- Sonic screwdriver may become fact rather than fiction – “Engineers at Bristol University say a real-life version of the sci-fi screwdriver could be created that would use sonic technology to open locks and undo screws … just don’t expect to see one under the Christmas tree this year.” From Slightly-Mad Science.
- Anti reproductive health bill Cathollics harass bill supporters – Kenneth sends us news from the Phillipines on how they’re working to pass a basic women’s reproductive health bill.
- Reproductive scientists create mice from two fathers – “US scientists have used stem cell technology to create mice from two fathers, an advance that they say could help preserve endangered species and even help same-sex couples have their own genetic children one day.”
- Cranberry juice not effective against urinary tract infections, study suggests – “Drinking cranberry juice has been recommended to decrease the incidence of urinary tract infections, based on observational studies and a few small clinical trials. However, a new study published in the January 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, and now available online, suggests otherwise.” From Lisa.
“Using stem cell technology, reproductive scientists in Texas, led by Dr. Richard R. Berhringer at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, have produced male and female mice from two fathers.”
Well, you couldn’t make male mice using genetic material from two mothers …
Yes, but can this “factual” sonic screwdriver be used to move any seemingly dead-end plot point forward?
I’ve done an enormous amount of research on the UTI/Cranberry connection, and I am not surprised that drinking just one 8oz glass didn’t do anything. The part of the cranberry that fights E.Coli based UTIs is the sugar, or D-Mannose. You have to take the D-Mannose itself to have enough potency to fight the UTI, or drink a heck of a lot of cranberry juice.
As an aside, and I mention it purely because of the rare common sense and lucidity I find amongst the folks who frequent here…
On December 9th 1979 a commission of eminent scientists, following intensive verification, declared smallpox eradicated.
No longer in the wild.
Gone.
Never to cause misery and suffering again.
(The last case in the wild had been in 1976.)
The World Health Authority endorsed this verdict in 8th May 1980. But today, December 9th, is the anniversary of the day when the experts agreed that smallpox had been eradicated.
We have been free of smallpox for 31 years.
If that’s not an excuse to party, then quite frankly I don’t know what is.
Sadly, the current anti-vaccination and anti-science mob will probably prevent us from eradicating anything else.
But still, we did it. It was nasty, it was vicious, it was indiscriminate. But it was beatable, and we beat it.
Just thought it should be mentioned… ;-)
Reproductive scientists create mice from two fathers
So, Pinky and The Brain will get to take over the world with their progeny.
Science. What. Have. You. Done?
it’s to bad to many want to find more ways to over populate an over populated planet.
@scribe999:
Not if it has a deadlock seal.
Funny thing about that Science Daily article on cranberry juice. It contradicts the article “New Evidence on How Cranberry Juice Fights Bacteria That Cause Urinary Tract Infections” published four months ago on, um, Science Daily.
@philipstorry: COTW
@Steve D: Isn’t that what science does though? New information leads to new conclusions.
@Steve D: It seems to be one of those topics that goes back and forth every few years (or months, in this case).
All I can say is, if a woman with a UTI wants some cranberry juice, get her some goddamn cranberry juice. And a fistful of antibiotics.
And if you’re a guy with a UTI, just go to the hospital, since by the time most guys start worrying about the symptoms, they’re close to or already have a kidney infection.
@Amanda: I just learned about 4 weeks back that men could get UTI’s. Just wasn’t something I even thought about. It seems that you only hear about them in realation to women.
@Gabrielbrawley: Yeah, women get them much more frequently because of our anatomy. It’s much easier for the little bastard bacteria to get established in our bladder since they only have about an inch of urinary tract to climb.
Men don’t usually get them unless there’s a catheter involved. Or unprotected buttsex without peeing afterwards. The more you know! *shooting star*
@slightlymadscience:
I don’t know which is worse, the fact that you’re making an oblique Doctor Who reference on Skepchick or the fact that I know exactly what you’re talking about.
Oh well, at least my gay mice can now start a family, like they’ve always wanted to. There is that.
-S
Re: Double-Daddy-Duplicated Rodents
And there are plenty of the “sins against god”, “tampering with nature”, and “messing with natural selection” complaints on that site and others.
Same kind of people that protested IVF in 1978.
And not much different from those who still feel blood transfusions are wrong. :/
The Sonic Screwdriver
1 oz 100 proof grey goose vodka
1 oz 100 proof absolute gin
2 oz 200 proof everclear
Tang mixed at a ratio of twice the powder to water that would normally be called for
Pour the liquors into a cocktail shaker filled with crushed ice, shake vigoursly until it is so cold it hurts your hands
Strain into a chilled highball glass, top with cold tang
Sing