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Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of 2007
Josh Fink writes "Time Magazine has a piece about the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2007. '#1. Stem Cell Breakthroughs - In November, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University and molecular biologist James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin reported that they had reprogrammed regular skin cells to behave just like embryonic stem cells. The breakthrough may someday allow scientists to create stem cells without destroying embryos -- sidestepping the sticky ethical issues and opposition from the U.S. government that surround embryonic stem-cell research -- but that day is still a ways off. ' Also included in the top 10 editorial are pieces on the top 10 medical breakthroughs, the top 10 man made disasters and the top 10 green 'ideas'."
Top 10 most duped articles.
Let us not become the evil that we deplore.
Strange...Windows Vista didn't make the list...hmm
"opposition from the U.S. government"
Should read
"opposition from the Bush Administration"
Warning: This article links to four top ten lists that only display one item at a time.
I hope Time gets paid per impression because that's the only way they'll get ad revenue from me. (And viewing all of those forty pages seems like a good way to punish the advertizers who enable articles like these.)
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A couple of the "scientific discoveries" weren't really that important to science. Discovering the brightest supernova or the oldest living animal have their merit, but really they're just interesting things that people found. Something like this deserved to be on the list instead: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/22/photon-storage.html
Seek and ye shall find.
Lost in the "Oh goody, non embrionic stem cells" congradulatory bit on the part of the zealots is they forget that this is also "big step towards human cloning".
I want my clone damnit!
Test your net with Netalyzr
And more importantly, since these stem cells will have the exact genetic material (slightly shorter telomeres, but theres so much junk at the end it would take a total of about 500 no-telomerase activity years of life before that cause any genetic difference that would impact organsim traits) of an organizm that can be examined and studied, a lot more use experimentation can be performed with them, with a lot less effort.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
1. Changing to D2 /. anniversary t-shirt.
2. Coming up with a good critique of why there isn't really a top "10"
3. extend that with how it belittles the rest of the work that has been done
4. complain about not gettin
5. Change sig
6.
import system.cool.Sig;
Soon to come... the Top Ten Green Ideas Turned Man-Made Disasters, and the Top Ten Man-Made Disasters Turned Medical Breakthroughs.
... 2007 hasn't ended yet!
(I hate these "top X of this year" before the year has even ended, though at least this one is less than a month early)
In October, researchers from Bangor University in Wales were trawling an ocean shelf off the coast of north Iceland when they stumbled on what is believed to be the world's oldest living animal: a 405 year-old clam. Or it was living, until researchers had to kill it to determine the clam's age by studying rings on its shell.
Aren't we just a great at discovering?
If only I could go back in time and prevent the discovery of the Top Ten list.
Inventing Toilet paper HAS to be high on the discoveries list... Unless you still get the Sears catalog. I've yet to meet a scientist who hasn't used it.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
This has to be the best....
They discover a 405 year-old clam... until researchers had to kill it to determine the clam's age by studying rings on its shell.
Then they killed it.
All very nice in a "boys book of wonders" way, but very little in the way of actionable information. Maybe that's the way of pure science, but I was rather hoping that at least one of these discoveries would have a material effect on my life. (
(and no, I don't think mapping Craig Venter's gemone counts).
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Um... toilet paper wasn't invented this year, buddy. Sorry if you just got the word.
Iraq
Without this press release, I would not have realized that Time Magazine was still publishing. Who knew?
Discovery #9 was the most interesting in my opinion. It's telling that scientists are willing to kill something for no other reason than to prove that it is, or was, the oldest living animal. Not sure about clams, but I'd much rather be anonymous and alive than famous and dead.
"hokey religions and taking a nap are no match for a stab in the head" -- Black Mage
Going through the list of disasters, I'm left wondering where the Indonesian mud volcano is.
Considering its permanently displaced 11,000 people, over 10KM squared. I'd say thats a far larger disaster then for example, a bridge collapsing in the states, or a plane killing 300.
