaps, a study by investment house Lux Research concludes."
=======================

Nanotech, lots of good and bad potential there.

'Super' bacteria live on sheets, fingernails: study - Yahoo! News

'Super' bacteria live on sheets, fingernails: study - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The mutated, drug-resistant 'superbugs' that cause an increasing number of hospital infections and deaths can live for weeks on bed linens, computer keyboard covers and under acrylic fingernails, U.S. researchers reported on Monday."
=========================

Whoa. Probably caused by years of anti-bacterial soap.

Katan Associates Study Shows Long-Awaited Life Sciences Roll-Up Will Continue, as Pharma and Larger Biotechs Hustle to Fill Dwindling Pipelines

Katan Associates Study Shows Long-Awaited Life Sciences Roll-Up Will Continue, as Pharma and Larger Biotechs Hustle to Fill Dwindling Pipelines: "LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 2005--Katan Associates International

Asia and European Union will continue to be fertile breeding ground for M&A transactions

Biotech-driven acquisitions will remain at the forefront of deal activity

'Consolidation will continue among Pharma and Biotech in 2005, whether a true 'roll-up' occurs or not. This activity will be fueled by the need for Pharma to fill the pipeline and the need for Biotech to continue to gain critical mass,' says Seth Yakatan, MBA, Partner, Katan Associates International. 'While the United States has historically been the most active region for deals, Europe and Asia will provide fertile grounds for buyers, given value considerations and a strong lack of mezzanine and secondary capital providers in these markets.'"
======================

Interesting...

Israeli Companies Suspected of Spying - Yahoo! News

Israeli Companies Suspected of Spying - Yahoo! News: "JERUSALEM - It started out as a family feud. But a small-time computer break-in has erupted into Israel's biggest business scandal in decades, reaching into some of the country's powerful corporate suites and jolting the cozy world of the industrial elite.

Top Israeli blue chip companies, including a high-tech giant that trades in New York, are suspected of using illicit surveillance software to steal information from their rivals and enemies."
=======================

And we were all worried about the Koreans stealing biotech secrets.

Scientists Experiment With 'Trust' Hormone - Yahoo! News

Scientists Experiment With 'Trust' Hormone - Yahoo! News: "t sounds like the plot for another Batman sequel: The villain sprays Gotham City with a trust hormone and people rush to give him all their money. Banks, the stock market and even governments collapse.

Farfetched? Swiss and American scientists demonstrate in new experiments how a squirt of the hormone oxytocin stimulates trusting behavior in humans, and they acknowledge that the possibility of abuse can't be ignored."
=====================

Maybe we can have potions in a modern day setting...

Particle Accelerator Used to Decipher Text - Yahoo! News

Particle Accelerator Used to Decipher Text - Yahoo! News: "BALTIMORE - A particle accelerator is being used to reveal the long-lost writings of the Greek mathematician Archimedes, work hidden for centuries after a Christian monk wrote over it in the Middle Ages.

Highly focused X-rays produced at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center were used last week to begin deciphering the parts of the 174-page text that have not yet been revealed. The X-rays cause iron in the hidden ink to glow.

'One of the delightful things is we don't know what it's going to say,' said William Noel, head of the Archimedes Palimpsest project at the Walters Art Gallery."
===========================

I think we all know what it will say: hidden treasure! Then some adventure seeking treasure hunter will decipher the clues and solve the puzzle while being chased by gun toting thugs.

Major advance in stem cell research / Controversial step in regenerative medicine reported

Major advance in stem cell research / Controversial step in regenerative medicine reported: "Biologists in South Korea reported Thursday the creation of the first stem cell lines engineered to carry the DNA of patients with chronic disease and injury, a development hailed by some as perhaps the most significant technical advance for regenerative medicine since stem cells were isolated from human embryos in 1998."
========================
Pretty wild. They must put patient DNA in host embryo's (like they do with frog oocytes) and get them to differentiate. That way the cells match the host and could potentially be used as implants.

