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Promising New Tool For Fighting Infections
Though it looks like a tiny purple blowtorch, a pencil-sized plume of plasma on the tip of a small probe remains at room temperature as it swiftly dismantles tough bacterial colonies deep inside a human tooth. But it"s not another futuristic product of George Lucas" imagination. It"s the exciting work of USC School of Dentistry and Viterbi School of Engineering researchers looking for new ways to safely fight tenacious biofilm infections in patients - and it could revolutionize many facets of medicine.
Polygraphy
Supreme Court Should Be 'Reined In' To Return Power To Legislative Branch, NYT Columnist Writes
Although Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor"s confirmation hearings are more than a month away, "it"s easy to predict how they will go," New York Times columnist Ross Douthat writes. Douthat predicts that Senate Judiciary Committee members "will attempt to divine Sotomayor"s position on a variety of controversial topics," such as abortion rights, and in "a series of polite, evasive answers, the nominee will feign a studious neutrality on almost every issue that could come before her during what"s likely to be decades as one of the most powerful women in the world." According to Douthat, the "deeper stakes" that likely will be ignored are that "Sotomayor will be joining a high court that"s gradually become a kind of extra legislative body." He cites research from Harvard Law School professor Jed Shugerman showing that the court over roughly the past 50 years has invalidated both state and federal statutes at an unprecedented rate. Douthat also points to data from Evan Caminker of the University of Michigan showing that in one eight-year period, the court invalidated 16 federal laws in 5-4 votes, something that occurred only 25 times in the previous two centuries. Douthat writes that "settling so many vexing controversies with 5-to-4 votes -- effectively making Anthony Kennedy the nation"s philosopher king -- is an awfully poor way to run a republic."Douthat continues that the "modern court"s most enduringly controversial power grabs -- with Roe v. Wade leading the way -- were usually the work of liberal justices" but that "in practice, the main divide between liberal and conservative judges tends to be over the responsibilities of the federal government, not judicial activism per se." He writes, "There are bipartisan ways that the Court could be reined in, and the legislative branch reinvigorated," including the idea of a supermajority rule that would require a 6-3 vote to overturn federal legislation. This idea "might spur the court toward greater consensus, and perhaps greater modesty as well," according to Douthat. Another possibility would be to implement 12-year term limits, he says. Douthat concludes that these suggestions would not "reduce the Supreme Court"s power directly, but it would help us see the court for what it has become -- a deeply political institution, as fallible as any other, and answerable, when all is said and done, to us" (Douthat, New York Times, 6/2).
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New Study May Help Understand How Alzheimer's Robs Sufferers Of Episodic Memory
Memory loss is love"s great thief. Those who suffer aren"t just the ones who can"t remember - family, friends and loved ones agonize over how to react when the disorder begins its often inexorable progress.
Health Insurance

Stem Cell Lawyer Says Let Women Be Paid For Egg Donations

Last week, New York became the first state in America to allow scientists to pay women for donating their eggs for use in stem cell research, triggering further ethical debate. Professor Loane Skene of the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne and Deputy Chair of the high-profile Lockhart Committee on Human Cloning and Embryo Research (2005) says women should be paid for the invasive procedure. "This is not lawful in Australia but if embryo research leads to new cures, this ban may be reconsidered," Professor Skene says. "Given the invasiveness of extracting eggs for donation to medical research, it seems reasonable for women to receive some financial compensation, " she says. Professor Skene says that although other organ donation is free in Australia, typically organs are donated to a family member or friend. "It is unusual that organ donation is done for a complete stranger. For the effort of undergoing surgery to help medical research, I think it is appropriate for women to be remunerated." "We would be living in a nanny state if we said women may be exploited for being paid for the procedure," she says. "People undertake risky jobs every day. This is no different to a consenting adult who knows the risks of surgery making an informed decision." "When there is a breakthrough in stem cell research we will find this will be the impetus for new laws. It will reflect the push from scientists and government to be able to further investigate revolutionary treatments in this emerging field." "Stem cell research is going to be a very competitive field. It is still very early days." Professor Skene will outline social, ethical and regulatory issues raised by developments in stem cell research and explore legal responses in Australia and globally, at the 4th David Danks Oration at the University of Melbourne on Tuesday 7 July. WHAT Public Lecture "Recent developments in stem cell research: social, ethical and legal issues for the future" WHEN 6:00 - 7:00pm, Tuesday 7 July 2009 WHERE Sunderland Lecture Theatre, ground floor, Medical Building, corner of Grattan Street and Royal Parade, The University of Melbourne, Parkville (Melways reference: Map 2B C7) University of Melbourne


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