It's killed 200 people, and was probably caused by the gas drilling company cutting corners on its drilling.
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11025-indonesian-mud-volcano-caused-by-gas-drilling.html
I'd personally have that at #1 or #2, i also question having global warming as the #1 man made disaster, since i don't consider it being a disaster yet. The worst that comes to my mind is hurricane Katrina, and even then, there is no decisive link to the two.
To avoid criticism; Say nothing, Do nothing, Be nothing.
I love that line. Can be taken as a claim that we cause the majority of it or just .00001% of it.
But it gets better. Basically Global Warming is at fault for all weather bad, specifically all weather events that costs us money. Regardless if the earth was warmer before, regarldess of the fact we don't know out own planet's ideal temperature, regardless of the fact we can't even forcast a year ahead, and finally - regardless of the fact that the people who win from all the Global Warming scare mongering are politicians and big business.
Then we have a plane wreck as #2? Followed by a retinue of things that more accidental than "purposely caused" With mining accidents it amazes me we still ignore the thousands who die in China in these accidents. We lose six or seven in America and it makes the top 10???
IPCC as the #1 green idea? That bunch of bad science and fraud? Using names without permission to bolster their claims and using the power of government to intimidate others? The second entry was not much better. All that GW and the green push accomplish at the government level is to give politicians new ways to spend money, new titles, and even more travel to exotic locations. Carbon Capping? Basically new embedded tax passed onto consumers so big dirty corporations can still pollute. Oh I know there is that part about "refund" to consumers from the government - but we know better don't we. It will come as targetted benefits to buy votes. Most of these green ideas reek of deperateness to find something to make a top ten list. I can think of ten better stories - top ten green developments - like improvements in solar cell manufacturing, CFLs, how many companies recycle their waste for fuel (McDs in England) and such.
Now the medical section was much better. At least here we had some real good entries. The difference here is that this is real science, where the green section isn't science half the time. The diabetes news from last year was great. We are well on our way to getting people off of needles.
Sorry but Time's top ten lists are more politically motivated and to curry favor with certain groups than to provide any real knowledge or laud accomplishmen. Notice how their top ten disasters are not in countries that might react badly towards their reporters in the future? Stick to areas like the medical advances, put in another for technological advances, and ditch the political spin crap ideas and we might have lists worth a damn, lists that tell people what really means something.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Make top20. Then you can have 20 pages full of ads instead of just 10.
I realize global warming is popular, but it's a bit early to declare it the #1 man-made disaster. First of all, the jury is still out on whether or not humans contribute in a significant way to global warming. #2 It hasn't caused any disasters yet. 10 more years of research and allowing the political skew to die down will give us a much clearer view of what is really happening.
In October, researchers from Bangor University in Wales were trawling an ocean shelf off the coast of north Iceland when they stumbled on what is believed to be the world's oldest living animal: a 405 year-old clam. Or it was living, until researchers had to kill it to determine the clam's age by studying rings on its shell.
:P
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
Maybe next year they will discover that you can put more than one paragraph on a web page.
since the pharmco's are the 3rd most profitable industry to invest in, and i'm sure Mr. Bush has friends in that dept, maybe the whole "ethical" issue is really just wagging the dog?
...regarldess [sic] of the fact we don't know out own planet's ideal temperature...
I can't believe you Global-Warming-Deniers even bother with such an assinine arguement. Unless everybody on the entire planet has infinite mobility, it is quite apparent that ANY deviation from the established norm spells disaster. Populations shift with climate change and have established themselves according to the CURRENT climate. When change comes too abruptly (whether or not toward some idiotic "ideal temperature" idea), there will be floods, droughts, starvation, war, and a lot of death.
I can't wait for the day when just using the word "embryonic" will get you called a "zealot"
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Yeah, they are a bunch of frauds : /sarcasm.
1/ they let politicians water down their statements.
2/ they don't account for feedback-mechanisms like the methane-release of the perma-frost.
