Yes, commercial aviation and shipping cost lives in the name of profits, but that's the point, there's a profit to be made. Where's the huge trade contract with Mars or Pluto? Where's the jumbo mining consortium lining up to send a mission to the asteroid belt? When space becomes a business (as it will, everything does, and private companies start launching privately trained and employed astronauts, you'll see the safety margin drop. And yes, the rate of progress will probably skyrocket.
Actually, the use of embryonic cortical cells as source tissue is a temporary thing...
Other groups are starting to isolate neural stem cells from adult tissue, which in itself isn't a huge step forward (this translates to grinding up cadaver brains), but still other groups are perfecting methods to isolate totipotent stem cells (i.e. they can become any cell type, including neurons) from bone marrow; extracting bone marrow is easy (and trivial to someone facing Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.
Don't worry, if this procedure actually works in people (no guarantees), it won't be at the cost of unborn Christian babies (somewhere a demon is sighing...)
First of all, your analogy to shared mineral content with rocks is specious; rocks don't reproduce or evolve (although they can change form and content over time).
ultimately it doesn't prove anything along the lines of "we are descended from bacteria".
True, and short of traveling backwards in time we'll never aquire this sort of proof. We can say that all of the facts are consistent with human descent from simpler ancestral forms.
How are AAAS members selected? What do we know about their expertise or their interests? AAAS gets so much power since they will be trusted by judges and judges will rely on AAAS members' opinions. Who willcontrol AAAS?
Membership in AAAS is largely merit-based: members are usually senior scientists who have a long record of distinguished research. Nominees are elected in a process that is similar to the peer review process for publishing scientific papers. In other words these people are as "expert" as you can get. Also, the society is largely symbolic; their only agenda is getting more funding for research. Also, it sounds like some sort of screening process will be in place.
The biggest challenge will still be getting the jury to truly understand the scientific concepts that are being presented. Ignorance of these principles can indeed lead to miscarriages of justice; just ask OJ.
Actually, "they" didn't create it. It evolved naturally. The specific "radiodurans" refers to its ability to repair DNA damage of the sort that can be caused by radiation.
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Yes, commercial aviation and shipping cost lives in the name of profits, but that's the point, there's a profit to be made. Where's the huge trade contract with Mars or Pluto? Where's the jumbo mining consortium lining up to send a mission to the asteroid belt? When space becomes a business (as it will, everything does, and private companies start launching privately trained and employed astronauts, you'll see the safety margin drop. And yes, the rate of progress will probably skyrocket.
Other groups are starting to isolate neural stem cells from adult tissue, which in itself isn't a huge step forward (this translates to grinding up cadaver brains), but still other groups are perfecting methods to isolate totipotent stem cells (i.e. they can become any cell type, including neurons) from bone marrow; extracting bone marrow is easy (and trivial to someone facing Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.
Don't worry, if this procedure actually works in people (no guarantees), it won't be at the cost of unborn Christian babies (somewhere a demon is sighing...)
ultimately it doesn't prove anything along the lines of "we are descended from bacteria".
True, and short of traveling backwards in time we'll never aquire this sort of proof. We can say that all of the facts are consistent with human descent from simpler ancestral forms.
Membership in AAAS is largely merit-based: members are usually senior scientists who have a long record of distinguished research. Nominees are elected in a process that is similar to the peer review process for publishing scientific papers. In other words these people are as "expert" as you can get. Also, the society is largely symbolic; their only agenda is getting more funding for research. Also, it sounds like some sort of screening process will be in place.
The biggest challenge will still be getting the jury to truly understand the scientific concepts that are being presented. Ignorance of these principles can indeed lead to miscarriages of justice; just ask OJ.
Actually, "they" didn't create it. It evolved naturally. The specific "radiodurans" refers to its ability to repair DNA damage of the sort that can be caused by radiation.