] Advexin is an ingenious drug that uses a disabled virus (one that
] causes the common cold, in fact) to deliver a gene called p53 to
] tumor cells. When this gene is mutated, cells can start dividing
] uncontrollably and turning into tumor cells. Advexin delivers a
] normal copy of p53 to tumor cells in order to restore order to the
] cells.

cool...

Anti-cancer drug aproved for FDA fast tracking

Last week, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in New Mexico finished testing the system on human volunteers. The Air Force now wants to use this Active Denial Technology (ADT), which it says is non-lethal, for peacekeeping or riot control at "relatively long range" - possibly from low-flying aircraft.

Microwave beam weapon to disperse crowds (New Scientist)

] BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany — In these girth-conscious times,
] even weight itself has weight issues. The kilogram is
] getting lighter, scientists say, sowing potential
] confusion over a range of scientific endeavor.
]
] The kilogram is defined by a platinum-iridium cylinder,
] cast in England in 1889. No one knows why it is shedding
] weight, at least in comparison with other reference
] weights, but the change has spurred an international
] search for a more stable definition.

What a mess...

Scientists Struggling to Make the Kilogram Right Again

Total lunar eclipses happen when the earth gets between the sun and the moon. Because of the relatively low amount of particulates in the air it should look chocolate and brown.

MMmmm.... chocolate.

The eclipse starts tomorrow (thursday the 15th) at 10pm EDT and ends around 1am.

Total Lunar Eclipse: May 15-16, 2003

] Technological savvy could turn 600 million tons of turkey
] guts and other waste into 4 billion barrels of light
] Texas crude each year
]
] Gory refuse, from a Butterball Turkey plant in Carthage,
] Missouri, will no longer go to waste. Each day 200 tons
] of turkey offal will be carted to the first
] industrial-scale thermal depolymerization plant, recently
] completed in an adjacent lot, and be transformed into
] various useful products, including 600 barrels of light
] oil.
]
] In an industrial park in Philadelphia sits a new machine
] that can change almost anything into oil.
]
] Really.
]
] "This is a solution to three of the biggest problems
] facing mankind," says Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of
] Changing World Technologies, the company that built this
] pilot plant and has just completed its first
] industrial-size installation in Missouri. "This process
] can deal with the world's waste. It can supplement our
] dwindling supplies of oil. And it can slow down global
] warming."

Anything into Oil

] Claims that man-made pollution is causing "unprecedented"
] global warming have been seriously undermined by new
] research which shows that the Earth was warmer during the
] Middle Ages.

WooHoo!!! Pollution is OK! Everybody get your Freon!!

Telegraph | News | Middle Ages were warmer than today, say scientists

] The job of the hippocampus appears to be to "encode"
] experiences so they can be stored as long-term memories
] elsewhere in the brain. "If you lose your hippocampus you
] only lose the ability to store new memories," says
] Berger. That offers a relatively simple and safe way to
] test the device: if someone with the prosthesis regains
] the ability to store new memories, then it's safe to
] assume it works.

This is amazing stuff.

New Scientist: An artificial hippocampus

Fifty years to the day from the discovery of the structure of DNA, one of its co-discoverers has caused a storm by suggesting that stupidity is a genetic disease that should be cured.

Watson of "Watson and Crick" provides undeniable proof that intelligence cannot be measured on a single graduated scale.

Stupidity should be cured, says DNA discoverer - New Scientist

] A Russian space capsule now docked at the international
] space station will be used to bring the space station
] crew back to Earth now that the U.S. shuttle fleet is
] grounded, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said today.

HoustonChronicle.com - Russian craft to bring space station crew home

] In the coming decades, a radical upgrading of our body's
] physical and mental systems, already underway, will use
] nanobots to augment and ultimately replace our organs. We
] already know how to prevent most degenerative disease
] through nutrition and supplementation; this will be a
] bridge to the emerging biotechnology revolution, which in
] turn will be a bridge to the nanotechnology revolution.
] By 2030, reverse-engineering of the human brain will have
] been completed and nonbiological intelligence will merge
] with our biological brains.

KurzweilAI.net