Well, technically the clone should be modded redundant but no one here checks the post times so he probably would be.
Your post is so empty of logic that it is hard to debunk it because your claims are not even self-consistent with one another. Seriously, didn't you just say global warming was a fraud? Yet carbon capping is an excuse for business continuing to pollute? But carbon is not a pollutant? Oh you meant all the OTHER pollution from fossil fuels? Which is why there is no sense in capping their use and it is just a fraud? So restricting fossil fuel use due to carbon emissions is just an excuse to use more fossil fuels, and this is bad because fossil fuels emit pollution? Do you per chance just spew out arbitrary nonsense without thinking about it, thus ending up contradicting yourself? It certainly seems that way.
Calling someone a "zealot" for not wanting to kill babies for research is a bit much. I'm not religious whatsoever, but I'm still morally against it. This is also not a step towards human cloning. We've had access to stem cells before, and some scientists have been progressing towards this goal for awhile. This will not progress them much. This is a step towards mass producing these cells for the purpose of cloning individual organs for patients requiring transplants.
6. Finish Top 10 things I've procrastinated list.
*Populations shift with climate change and have established themselves according to the CURRENT climate*
There are two fallacies in your argument.
First, we have established ourselves according to past climate, the climate was not always what it currently is, we inherit evolution and establishment from previous period, so our current climate may not be optimal.
Second, even if we adapt to a specific environment, it does not imply we cannot be more fitted to another environment.
A blind person may adapt his habits to his handicap, if one day he becomes able to see, he can still be better off although he has previously adapted to blindness. (note to morons, this is not a comparison, this is an example illustrating a generic fallacy about adaptation applied by the parent to earth's climate)
\u262D = \u5350
The most pointless one was "kryptonite." It has no scientific importance, and the rock in question doesn't have any of the properties of kryptonite -- it was just a coincidence in naming.
Someone involved with the movie "Superman Returns" decided to make up a name for a mineral because the plot had Lex Luthor stealing it from a museum. They used a standard mineral naming scheme. Then someone happened to find a mineral that matched the description.
At least the "transparent aluminum" a while back was actually transparent.
It may be worth noting that Superman is a DC Comics character, and DC is owned by Time Warner.
There, fixed it for you.
Why not wait until 2008 starts, then they don't run the risk of "Cancer Cure Found!!!" occurring on the 31st December. I know it's not very likely, since all the scientists will likely not be inventing any more, but getting hammered every day until the holidays are over, but still...
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
From the Top Ten Biggest Blunders...
#9. Researchers kill world's oldest living animal
In October, researchers stumbled on what is believed to be the world's oldest living animal: a 405 year-old clam.
Or it was living, until researchers had to kill it to determine the clam's age by studying rings on its shell.
D'oh!
So it goes ... some people will never accept their responsibility vis-a-vis future generations.
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
That is, the green idea that was a *medical breakthrough* and became a man made disaster.
If you go to the Times top Man-made disaster, you see global warming, and a picture of a shrunken Arctic ice cap. But even cursory examination shows the truth. It is actually South America totally covered in cocaine. SA was subject to a horrendous experiment by the Columbian-CIA industrial complex, which wanted to create cocaine using GM yeast in a vat. (The CIA were out to undermine the Teleban poppy growers.) The vat broke, the yeast blew on the wind, and all of SA became covered in cocaine.
So the Pentagon towed SA up to the Arctic to hide the fiasco until after the Presidential elections. It's the usual story. What people think is SA now is just a polystyrene simulacrum made by Weta workshops during filming of King Kong. It's better than the original, and the polystyrene acts as a carbon sink.
But don't tell anyone, or else Weta will have to give up making films and concentrate on making Atlantis or something similar.
IMO, the discover that may end up having the most impact will end up being the guys who discovered what atmospheric conditions are most condusive to the transmission of Influenza.
Don't want to get sick?, crank up the heat, and plug in that humidifier.
