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

] 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

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

] "NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Human stem cells
] transplanted into mice eventually developed into working,
] mouse-sized human kidneys, researchers report in a new
] study"
werd

Yahoo! News - Stem Cells Become Working Human Kidneys in Mice

] "The race to produce the first birth of a human clone is
] nearing the finish line -- if you believe the public
] pronouncements. "

Wired News: Cloned Babies Arriving Soon?

] The journal will accept basic and applied papers dealing
] both with Engineering, Physics, Chemistry and Computer
] Science and with Biology and Medicine with respect to
] bio-molecules and cells. The content of acceptable papers
] ranges from practical/clinical/environmental applications
] to formalized mathematical theory. Themes will include:
]
] Biocompatibility of materials; Tissue engineering aspects
] at the nano and micro scale; Molecular and biomolecular
] sensors and electronics; Nano and microtechnology for the
] study of bio-molecules and cells; Computer methods for
] nanobioscience; Bioinformatics and biocomputing;
] DNA computing; and more.

sweet....I may just have to become an IEEE/EMBS member

IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience

] "Supported by a $9 million grant from the Gordon and
] Betty Moore Foundation, the scientists say that this week
] they will announce the creation of two peer-reviewed
] online journals on biology and medicine, with the goal of
] cornering the best scientific papers and immediately
] depositing them in the public domain."

New Premise in Science: Get the Word Out Quickly, Online

Decius wrote:
] ] 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-disciple
] professionals.

Tom: YOu and I should open a Bioinformatics firm. I got the biology down, you got the computer geek skillz. We could ownz this field.:)

RE: Bioinformatics - the new Telecom

] "In the Artificial Muscle Research Institute at the
] University of New Mexico, electricity is in the air. When
] lab director Mohsen Shahinpoor applies a voltage to an
] artificial hand made of a polymer-metal
] composite, its fingers curl into a fist. Poke around the
] lab and you'll see robotic fish swimming, wings
] flapping, and arms lifting, all gaining their muscle
] from electrically activated polymers. You've seen
] robots before, but there is something different about
] these. They look alive. "

This article looks really cool....too bad I can't read the rest of it:(

Electroactive Polymers