'Brain' In A Dish Acts As Autopilot, Living Computer

'Brain' In A Dish Acts As Autopilot, Living Computer: "GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- A University of Florida scientist has grown a living 'brain' that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network.

The 'brain' -- a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a rat's brain and cultured inside a glass dish -- gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene. As living computers, they may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments."
============================

Whoa. Artificial brains. Flying jets in a flight sim. If that doesn't give you plot ideas, then you perhaps writing isn't for you. Perhaps you would be happier doing something else--like bowling.

Protein Music

Computational Biology : UWA Computer Science: "ProteinMusic is a Java program converting DNA sequences into music. The original idea for this project came from R. D. King here at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and C. G Angus from the Shamen (King, R.D. & Angus, C.G. (1996)). They developed a program written in C on an Apple Mac together with a MIDI connection to a synthesizer in 1996. This program here is a complete re-write of the original program in Java. by A. Karwath. "
==========================

Weird, wild stuff.

Researchers Find Largest 'Gene Deserts' in Human Genome

Welcome to GenomeWeb Daily News Wrapping up Chromosomes 2 and 4, Researchers Find Largest 'Gene Deserts' in Human Genome
By a GenomeWeb staff reporter

NEW YORK, April 6 (GenomeWeb News) - After analyzing chromosomes 2 and 4, a research consortium supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute announced this week that it has discovered the largest "gene deserts" in the human genome, and determined the location of an ancestral chromosomal fusion event.

Led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the analysis, to be published in the April 7 issue of Nature, shows that the largest gene deserts, or regions of the genome devoid of protein-coding genes, are located in chromosome 4.

According to a statement released by NHGRI, little is known of the function of gene deserts, but they are thought to be important as they occur in other mammalian genomes as well as in birds.

NHGRI said that chromosome 4 is of interest to the medical community because it holds the gene for Huntington's disease and other inherited disorders.

The team also discovered a 36,000-base-pair stretch of sequence in chromosome 2 that it believes is the site of the fusion that created chromosome 2 from what were previously two separate, smaller chromosomes.

Chromosome 2 is the second largest human chromosome, and scientists have speculated that a fusion of two chromosomes in a human ancestor rendered humans with 23 chromosomes, compared to the 24 chromosomes found in gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and other great apes, NHGRI said.
=========================

It may be a gene desert, but it is a plot breadbasket! Let your imagination come up with ideas for all that data. Leftover bits of evolution? Encoded messages from aliens? God? The Illuminati? The key to the next step of evolution? Who knows?

Yahoo! News - Computers Obeying Brain Signals

Yahoo! News - Computers Obeying Brain Signals: "By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer

ALBANY, N.Y. - Researchers and volunteers around the world are taking early steps toward a complex but straightforward technological goal: to use electrical signals from the brain as instructions to computers and other machines, allowing paralyzed people to communicate, move around and control their environment literally without moving a muscle."
=========================

Very interesting article. I've tried something like that and it was quite the experience. We are getting closer and closer to science fiction here. Soon we'll have the powered battle armor from Starship Troopers and direct neural links to control our vehicles. And best of all, people whose bodies won't let them communicate the way most of us can will be able to.

Yahoo! News - Oil Platforms May Be Used for Fish Farms

Yahoo! News - Oil Platforms May Be Used for Fish Farms: "By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - Thousands of oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico could be converted into deep-sea fish farms raising red snapper, mahi mahi, yellow fin tuna and flounder, under a plan backed by the Bush administration."
============================

If Bush is backing it, you know it has to be in the best interest of the environment. On the up-side though, there is a good chance the fish will mutate horribly, crawl up on the platform and wreak havok leading to a runaway bestseller with lucrative movie rights.

Yahoo! News - NASA Turns to Mexican Lake for Clues to Alien Life

Yahoo! News - NASA Turns to Mexican Lake for Clues to Alien Life: "By Tim Gaynor

CUATRO CIENEGAS, Mexico (Reuters) - With cobalt waters harboring eerie, coral-like formations, this archipelago of lakes in Mexico's searing Chihuahuan desert has always had an other-worldly appearance.