I want a "-1 Troll," you skanky, dog diddling, microencephalic mods. Thanks in advance.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
First, we have established ourselves according to past climate, the climate was not always what it currently is, we inherit evolution and establishment from previous period, so our current climate may not be optimal. Second, even if we adapt to a specific environment, it does not imply we cannot be more fitted to another environment.
Your lack of intelligence is shining very brightly. Yes, of course climate has changed in the past and people have migrated. The problem is not climate change in itself, it is the RATE of change that makes it a problem. This is the first time in the history of the Earth that a species actions affect the climate so markedly. It's an impulse function and we don't know what the system's response will be until it's too late. Second, of course some other environment might be better, but changing it to even an ideal environment too quickly is devastating. The Earth is not your living room, where you can just crank up the furnace when you get cold!
[Overheard at fertility clinic] - it's a good job these embryos weren't going to be used for medical purposes.
(sound of pedal bin opening)
(sound of petri dishes hitting the inside of the bin)
(sound of lid closing)
I did a quick look on Google: in 2003, there were 400,000 frozen embryos in fertility clinics in the US. And that was revealed when the previous estimates ranged from the tens of thousands to 200,000 frozen embryos, with many estimates hovering around 100,000.
Somehow, and call me an old cynic if you like, I don't see 400,000 right-to-life women foregoing their own genetic heritage in order to give these fertilized eggs a home. They're not going to be viable, frozen as they are, indefinitely.
I'm a pragmatist. Recycle what we can re-use if we can. You may disagree with me, you may agree with me, but history shows that science and progress only gets held back for so long in one place before it thrives and benefits another place. And please don't try to appeal to my humane side: just look at the world around you. Look at the news. Life is cheap even if you're bigger than a kidney bean. It's time we started getting Vulcan on these embryos and started considering the needs of the many.
Shiny. Let's be bad guys...
I half expected the iPhone to be on that list...
They are not babies, they are embryos.
Ever heard of green algae? Those nasty little critters started releasing this toxic waste called Oxygen into the atmosphere poisoning practically the entire biosystem. The effects of their actions persist even to today.
And that tends to change on how you define an embryo. According to some an embryo is a fertilized ovum, according to others it is a partically developed organism that stands a fair chance of being carried to term. The line is blurry and as with all of natures works it defies definition and can not be caught in a simple binary category. It's a continuum, just like 'tall' and 'hot'. Some collections of cells are more of an embryo than others, with a 'peak' of 'embryoness' somewhere in those magical 9 months. A born baby is not an embryo, a fertilized ovum probably also isn't one.
MP3 Search Engine
The parent is making a claim about the climate level, not the climate rate of change. I am pointing out that his argument is fallacious, period.
\u262D = \u5350
Swooooosh!
I mean, I know I'm not adding anything to the discussion, and that I'm off-topic here, but.. COME ON PEOPLE! I hate it when people _must_ spell out the obvious!
And now for the Flame/Troll part (so I'm certain to me modded down): You must be american. Sorry, I'm in a bad mood.
The point is that since Global Warming is the #1 man-made disaster of 2007, we won't have to worry about it for much longer. After all, it'll be 2008 in a few short weeks.
Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. It is the natural byproduct of your respiration.
Burning fossil fuels emits pollutants as well as water vapor and carbon dioxide.
The comments make perfect sense unless you are one of those who believe that with every breath you take, you inch the world closer to global catastrophe.
As for the rest of your comment, it is as discombobulated as you imagine the previous post is.
zealot! :P
Nobody doubts anymore blah blah blah
Time didn't ask these guys:
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=c9554887-802a-23ad-4303-68f67ebd151c
6. ???
:P
7. Profit!
Sorry, couldn't resist
"Life in North Korea is one long, man-made disaster..."
