Myrtus

Stuff and antistuff, strangeness, charm and the theory of EVERYTHING

Have you ever wondered how come there’s something rather than nothing?

Well wonder no more, there is help on the way.

Supercomputer works on cracking the mystery of the universe - Times Online

Thanks to the standard model, the human mind has grasped the behaviour of the unimaginably small entities of which the universe consists.

U.S. Seeks to Limit Animal Testing of Toxic Chemicals

This is great news! We will get more efficient science, and can limit suffering.

U.S. government scientists proposed Thursday to limit the testing of potentially toxic chemicals on animals and replace it with new high-tech testing methods.

According to an agreement involving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. National Toxicology Program, toxicity tests will start being done using human cells in laboratories, robots, and computer modeling. This approach should enable researchers to analyze more data on the toxic effects of chemicals -- ranging from pesticides to household cleaners -- more quickly, greatly reducing the need for animal testing, the scientists said.

"The research collaboration we are announcing today really has the potential to revolutionize the way toxic chemicals are identified," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute, said during a morning teleconference.

Historically, toxicity has been determined by injecting chemicals into lab animals and watching to see if they got sick. "Though that approach has given us valuable information, it is expensive, it is time-consuming, it uses animals in large numbers, and it doesn't always predict which chemicals will be harmful to humans," Collins said.

New technology has made testing chemicals much faster and more accurate.

These new methods include using high-speed, automated screening robots to test suspected toxic compounds, instead of using laboratory animals.

For example, the National Toxicology Program has been in existence for about 30 years. During that time, using animals, the program has tested 2,500 chemicals. However, using the new methods, the testing of 2,500 compounds in 15 different concentrations can be done in a single afternoon, the federal scientists said.

You can read the rest here

See also:

Israel bans Animal Testing

Israeli and Lebanese Animals Rights Groups Working Hard

human-animal hybrid embryos

Yikes!  How creepy is that!

The Australian

BRITAIN'S fertility regulator decided in principle today to allow scientists to create human-animal hybrid embryos for research.

Here is how it works

Women Sperm

Is this a new scientific weapon designed to threaten the male species with extinction? 

The prospect of all-female conception

Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.

Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman's bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.

Grammaticians, stand fast

This is interesting if proven true by independant verification.

Since that day in 1969 when he set his foot upon the Moon as the first human to trod that soil, Neil Armstrong has been dogged by a missing word.  Namely the word 'a.'  As in 'That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.'

Now an Australian, using software designed to help handicapped people communicate with nerve impulses via computer, says he has graphical proof that Armstrong actually did include that 'a.'

Neat.  Technology birthed by the Space Race helps solve a mystery of the Space Race.

The Universe We Live In

Gas Pillars

Crab Nebula

Another Galaxy

Interstellar Bubble

Glowing Pool of Light

Much more!

Would You Be a Colonialist?

We're used to seeing them as stars in the sky, but planets could soon be home to humans if Stephen Hawking has his way.

The world-renowned scientist believes humans must colonise planets elsewhere in the universe because of the risk a disaster will destroy the Earth.

Astrophysicist Professor Hawking insists the survival of the human race depends on it finding new homes on other planets. He believes global warming, nuclear war or a genetically engineered virus could wipe out the earth.

Speaking at a news conference in Hong Kong the 64-year-old scientist said humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and colony on Mars in the next 40 years.

He said: "We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system. It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species.

Would you go?

Modern Day Slavery Exists Around the World

And at the World Cup.

"It is truly scandalous. People are talking about women, importing them to satisfy the base instincts of people associated with football. It is humiliating enough for me that football is linked with alcohol and violence. But this is worse. It is slaves that will come and be put into houses. Human beings are being talked about like cattle, and football is linked with that."

-- Raymond Domenech, coach of the French World Cup soccer team

As the 2006 World Cup games get underway in Germany, tourists and soccer fans are being joined at the various competition venues by denizens of an international world of crime where human beings are bought and sold for profit.

Human trafficking is the third-largest criminal industry in the world, after arms and drugs. While soccer fans anticipate the excitement of the games, many of us in the anti-trafficking movement are deeply troubled by the expected surge of sex trafficking in Germany to meet the demand for commercial sex associated with the World Cup. It is estimated that more than 40,000 women and children will be imported to Germany during the month-long competition to provide commercial sex in the "mega-brothels," "quickie shacks," other legalized venues and vast underground networks that exist in Germany.

Now, just imagine being one of the women or girls forced to satisfy some drunk, angry dude at the World Cup whose team has lost and needs to make himself feel like a powerful man again. Total nightmare.

Soccer With a Side of Slavery

LifeStraw

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4967452.stm

A new straw that purifies water as it is drunk is hoped to be part of a solution to water-borne disease killing thousands in developing countries.

Bonzai Tip

Expert Says Hard Liquor Helps Houseplants

For home gardeners who don't want their flowers to tip over, a Cornell University horticulturist thinks he has the answer: Get the flowers a little tipsy with some hard liquor.

Giving some plants diluted alcohol — whiskey, vodka, gin or tequila — stunts the growth of a plant's leaves and stems but doesn't affect the blossoms, said William Miller, director of Cornell's Flower Bulb Research Program.

I'll give it a try.  I always wanted to have a Myrtus tree like this one.