Now top researchers at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration say the calcified clumps of primitive bacteria lurking in its pools could provide important clues in their search for extraterrestrial life.

The network of 170 cactus-ringed lagoons around the town of Cuatro Cienegas have intrigued evolutionary biologists for decades because their fish, snail and turtle species rival the Galapagos Islands in their uniqueness.

Scientists from NASA's Astrobiology Institute have begun studying the lakes' ancient formations called stromatolites -- rock structures formed by layers of algae that trap silt. Conditions within the stromatolites are similar to those that prevailed on Earth for more than 2 billion years before the dinosaurs evolved.

Studying their organisms could help NASA identify the unique atmospheric conditions created by primitive life on planets orbiting nearby stars and help settle the question of whether we are alone in the universe.

'They may be our best example of what to look for on other planets,' said Brad Bebout, a researcher at the NASA Ames Research Center, as he prepared to harvest methane belched out by the organisms in a shallow blue-green pool.

'Most of the time that life has been on Earth, this is what it looked like, not like the plants and animals that you see around you now,' he added."
=============================

I always knew there were strange new worlds to explore down south of here...

Photoaffinity labeling analysis of the interaction of pituitary adenylate-cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) with the PACAP type I receptor

Photoaffinity labeling analysis of the interaction of pituitary adenylate-cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) with the PACAP type I receptor -- Cao et al. 244 (2): 400 -- FEBS Journal: "YJ Cao, E Kojro, G Gimpl, M Jasionowski, F Kasprzykowski, L Lankiewicz and F Fahrenholz
Max-Planck-Institut fur Biophysik, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

To identify residues and domains of the peptide hormone pituitary adenylate-cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) that interact with the type I receptor, two photoreactive analogues of PACAP-(1-27)-peptide were synthesized using solid-phase peptide synthesis. Phe6 or Tyr22 within the PACAP sequence were replaced by p-benzoyl-L-phenylalanine (Bz-Phe) thus creating two PACAP derivatives with a photoreactive amino acid in either the disordered N-terminal or the helical C-terminal part of the peptide. The ligand-binding properties and the efficiencies of these peptide analogues as photolabels were tested for pig brain PACAP receptors. [Bz-Phe6]-PACAP-(1-27)-peptide (Kd 1.3 nM) retained the high binding affinity of PACAP-(1-27)-peptide (Kd 0.5 nM), wheras Bz-Phe substitution of Tyr22 reduced the affinity about tenfold (Kd 4.4 nM) thus demonstrating the importance of Tyr22 for receptor binding. Monoiodination of the photoreactive analogues did not change the binding affinity of the photoreactive analogues. Photoaffinity labeling using pig brain membrane demonstrated that the 125I-labeled photoreactive analogues specifically label a 66000-Mr protein band. Photoaffinity labeling of the rat brain PACAP receptor expressed in COS cells resulted in two specifically photolabeled proteins: a major band of Mr 58000 and a minor band of Mr 78000. By treatment of photolabeled membranes with N-glycosidase F, both of the polypeptide bands were converted to a single polypeptide band of Mr 54000, which corresponds to the deglycosylated PACAP receptor. Despite its lower receptor affinity, [Bz-Phe22]-PACAP-(1-27)-peptide labeled the PACAP type I receptor in pig brain membranes and the rat receptor expressed in COS cells with much higher efficiency (20-fold for the pig receptor) than [Bz-Phe6]-PACAP-(1-27)-peptide. These findings suggest that Tyr22 in PACAP-(1-27)-peptide is located in or close to the hormone-binding site of the PACAP type I receptor. The results provide evidence that the alpha-helical C-terminal region of PACAP is directly involved in receptor binding."
==========================

I need to look into photoaffinity labeling more. Combine that with engineered protien crystallization, and hmmm....

Soft Tissues From T. rex Fossil

AAAS - AAAS News Release: "A recently discovered Tyrannosaurus rex fossil appears to contain elastic soft tissues, blood vessels and cells, researchers report in the 25 March 2005 issue of the journal Science.

