Britain's Independent newspaper reports on what it calls the "driving out" of human/animal embryo research, citing the refusal of funding for three separate projects in the field:

Every one of the three projects to develop embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos created by fusing human cells with animal eggs has now been abandoned, after publicly-funded research councils refused to back the studies aimed at developing new treatments for incurable illnesses ranging from heart disease to Parkinson's.

Two of the projects fizzled out earlier this year and the third is now understood to have ended after a funding application was aborted and the research licence issued by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) expired in July without being renewed, The Independent has learned.

In addition, Warwick University's Professor Justin St. John - one of only three license holders for research in this field under the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, has accepted a job offer from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Of the other two license holders, one has left the research field to work in industry, and the third now works in Spain. An Op-Ed from Liberal Democrat party science spokesman Dr. Evan Harris quotes the head of the British Medical Research Council as assuring that funding was not turned down on moral grounds, but the fact remains: Without the necessary funding, all British research in the area has stopped. Score one for the end of science.

Vital embryo research driven out of Britain [Independent.co.uk]

According to Variety, HBO executives approached Spotnitz some time about the possibility of developing a medical thriller. Given that Spotnitz spent eight years writing for The X-Files, it's not terribly surprising that he gave the idea a near-futuristic twist. Humanitas takes place in a future more medically advanced than our own, where doctors are able to manipulate genes and create viruses, resulting in a host of ethical dilemmas and general anxiety that a pandemic is imminent.

Spotnitz's second project with HBO is flung much farther into the future. He is looking to adapt The World Inside, Robert Silverberg's novel about humanity in the year 2381. The human population has exploded thanks to a strictly enforced culture of free love and uncontrolled reproduction, and most of the world's population lives inside vast, sprawling buildings and never go outside. It's an apparently utopian society of unfettered sex, happiness drugs, and mutual reliance, where everyone lives in harmony. But it's also a closely monitored and regulated society with no privacy or individuality, and deviation from the social norms can be punished by death. But a computer engineer in one city finds he has perverse thoughts of leaving the building and exploring the world outside.

Of course, there's no guarantee that either show will get picked up, but it's encouraging to see HBO, a channel whose recent speculative offerings have tended more toward modern fantasy, take an interest in shows with a scientific and futuristic bent.

[Variety]

The Korean researchers used nanotechnology to build the shape of the virus, then added self-assembling molecules. The result: an artificial virus with the filament shapes seen in the image. Such a shape will allow it to last longer inside a person's body.

Why is this important? Medication delivered directly to cells with an artificial virus is like using a professional assassin to take out your target. By comparison, conventional medication techniques are more like running around a city firing a shotgun in random directions. The other major bonus? That thing totally looks like some kind of microscopic spawn of Cthulhu. Image by: Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Filamentous Artificial Virus from a Self-Assembled Discrete Nanoribbon [Angewandte Chemie International Edition] via Nobel Intent.

Millions of humans are infected with Leptospirosis every year, and the new strain could be spreading without detection. If new strains are transmitted beyond the relatively isolated jungle area where they were found, a catastrophic global pandemic could result.

There is no vaccine for humans, and treatment usually requires multiple antibiotics. Joseph Vinetz, M.D. was studying Leptospirosis in the Amazon region of Peru on behalf of the UC San Diego Division of Infectious Diseases when he discovered several humans and rats carrying the new strain. Dr. Vinetz fears that Leptospira licerasiae may have infected hundreds of humans in the remote region. Photo by: CDC.

New Species Of Infectious Disease Found In Amazon. [Science Daily]

Protectan is being developed with Department of Defense funding as part of their efforts to protect soldiers from weapons like dirty bombs. It could also be used by astronauts and future space travelers, and will surely be a hot commodity after the apocalypse. It can be taken before or after radiation exposure - helpful, since radioactive zombies don't usually call ahead. Unlike some similar drugs being developed, Protectan only costs $200 per dose and doesn't require the assistance of a doctor to take it. Just pop one whenever your rad meter trips and you're good to go! Photo by Getty Images.

Cleveland BioLabs lands defense contract. [Buffalo News]

I spoke with one of the researchers, Professor Vincent M. Rotello of the UMass Department of Chemistry, who foresees its use in medicine as a far more efficient bacteria test than today's "put it in a petri dish and wait" method. He also explained plans for a device usable in the fields of environmental protection or homeland security:

Our methodology should also be useful for environmental applications, including contamination of water and food through bioterrorism or less nefarious routes. We are thinking of a test-strip method, where you dip the strip into the solution to be analyzed, or alternatively rub against a surface, put it in the instrument and read out [the result].

Here's how it works: The researchers took a negatively charged polymer that fluoresces and combined it with gold nanoparticles, which suppressed the fluorescence. When the substance came in contact with bacteria, which are inherently negatively charged, the polymer was displaced from the gold nanoparticles, allowing it to fluoresce again. Photo by: Argonne National Laboratory.

Rapid and Efficient Identification of Bacteria Using Gold-Nanoparticle-Poly(para-phenyleneethynylene) Constructs. [Angewandte Chemie International Edition.]

How did a movie like this get made? Bousman, who also directed Saw II through IV, first made a ten minute "trailer" of the stage production of Repo! in order to try to sell it as a film. These are the comic book-style opening titles that tell you what you're in store for. Hopefully the Hollywood executives he's just given the finished film to will see fit to unleash it on theaters.

New 'Repo!' Art [Bloody Disgusting]

This freaky Victorian-Era pseudo-medical device is called a Lebenswecker (or "life awakener"): Of this hammer full of tiny needles, Phisick Medical Antiquities says:

The theory was that rubbing the skin with toxic oils and piercing it with the Lebenswecker would produce a counter irritation which would divert the bodies attention away from illness and infection and a host of other complaints and so doing restore health.