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Human Nature: Science, Technology, and Life.
May 2008 - Posts
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A lot of people in China are angry. The earthquake that struck there two weeks ago has destroyed their entire stock of the country's most strictly rationed item: children. Here's the background from the New York Times : Thousands of parents have openly Read More...
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If you're old enough to imagine your dead body being carted away, you're probably old enough to remember " Meat Wagon Action Set ," the sidesplitting (oops—wrong metaphor!) parody ad that first aired on Saturday Night Live in 1977. It looked like an ordinary Read More...
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If you're tired of reading about how dead Hillary Clinton is or how long it'll take her to admit it, fly with me across the Atlantic for a couple of minutes. A monumental debate is going on in the British House of Commons over the Human Fertilisation Read More...
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On Friday I wrote about homosexuality, polygamy, and incest . The gist of the piece was that our categorical bans on these practices are losing their justification. As societies embrace privacy, the acceptable basis for restricting sexual behavior has Read More...
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The decisive battles in American culture wars often take place in the armed forces. That was true of racial integration decades ago, and it's true of homosexuality today. Now it's happening to mental health. If psychiatric disorders end up being culturally Read More...
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The genetically engineered humans are here! The genetically engineered humans are here! I didn't believe it when I heard the report was in the Sunday Times of London. This, after all, is the paper that butchered the gay sheep story and can't find any Read More...
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Today I've been reading up on the trans-Atlantic news about a genetically modified human embryo . I'll have some thoughts on that shortly. In the meantime, while reading Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill as part of my research, I noticed Read More...
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If you've been thinking lately about how to dispose of your corpse—and I know I have—there's good news. You may soon have a new option: being dissolved in lye . Well, let's not call it that. Let's call it " alkaline hydrolysis ." According to AP reporter Read More...
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The war on junk food is forging ahead . New York, Philadelphia, and Boston have banned trans fats . New York is forcing restaurants to post calorie counts . Britain has outlawed junk-food ads during kids' TV shows. South Korea's capital has banned soda Read More...
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If I had a nickel for every time I've read the word "robot" in a headline about new technology, I'd ... well, given the current price of metals, I'd melt down all those nickels, sell the ingredients, and become a very rich man. Journalists and PR people Read More...
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I'm digging out after returning from a Pew Forum conference . I'll try to give you some highlights of it later. For now, I'll just pass along my favorite quote, from Penn Prof. Andy Newberg , on his terror of doing brain scans on people speaking in tongues: Read More...
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A week ago, I crunched some data and concluded that suicide bombing, despite its brutal rationality as a weapon, had not increased in recent years outside of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Many of you pointed out that this was one heck of a caveat. Read More...
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Housekeeping note: If you haven't bookmarked the Human Nature home page , I recommend it. It always has the best and freshest news from around the Web in easy-to-click format. Everything I discuss here, plus the stuff I can't get to, is posted there first. Read More...
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How do you feel about mass-producing and selling human tissue in machine form? I hope you like the idea. Because it's on the way. A few days ago, the University of Michigan trumpeted a study validating the efficacy of its " bioartificial kidneys ." In Read More...
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I'm working on a post about bio-artificial organs for later this afternoon. In the meantime, I want to call your attention to a related item in this morning's news batch : a report in New Scientist about plastic red blood cells . First of all, can I just Read More...
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