Tissues other than bone can be preserved in the fossil record, but it's usually difficult to determine their original form and composition in fossils more than a few million years old. These findings show that soft tissues can be clearly preserved for much longer, since this T. rex specimen, known as MOR 1125, is roughly 70 million years old.

Mary Higby Schweitzer and colleagues noticed unusual tissue fragments lining the marrow cavity of the MOR 1125 femur. When they dissolved the mineral deposits in the tissues, the authors were left with a flexible, stretchy material threaded with what looked like blood vessels. The treatment also released some thin, transparent soft tissue vessels that floated freely in the solution. These vessels resemble vessels from modern-day ostrich bone, the authors report.

Both the dinosaur and ostrich vessels also contained small, reddish brown dots that might be nuclei of the 'endothelial' cells that line blood vessels. Certain portions of the T. rex bone also contained fibril-like structures that looked virtually identical to bone cells called 'osteocytes' seen among collagen fibers in the ostrich bone.

The exquisite preservation of this tissue, which does not challenge the timing of dinosaur evolution, may open up avenues for studying dinosaur physiology and perhaps some aspects of their biochemistry, especially if researchers can identify soft tissues in other fossils as well."
========================================

That is pretty wild. Imagine this plot, scientist clone dinosaurs, grow them on a tropical island, and then they run amok, causing a blockbuster trilogy of movies. Oh wait, someone did that already.

Yahoo! News - Senate Votes to Open Alaskan Oil Drilling

Yahoo! News - Senate Votes to Open Alaskan Oil Drilling: "By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, delivering a major energy policy win for President Bush."
===========================

Great. If we want to get off of foreign oil, why aren't we increasing fuel efficiency? Oh right, we're short sighted and profit driven. The easy, Republican-friendly plot is enviro terrorists doing something to stop it but the FBI prevents it. Better is for the bad guys to be foreign oil agents, or perhaps they are in cahoots, or even one group is playing the other.

Even better is to have it happen and then show the long term economic and environmental impact. The setting of a near future novel could be scientists trying to recover from the damage, or a world where Korea took over as the dominant source for vehicles since we failed to pursue the new technology.

Yahoo! News - Large Plume Billows From Mount St. Helens

Yahoo! News - Large Plume Billows From Mount St. Helens: "MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. - Mount St. Helens released a towering plume of ash Tuesday, its most significant emission in months but one that seismologists did not believe heralded any major eruption."
=======================

Remember that movie Dante's Peak with Pierce Brosnan and that serious off road Suburban? Great thriller that didn't get much recognition.

Yahoo! News - Few Clues on Dolphin Deaths in Florida Keys

Yahoo! News - Few Clues on Dolphin Deaths in Florida Keys: "By Laura Myers

SUMMERLAND KEY, Fla. (Reuters) - Biologists are investigating whether sonar used in U.S. Navy (news - web sites) submarine exercises or red tide bacteria contributed to the deaths of more than 30 rough-toothed dolphins in a mass stranding in the Florida Keys last week."
=================================

Sad and weird. It sounds like the opening of a thriller. Hopefully they will figure it out, though I didn't think you could get decompression sickness unless you breathe compressed air at depth. Skin diving, which the dolphins do, can't result in it. Unless I missed something.

Yahoo! News - Tiny Early 'Hobbit' Human Was Smart, Skull Shows

Yahoo! News - Tiny Early 'Hobbit' Human Was Smart, Skull Shows: "By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tiny pre-humans who lived on an Indonesian island until about 12,000 years ago had brains so surprisingly sophisticated that the creatures may represent a previously unrecognized species of early humans, or hominids, scientists reported on Thursday."
========================

OK, no plot here, but I have to put a news article about real hobbits on the blog. I think it was in the small print somewhere (ha ha).

Yahoo! News - China Seen Opening Door Soon to Biotech Rice

Yahoo! News - China Seen Opening Door Soon to Biotech Rice: "By Jeremy Smith

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - China could open the door to biotech rice within two years, paving the way for the GMO crop to enter the food stream across Asia, the head of a trade group said Monday.



