The News Review:
- Whole Genome Promoter Mapping — Human Genome Project v2.0?
- Key to rare killer disease found
- PEGGY NOONAN
- Samir Morcos: The mirror of the Copt
- General News of Wednesday, 29 June 2005
Whole Genome Promoter Mapping — Human Genome Project v2.0?
Newswise – Newswise (press release) – Jun 29, 2005
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LibrariesScience News KeywordsPROMOTERS GENOME MAPPINGContact InformationAvailable for logged-in reporters onlyDescriptionInvestigators have developed an efficient method to identify thousands of regulatory sequences in the human genome, according to a study. Genes are defined by their ability to generate a functional product… He and his colleagues have made the data freely available on online public databases. Robert Strausberg, Vice-President of Human Genomic Medicine at the J. Craig Venter Institute, says that this understanding is vital for determining the genetic causes of, and possible genomic solutions for, diseases such as cancer. “Medicine is increasingly turning towards the idea of using genetic markers for diagnosis and prognosis, or determining personalized therapies, so-called pharmacogenetics, but we don’t know how these genes are regulated or even related to each other. The identification of such a large number of promoters means that we can begin to answer these sorts of questions. ”The authors of this study were: Tae Hoon Kim, Leah O.
Key to rare killer disease found
The Standard – Jun 29, 2005
Death is usually caused by ailments associated with old age, such as progressive
cardiovascular disease. However, according to the Progeria Network, various other features associated
with the normal aging process, such as cataracts and osteoarthritis, are not
seen in children with progeria. The results of the HKU research are published this month in the leading
international scientific journal Nature Medicine. li@singtaonewscorp.
PEGGY NOONAN
Opinion Journal – Jun 29, 2005
I didn’t set aside my character. And I sure as heck didn’t set aside my principles. I got into politics for the same reason I got into medicine. I wanted to help people. And I wanted to heal. I just felt that, in politics, I could help and heal more than one patient at a time. I admire Bill Frist, but can you imagine George Washington referring in public, or in private for that matter, to his many virtues? In normal America if you have a high character you don’t wrestle people to the ground until they acknowledge it… He bears within him deep reservoirs of sweetness, and the reservoirs often overflow. It was embarrassing to see America’s two most famous political grifters plop themselves in the first row dressed in telegenic silk and allow themselves to become the focus of sweet words they knew would come. Why did they feel it right to inject a partisan political component into a spiritual event? Why take advantage of the good nature and generosity of an old hero? Why, after spending their entire adulthoods in public life, have they not developed or at least learned to imitate simple class?
How exactly does it work? How does legitimate self-confidence become wildly inflated self-regard? How does self respect become unblinking conceit? How exactly does one’s character become destabilized in Washington?
The Supreme Court this week and last issued many rulings, and though they were on different issues the decisions themselves had at least one thing in common: They seemed to reflect a lack of basic human modesty on the part of many of the justices. Many are famously very old, and they have been together as a court for a very long time. One wonders if they have lost all understanding of how privileged they are to have lifetime sinecures of power and authority. Do they have any sense anymore of common human wisdom, of the normal human arrangements by which Americans live?
Maybe a lot of them aren’t bothering to think. Maybe Ruth Bader Ginsburg is no longer in the habit of listening to arguments but only of watching William Rehnquist, and if he nods up and down she knows to vote “no,” and if he shakes his head she knows to vote “yes.
Samir Morcos: The mirror of the Copt
Al-Ahram Weekly – Jun 29, 2005
English was the emphasis, not mission. " Like many middle-class families, his was keen on education. His paternal uncles had attended university in England but his father, deterred by World War II, studied medicine at Cairo University. He was not alone in the post-colonial dilemma: "I can clearly separate Western culture from Western imperialism. I respect the culture and dislike the politics. " This is reflected in his being something of an anglophile, all things considered: a pipe smoker, he will like a restaurant as much for its Victorian décor as anything. On graduating from the Faculty of Agriculture at Ain Shams University, he taught secondary school science at his alma mater… " For Morcos and Fouad’s friend Marie Assaad, former deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches, "the word muwatana (citizenship)" is what Morcos stands for. As a discourse, indeed, "citizenship" flouts both "minority" and "sectarianism": "This is the choice I’ve made: to try to recapture the nationalist sentiment of Egypt in 1919 — one nation with many individual citizens. " Morcos aspires to objectivity: the Kosheh incident, he has written, was not of a purely religious nature; other events in Upper Egypt were. Such views ironically place him in a problematic relation with much of the Coptic community, "people who never tire of remembering Al-Hakem Bi’amrillah", the Fatimid caliph most notorious for persecuting Copts, for example. Morcos has no patience for such people: "I read Fatimid history specifically to find out the story of this man. First of all, there were two periods of Fatimid rule. The first was a time of economic and cultural buoyancy; Copts were never persecuted at that time.
General News of Wednesday, 29 June 2005
ghanaweb.com – Jun 29, 2005
The 46th Session of the Organization of Africa Unit (OAU) now AU instituted the day to reflect on the immense contribution of African scientists to the development of learning, medicine, numeric, social development and other fields of human endeavour. This year’s celebration is on the theme: “Science and Technology for Sustainable Environmental Sanitation”, is to remind the Continent of the choked problems of waste disposal and the need to healthy sanitation practices based on scientific innovations. A statement signed by Kweku Sersah-Johnson, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, said the solution to the swelling population and alarming depletion of resources needed to support life was in the effective harnessing of science and technology for sustainable development. It said: “One of the greatest problems confronting Africa is its swelling population and the alarming rate of dwindling resources needed to support it. “Until African governments re-examine their developmental agenda to get its science and technology fundamentals right, the Continent’s labour shall be in vain… The statement said although Ghana had its own national vision for poverty reduction aimed at the elimination of extreme poverty, the global community under the UN was dragging Africa along in the programme to reduce poverty by halve by the year 2015 under the Millennium Development Goal. “The Continent and Ghana cannot but rely on our researchers and scientists to provide the needed support for the attainment of the goals. The Ministry called on scientists to work toward the improvement of agriculture and industry and to understand and apply the complex inter-relationship of nature and science to address the competing interest and needs of society. It also called for the intensification of scientific education both at the secondary and tertiary level for the appropriate development of capacity to ensure that the country had high calibre of technical and scientific personnel needed for the achievement of her development objectives. The Ministry reiterated its confidence in the scientists of Africa and Ghana for their capability in spearheading the revolution to lift the Continent up in the socio-economic echelons with the appropriate technology. Activities to mark the Day in Ghana include debate in schools; quiz competitions; an exhibition and a national durbar.
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