LibRT - Slashdot User

Submission + - EU court rules against stem cell patents for resea (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by LibRT on Tuesday October 18, 2011 @10:41AM

LibRT writes: Europe's highest court has ruled that stem cells from human embryos cannot be patented, in a case that could have major implications for medicine.

Scientists say the Court of Justice decision may impede European research into the use of stem cell therapies, or drive research abroad.

The European Court of Justice said in a statement: "The use of human embryos for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes which are applied to the human embryo and are useful to it is patentable.

"But their use for purposes of scientific research is not patentable."

It added: "A process which involves removal of a stem cell from a human embryo at the blastocyst [early embryo] stage, entailing the destruction of that embryo, cannot be patented."

Submission + - Tanks test infra-red invisibility cloak (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by LibRT on Monday September 05, 2011 @04:07PM

LibRT writes: The technology allows vehicles to mimic the temperature of their surroundings.

It can also make a tank look like other objects, such as a cow or car, when seen through heat-sensitive 'scopes.

Researchers are looking at ways to make it work with other wavelengths of light to confer true invisibility.

Submission + - UN Names N. Korea Chair of Disarmament Committee (www.cbc.ca) 1

Submitted by LibRT on Monday July 11, 2011 @03:25PM

LibRT writes: The irony-challenged folks at the UN have named North Korea chair of the Conference on Disarmament, which is heavily focused on the prevention of a nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament. The Canadian government has boycotted the convention, calling it an "absurd" turn of events: "North Korea is simply not a credible chair of a disarmament body. The fact that it gets a turn chairing a United Nations committee focused on disarmament is unacceptable, given the North Korean regime's efforts in the exact opposite direction,"

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