Stem Cell Research to Produce Synthetic Blood for Tranfusions

Some of the benefits of allowing stem cell research:

Scientists in Britain plan to become the first in the world to produce unlimited amounts of synthetic human blood from embryonic stem cells for emergency infection-free transfusions.

A major research project is to be announced this week that will culminate in three years with the first transfusions into human volunteers of "synthetic" blood made from the stem cells of spare IVF embryos. It could help to save the lives of anyone from victims of traffic accidents to soldiers on a battlefield by revolutionising the vital blood transfusion services, which have to rely on a network of human donors to provide a constant supply of fresh blood.

And...

Scientists in other countries, notably Sweden, France and Australia, are also known to be working on the development of synthetic blood from embryonic stem cells. And last year, a team from a US biotechnology company, Advanced Cell Technology, announced that it has been able to produce billions of functioning red blood cells from embryonic stem cells. But the US work had been held up because of funding problems dating back to the ban on embryonic stem cell work under the Bush administration. President Barack Obama has since reversed that policy.

This is What Happens When Physicists Write Poetry

A Problem in Dynamics
James Clerk Maxwell

An inextensible heavy chain
Lies on a smooth horizontal plane,
An impulsive force is applied at A,
Required the initial motion of K.

Let ds be the infinitesimal link,
Of which for the present we've only to think;
Let T be the tension, and T + dT
The same for the end that is nearest to B.
Let a be put, by a common convention,
For the angle at M 'twixt OX and the tension;
Let Vt and Vn be ds's velocities,
Of which Vt along and Vn across it is;
Then Vn/Vt the tangent will equal,
Of the angle of starting worked out in the sequel...

Hat Tip: Build on Facts.

Informed Decisions

Freakonomics linked to this article today:

Doctors are adjusting their bedside manner as better informed patients make ever-increasing demands and expect to be listened to, and fully involved, in clinical decisions that directly affect their care. In a study just published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, Dr. J. Bohannon Mason of the Orthocarolina Hip and Knee Center in Charlotte, NC, USA, looks at the changes in society, the population and technology that are influencing the way patients view their orthopaedic surgeons. As patients gain knowledge, their attitude to medicine changes: They no longer show their doctors absolute and unquestionable respect.

Is this a blessing or a curse? On the one hand, developments in technology have produced more informed patients that do not blindly succumb to the will of their seemingly omnipotent physicians, and can use efficient internet tools in order to research information on signs, symptoms, diagnoses and procedures, statistics, risks, etc. On the other hand, these same factors have resulted in patients becoming more arrogant, disrespectful to doctors, and impetuous in selecting medical treatments. After all, looking up information on the internet is certainly no substitute for the experience and training that a typical physician would have acquired. It is also common that such a savvy patient would be more susceptible to medical marketing and influenced by factors other than evidence-based medicine.

Thoughts?