Bioethics News.
04/22/2014
Cloning advance using stem cells from human adult reopens ethical questions
Scientists have grown stem cells from adults using cloning techniques for the first time — bringing them closer to developing patient-specific lines of cells that can be used to treat a whole host of ailments, from heart disease to blindness.
04/22/2014
U.S. Views of Technology and the Future
The American public anticipates that the coming half-century will be a period of profound scientific change, as inventions that were once confined to the realm of science fiction come into common usage.
04/21/2014
Bullying leaves scars into middle age
Children who are bullied continue to suffer the psychological impacts decades later, experiencing increased risk of depression, anxiety and suicide in tests given in mid-life, according to a new study by British researchers.
04/21/2014
The Richer You Are the Older You’ll Get
Economist Barry Bosworth at the Brookings Institution crunched the numbers and found that the richer you are, the longer you’ll live. And it’s a gap that is widening, particularly among women.
04/17/2014
French School Carries out DNA Dragnet in Rape Case
French investigators began taking DNA samples Monday from 527 male students and staff at a high school — including boys as young as 14 — as they searched for the assailant who raped a teenage girl on the closed campus.
04/17/2014
Free samples of prescription drugs are costly to patients, study says
Free samples of prescription drugs may seem like a great deal for patients. But even when doctors think they’re doing patients a favor by handing out the freebies, the real beneficiaries are the drug manufacturers, according to new research in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
04/16/2014
New fathers may need help with depression: study
Becoming a father may raise a young man’s risk of depression, according to a new U.S. study that suggests helping men at this stage could improve the wellbeing of entire families.
04/16/2014
Tobacco on TV tied to adult smoking rates
Even though smoking appears far less frequently in U.S. television shows than it used to, its portrayal may still be triggering the urge in adult smokers, according to a new study.
04/16/2014
For kids, moving can be mentally tough
Moving to a new area may be hard on the mental health of children, especially adolescents, according to a new U.S. study.
04/16/2014
National event urges Americans to plan for the end
With taxes filed, Americans today are being asked to consider life’s other certainty: death, and the myriad complications that often now accompany it.
04/16/2014
Is a patient ‘vegetative?’ The crucial answer may be quite wrong.
It seems as if barely a year goes by without a painful, public and often politicized controversy over whether or not someone is in a “vegetative state,” beyond consciousness and some say the need for life support. The most famous case was that of Terri Schiavo in 1990.
04/07/2014
Simple Blood Test To Spot Early Lung Cancer Getting Closer
One of these days, there could well be a simple blood test that can help diagnose and track cancers. We aren’t there yet, but a burst of research in this area shows we are getting a lot closer.
04/07/2014
Breast Ca Growth Slowed by CDK4/6 Inhibitors
Progression-free survival (PFS) in metastatic breast cancer doubled in women who received a new class of targeted therapy in addition to standard hormonal therapy, a randomized trial showed.
04/03/2014
112 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Chase Reconstructed In 3D, Image Has Many ‘Depths And Impressions’
A dinosaur chase that took place 112 million years ago has been reconstructed using 3D imagery.
04/03/2014
An FDA Update For 23andMe Customers
Over the last few months we’ve heard from many of you asking about where 23andMe stands in the FDA authorization process, so here is the latest.
04/02/2014
Guidance published on informing study participants about findings with potential health implications
In the course of a study involving human participants, it is possible that researchers may make a finding that has potential health or reproductive implications for an individual participant.
04/02/2014
Scientists hail synthetic chromosome advance
Previously synthetic DNA has been designed and made for simpler organisms such as bacteria. As a form of life whose cells contain a nucleus, yeast is related to plants and animals and shares 2,000 genes with us.
04/02/2014
PatientsLikeMe Launches “Data for Good” Campaign to Encourage Health Data Sharing to Advance Medicine
Today, PatientsLikeMe kicks off a new campaign promoting the value of sharing health information to advance research.
04/02/2014
Why I, a founder of PLOS, am forsaking open access
I co-founded the Public Library of Science (PLOS) in 2002 because I believed deeply that the open access publishing model…But in the last few weeks I have had a major change of heart.
04/01/2014
Spite Is Good. Spite Works.
The “Iliad” may be a giant of Western literature, yet its plot hinges on a human impulse normally thought petty: spite.
03/31/2014
Japan’s whaling program not for scientific purposes, rules International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Japan’s whaling program in the Antarctic is not for scientific purposes and has forbidden the granting of further whaling permits.
03/31/2014
Human Faces Can Express at Least 21 Distinct Emotions
Distinct facial muscles were used to express compound emotions.
03/31/2014
Smoking bans can help kids’ health, researchers say
If legislation banning smoking protects people from disease, then the proportion of the world population covered by such laws is too low – just 16%, according to researchers.
03/28/2014
At U.N. climate talks, many seek sterner warnings of GDP losses
Many governments want sterner warnings of probable economic damage from global warming in a draft U.N. report due on Monday, saying that existing estimates of trillions of dollars in losses are only part of the picture.
03/28/2014
Mother of brain-dead Jahi McMath says daughter is ‘still sleeping’
The mother of Jahi McMath, the 13-year-old Oakland girl declared brain dead by multiple neurologists more than three months ago, insisted Thursday that her daughter was “asleep” and “blossoming into a teenager.”
03/27/2014
Yahoo updates methodology in new transparency report
The company changes how it tallies government requests for data in its second transparency report, following tech firm push back over the past year.
03/27/2014
Gene Gurus Create Synthetic Yeast Chromosome From Scratch
Geneticists say they’ve built a working yeast chromosome from the bottom up for the first time — a feat that could open the way for custom-made biofactories that churn out fuels and pharmaceuticals.
03/27/2014
CDC: 1 in 68 U.S. children has autism
One in 68 U.S. children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a 30% increase from 1 in 88 two years ago, according to a new report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
03/26/2014
Scientists publish “navigation maps” for human genome
A large international team of scientists has built the clearest picture yet of how human genes are regulated in the vast array of cell types in the body – work that should help researchers target genes linked to disease.
03/26/2014
How your brain makes moral judgments
Imagine a CEO wants to profit from a venture that, by the way, involves emitting pollution toxic to the environment, but she doesn’t care because the goal is profit.