Researchers at the Forsyth Institute said their successful experiment suggests the existence of dental stem cells, which could one day allow a person to replace a lost or missing tooth with an identical tooth grown from his or her own cells.
The research may signal that the days of synthetic dental implants--dentures, bridges and crowns--are numbered. "

[W1ld sent me this: *start rant* I just wanted to say that I think that it is interesting that they are calling these "dental stem cells". When it comes right down to it, all cells are "stem cells", we just don't have enough knowledge of genomics quite yet to make that a reality. Every cell in your body (excluding red blood cells) contain a copy of your entire genetic code. The only difference is that early in development, some genes are turned off never to be turned on again, while others get promoted, based on what that cell is destined to be. Once we know more about our genome (thanks to the human genome project and other projects stemming off of it), and once we know more about developmental genetics (how cells develop into specific tissues via protein expression and how to turn genes on and off when we want to), we will be able to harness this information to turn one cell into another or grow specific cells and tissues. Ahem. *end rant* Have a nice day:)

Yahoo! News - Scientists Grow Pig Teeth in Rat Intestines

[Originally from Decius:]

"Britney Spears is among the pop stars fronting a new advertising campaign aimed at warning people against online piracy."

...

The TV adverts will be shown at a Congressional hearing on piracy in Washington on Thursday before making their debut on US screens a few weeks later.

...

"We want to hit fans with the message that downloading music illegally is, as Britney Spears explains, the same as going into a CD store and stealing the CD," said Hilary Rosen of the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA)

...

[Hijexx's Commentary]

piracy (from dictionary.com):

1. a) Robbery committed at sea. b) A similar act of robbery, as the hijacking of an airplane.
2. The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material: software piracy.
3. The operation of an unlicensed, illegal radio or television station.

I agree, begrudingly, that downloading and using copyrighted music does, in fact, break the law. That is not to say that the law is just (thanks to Walt Disney's palm greasing.) If all the RIAA can muster is Britney's Pears (sorry little girl, it's all about your tits, always has been) and Missy Elliot to preach to the masses, I'd say we have not a thing to worry about on that front.

What is disconcerting to me is the Nazi style, Joseph Goebbels inspired propaganda being spewed by Hilary Rosen. Two times in this article the idea of an "unlicensed internet service" is mentioned. I am not making this up. Folks, there is NO SUCH THING as an "unlicensed internet service" in the context of peer to peer networking. It's a glorified telephone with theoretically unlimited conferencing abilities, that's about it.

As Goebbels proved, if you repeat a lie enough, eventually people believe it. This is especially the case when said people are unwashed (dare I say brainwashed?) mass consumers.

Moo.

[I was just about to meme this article, but then I came to memestreams, and here it was. Someone sure missed the boat at the RIAA. I mean, having Britany Spears, Nelly, and Missy Elliot shake their fingers at me for downloading music isn't going to make me stop. Its going to make me change the channel while laughing. When are they going to realize that online music is a consumer demand these days, and realize that they are going to have to change something? - Nano]

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Britney's Pears warns against piracy

"The BioAccelerator is one piece of a broader effort by Virginia to secure a foothold in biotech, which in the Washington region has long been anchored in Maryland. Economic development officials hope to leverage Northern Virginia's abundance of IT companies to create a breeding ground for bioinformatics startups. Frost & Sullivan estimates bioinformatics sales will exceed $2 billion worldwide this year. "

Bioinformatics rocks. Science geeks + Computer geeks = bleeding edge technology

TechNews.com - Make Room for Bioinformatics

"Sometimes, astronomers really do need to use rocket science when they observe unidentified objects in the sky. Especially if they wind up identifying, well, a rocket.
NASA scientists used a combination of high technology and backyard astronomers' observations to confirm the identity of an object that's been circling the earth since early September. "

This is an interesting read...check it out. They think its part of Apollo 12.

Rocket Scientists Find a Rocket

"-- Scientists for the first time have engineered a harmless virus to correct, rather than replace, the genetic defect causing the most common single gene disorder. The new research presents a novel approach to gene therapy in treating the most common inherited anemias: the thalassemias. "

See, this is what I am talking about. Using genetically engineered viruses to re-program your genome!

ScienceDaily Magazine -- Researchers Engineer Virus That Blocks Common Genetic Defect

That was a few weeks ago.

Unix guru Moshe Bar loves his titanium G4 PowerBook (even though he skimped on the RAM). Who settles for 512 MB when you can have 1 GB?

Flirting With Mac OS X

"But MIT has taken a completely different direction with a project called OpenCourseWare (OCW) that could stop the trend of commercialising online education dead in its tracks.
The first group of courses are set to be published on the internet on 30 September, including subjects like anthropology, biology, chemistry and computer science. "

BBC NEWS | Technology | Learn for free online

What they have in common is that they epitomize the elusive quality scientists call beauty. This is beauty in the classical sense; confusion and ambiguity are momentarily swept aside, and something new about nature becomes clear.

Here They Are, Science's 10 Most Beautiful Experiments

Wild says:
Thought you would appreciate this one. :)

(this is after i spent all day sunday futzing with the memestreams colors in an attempt to make the beta site more readable...)

[ha...this is ironic after all the talk of making this site look different this weekend:) I *heart* Dilbert cartoons - Nano]

Interface design

"A service to map a person's entire genetic code is being offered by America's genome entrepreneur Craig Venter, according to the Sunday Times.
The newspaper said that for 400,000 (US$621,500), a person would get details of their entire genetic code within 1 week. "Armed with such information, the individual would be able to check for mutations linked with illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer's," the Sunday Times reported."

ABCNEWS.com : Millionaires Lining Up to Buy Personal Gene Maps