'Rice is likely to be approved in China in the near term, maybe in two years,' said Clive James, chairman and founder of ISAAA, a group with industry and public foundation support that promotes biotech as a way to halt global hunger."
===========================

There was an article a few years back where the FBI was investigating biotech industrial espionage down in San Diego. I seem to recall that a SE Asian country had set up an institute to study biotech, but it was really a front for industrial espionage.

Hmmm, I smell a plot...

New FDA Clearance for Candela Family of Pulsed Dye Lasers

New FDA Clearance for Candela Family of Pulsed Dye Lasers: "WAYLAND, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 2005--Candela Corporation (NASDAQ: CLZR - News) announced today that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its family of pulsed dye lasers for the treatment of benign epidermal pigmented lesions adding to the previously cleared treatments of facial veins, rosacea, leg veins, port wine stains, scars, wrinkles, psoriasis, stretch marks and warts."
===================

Weird. I wonder how that works? Burn the skin to stimulate healing?

The website wasn't too helpful...http://www.candelalaser.com/index.asp

Brand New Brands, Inc.

MILL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, February 14, 2005 - Function is the future of food. That’s the basic proposition behind Brand New Brands, Inc., a new company formed to develop great-tasting food and beverage products that incorporate health-promoting ingredients.

Launched to Develop ‘Functional’ Foods & Beverages; Announces $15 Million in Funding.
===============================

At first I thought they were talking about biotech/pharmalogical kinds of ingredients. That would be pretty cool, and have lots of plot potential. Population control (the Brave New World way or by putting contraceptives in), or perhaps something more sinister...

But reading the press release makes me think it isn't that interesting, though probably healthy and tasty.

Yahoo! News - Dolly Scientist Gets Human Cloning License

Yahoo! News - Dolly Scientist Gets Human Cloning License: "By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - The British government Tuesday gave the creator of Dolly the Sheep a license to clone human embryos for medical research into the cause of motor neuron disease.

Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly at Scotland's Roslin Institute in 1996, and motor neuron expert Christopher Shaw of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, plan to clone embyros to study how nerve cells go awry to cause the disease. The experiments do not involve creating cloned babies."
======================================

As I understand it, they'll use the same technique (nuclear replacement) to create cells that are an exact genetic duplicate of cells from people with incurable diseases (muscle wasting in this case), grow an embryo from that, get stem cells from the cloned embryo, and study those cells to see how the disease progresses.

That would give them a model system for the disease, which will hopefully lead to a treatment. So the cloning and stem cells would not be used in the actual treatment (thought that is another potential use). More likely, they will find where the development pathway goes wrong and make a drug to prevent it from going off-track.

Plot-wise, you could have a society so in fear of, oh, I don't know, terrorism, that they start mucking with developmental pathways of everyone (well, the next generation at least) to make the world less aggressive. Where does that lead? A utopia? A Brave New World? Who knows?

Or maybe they are evil and try to stamp out things they percieve as diseases like homosexuality, voting for Democrats, and separation of church and state.

Yahoo! News - California Wine Country Considers Biotech Ban

Yahoo! News - California Wine Country Considers Biotech Ban: "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A measure to ban genetically modified crops in the heart of California's wine country has qualified for a local ballot, officials said on Friday."
===================================================

Too bad all crops have been genetically modified through breeding and many through irradiation. I guess it will be good for my favorite Walla Walla wines when California stops growing grapes. Mmmm I'ecole 41. Or maybe a Canoe Ridge.

Yahoo! News - Call for New 'Manhattan Project' to Fight Bioterror

Yahoo! News - Call for New 'Manhattan Project' to Fight Bioterror: "By Ben Hirschler

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - The world needs an effort similar to that behind the creation of the atomic bomb to tackle the multi-faceted threat of biowarfare, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Thursday.

'We need to do something that even dwarfs the Manhattan project,' Frist told the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) in Davos. The Manhattan project was the codename for the United States's World War II effort to devise an atomic weapon.

