Livingstone

A dolphin

Guys lets get back to the debate shall we? In our last years ethical debate, there was a long shot at the question. To be honest, i was first for the *right*, then i snapped to the *wrong*, then after getting hits from all sides, i became undecided and virtually lost, just like some people round here, and the tendencies, when you caught between what you think is morally right to you and what is right to the rest of societies, you begin to blame everyone. Blame the pharmacist for killing all our animals, blame failed drugs for having been tested on animals and not men. For one moment we wish there was a mid point between the extremities of the right or wrong question. So rather than the right or wrong (black or white) nature of this debate, lets concentrate on when and how the use of animals is justified in research, and how we could avoid the waste and failures of the past! In some countries you have the 3Rs theory, which generally applies to all. Another thing not to forget in this case, is that no one teaches us what we percieve as right or wrong, this is a combination of sevral influences, from religion, background, morals, etc, so what might be right for a you might not be right for me! and the sad thing is that ethical debates, usually deviate from discussing the morals of an issue and their justification to seeking a universal law or legal clause which frankly can NEVER be achieved, so guys if some one could reask this question, it probably can help the debate!

cant be the p cause we are between the eosophagus and the stomach, and the only muscle performing such function is the LES as you rightly mentioned failure of which could bring about a very funny condition called Achalasia! we spent quite alot of time on this last year! Lol, i was just re-reading this post and realized your asking about an Organ 'whats the organ i'm think of?' was this a trick or we all fell into your trap?

Yeah i read that story, but there was another entry on science blogs i think which suggested that the story is alittle bit exagerated, and that the people who are pushing it fail to mention the large transduction unit whose role has not clearly been explained or even mentioned, They say no computers but the blog argues that there is an advanced computer program known to convert the neuronal activity into the mechanical activity of the wheels (May be just another noisy or gossip blogg but there you go) I dont know if thats been published yet but i could not locate any stuff after searching i cant really get that link, but what they said is that the former comprises of a complex algorithm. which to me displaces the argument that the rats neuronal cells do anything more than just pass the APs on as you'ld expect the circuits of your pcs mother board to an external processing unit But anyways its an interesting story

I like this thread! CharonY I nearly fell of my chair when i read the first statement which even to is pure rubish! in the ITC/Web developers/Computer science world, they have big words too, they have big concepts too, but just follow a development blog and you could learn alot about web technologies or even programming without using a dictionary. you dont see this crap on good bloggs, Another person mentioned simpler words have a much more broader meaning than big words. I'll like to know what you call simple and big word and what parameters you use to qualify this! Its not about big words here, its about how those words are put together to make something that is readible and understandable to a common user with just simple interest in the topic. If 'protein' is a simple word, as you can see as rightly pointed by CharonY that sentence just does not make any sense

Yup Yup, i do biomedical sciences tooo, and i can assure you there would be alot of options if you close your ears to alot of the rubish in the new HPC registered biomedical scientist course that is being thaught in the UK. First you will learn alot about the NHS during your time which is just not what you need if you are purely interested in Biomedical science. I love genetics to and i am kind of into the filed of Bio-Medical genetics (which is a combination of molecular biology and medical genetics) Also there is alot to look for, and i have got massive eyes on following a possible topic in research, i read alot of new stuff happening in our field and i think research will be a fun adventure, i can assure you that! What about doing your own research? You could aswell get a good job, but follow up your own research, if its a smart ideas you will get buyers (the pharmacist go crazy on good ideas) Immunology which really is not my cup of tea but i doomed as a scientist and i love it, is another very relevant subject! Infact Biomedical science is as broad as its name implies, but just that in contrast to other courses where you might get a lot of emphasis on both anatomy and physiology, you will dwell mostly on molecular patterns and physiology I love biomed [we always fight with pharmacist and pharmacologist as to which is better and fun]

Yeah just got a similar question today on science blogs, about the interactions between scientist and their public. http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/08/london_science_blogging_questi.php Its sad that researchers still tend to use the old way of doing things in a modern world, A reseacher will work in his lab and write out points in a book, in some language only understandable to him, then come up with a formal report, give it to some friends to review, to make sure the language demostrates not what he has found by his knowledge in the subject (promoting his ego) haters will refuse to publish his papers, but friends will push for publishing in major journals (which is sad for new researchers wishing to grab hold of some of the publishing fame of the elites). After a years wait, the review is finally accepted and published in a major journal. How rediculous is that! By contrast, dell is planning on releasing its new under laptop or firefox is working on a new concept for web browsing (aurora) just go to their blog, your will read live stories about their concept, design and implementation as it happens (an example of people who are proud of what they do and do it for the public not just for their ego). To me this is the main reason why the public is more fun of industries like the IT industry, the film industry (you can follow the production of a film) etc. But for medical researchers, you will only hear about something when discussions about the cost have been finalized and the language with which the public recieves this is not something they can understand unless you study the subject! Another reason why you can become a computer progammer by hobby and it can take you a matter of months to start written comfortable programms but a 'scientific researcher' never, you must learn the jargon [reasons why i have a mixed love / hate relationship with immunologist for tarnishing molecular biology]. Things seriously have to change

I am stumped at the human brain myself, but its amazing. Firstly lets seperate memory from perception, imagination, or illusion, habit? . I know for the later we can argue that each for these sum up what is know as memory! but i am not sure, spirtualist refer to memory as divine, but scientist still remain puzzled. The argument that fibres which just trasmit 'electricity' will store data, is fascinating, but cannot be dismissed. The very answer to your question lies in the question as to what is memory? you might enjoy this http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/memory/ I have even stumbled across the memory KIBRA gene uncovered 2006., ill go follow that!

what do you refer to as *first* , *last* *vertical* and *horizontal* numbers? in a matrix where you have not described any order and expect an order to be found! I am assuming there isnt any

The idea is, we humans sit on our *brains* and fail to use them as smartly as the *machines* (extras) we make to help us *live*. Unfortunately we sometimes tend to think machines can perform better than humans, but fail to understand that we *trained* these computers to do what they do These brings us back to the fundamental questions as to what is life? Scientist have always disagreed as to the real meaning of life but we all agree on its basic fundamental units. The idea is simple, as i study molecular patterns and genetics, what i get for the definition of life is, a bunch of materials coming together, develop and learn [learning habits which we now consider our daily lives]. Our brain has a tremendous capacity to store what we learn throughout the course of our life i think we are at a point in science where topics like this should not be considered as science fiction, nevertheless, i am looking o specialize in such research when i graduate! Here is some stuff to inspire you http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2552973/Rats-brain-used-to-power-robot.html [this has been exagerated in the blogosphere] [this guy could be considered stupid, but his got a powerful idea people]

I use http://www.scirus.com most of the time as search engine, filter the results to journal only and it usually comes up with a goog results. Otherwise our university is subscribed through a bunch of journals through the athensams.co.uk but you could also pull up some relevant *NEW* stuff from sciencedirect.com has some free ones too Blackwell-synergy PubMed group etc! Also people talk alot about not using google, but youll get some good leads with google aswell if you phrase your sentences properly as though you were writing a paper yourself!