God: It's All in Your Head

Following up on research that identified the portions of the brain that are responsible for mystical, religious experiences, a researcher at Laurentian University has built a mystical helmet that stimulates the mysticism center, invoking religious experience. Of course, he called on Richard Dawkins to put one on and get into God.

The experiment is based on the recent finding that some sufferers from temporal lobe epilepsy, a neurological disorder caused by chaotic electrical discharges in the temporal lobes of the brain, seem to experience devout hallucinations that bear a striking resemblance to the mystical experiences of holy figures such as St Paul and Moses.

This theory received a recent boost from Prof Gregory Holmes, a paediatric neurologist at Dartmouth Medical School, who claims that one of the principal founders of the Seventh Day Adventist Movement, Ellen White, in fact suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy...

Unfortunately, during the experiment, while Prof Dawkins had some strange experiences and tinglings, none of them prompted him to take up any new faith. "It was a great disappointment," he said. "Though I joked about the possibility, I of course never expected to end up believing in anything supernatural. But I did hope to share some of the feelings experienced by religious mystics when contemplating the mysteries of life and the cosmos.

Baby Teeth Banked for Stem Cells

Austin-based start-up BioEden has opened America’s first baby tooth bank, hoping to harvest and freeze stem cells from the tooth’s pulp. Scientists are skeptical:

Austin-based start-up company BioEden has opened the nation’s first baby tooth bank, which harvests and freezes stem cells from a tooth’s pulp. The hope is that the cells may someday be useful to treat disease or heal paralyzing spinal cord injuries.

Currently, it’s not clear whether such cells could do anything more than help grow the dentin that could be used to reconstruct a broken tooth. Scientists say it will take at least five to 10 years to find out.

But for a $595 processing fee and $89 a year for storage, BioEden will harvest and cryogenically preserve the cells until scientists find a use for them.

Artificial Life Created

Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher who once tried to map the human genome for commercial purpose, claims that he has created artificial life by constructing a man-made chromosome:

The Guardian can reveal that a team of 20 top scientists assembled by Mr Venter, led by the Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, has already constructed a synthetic chromosome, a feat of virtuoso bio-engineering never previously achieved. Using lab-made chemicals, they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code.

The DNA sequence is based on the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium which the team pared down to the bare essentials needed to support life, removing a fifth of its genetic make-up. The wholly synthetically reconstructed chromosome, which the team have christened Mycoplasma laboratorium, has been watermarked with inks for easy recognition.

It is then transplanted into a living bacterial cell and in the final stage of the process it is expected to take control of the cell and in effect become a new life form. The team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the genome of one type of bacterium into the cell of another, effectively changing the cell’s species. Mr Venter said he was "100% confident" the same technique would work for the artificially created chromosome.

Amoebic Morality

In times of stress, some single-celled organisms band together to create an entity that resembles a multicellular animal. And some of members of the colony will sacrifice their lives to ensure the survival of others.

Reproduction and Technology

From a religious point of view we see absolutes and abstractions, without exceptions.
From the point of view of politics we see accommodations and compromises.
From the point of view of ethics we see gradations, reservations, and qualifications.
From the point of view of law we see case by case adjustments, idealisitic principles and applications of them to well defined facts and a uncertainty with regard to the application of those principles to new facts.

Should you be able to conceive a child naturally, through surrogacy, or through in vitro fertilization if that baby is going to be used for a specific purpose later (e.g. cord blood for bone marrow transplant for another child)?

What if the embryo is going to be destroyed before implantation (or after transplantation) to be used for the specific purpose?

Should you be able to have a child if you use drugs or drink during pregnancy?

Should you be able to choose not to have a baby? Why, what reasons?

Should you be able to choose not to have a baby for any reason (i.e. gender, retardation, money)?

How should you be able to choose not to have a baby? By contraception? By morning after pill? By termination of the pregnancy?

Should you be able to choose not to have a baby by the selective reduction of implanted fertilized eggs?

Should you be able to refuse to have all of the fertilized embryos implanted?

Should you then be able to choose not to have a baby who is genetically related to you, by directing the clinic to destroy those fertilized embryos?

Should you be able to refuse to have a cesarean to save the life of the baby?

Should society be able to say "you must have this baby" or "you should not have this baby"?

Should society be able to say that you cannot have a posthumously implanted embryo?

Who Has the Oil?

The map above shows what the world would look like if each country’s size was proportional to their proven oil reserves. Definitely makes you think about how increasing oil prices and the lack of any meaningful reduction in demand for oil could (is?) shifting the balance of power in the world.