'The greatest existential threat we have in the world today is biological. Why? Because unlike any other threat it has the power of panic and paralysis to be global.'"
================================================

Oh man, if we can't make an exciting story out of that...

AARON: A Product of Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies

AARON: A Product of Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies: "AARON is not your ordinary screensaver. Developed by Harold Cohen over a period of nearly thirty years, and productized by Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies, Inc., AARON is the first fine art screensaver to utilize artificial intelligence to continuously create original paintings on your PC."
==================================================

Art (and poetry) created by a computer? That brings up the question, does something become art by being created or by being interpreted?

Heart Auscultation and Sound Processing

Heart Auscultation and Sound Processing: "Our Mission

To become the leading provider of non-invasive sound-based software diagnosis tools for the early detection of heart diseases. Our company's philosophy is that early detection requires instant availability of testing tools, intrinsic ability to detect weak signs of silent diseases, safety and simplicity of interpretations."
================================================

Non-invasive medical testing is totally science fiction. Of course, like all new technology, it could also be used for evil. I'm thinking as a novelist of course, so having these ideas don't make me distubed. The voices in my head do that (just kidding...they're completely harmless).

Imagine a world (fictional) where Big Brother remotely monitors your heart rate to spot when you lie. Or maybe samething nicer-a gym with an AI trainer that monitors your heart rate and automatically adjusts your workout as you exercise?

PhysOrg: Petrified Wood in Days

PhysOrg: Petrified Wood in Days: "California has Silicon Valley. Could a Silicon Forest in Washington be next? A team of materials scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is on it.
Yongsoon Shin and colleagues at the Department of Energy lab have converted wood to mineral, achieving in days what it takes nature millions of years to do in such places as the Gingko Petrified Forest, an hour up the Columbia River. There, trees likely felled in a cataclysmic eruption and, buried without oxygen beneath lava, leached out their woody compounds and sponged up the soil's minerals over the eons. "
==============================================

Pretty wild. I can see artists one day making wood carvings, then petrifying them. Or take your favorite bonsai and preserve it.

Yahoo! News - UN Storm Brews Over Hurricane-Global Warming Link

Yahoo! News - UN Storm Brews Over Hurricane-Global Warming Link: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. government hurricane scientist has resigned from the United Nations (news - web sites)' science panel on climate change because, he said, a lead author in the group had too strongly linked global warming to hurricanes.

The issue of whether climate change is leading to increased severity of hurricanes came to a head late last year at a conference at Harvard University where researchers, including the school's Dr. Paul Epstein, said recent storms, droughts and heat waves are probably being caused by global warming.

The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which evaluates the state of climate science as a basis for informed policy action concluded in its most recent report that greenhouse gases from autos and industry contribute to global warming."

===============================================
And thus in our hypothetical thriller, political strife ensues after a bad hurricane season, where heavy hit nations blame greenhouse gas producing nations for the damage to thier country and people.

Yahoo! News - Global Warming May Have Caused Extinction -Study

Yahoo! News - Global Warming May Have Caused Extinction -Study: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global warming (news - web sites) and not a giant asteroid may have nearly wiped out life on Earth some 250 million years ago, an international team of scientists said on Thursday.

The mass extinction, known as the 'Great Dying,' extinguished 90 percent of sea life and nearly three-quarters of land-based plants and animals.

There has been recent evidence that a big asteroid or meteor hit the Earth and triggered the catastrophe, but researchers say they now have evidence that something much more long-term -- global warming -- was the culprit.

Kliti Grice of Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia, and colleagues studied sediment cores drilled off the coasts of Australia and China and found evidence the ocean was lacking oxygen and full of sulfur-loving bacteria at that time.

This finding would be consistent with an atmosphere low in oxygen and poisoned by hot, sulfurous, volcanic emissions, they wrote in a report published in the journal Science.

A second team led by Peter Ward at the University of Washington looked at fossil evidence in South Africa and found little evidence of a catastrophe and instead signs of a gradual die-off.

