Sunspots 910

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

The Arts: or something) Gizmodo reports on the tallest Lego model ever, of the Eiffel Tower.

Christianity: Christianity Today on the 200 millionth Operation Christmas Child gift box.

Computing: Gizmodo tells us how to make our phones less distracting.

Environment: Gizmodo reports on a study that found that honeybees are not living as long as they
used to.

Food: NPR reports on cultured meat (grown in vats). It's coming, like the idea or not.

(and computing) Subway has installed an automated food dispenser, including the AI-enabled ability to respond, on a college campus.

Health: NPR reports that the number of premature babies has been increasing.

Politics: (or something) Gizmodo reports that about 250 Texas prisoners died because of lack of air conditioning, over the last 20 years.

Science: A child has been treated with a normal gene, replacing one that produces an  enzyme that doesn't work properly, before her birth, according to The Scientist.

The Scientist also reports on progress in healing spinal cord injuries.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 705

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Education: A Scientific American writer argues that STEM education and the other liberal arts are all essential.

Ethics: (and Science) A Chinese scientist, who says he altered genes in two baby girls, while they were embryos, has faced lots of outcry, on ethical grounds, and because what he did was not generally perceived to have been wise. For more on this matter, also from NPR, see here. Gizmodo reports that the Chinese government has shut down these experiments. Scientific American asks some important questions about this episode.

Food: NPR tells us how much protein we need, and whether or not we are likely to be getting it.

Politics: NPR says that the number of unauthorized immigrants is the lowest in a decade.

Relevant reports that more white evangelical Christians believe that climate change is real, than the percentage of Republicans who do.

FiveThirtyEight provides a chart, showing that the Mueller investigation, far from being a fruitless "witch hunt," has resulted in more indictments and pleas over a shorter time than any like investigation since Watergate.

Listverse tells us about 10 important episodes in the career of the late President George H. W. Bush.

Science: Earther on possible ways to protect coral reefs through technological intervention.

Gizmodo reports on a female albatross, in the wild, who is at least 69 years old, and raised a chick last year, and has laid an egg this year.

Gizmodo, and other outlets, report that some spiders feed their young with a milk-like substance.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain. 

Thanks for looking!

Sunspots 637

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Relevant has an article that says that many of us read the Bible wrongly.

Relevant reports that World Wrestling Entertainment has registered 3:16 as a trademark, and not because WWE is a Christian organization. (It isn't.)


Ethics: (or something) Here's an article about robot sex. Can a robot be raped?

Health: For some reason, men's sperm counts are dropping drastically.

History: (or something) Listverse tells us 10 things about Guatemala.

Humor: (or something) Wired explains, with videos, how they make those plastic air pillows for packing around merchandise that gets delivered to you.

Politics: US Senator John McCain's speech, calling for a return to civility and bipartisanship in the Senate. A classic.

FiveThirtyEight has an essay on what gives a President political power, and indicates that Mr. Trump doesn't have very much of that, and why he doesn't.

Science: Scientific American on how higher temperatures are killing, and will kill people.

Scientific American on the recent story about gene editing in human embryos, which story, says SA, is wildly overblown.



Image source (public domain)

Altering genes in human embryos and cloning hamburgers

Three recent articles have come to my attention, and seem worth commenting on.

National Public Radio reports on a scientist in Sweden who is modifying the genes of human embryos. (The embryos are "leftovers" from in vitro fertilization procedures, and the parents have given consent for such use.) He says that he is trying to figure out how to fix harmful genes.

There are serious ethical problems with this type of research. One such is the question of whether it is ethical to experiment on human embryos at all. Other questions include the likelihood that such techniques would be used to produce "designer babies" -- children with genes for, say, artistic ability -- and thus genetic haves and have-nots. Another question relates to the possibility of making some sort of mistake while pursuing this technique in an embryo which is brought to birth. Such a mistake would damage such a child, and would also be passed on to that child's offspring. The scientist says that he is not planning to implant any of the embryos he is working on, but someone else might.

Scientific American has an article about the "yuck factor" (I just don't like it) in making ethical decisions. An example would be making hamburgers from human tissue. (No one is doing that!) The article also discusses the production of hamburger meat from cow tissue. That has been done, but is some distance from being marketable. There are potential advantages in using such meat, which are discussed.

Scientific American also discusses the possibility (and, perhaps, likelihood) of using gene editing techniques to improve intelligence. 

Thanks for reading!