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San Francisco, 3:16 PM
Wed Nov 25
23 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
[en.wikipedia.org] #science
10/27/09
That Wikipedia page has been massively improved and expanded since last year and is well worth a read.
But the one on TeGenero Immuno Therapeutics [wikipedia.org] , the company that had raised 12m Euros to research TGN1412, gone bust in the wake of the trial 'failure', been bought by an 'anonymous overseas investor' and has been quietly beavering away on it for the last 3 years has 'shrunk' somewhat. Hmm.
It is particularly pertinent at the moment, as the suspected mechanism of effect of TGN1412, the cytokine storm [en.wikipedia.org] is the same one that is thought to have been responsible for the high mortality levels in fit, healthy people during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic [en.wikipedia.org] Spanish_flu and in SARS.
So far, it seems that the H1N1 influenza strain does not share this characteristic. #science
10/27/09
10/27/09
[www.imdb.com]
10/27/09
This has been attributed to the fact that until the 1972 Nixon visit to China [en.wikipedia.org] the PRC was effectively a closed society to the West (and the US in particular) and information was either not available or was suspect.
However, as mentioned, General MacArthur gave these and other war criminals (I use the term in its recognised legal sense, rather than as a pejorative) immunity despite the fact that the US new full well, that captured US serviceman had been subject to exactly the same treatment. A policy decision was taken, to pretend it never happened.
The only specific references I have seen are Shusaku Endo's 1958 novel The Sea and Poison [en.wikipedia.org] about a real event and a few brief paragraphs in a biography of the oil well fire-fighter Red Adair [en.wikipedia.org] , who had been demolitions expert with the 139th Bomb Disposal Squadron in occupied Japan [www.redadair.com] who describes not just demolishing, but erasing, what appears to have been a biological experimentation facility. (I don't know if it's in 1990's 'An American Hero: The Red Adair Story: An Authorized Biography' by Philip Singerman [www.amazon.com] .)
You can imagine the reactions of the families of these servicemen. Even now. Let alone then. #science
10/28/09
10/26/09
"We crossed spiders with goats, with no idea of how these could impact the ecosystem."
is a bit sensationalist. Even the term 'Spider Goat' is pushing it. The only thing different about these goats is that there's an additional protein (or enzyme or something) in their milk and when you extrude the milk into another solution it becomes thread in a similar process to the way that many other synthetic threads are made. I believe that the milk is even still safe for drinking.
Spider silk can be woven to have even more beautiful sheen, hand and drape than silkworm silk AND it can be woven to be exponentially stronger and lighter than Kevlar armor.
I think that spider silk is the coolest, most underrated invention of the last fifteen years.
Y'all gotta stop picturing eight-legged goats hanging from webs in barns. Well, don't STOP picturing it 'cuz that's awesome, but just know that it's not what is happening at Nexia's farms. #science
10/26/09
[en.wikipedia.org]
A standoff nuclear missile designed to "loiter" around an enemy country until the button was pressed to detonate its thermonuclear payload. The propulsions system itself ran on a nuclear reactor... spewing out irradiated material from its engine. It's a missile distilled from ideals of M.A.D. game theory by the United States Strategtic Air Command. #science
10/26/09
There was also the Thalidomide (non-experiment) drug that was administered to pregnant women during 1957 to 1961 as a sedative for morning sickness. Unfortunately, the doctors and researchers prescribing it did not realize that it was a potent human teratogen, and caused major limb deformities in the children resulting from those pregnancies.
[www.chm.bris.ac.uk]
That was not a happy moment in the history of medical science. #science
10/26/09
10/27/09
@sharkd: ..... and then they actually used the core in a nuclear weapon test [en.wikipedia.org] , personally I wouldn't have gone for the "Third Time Lucky"..... #science
10/27/09
@sharkd: .....and then they used it in a nuclear weapon test [en.wikipedia.org] , personally I wouldn't have gone for the "Third Time Lucky"..... #science
10/26/09
10/26/09
Also, I find it highly amusing that the optogenetics stuff is supposed to be scary now. Weren't you guys trying to get us all revved for having io9 streamed directly into our visual centers? ;-p #science
10/26/09
"This combines the twin horrors of stem cells and transgenic research to give us either supersmart squirmy mice babies"
It's Pinky and the Brain. It's Pinky and the Brain.
One is a genius; the other's insane.
Their laboratory mice. Their genes have been spliced.
It's Pinky, it's Pinky and the Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world. #science
10/26/09
Not sure it's a bad thing, though. #science
10/26/09
After the experiment, 92% of the participants completed a follow-up questionnaire. 84% were "glad" to have participated, 15% had neutral feelings, 1.3% had negative feelings. Also 80% felt more experiments of Milgrams nature should be carried out and 72% felt they had learned something of personal importance.
10/26/09
*Wash your hands*
10/26/09
[blog.ted.com]
I believe (though I'm not sure) that these 10 ways the world could end are ranked by likelihood, and note that particle physics experiments of the kind that the LHC is going to perform are ranked #7.
In other words, there are 6 other, more likely, ways for us to die. #science