h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I listened to the debate about this on Radio 4 this morning.

They can already grow organs like mouse livers from human cells, but they think the ethical problems will arise if for example they grow a monkey's brain from human cells. The line we draw is probably inbetween the two...

'Would you want new body parts grown on the backs of mice.
Or '


Yes, actually, I think I would.

As it is, a fairly large number of my body parts are derived from due to my penchant for sausages.


But, seriously: we're quite comfortable taking body parts from cadavers as spare parts; we're (many of us) quite comfortable eating animal body parts; why would we object to making spare parts out of our own cells using animals as the growing medium (rather than taking bits and pieces from dead people and inserting them into our bodies)?.

Old news story in 1987: "the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has taken what seems to be the next logical step. It announced this month that it "considers non-naturally occurring nonhuman multicellular living organisms, including animals, to be patentable subject matter."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964262,00.html

First living animal patented in April 1988:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/20027762

Sarkozy uses three long-haul planes to travel from Paris to Brussels.

http://tinyurl.com/3ojut4c [fr]

“Sarkozy uses three long-haul planes to travel from Paris to Brussels”

Was this before the continents merged!

Page 3 national paper “ it might be sunny this weekend”, that will be a dilemma for those newspaper editors, is it a visit to the chemist on Friday for factor 50 sun block or do they spend a weekend with a up turned cup at the wall listening to the neighbours arguing

I'm surprised Oslo hasn't caught anyone's attention.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/07/22/oslo-blast.html

Will the US default on their 14.3 trillion dollar debt?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14258888

The appalling events in Olso appear to be the work of a home grown
madman (blonde blue eyed 32 year old male Norwegian) and hence
should not be used to justify on-going international bombing
campaigns in the name of the War on Terror as suggested by Obama and others:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017851/Police-dismiss-initial-fears-Norwegian-terror-attacks-work-Islamist-organisations.html

'The Norwegian-born suspect comes from a well-to-do family, and his Facebook page suggests he may be a Christian fundamentalist'

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/07/23/norway-attack.html


Great.

Particle physicists in a flurry as they may have found hints of
their "God" particle (the Higgs-Boson):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14258601

Singer Amy Winehouse reported deceased R.I.P.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2018020/Amy-Winehouse-dead--Found-dead-London-flat.html

Really sad to hear about Amy Winehouse.

It's been a distressing week for news after the News International Circus, what with the murders in Stepping Hill, Lucian Freud, the attacks in Norway and now Amy Winehouse.

B

Yes the Amy Winehouse news is really tragic. I'm very upset. She was just so talented..and struggled so hard with her demons.

I feel for her family, but I must confess that I'm not in the least bit surprised.

Just becuase it's a slo mo car crash one can do nothing about doesn't make it any the less sad. Sadder in some respects, because it was so predicted.

The ghouls at wikipedia have added her to their page on the 27 club.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club

I do feel they could have waited until her core body temperature had dropped.

A good wine should be kept at cellar temperatures.

~jwf~

The Sun says there have been some really touching messages left on her mobile.

This post has been removed.

"The Sun says there have been some really touching messages left on her mobile."