] "Our scientists are now working on the next generation of
] clone babies which will include for the first time as
] well clones of people carrying the HIV virus. Thanks to
] human cloning people with AIDS will be able to have
] children of their own genetic offspring without taking
] the risk of passing on the disease to their children."

I don't think these people know anything about biological science. For example, how do you clone a person with HIV without passing on the disease? Sounds like these people haven't gotten the clue that HIV is a retrograde virus that integrates into its host genome. Therefore, if you clone someone with HIV, and you pick a cell with the virus, then actually, you are creating a baby that most certainly will have HIV. Sheesh.

The first human cloning company.

] "French and American scientists have mapped chromosome
] 14, the longest sequenced to date and the site of more
] than 60 disease genes, including one linked to early
] onset Alzheimer's. "

Wired News: Scientists Map Largest Chromosome

] "Science fiction often depicts robots of the future as
] machines that look like people and feel, or at least
] hanker after the ability to feel, human emotions.
] A team at Vanderbilt University is turning this notion on
] its head by developing a robotic assistant whose goal is
] not to develop emotions, but rather respond to the moods
] of its human master. "

Wired News: Feeling Blue? This Robot Knows It

This whole cloning subject has been rattling around in my brain for days now. Tonight I am thinking about security, and I thought I would post a question and see what you all think. So, assuming that this clone really is the first human clone, lets create a scenario in which cloning becomes really common in the future (for some creepy reason). You, wanting to keep up with the latest technology fad, save up the money, and clone yourself. Its no longer creepy to think about cloning, because everyone who is anyone has a clone. So you spend years raising your clone...and its just great...because its almost like you have a second chance at life...your clone gets to do things that you only wish you could have done with your life. But lets say, due to some environmental event (keeping in mind that this couldn't have been from genes, because you would *never* do something like this), your clone has a mean streak and decides to kill someone. Only your clone is kind of sloppy at the job, and he/she leaves fingerprints and DNA samples behind at the crime scene. Now, stepping out of the scenario, how would fingerprints and DNA be used in forensics in the future? Your clone will have the exact same fingerprints, the exact same DNA, and the same information will show up with a retinal scan. In a future in which cloning may exist, how does one retain their personal identity when they have a clone running around? How can you prevent identity theft? What do you all think?

] "A YELLOWING manuscript by J.R.R.Tolkien discovered in an
] Oxford library could become one of the publishing
] sensations of 2003.
]
] The 2000 handwritten pages include Tolkien's translation
] and appraisal of Beowulf, the epic 8th century
] Anglo-Saxon poem of bravery, friendship and
] monster-slaying that is thought to have inspired The Lord
] of the Rings."

NEWS.com.au | New Tolkien book discovered (December 30, 2002)

The first issue of 2003 will be January 7.

Downloads from the Science magazine web site are free for the next week. Dig in!

[The gifts just keep coming and coming:) Thanks for bringing this to my attention Jeremy:) - Nano]

Science Magazine - Free Access!

] "Raëlians are followers of Raël, a French-born former
] race-car driver who has said he met a four-foot space
] alien atop a volcano in southern France in 1973 and went
] aboard his ship, where he was entertained by voluptuous
] female robots and learned that the first humans were
] created 25,000 years ago by space travelers called
] Elohim, who cloned themselves"

Ok, so they say that the first human "clone" has been born. Frankly, I don't believe them, and I won't even if the tests say that it is a clone, unless they show the full genome sequences of both the mother and the child, which they won't. The test they are probably going to use is most likely the same one they use in forensics to prove someone is innocent of a crime. The test involves using restriction enzymes to cut at Variable Number Tandem Repeats (VNTRs) which are segments of repeated sequences in our genome. What makes it useful for forensics is that it creates a "genetic fingerprint", due to the fact that we all have a different number of VNTRs. But the reason why I won't believe the results if it says it is a clone is the same reason why this test cannot prove that someone is guilty...only that someone is innocent of a crime. If investigators take a genetic sample from a crime scene and do this test on that sample versus samples from several suspects, it makes it easy to rule out some of those suspects based on the fact that their results are very different from the crime scene sample. But there may be a few suspects whos results look similar to the crime scene sample because it is possible for two unrelated individuals to have similar numbers of VNTRs. Therefore, guilt cannot be labelled from this test, and clones cannot be labelled from this test either.
Another point is that if this is a real clone, then the scientists responsible for a cloned human must have been working covertly for many years. Cloning of mammals is not as easy as the media makes it out to be. I find it hard to believe that if this baby is a clone, it is truely healthy, as they say. This cloned child will grow up with many problems, starting with the fact that it will have the same problem that Dolly the cloned sheep has with her telomeres, cell growth and aging.
I am angered by these so called scientists and their quest for cloning human beings. I see no purpose in it, only greed on the part of the people involved....greed for recognition. They claim they are "aiding infertile couples to bear children", but there are other, safer, moral ways of helping infertile couples have children. These scientists are not progressing science, but instead, are retarding the progress of science. There is a difference between reproductive cloning and therapuetic cloning, but after this, there is bound to be more restrictions on research being done in therapuetic cloning areas, although it may aid in tissue engineering one day.
I am very skeptical of the fact that this is a true clone, but on the off chance that it is, I am, to say the least, horrified.

Religious Sect Announces the First Cloned Baby

] "All over the world, molecular biologists are tinkering
] with DNA to find ways to improve the quality of wine.
] Already they can do wonders, conjuring up rare but
] desirable flavours and aromas, and adding body and
] complexity to bog-standard plonk. Gene technology can
] also eliminate the spoilage compounds that can make wine
] taste like sweaty socks, and even get rid of those
] nasties that give you a bad head in the morning."

Hacking Yeast

] "This time in 2050, we will be sitting down to eat a
] synthetic turkey, with a robot helping out to prepare the
] trimmings.
] This is what we can expect for Christmas in the year
] 2050, according to BT's futurologist Ian Pearson. "

Merry Christmas

BBC NEWS | Technology | Hi-tech ghosts of Christmas future

] "By redesigning the shell of Ebola, Purdue University
] researchers have transformed the feared virus into a
] benevolent workhorse for gene therapy."

This is very cool research going on. This is where therapy for human disease is heading...taking things such as viruses and turning them into therapies. Its definitly exciting.

Purdue works to transform Ebola virus from killer to healer