] "Caplan complained about the media coverage of the
] claims. "Nobody should get a story until they produce
] evidence. No matter how telegenic they are, no matter how
] many Star Fleet Command uniforms they have, if you don't
] show up with a baby or a parent or a DNA test, or some
] witnesses who are credible, you shouldn't have a story."
]
] It would be easy to offer proof, said Dr. Robert Lanza,
] medical director of Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell
] Technology. "They are claiming to have the expertise to
] clone people and they didn't even buy a home DNA kit?" he
] asked. "The samples could have been taken by someone in
] junior high school. That only adds to their complete lack
] of credibility." "

Finally, some voices of reason

Wired News: A Name for Clone Babies: 'Hoax'

] "Clonaid, the company that claims to have produced the
] first human clone, said Saturday it has produced a second
] one, a girl born to a Dutch lesbian. "

More bullshit from the crazies

Wired News: Sect Claims Second Clone Is Born

] "For very long-term storage and retrieval, encode
] information as artificial DNA strands and insert into
] living hosts. As vectors, bacteria, even some bugs and
] weeds, might be good for hundreds of millions of years. "

This is the saddest, most uninformative abstract I have ever seen in my life. Anyway, thought the subject was pretty neat, so I figured I would meme it. I am sure NewScientist will summarize it in a few days.

Information storage in bacterial DNA

] "CULVER CITY Gov. Gray Davis announced plans
] Thursday for economic and education programs to help more
] Californians find jobs in biotech and to ensure the
] lucrative industry keeps a strong presence in the state.

] California must work to ensure the state's 2,500 biotech
] companies are not lured to other states or countries, the
] governor said.

] "Fully one-third of biotech companies and their employees
] are in this state, and we want to keep it that way,"

werd. This makes me happy. I have to admit that the lure of living in California and the prospect of lots of jobs in biotech industry make me think twice about hopping straight into grad school at times.

SignOnSanDiego.com News Business -- Governor announces plan to boost biotech jobs

O'Reilly's description of the book Cyan memed. I dig it, and it will definitly be purchased for my bookshelf as soon as I can get my hands on it:)

oreilly.com -- Online Catalog: Sequence Analysis in a Nutshell

Some very interesting graphs of the social network on MemeStreams.

[/me stares in awe. So very rad looking. So interesting on many levels. -Nano]

Visualizing MemeStreams

Nanotechnology ... is an exciting and relatively unexplored scientific and technological frontier offering many new insights and applications but at the same time giving rise to much speculation and hyperbole. From an applications perspective, microtechnologies and nanotechnologies offer a particularly powerful combination [and] deserve careful consideration.

Read the full text of this National Academies Press book online.

Implications of Emerging Micro and Nanotechnology

] "THERE is a story of a woman on a train who was intrigued
] by a fellow passenger reading a book and laughing out
] loud from time to time. He left his seat and the book
] behind. She snatched the chance to look at it. It was
] page after page of calculations. She concluded that it
] was best to find another seat. "

Just a reminder for me so that I can go to the bookstore and try to find this book. Has anyone else read/heard anything about it? I found Riemann to be an interesting part of Calculus class, so I may pick up this book.

New Scientist - Dr Riemann's Zeros

] About a year ago, researchers [took] genetic material
] from spiders, spliced it into mammalian cells and used
] the cells to produce silk proteins.
]
] Now, researchers in Japan have done a similar bit of
] genetic engineering, only with a reverse goal in mind.
] They've modified silkworms to produce a mammalian protein
] -- specifically, human-type collagen -- along with silk
] in their cocoons.

This is a pretty rad example of applied science. This article also talks about the use of GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) in optical-based switches.

Down a New Silk Road

] "There are far too many smart, educated, talented people
] operating at quarter speed, unsure of their place in the
] world, contributing far too little to the productive
] engine of modern civilization. There are far too many
] people who look like they have their act together but
] have yet to make an impact."

What Should I Do With My Life?