Take that Kim Jong-il
10. Garnered excellent slashdot karma, and what's more did it accidentally
9. Showed up at work enough times to not get fired
8. Showed up at work on time enough times to not get fired
7. Avoided house fires
6. Drank like a fish
5. Avoided hospititalization after falling on my head
4. Got my nerd license suspended by getting a really good looking female roomate
3. Avoided DUI by walking home from the bars
2. Didn't get murdered despite the fact that a lot of guys think i'm fucking their wives and girlfriends
1. Got laid by seven different woman in a single year!!!
Oh shit what happened to my slashdot karma? Where's that damned nerd license? Oh hell...
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
#1. Stem Cell Breakthroughs
Scientists reprogrammed regular skin cells to behave just like embryonic stem cells.
#2. Human Mapped
J. Craig Venter published his entire "diploid" genetic sequence, or all the DNA in both sets of chromosomes inherited from each of his parents -- the first such genome ever published of a single person.
#3. Brightest Supernova Recorded
It was the first time scientists saw the death of a star as large as SN 2006gy, which was approximately 100 to 200 times the size of the sun.
#4. Hundreds of New Species
700 new species of organisms -- including carnivorous sponges and giant sea spiders -- some 2,300 ft. to 19,700 ft. (700 m to 6,000 m) down in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica.
#5. Building a Human Heart Valve
Scientists grew bone marrow stem cells into functioning human heart-valve tissue.
#6. "Hot Jupiters" Discovered
British scientists identified three new planets outside our own Solar System...The new planets, named WASP-3, WASP-4 and WASP-5, are about the size of Jupiter, and orbit so close to their suns that their surface temperature reaches some 2,000C.
#7. A Big Birdlike Dinosaur
Scientists discovered a birdlike dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago, was 3,000-lb. and was a young adult.
#8. Man's Migration Out of Africa
A skull discovered in South Africa in 1952 revealed the first fossil evidence that modern humans left Africa between 65,000 and 25,000 years ago.
#9. The World's Oldest Animal
Researchers stumbled on what is believed to be the world's oldest living animal: a 405 year-old clam.
#10. Real-Life Kryptonite
A mineralologist discovered a white, powdery mineral that has the same properties - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide -- as the fictional kryptonite.
My comments here are my own; I do not speak for my employer.
Oh yes. This is sometimes referred to the "Oxygen Holocaust" because, although it was a boon to life using energy and moving out of the oceans, the oxygen was toxic to many existing lifeforms and wiped them out. If Global Warming ever caused a change anywhere near as severe us humans would be royally and truly fucked. But you can be sure that life on earth would eventually thrive afterwards.
Happy people make bad consumers.
Can someone make a Top10 of the Top10? I don`t want to go through all those pages :/
I'm anaerobic you insensitive clod!
Calling someone a "zealot" for not wanting to kill babies for research is a bit much.
Completely avoiding the issue of whether an embryo is a "baby" or not, we do lots of medical research on cadavers. We don't go around killing people in order to obtain cadavers for that research, any more than people go around creating and destroying embryos solely to perform research on. I find it strange that learning about human biology is perfectly okay with the remains of a 90 year old man, but not with the remains of an aborted fetus.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
Bullshit. Read the parent again. You are wrong on both counts.
Also, if you don't think carbon dioxide can be a pollutant, try this little experiment. Tie a plastic bag around your head. Make sure you tie off the end so as to form a perfect seal around your neck. Then, breathe in and out deeply for several minutes. If the experiment goes as I predict it will, there will be one less dumbass (or possibly one less oil industry shill) in the world.
Similar to the upcoming US election results
The bit about the oldest living animal astounds me in particular, as it reminded me of Prometheus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_%28tree%29). Prometheus was a 5,000 year old tree that was killed in the process of determining its age.. History has a way of repeating itself.
-Troll, Flamebait, and Offtopic are NOT equivalent to disagreement.
dunno why my link didn't work.. let's try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_(tree)
-Troll, Flamebait, and Offtopic are NOT equivalent to disagreement.
Spoken like a true global warming acolyte.
Excuse me while I go burn down a forest and maybe catch a few enviro-wackos sitting in trees.