They examined 126 reptile and amphibian skulls from the Karoo Basin in South Africa, where there is an exposed piece of dried sediment from the end of the Permian Era and the beginning of the Triassic, 250 million years ago."

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There's a good plot, world slowly dying due to environmental degredation, but the general population won't do anything to stop it. Then a world devestating catastrophy looms and forces people into action. It has Jerry Bruckheimer written all over it.

Northern California Science Writers Association (NCSWA)

Northern California Science Writers Association (NCSWA): "Reporters, freelancers, university science writers, students and others interested in science -- together, we make up the Northern California Science Writers Association with some 250 members. Our web site includes information about NCSWA (pronounced NICK SWA), our activities, our officers, and how to become a member. Welcome, please indulge your curiosity, and we appreciate your feedback."

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Hmmm, I may have to join these guys. I do some "science writing" after all. Maybe I'll be a little hush hush about the biotech thriller I'm writing until after they accept me as one of thier own.

GeneOhm Technology Platform

GeneOhm has some interesting technology...

GeneOhm || Technology Platform: "GeneOhm Sciences has developed a proprietary platform for multiplexed molecular diagnostics. GeneOhm leverages the unique electrical properties of nucleic acids to identify genetic mutations that cause disease and to detect the RNA or DNA of pathogenic organisms. Using DNA-modified microelectrode arrays, our platform provides a robust, cost-effective solution for rapidly addressing multiple analytes in molecular diagnostic assays."

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It looks like they can detect mutations by measuring electrical properties instead of sequencing. Hmm, interesting...

The Environmental Movement

I had a good discussion the other day that stemmed from a comment about hybrid and fuel cell car technology. My point was that, for good or ill, change will pretty much have to come from economic forces. In a world where so much is dictated by economics, capitalism is a strong evolutionary driver. Certainly it isn't always true, but let's face it, if recycled printer paper costs twice as much as regular paper, which are most people going to buy? And if a third world country can get more money and food by fishing with gill nets or hunting whales, are they going to opt for starvation?

Another driving factor is that people seem to generally be short sighted. Hey, they say, we can make lots of money by chopping down these trees and selling them! But they don't think about what happens when the trees are all gone. Or maybe they do and plan to farm cattle? Why worry about alternate fuel sources or increased gas milage when we can drill oil here at home?

Ok, enough ranting. I'm just trying to say thats how people will behave unless there is some outside influence (e.g. oil embargo forcing folks to get more efficient cars). I'm not trying to say whats good or evil. Well, ok, maybe a little. But the point is that to help preserve the environment, maybe our efforts are better spent by making the more environmentally safe alternative also the more economic choice. Education is important and helps a lot, at least here in the States (I'm sure some will argue one way or the other), but how much does that affect the rest of the world? Me not buying shark fin soup in California won't ever stop fisherman from other countries from shark finning. No matter how many friends I get to stop eating it.

But what does this all have to do with science and writing. Well, it makes a great setting for a techno-thriller.

• Maybe genetically modified foods provide a better source of income for farmers in Columbia, so they stop growing drug percursor plants. It could be a secret CIA funded plan.
• Or a high tech "organ farm" is used to grow shark fins and bear testicles or whatever other weird thing people like to eat or do whatever with for "non-traditional" medicine.
• Perhaps a natural (or terrorist driven) disaster forces us off of oil as a fuel source, and an alternative has to be found quickly before the world society degenerates to a pre-industrial era.

I think there are lots of ideas here, beyond Tom Clancy's take on it in Rainbow Six (enviromentalists are evil).

New keyboard

I just fired up my FingerWorks Dvorak keyboard, which measures capacitance to recognize keystrokes. Very science fictiony, but making the switch to Dvorak is painful. I'm told it will all be worth it.

Welcome!

Hello. I'm always finding interesting little tidbits on science and writing, so I created this blog to store them all. Having everything is one place is a good way to spark plot ideas, so feel free to peruse, comment, and add your own.

Visit the main site at www.doctortodd.org and enjoy!

--Dr. Todd