The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has decided to open the question of whether to allow animal-human hybrid embryos to be developed for research purposes to public debate. The HFEA licenses and monitors IVF and donor insemination clinics, and research centres that use embryos. They also regulate the storage of embryos, eggs and sperm.
The HFEA has received two requests from scientists who want to use human cells and animal eggs to produce stem cells for research.
Science & Technology
LOS ANGELES - A major earthquake along the San Andreas fault could bring Hurricane Katrina-scale devastation and disruption to Southern California, earthquake scientists and government officials warned Tuesday as they kicked off a yearlong campaign to ratchet up emergency planning and encourage residents to prepare for the inevitability of a powerful quake.
Hands over her eyes and her face gripped with terror, the woman's fear of death is all too obvious.
The remarkable mummy was found in a hidden burial vault in the Amazon.
It is at least 600 years old and has survived thanks to the embalming skills of her tribe, the Chachapoyas or cloud warriors.
The remarkable mummy was found in a hidden burial vault in the Amazon.
It is at least 600 years old and has survived thanks to the embalming skills of her tribe, the Chachapoyas or cloud warriors.
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| ©Signs of the Times |
| The horror: This woman is thought to have lived 600 years ago |
If you watch the morning or evening sky these days and have a clear view of the horizon, you will be able to spot a bright object with a prominent tail. That object is comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught). It was discovered on August 7th, 2006 by the hugely successful comet discoverer Rob McNaught (Siding Spring Survey). At time of discovery, the comet was a very faint object, but the predicted perihelion distance (closest distance to the sun) of just 0.17 astronomical units indicated that the object has the potential to become very bright indeed.
ATHENS, Greece - Unlike its larger, postcard-perfect neighbors in the Aegean Sea, Keros is a tiny rocky dump inhabited by a single goatherd.
But the barren islet was of major importance to the mysterious Cycladic people, a sophisticated pre-Greek civilization with no written language that flourished 4,500 years ago and produced strikingly modern-looking artwork.
But the barren islet was of major importance to the mysterious Cycladic people, a sophisticated pre-Greek civilization with no written language that flourished 4,500 years ago and produced strikingly modern-looking artwork.
Mexicans have long been taught to blame diseases brought by the Spaniards for wiping out most of their Indian ancestors. But recent research suggests things may not be that simple.
In 1978, Laila Williamson, an anthropologist of the American Museum of Natural History, summarized the data she had collected on the prevalence of infanticide among tribal and civilized societies from a variety of sources in the scientific and historical literature. Her conclusion was startlingly blunt:
Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunters and gatherers to high civilization, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule.
Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunters and gatherers to high civilization, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule.
WASHINGTON - Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have stumbled upon alien microbes on the Red Planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist theorizes in a paper released Sunday.
The problem was the Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life and didn't recognize it, the researcher said in a paper presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.
The problem was the Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life and didn't recognize it, the researcher said in a paper presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.
It wasn't all that long ago that black holes existed only in the realm of theory, a space- and mind-bending musing of Albert Einstein, who posited the existence of objects in the universe so dense that even light could not escape them. Even after scientists began to accept several decades ago that these extremely exotic and powerful objects were not the stuff of science fiction, they still knew virtually nothing about them.
One of the greatest mysteries of the universe is about to be unravelled with the first detailed, three-dimensional map of dark matter - the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos.
Astronomers announced yesterday that they have achieved the apparently impossible task of creating a picture of something that has defied every attempt to detect it since its existence was first postulated in 1933.
Astronomers announced yesterday that they have achieved the apparently impossible task of creating a picture of something that has defied every attempt to detect it since its existence was first postulated in 1933.
