http://www.futureport.dk/news - 2003-01-07 (16 articles)

From: Max M (maxmcorp@worldonline.dk)
Date: Tue Jan 07 2003 - 07:26:53 MST


http://www.futureport.dk/news - 2003-01-07 (16 articles)

Now the holidays, and the pneumonia, is over. So here we go again!

[Aging]
Betterhumans - Longer Life Won't Bankrupt Health Systems, Study Suggests
=============================================================================
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-01-06-3

While critics worry that longer-living baby boomers will overburden
health systems with their need for expensive medical treatments, a new
study suggests that such fears are overblown. By living longer and
healthier, baby boomers will not need the most heroic and therefore
expensive medical treatments, says a study published in the January
issue of the Journal of Gerontology.

[Aging]
Sirtuin protein has a new function; May play role in lifespan extension
=======================================================================
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-01/jhmi-sph010603.php

Scientists from Johns Hopkins and the University of Wisconsin have
discovered that a protein called Sir2, which is found in nearly all
living cells, has a new function that might help explain how calorie
restriction can increase lifespans for some animals, the scientists say.
Their report appeared in the Dec. 20 issue of Science.

[Politics]
Betterhumans - For Social Equality, the Information Economy Is a Poor
Cousin to the Industrial Revolution
=========================================================================================================
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-01-03-3

A Finnish study has found that the information technology revolution is
offering fewer opportunities for social equality than the transition
from agricultural to industrial production.

[Politics]
Betterhumans - North American Transhumanists Condemn Raelians, Support
Reproductive Human Cloning
=================================================================================================
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-01-06-1

Following more announcements of cloned babies from Clonaid, the North
American Transhumanist community has spoken out against what it sees as
reckless and unethical behaviour on the part of the Raelian religious
sect. At the same time, Transhumanists, as staunch advocates of personal
reproductive freedoms, are voicing support for reproductive human
cloning while expressing concerns over how the media is portraying the
position of scientists, ethicists and the general public.

[Politics]
Time - The Cloning Debate
=========================
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030113-404254,00.html

The science circus comes to town when a group like the Raelians claims
to be cloning children, announcing one arrival just in time to fill the
holiday news vacuum. The news came as a shock but not much of a
surprise. It was only a matter of time before one of the teams racing to
produce the first human clone either succeeded or just decided to claim
it had...

[Sci-fi]
Edge - The World Question Center
================================
http://www.edge.org/questioncenter.html

WHAT ARE THE PRESSING SCIENTIFIC ISSUES FOR THE NATION AND THE WORLD,
AND WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE ON HOW I CAN BEGIN TO DEAL WITH THEM? I (John
Brockman) have asked Edge contributors for "hard-edge" questions,
derived from empirical results or experience specific to their
expertise, that render visible the deeper meanings of our lives,
redefine who and what we are. The goal is a series of interrogatives in
which "thinking smart prevails over the anaesthesiology of wisdom...

[Sci-fi]
NY Times - Todays Visions of the Science of Tomorrow
====================================================
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/04/opinion/04EDGE.html

A World Question Center review: at the end of every year, John Brockman,
a literary agent and the publisher of Edge.org, a Web site devoted to
science, poses a question to leading scientists, writers and futurists.
In 2002, he asked respondents to imagine that they had been nominated as
White House science adviser and that President Bush had sought their
answer to "What are the pressing scientific issues for the nation and
the world, and what is your advice on how I can begin to deal with
them?" Here are excerpts of some of the responses...

[Science]
Life Extension Foundation - Protein blocks chromosome breaks at fragile
sites
=============================================================================
http://www.lef.org/news/disease/2003/01/02/eng-newsrx/eng-newsrx_084029_8041128341890109505.ew.html

With 46 chromosomes and 6 feet of DNA to copy every time most human
cells divide, it's not surprising that gaps or breaks sometimes show up
in the finished product - especially when the cell is under stress or
dividing rapidly, as in cancer. But what is surprising - according to
Thomas Glover, PhD, a geneticist at the University of Michigan Medical
School - is that the breaks don't always occur at random. They happen at
a few specific locations on chromosomes, when cells are under stress,
during the stages in the cell cycle where DNA is copied and the cell
splits into two identical daughter cells.

[Science]
Science Daily - Honey Bee Genome Being Sequenced
================================================
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030106082427.htm

The strength of the Honey Bee Genome Project proposal to the NIH lay in
several factors, Weaver said. It pointed out the honey bee: Has a
incredibly complex social behavior. Honey bees have internal cohesion
and success in dealing with the many challenges posed by social life,
including those related to communication, aging, social dysfunction and
infectious disease...

[Skeptiscism]
KurzweilAI - Human Cloning is the Least Interesting Application of
Cloning Technology , by Ray Kurzweil
=======================================================================================================
http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0535.html

Kurzweil enters the current debate on human cloning: Cloning is an
extremely important technology - not for cloning humans but for life
extension: therapeutic cloning of one's own organs, creating new tissues
to replace defective tissues or organs, or replacing one's organs and
tissues with their "young" telomere-extended replacements without
surgery. Cloning even offers a possible solution for world hunger:
creating meat without animals...

[Space]
BBC - Engine glitch brought down rocket
=======================================
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2634945.stm

The failure of Europe's new super rocket, the Ariane 5-ESCA, on its
maiden flight last month was caused by a fault in its main rocket motor,
a commission of inquiry said on Tuesday. The investigators said a
leakage in the cooling system affected the thrust on the main Vulcain-2
engine, causing the vehicle to spin out of control.

[Space]
CNN - China celebrates space success
====================================
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/01/06/china.space/index.html

Chinese state media is trumpeting the success of its latest space
launch. Quoting unnamed experts associated with the space program, the
reports said the next launch
      planned for before the end of the year -- was expected to carry at
least one Chinese astronaut. If China successfully completes a manned
space mission it would become only the third country in the world
capable of putting humans into space.

[Space]
Reuters - Chinese Spacecraft Returns Safely to Earth
====================================================
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=1992498

China's fourth rehearsal for a manned space mission ended Sunday when an
unmanned craft returned safely to Earth after nearly a week in orbit,
bringing the country one step closer to putting a person in space.
Officials and scientists have said a successful mission for Shenzhou IV,
or "divine ship," would probably be the last test before China attempts
to become the third nation to achieve manned spaceflight.

[Space]
Space Daily - Germans get ready to go to Mars
=============================================
http://www.spacedaily.com/2002/030104161509.ipessjdb.html

Twenty German men will spend eight weeks motionless in hospital beds as
part of an experiment starting next month to simulate the effects of a
trip to Mars, a university clinic said Saturday...

[Space]
Toronto Star - India plans moon mission by 2015
===============================================
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035776281764&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724

India plans to send a manned mission to the moon sometime between 2005
and 2015, a senior space research official said today. "In a few months
from now, there will be a review of our plans for a lunar mission. We
would first send an unmanned flight around the moon," said Krishnaswamy
Kasturirangan, head of the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO...

[Technology]
Gen-forskere skaber usædvanlig vin
==================================
http://www.ing.dk/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Avis=IG&Dato=20030105&Kategori=NATUR&Lopenr=101100010&Ref=AR

Gensplejset gær kan give vine med bedre smag og færre tømmermænd. Der er
ganske vist restriktioner mod at gensplejse druen, men gæren rummer
store muligheder for nye egenskaber. Osteproducenter har vist vejen.

-- 
hilsen/regards Max M
http://www.futureport.dk/
Fremtiden, videnskab, skeptiscisme og transhumanisme


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