] 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.

[This is freakin rad - Nano]

New Scientist: An artificial hippocampus

] Since when was it cooler to be Canadian?

Oh, its always been cooler. (Is that a pun??) Actually there is an interesting thread on BoingBoing about this article. A bunch of Euros basically saying "Its BS, no one over here is going to screw with you, USA Today is just stirring the pot, etc...." As well as several funny stories about Americans pretending to be Canadian, esp. IN Canada. :)

[Werd....Canadians....we are keeping it real - Nano]

RE: USATODAY.com - Ugly sentiments sting American tourists

Interesting application of PCR.

real time PCR

Welcome to the exhibition of rediscovered works by the mid 20th century illustrator A.C. Radebaugh.

A very cool exhibit, soon to open in Philadelphia, displaying lots of futuristic graphic artwork from the 1950s. Flying cars, urban airships docked at skyscrapers, and more. This stuff is almost propagandist in its technological optimism.

[Damn this looks cool. Anyone feel like a road trip?:) - Nano]

Radebaugh: The Future We Were Promised

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.

[wow....well, for one, Watson always likes to stir things up. And he definitly will succeed with this statement. To assume that low IQ is a disease that can be cured is a bit wacky though. If people started to believe that, they would never try to learn something new, and they could goof off in school, because whats the point when their IQ is "out of their control". It is pretty amusing that he said this though...I tend to think that he is just kind of joking around, especially since he added the statement about genetically engineering all girls to be pretty. In rebuttle, Watson, what about making all the guys hot, huh?!?:) - Nano]

Stupidity should be cured, says DNA discoverer - New Scientist

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.

[well, it would be social science in that with that system, all of the scientists who used that system would be "collaborating". It may help in progressing science at a fast rate...I don't know. But with "drug targets falling like leaves", I think it would make competition stiffer, which would lead to more secrecy of drug companies, make people file for patents earlier than ever before, etc, etc. Hmm.
On a lighter note, you should check out this site just to see the image they have that I guess is supposed to symbolize socialist science. A big red hand in a fist holding a pipetman. I would *kill* to have that in poster size. - Nano]

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

] A bacterial infection that overpowers most antibiotics
] has escaped the confines of hospitals and is showing up
] in alarming numbers among the general public in
] California, according to health officials.

An interesting article. The thought of resistant bacteria isn't new, it has been a problem in hospitals for quite some time. Kinda scary that its starting to spread. I don't like how this article slants towards "Gay men", because the increase in the percentage of gay men who have contracted this probably has most to do with the fact that there are higher percentages of gay men in those California cities to begin with. Bacteria don't care what the sexual preference of its host is:) But still, an interesting article.

The super-bugs have arrived!

] Federal scientists are looking for evidence that a bolt
] of electricity in the upper atmosphere might have doomed
] the space shuttle Columbia as it streaked over
] California, The Chronicle has learned.

Cosmic bolt probed in shuttle disaster / Scientists poring over 'infrasonic' sound waves

] ...a new site bringing you a collection of categorised blogs
] from around the world.

These people linked me and then asked me to link them back, so I am doing so. They are a blog directory. If you search for MemeStreams on this site and then click through it you'll increase my ranking. :)

[yay! - Nano]

BLOGWISE is...

] But there is one group of animals in which the peculiar
] combination of the contraction of these muscles and the
] closure of the glottis does serve a clear purpose:
] primitive air breathers that still possess gills, such as
] lungfish, gar and many amphibians.

Hiccups a holdover from when we had gills