As our economy continues to recover from the 2008 economic crisis, we cannot afford these drastic budget cuts that jeopardize America's leading role in scientific research. Instead, America needs a bold new approach to ignite our innovative capacity.
Before long the gene for breast cancer may be associated with lower odds of contracting the disease thanks to the steps women with the now-dangerous alleles take to mitigate their risk. In the not-so-distant future, BRCA1 mutations may predict mastectomies, not breast cancer.
Harvey's greatest achievement was the demonstration that the heart, arteries and veins were all part of one circulatory system, with the heart at its center. This replaced Galen's complex motion of many intertwined cycles.
The Elqui River basin in Chile's Coquimbo region is one of the driest places on Earth. It receives only about 4 inches of rain each year, and most of it during one short rainy season. In some years, the region will get close to zero rainfall, while in others it will get five times the normal amount.
We hire and train intelligence agents to weigh risks and make judgments, and most of us want to believe that these assessments are sound. But how rational are the individual men and women who are making the life-and-death decisions that influence national security?
The fluorescent eel protein can be used to measure bilirubin in human serum with an improved sensitivity over existing tests. Fluorescent proteins have been used to light up a myriad of laboratory experiments, but this would be the first clinical use of a fluorescent protein.
With today's easy access to technology and knowledge, DIY scientists are popping up all over the United States. The fringes of scientific exploration have shifted out of the white towers of university labs and into neighborhood garages and basements. But with this come risks.
We already had a crisis in psychiatric diagnosis before DSM-5. It is a sure sign of excess that 25 percent of us qualify for a mental disorder and that 20 percent are on psychiatric medication.
Confronted with the hyper-vigilant and often violent jealousy of generations of men protecting their genetic legacy, evolution predicts a psychological arms race between the sexes, producing ever more keen-eyed and suspicious men and ever more creatively deceptive women.
It seems strange that in India erotic statues can be seen in temples -- and accompanied by math! What is the magic square doing here? Why place together erotic statues with a mathematical puzzle? And why put both of these in a temple? How does religion sit with sex and with math?
Did you know that a law on the books in Louisiana right now explicitly forbids science teachers in the state's public schools from teaching evolution unless equal time is given to the Christian creation story?
Indeed, is the world just one "great laboratory of life" and is nature to be reduced to its component parts and reintegrated and dominated through technology and the market as envisaged by the likes of Thomas Bacon and Rene Descartes?
Although it appears that we may be more physically primed for sexual pleasures when young, there is great scope for a sexual renaissance. Sexual prime, then, is the result of "sexiness." And that, can peak at any age.
Legos used to be a blank slate. They were a bunch of blocks for constructing towers, roller coasters, dinosaurs, mustache combs; you name it. The sky was the limit.
The insights achieved by the greatest minds of the past century were not mystical or unknowable. They stemmed from identifiable tools that you, too, can access.
Whether we enter a robot utopia, a robot smog or somewhere in between, we will close the gap between robotically aware and organically alive. Do we create new life forms, as Jansens suggests of his progeny?
Should companies be able to patent human genes? Today, the Supreme Court answered that profound question with a resounding NO. Seems like common sense, right?
If and when sentient AI becomes reality, will it, too, have the capacity to both anthropomorphize and dehumanize other beings in relation to itself? And if it did, would we view it as more or less human depending on which skill it used to refine its opinion of humanity?
Research with animals is an ethically charged consideration for everyone regardless of age. It is not just animal rights advocates who take this issue seriously; researchers do as well.
James Rollins, 2013.18.06
Mario Livio, 2013.18.06