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Not all stem cells are created equal. But just how close adult and reprogrammed stem cells can come to matching the capabilities of embryonic stem cells has become a contentious question in the debate over whether the federal government should continue funding research on embryonic lines. And many researchers maintain that a diverse stem cell portfolio will increase medical discovery dividends. Human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research had been backed by federal funds for more than a decade, but a surprise August injunction by a federal judge threw the field’s future into question....

Researchers transforming animals with the latest genome-engineering tools may be disappointed by draft rules released by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 18— two days before US President Barack Obama leaves office. It is not clear how the administration of incoming president Donald Trump will carry the proposals forward, however. The most controversial of three proposed regulations declares that all animals whose genomes have been intentionally altered will be examined for safety and efficacy in a process similar to that for new drugs....

Before manufacturing a new product, companies craft models or prototypes to check designs, assess appearance, test fit and function with other parts, or fine-tune molds and dies for the production line. For decades, prototypes have typically been made by hand from drawings, a slow and expensive exercise. But in recent years, various rapid-prototyping techniques that automatically produce three-dimensional parts from computer-aided-design data have reduced the time from weeks to days or hours....

When Apollo 11 happened in real time, people back home could follow along with grainy, though exhilarating, video footage. Yet they had little sense of where on the moon the action was happening and how far the astronauts explored. Now three-dimensional computer models based on recent satellite imagery can re-create each step of the mission and the terrain it covered. Based on a 2012 photograph of the landing site from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a height map of the surface shows the contours of the moon where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin traveled, as well as the positions of the lander, the experiments and even the astronauts’ footpaths....

Better Brains Three books suggest ways we—and our gadgets—can become smarter. Despite housing some of the most elite educational institutions in the world, the U.S. is still falling far behind other nations in science, math and reading. In The Learning Brain: Memory and Brain Development in Children (Oxford University Press, 2012), neuroscientist Torkel Klingberg proposes that enhancing children’s working memory, which regulates concentration and stores relevant information, may be key to improving academic abilities....

By a strange coincidence, I was called to jury duty for my very first time shortly after I started as director of a new MacArthur Foundation project exploring the issues that neuro­science raises for the criminal justice system. Eighty of us showed up for selection in a case that involved a young woman charged with driving under the influence, but most of my fellow citizens were excused for various reasons, primarily their own DUI experiences....

The United States and China are talking different languages when it comes to reducing carbon emissions. In the U.S. case, the Obama administration is the name of the game when it comes to federal action on climate change.(See here and here.)As for legislation? I would say there’s a snowball’s chance in our globally warming world that the 113th Congress will pass any climate bill aimed at reducing carbon emissions, let alone something as ambitious as a a carbon tax....

Researchers in the US have developed a silver nanoparticle-based paper test to simultaneously detect dengue, yellow fever and Ebola. This could provide a cheap and reliable diagnosis for all three diseases, that’s as quick as a home pregnancy test. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa underscores an urgent need for rapid diagnostics; quick identification and patient isolation can benefit the sick and the healthy. However, dengue, yellow fever and Ebola all initially manifest as a fever and headache, so are easily mixed up....

By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO, Dec 30 (Reuters) - An aging northern white rhinoceros, one of just five left in the world, appeared to be responding to treatment of an unidentified bacterial infection that has veterinarians worried for a subspecies limping toward extinction, a California zoo said on Tuesday. Nola, age 40, was showing signs of improvement after San Diego Zoo Safari Park keepers gave her antibiotics to ward off an illness whose symptoms on Monday included a runny nose, decreased appetite and lethargy, a zoo spokeswoman said....

Global warming will bring increased summer heat waves nationwide that are especially harmful to low-income and minority populations in urban areas and the elderly, according to a new report by environmental and public health groups. “This is another reason why we must take steps to curb global warming pollution as much and as quickly as possible,” said Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, which released the report today with Physicians for Social Responsibility....