Hmm. I hadn't thought of it that way until now, but producing molecular oxygen that "poisoned" the environment, killing most other species competing for the same space, would have been a real evolutionary advantage for the organisms that could do it. In an "anaerobic" world, it would have worked even better than producing antibiotics.
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
The "#4 Medical Breakthrough" is Alli, a new OTC form of the drug orlistat, which was FDA approved in 1999 and has been marketed for years as the prescription drug Xenical. The only "breakthrough" was getting it approved for OTC use.
Similar to the upcoming US election results
How can you possibly doubt that global warming is the cause of disasters worldwide? It's even causing Antarctic dinosaurs.
[Insert pithy quote here]
But it gets better. Basically Global Warming is at fault for all weather bad
Now where does it say that?
Regardless if the earth was warmer before,
Thank you, this is known to everyone and accounted for. It is the rate of change that is scary.
regarldess of the fact we don't know out own planet's ideal temperature
There is no such thing as an ideal temperature, and no one has claimed that there is.
regardless of the fact we can't even forcast a year ahead
Climate is not the same thing as weather.
regardless of the fact that the people who win from all the Global Warming scare mongering are politicians and big business.
No, if global warming and its predicted consequences are real, we all lose.
IPCC as the #1 green idea? That bunch of bad science and fraud?
Any proof of these claims?
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
FTA:
> #9. The World's Oldest Animal
>
> In October, researchers from Bangor University in Wales were trawling an ocean shelf
> off the coast of north Iceland when they stumbled on what is believed to be the world's
> oldest living animal: a 405 year-old clam. Or it was living, until researchers had to
> kill it to determine the clam's age by studying rings on its shell.
You find what you suspect to be the world's oldest living animal. OF COURSE you kill it to check wether you're right.
Someone please whack those idiots.
What a depressingly stupid machine.
I just want to expand on the matter of climate versus weather, for all those Americans that seem to be confused (not the Americans that aren't... we know where Al Gore's from).
'Climate' is the big picture. Hundreds of weather-recording locations around the world, taking data for years and years.
'Weather' is the three-day forecast thing you check to see if you'll need your brolly. Sorry: umbrella.
Let's use an analogy for those Americans that are dragging the others down into the 3rd World: a NASCAR race. Knowing what the climate is doing is like knowing who's likely to win a NASCAR race when there's one lap to go (on a caution flag) because you've watched the whole race, you understand the rules of the race, and you have been paying attention. The weather for one day? That's like trying to figure out who won the race because you have a single picture. Taken at a totally random time during the race. Of a section of the track that may or may not have cars on it. And you don't know what lap the photo was taken on.
So the more I see some people doing the equivalent of waving that photo at me, saying "it was Dale that done won the race", the more I let you wave. Because you're putting your stupidity online, where it can be searched for years to come, and people that aren't paid by oil companies / aren't gullible / aren't in a state of fear will see just how manipulative / stupid / scared you were.
Shiny. Let's be bad guys...
Claiming that AIDS and HIV are unlinked is politicking, not science, just like claiming that humans are 'definitely' a cause of global warming, and that global warming is bad.
The CO2 content of the atmosphere does not cause the globe to heat up or cool down. Historically, CO2 levels and temperature correlate strongly. The problem is that CO2 levels peak about 800 years *after* temperature peaks, and only after a rise in temperature does the CO2 content of the atmosphere change.
Also, it is colder now, globally, than it was in the Medieval Warm Period, and there was no large-scale industrialization then (although there *was* a large leap forward for humankind). Likewise during about 3000 years in the Bronze Age, when humanity flourished and temperatures were higher still.
Got this from "The Great Global Warming Swindle", which is obviously biased. The UN panel on climate change correctly bashed that documentary on a few points, but the claims I repeat here they didn't touch. I wonder why? Maybe because they're actually correct?
See The Great Global Warming Swindle
Top 10 Man-Made Disasters:
1-10) IRAQ
it tasted like chicken.
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