A JPL release about solving "Stuart's Event" - the direct observation of an asteroid impact of the lunar surface.

JPL News Release - NASA Solves Half-Century Old Moon Mystery

quoted (use cpunk@cpunk.com as email address for login) :
===
Systems biologists envision a hulking database where all biological knowledge can be stored, freely accessed, and designed to interact. From it, researchers could easily extract data to construct virtual molecular pathway models working in their respective networks and in dynamic contexts of time, space, and various environmental cues. Hypotheses could be plucked like apples from the electronic tree of knowledge, and drug targets would fall like leaves. Some want to play out this tremendous vision, but they know it cannot be done at a single lab, by a single investigator. Members of Alliance for Cellular Signaling (AfCS), call for a new scientific world order--a shift toward socialist science.
====

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it socialist science! However, this sort of information system sounds extremely powerful.

The Scientist :: The People's Biology, Feb. 24, 2003

] Remember that wonderful day when Bugs Bunny hugged you at
] Disneyland? A new study shows just how easy it can be to
] induce false memories in the minds of some people.

I've read about these studies before. The human memory is extremely unreliable, and this has significant implications in court cases. We use statute limitations for this, but there may be more to it then time...

Yahoo! News - Study: False Memories Easily Implanted

] -- Editors of the world's leading scientific journals
] announced today that they would delete details from
] published studies that might help terrorists make
] biological weapons.

Science Journals to Join Fight Against Terrorists (washingtonpost.com)

] Three-dimensional tubes of living tissue have been
] printed using modified desktop printers filled with
] suspensions of cells instead of ink.

This is simply amazing stuff.

New Scientist - Ink-jet printing creates tubes of living tissue

] NetLogo is a programmable modeling environment for
] simulating natural and social phenomena. It is
] particularly well suited for modeling complex systems
] developing over time. Modelers can give instructions to
] hundreds or thousands of independent "agents" all
] operating in parallel. This makes it possible to explore
] the connection between the micro-level behavior of
] individuals and the macro-level patterns that emerge from
] the interaction of many individuals.

NetLogo User Manual

] "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? - GWB"

Edge.org is at it again with a long list of famous responses to an important policy question.

Famous scientists discuss national science policy

] People in the genetics industy claim that it is a hoax.
] Nobody has seen pictures of the baby yet and there's been no
] scientific proof yet that they've cloned anything, but yet the
] media is jumping on this shit like it's proof.

According to the Washington Post, the Raelians claimed a similar cloning success back in 1978, but further investigation proved it to be a hoax.

The story is also interesting because it comments on the reputation of the ABC Science Correspondent, Michael Guillen, who's going to be conducting the DNA testing of the mother and baby to determine if the cloning is real or not. Evidently a few years back, the James Randi Foundation (http://www.randi.org) gave Guillen its annual "Pigasus" award, for his "indiscriminate promotion of pseudoscience and quackery."

Stay tuned...

Cloning a Previous Hoax?

Rattle wrote:

] On the other side, I really hope they are not full of shit,
] and have sucessfuly done it. I really like the idea of the
] history books reading that the first human clone was created
] by a nutty group of loons with dreams of immortality who
] thought that humans were genetically engineered by aliens.

The problem is that this sends a really bad message about cloning. This baby, if real, is probably going to be fucked up. People looking for an excuse to ban genetic engineering (some of whom have reasons that are no more realistic then those of this Alien group) will hold up this poor child as an example of the bad things that happen when you screw with genetics.

It is wrong to take poorly understood genetic techniques and apply them to a real human being. Its mad science, in the English sense. Its science that hurts people.

We are increasingly in an environment where alarmist, reactionary thinking rules the day. Look at the Stock Market. Thats people betting AGAINST future growth in this country. Take Bill Joy, Fukuyama, and the DMCA, throw in 19 terrorists and this Alien group... shaken, not stirred. We may be heading toward a dark time, when certain kinds of thoughts, explorations, and considerations, are simply not allowed in the light of day, and must occur under a shrowd of secrecy regardless of how responsible they are. I kept hearing that theory from everyone at Defcon. I discounted it, but it is a distinct possibility.

RE: Cloned humans, aliens, and history books

] In life-sciences establishments around the world, the laboratory
] rat is giving way to the computer mouse—as computing joins forces
] with biology to create a bioinformatics market that is expected to
] be worth nearly $40 billion within three years.

Alot of the interesting computing in the next few years is going to be in this space. Unfortunately for transistor heads like me, they are hiring biologists with computer experience rather than computer people who understand biology. Automation is going to eliminate the need for people who understand how to operate computer systems and networks over the next few years. As a result, all but the very best are likely to have a difficult time finding work. Furthermore, programming languages like Java and Perl make programming more accessible to people with other skill sets. The result may be a labor market which simply isn't interested in uni-discipline professionals.

Bioinformatics - the new Telecom