Digital cameras come in two basic flavors. Most people are familiar with the convenient point-and-shoot–the electronic descendant of the cheap, compact and once ubiquitous Kodak Brownie. These cameras let shutterbugs preview shots on a tiny screen and cost a couple of hundred dollars each. Less common are digital single-lens reflex (D-SLR) units–the computerized versions of the classic through-the-lens, 35-millimeter-film cameras, which offer far higher image resolution, along with much loftier prices....

Tears and a runny nose can be unpleasant on a windy day, but these mucosal secretions play a vital role in protecting the body from viruses and other malicious microbes. Unfortunately, mucus is also adept at washing away medication designed to treat infections and inflammation that occur when an infectious agent is successful in penetrating the body’s defenses Knowing that even nanoscale particles of medicine are apt to get caught up in layers of mucus and cleared before they can treat an ailment, a team of Johns Hopkins University scientists has developed specially coated nanoparticles that can penetrate deep into the body’s defenses and remain long enough kill harmful microbes....

When my father was growing up, his father offered him 25 cents to memorize the complete list of U.S. presidents. “Number one, George Washington. Number two, John Adams …” A generation later my dad made the same deal with me, upping the reward to $5. (The prize had grown, he explained, “because of inflation and because there are more presidents now.”) This year I offered my own son $10 to perform the same stunt....

Scientists around the world are struggling to get to grips with the loss of one of the brightest stars in stem-cell science. Yoshiki Sasai of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe brought excitement and rigour to the field but died yesteday, August 5, aged 52. The reasons for Sasai’s apparent suicide are still not clear but a scandal swirling about two stem-cell papers published in Nature in January had wreaked havoc on his career....

About 6,400 liver transplants took place in 2013 in the U.S., but demand far outpaces supply: more than 15,000 patients are on the current waiting list. Compounding the lack of availability, livers have only a small window of time to reach their destinations. The organs stay fresh for just 12 hours, during which they are kept on ice with a cold preservation solution. That is because freezing them is not an option—the process creates ice crystals that slice through the cells on thawing....

Late on the evening of June 14, 2012, groups of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers working on the Large Hadron Collider began peering into a just opened data cache. This huge machine at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics near Geneva, had been producing tremendous amounts of data in the months since it awoke from its winter-long slumber. But the more than 6,000 physicists who work on the LHC’s two largest experiments were wary of unintentionally adding biases to their analysis....

Is fracking polluting our drinking water? The debate has become harsh, and scientists are speaking out. Anthony Ingraffea, an engineering professor at Cornell University and an expert on the controversial technique to drill natural gas, has had much to say, especially since he attended a March meeting in Arlington, Va., hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. There he met scientists from top gas and drilling companies: Devon Energy, Chesapeake, Halliburton....

Electric vehicle advocates are celebrating a major milestone this month. Sometime in October, a million electric vehicles will have been sold in the United States, according to the latest figures. It’s a small but significant step toward decarbonizing the transportation sector, the country’s largest and fastest-growing source of planet-warming emissions. “It is a milestone for the U.S. EV market and for anybody who is interested in and cares deeply about reducing our nation’s transportation oil use,” said Paul Ruiz, senior policy analyst with Securing America’s Future Energy, a group that advocates for curbing U....

As if blinding migraines are not bad enough, new research shows that women who get them are more likely than others to suffer from major bouts of the blues, especially if they also have headache-related symptoms like low energy and joint pain. A study published in the January 9 Neurology found that women who suffer from chronic headaches (more than 15 a month) are four times more prone to major depression than those with episodic headaches (fewer than 15 monthly)....

The waiting room at the Mosaic Comprehensive Care Clinic in Chapel Hill, N.C., is as generic as any doctor’s office except for a framed sign by the door. “No Wrong Way to Have a Body,” it says, above an illustration of different cacti species. The second anomaly of this primary care practice is what is missing from the exam rooms: there are no scales. Louise Metz, the clinic’s owner and founder, keeps just one on the premises, tucked in a back hallway....