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Submission + - Fish Poison Makes Hot Feel Cold and Cold feel Hot (wired.com)

Submitted by

SoyChemist

on Saturday October 13, 2007 @08:47PM

SoyChemist writes: "Ciguatoxin causes bizarre neurological symptoms including temperature reversal, a burning sensation, and an imaginary feeling of loose teeth. It is produced by algae and accumulates in the fatty flesh of tropical fish. While traveling to the tropics, a man from England ate some bad seafood that contained the unusual poison. His story, and the tale of some unfortunate sailors that suffered the same affliction, appeared in the current issue of Practical Neurology and was summarized on the Wired Science Blog. Both the Wired blog and the peer-reviewed journal neglected to mention that the potent neurotoxin has been made from scratch by organic chemists."

Submission + - Human Therapeutic Cloning Screeches to a Halt (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @09:15AM

eldavojohn writes: "Harvard had finally cut through all the political bullshit to start research using stem cells but after a $100k in advertising, they have not been able to entice any female egg donors. From the article, 'Eggan blames the dearth of donors on Massachusetts regulations that prohibit researchers from paying women for their eggs. The law is meant to prevent coercion of poor women who might undergo the procedure out of financial need. But women who undergo the same procedure to donate eggs for assisted reproductive technology (ART), in which infertile women use another woman's eggs to get pregnant, are paid anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000. "If we feel comfortable compensating women who donate eggs for ART — and infertility is a terrible disease — why aren't we comfortable compensating women for donations that could aid other serious diseases?" Eggan asks.' It is a painful and extensive process with small risk of kidney damage, should they allow women to be compensated for that? I know my friend donates plasma on a regular basis to pay for his weekend drinking, how is this different?"

Submission + - Nobel Awards Harddrive Technology (nobelprize.org)

Submitted by

bhmit1

on Tuesday October 09, 2007 @08:53AM

bhmit1 writes: "The Nobel Prize in Physics this year is given for technology that makes compact harddrives possible. From the announcement: "In 1988 the Frenchman Albert Fert and the German Peter Grünberg each independently discovered a totally new physical effect — Giant Magnetoresistance or GMR. Very weak magnetic changes give rise to major differences in electrical resistance in a GMR system. A system of this kind is the perfect tool for reading data from hard disks when information registered magnetically has to be converted to electric current.""

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