tisiwoota

C/o PaperChase News: “Wiretaps increased by 19 percent last year, with federal and state judges approving 1,710 applications while denying none, the Administrative Office of the US Courts reported Thursday.”

C/o Tangled Banks (a “blog carnival” that collects submissions of blog posts on various topics in biology/medicine/nature/science in general), a biologist makes some intriguing speculations about the role of retroviruses in our evolutionary development:

“After I read [Greg Bear’s] last two novels, “Darwin’s Radio” and “Darwin’s Children” I decided to check on his science - it sounded very good, yet so fantastic at the same time. What I found was a surprise: the real science is really that fantastic! Greg only needed to add a very little twist in order to turn it from fiction into science-fiction. So, here is some of what I discovered…”

Today being World Intellectual Property Day, it’s only fitting to do my part in “rais[ing] awareness of the importance” of patents “in daily life” by pointing out an article which provides a clear illustration of one possible effect of vigorous protection of intellectual property rights on creativity and innovation:

“Once upon a time there was a veterinarian in the Israeli Agriculture Ministry who by chance discovered material that has the potential to become a revolutionary medicine for treating AIDS. In initial experiments conducted on mice and monkeys, the new material proved more effective than existing drugs - and, equally important, it is quite inexpensive and convenient to use.”

The next step in the inventor’s fairytale? Why, a nine-year dispute over the government’s claims to the intellectual property rights, a struggled which temporarily derailed the clinical trials process.

Bottom line: IP can indeed be the effective spur to innovation that WIPO champions, but any system needs balance to be of use to society. Let’s hope the development agenda will succeed in bringing some meaningful balance to WIPO…

National Geographic has paired up with IBM to launch a five-year genetic anthropology study, The Genographic Project, which aims to chart the migratory history of humans. Genetic markers drawn from 100,000 blood samples will be used to trace links between populations in various regions throughout the world.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science’s SIPPI project site points out that similar studies in the 1990s lost public funding over concerns that researchers might assert patent rights or that the process would otherwise exploit indigenous communities.

This study will supplement its funding by selling DNA sampling kits that will enable members of the public to learn about their own ancestral migratory history, and will use some proceeds to develop programs that will benefit participating indigenous groups.

HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

So apparently there’s this readability-rating meme going around the blogosphere. Naturally I couldn’t resist trying it, with results as under “more” below. It should be noted there are a number of potentially skewing factors, most noticeably that the tool literally just reads the page it’s given, and therefore doesn’t include expanded posts. Mine’s probably also skewed by all the lengthy news excerpts I tend to put in.*

The full analysis is below, but basically it says my blog would be readable by anyone with a 6th grade education or above, and is at the level of difficulty of most popular novels…
(more…)

Just blogging to state for the record that I think that Café Scientifique is a fabulous idea. The goal is to promote public engagement with science, by getting scientists together to do informal presentations about their work in a casual venue.

From a blog account:

“The doors are open, it’s free, anyone is encouraged to come in and chat and ask questions, and the goal is to let everyone see how fun and exciting good science really is…while they actually learn something.

…There really are smart Americans out there who are receptive to new ideas and are hungry to hear more, and all we have to do is provide the opportunity. This is how we combat anti-intellectualism, by getting out there and sharing the world of the mind with others.

Seriously, if there’s a Café Scientifique near you, go. If there isn’t, write to your local university and tell them about it, and urge them to jump on the bandwagon. It’s good for the public, it’s good for the universities, and it’s good for science.”

“Terrorism is an autoimmune disease; its purpose is to cause harm by provoking an overreaction.”

The LA Times has an article which starts off its discussion of CAFTA issues by introducing the case of one woman with AIDS whose life is likely to be directly impacted by the agreement.

Opening:

“Carmina Garcia rises before the sun each morning, taking pleasure in the first yellow rays of dawn. But it’s the pink and white tablets that keep her going… Found to be HIV-positive shortly before her husband died of AIDS-related complications last fall, an ailing Garcia was convinced of her own death sentence. But generic drugs have kept the virus in check and restored 60 lost pounds to her frame.

“I now have hope,” said the 52-year-old grandmother and flower vendor, who gets her medicine free from a nonprofit clinic.

Public health experts fear that hope might fade for Garcia and thousands of the region’s chronically ill if the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA, is approved this year.”

…

Other key excerpts:

“For many Guatemalans, this is far more than an arcane trade dispute. Competition from generics has helped drive down prices for some antiviral drugs by as much as 98% in Guatemala, where 78,000 people are infected with HIV. That has allowed relief agencies to stretch their budgets to treat more people like Garcia. Even so, it’s estimated that as many as 80% of Guatemalans who need these medicines still lack them.”
…

“…WTO rules permit member countries to override patents and authorize generic production of name-brand medicines that are needed to protect the public health. The mere threat of this so-called compulsory licensing has helped keep drug prices down. However, if CAFTA is approved, experts say, the ability of Central American nations to use that leverage would be severely restricted.”

…

“In addition, under CAFTA, generic-drug manufacturers seeking government approval to produce a drug would be required — for the first five years after a drug is registered — to conduct their own clinical trials rather than piggyback on originators’ work. That would add considerable time and expense, critics say, making it much less attractive for generic makers to pursue the Central American market, which represents less than 1% of drug sales worldwide.”

Wow. There seem to be interesting links all over the place today; and I’ve not even yet had a chance to write about either of the human rights talks I’ve been to this week…

Anyway, on to another link: An editor of Scientific American speculates about the new Pope’s likely stance in the evolution debate, and on issues like genetic engineering, based on statements in his books and elsewhere.

More for the brave new future files… Apparently scientists have managed to induce hibernation in mice by lacing air with hydrogen sulfide. Essentially the mice were put “into a state similar to suspended animation for up to six hours” and then brought “back to normal life.”

“Hibernating humans and space travel aside,” once researcher commented, “we hope that ‘metabolic flexibility’ can be used to enhance trauma care, surgical outcome and organ transplant.”

“Among the first applications in humans might be to reduce severe fevers, when a patient is near death. Clinical trials for such a procedure could begin in five years, the scientists say.”