Kazuo Ishiguro: 'We’re coming close to the point where we can create people who are superior to others' - tie in particular to http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=126997323 Social changes unleashed by new technologies could undermine core human values unless we engage with science, warns author Imagine a two-tiered society with elite citizens, genetically engineered to be smarter, healthier and to live longer, and an underclass of biologically run-of-the-mill humans. It sounds like the plot of a dystopian novel, but the world could be sleepwalking towards this scenario, according to one of Britain’s most celebrated writers. Kazuo Ishiguro argues that the social changes unleashed by gene editing technologies, such as Crispr, could undermine core human values. “We’re going into a territory where a lot of the ways in which we have organised our societies will suddenly look a bit redundant,” he said. “In liberal democracies, we have this idea that human beings are basically equal in some very fundamental way. We’re coming close to the point where we can, objectively in some sense, create people who are superior to others.” [...] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/dec/02/kazuo-ishiguro-were-coming-close-to-the-point-where-we-can-create-people-who-are-superior-to-others
Teenager's sickle cell reversed with world-first therapy - gene therapy A French teenager's sickle cell disease has been reversed using a pioneering treatment to change his DNA. The world-first procedure at Necker Children's Hospital in Paris offers hope to millions of people with the blood disorder. Scientists altered the genetic instructions in his bone marrow so it made healthy red blood cells. So far, the therapy has worked for 15 months and the child is no longer on any medication. [...] http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39142971 study Gene Therapy in a Patient with Sickle Cell Disease http://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1609677
Have Scientists Discovered the Earliest Fossilized Evidence of Life? A new paper makes the bold claim that structures in rocks approaching the age of Earth itself come from ancient bacteria, but this conclusion is highly controversial. http://www.snopes.com/2017/03/03/earliest-fossilized-evidence-of-life/
Donald Trump Defunds Global Maternal Health Organization Students at the Masuba Midwifery School practice cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a dummy during a demonstration of their skills on April 26 in Masuba, central Sierra Leone. The United Nations Population Fund supports the local Ministry of Health with a program that promotes maternal health and family planning. Last year the funding helped prevent an estimated 10,000 maternal deaths and 100,000 unsafe abortions. 04/03/2017 Updated April 3, 2017 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-defunds-un-population-fund_us_58de8cece4b0b3918c831b79