In anticipation of NIH announcing a closely-watched decision on the potential retirement of hundreds of federally-funded chimpanzees, Science is hosting a live chat this afternoon at 3 p.m. EDT. The chat features several well-known scientists who will discuss some key issues relevant to the future of chimpanzee research, including: “What, if any, research should continue … Continue reading Today’s Science live chat: Scientists discuss ethics of studying chimpanzees in captivity
Month: May 2013
Pro-Test to rise again
The following press release from Pro-Test Italia has had links added. Pro-Test rises again: Scientists in Italy follow UK Lead and Stand up to Animal Rights Extremism On Saturday 1 June 2013, hundreds of Italian researchers are to take to the streets of Milan in defence of lifesaving medical and veterinary research. In a demonstration … Continue reading Pro-Test to rise again
Animal research leads to promising results for first clinical trial of stem cell therapy for stroke
The BBC reported yesterday that a small trial of a stem cell therapy developed by the biotech firm Reneuron has produced promising results, with 5 of the 9 patients enrolled in the trial showing unexpected improvements. The improvements were unexpected because the trial was intended to assess the safety of the technique, and the scientists … Continue reading Animal research leads to promising results for first clinical trial of stem cell therapy for stroke
How to distort 0.004% of the statistics
This is the second guest post by Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, who is head of the division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research in London. After an earlier post which debunked myths about the nine-out-of-ten drug failure rate, Prof. Lovell-Badge has taken on the claim … Continue reading How to distort 0.004% of the statistics
Animal rights activism and medicine 100 years ago
There is a rather interesting book, Animal Experimentation and Medical Progress by William Williams Keen, published in 1914, which describes some of the incidents in the animal research debate during the early 1900s. What is striking about this book is that it illustrates very clearly how little (if at all) the arguments and tactics of animal … Continue reading Animal rights activism and medicine 100 years ago
Challenging Scientific Dishonesty Across Italy
With the Pro-Test Italia rally only 2 weeks away, there is a growing movement against the widespread misrepresentation of science in Italy. To counter this, two members of Pro-Test Italia - Giulia and Federico - have set up "Italy United against Scientific Disinformation". They will hold a set of public talks around Italy on June … Continue reading Challenging Scientific Dishonesty Across Italy
First human stem cells created through cloning…thank Mitalipov’s macaques!
Today is one of those days that will go down in medical and scientific history, the day that scientists at Oregon Health and Science University led by Professor Shoukhrat Mitalipov announced that they had successfully created pluripotent human stem cells by cloning skin cells. This is the first time that this has been accomplished in human cells, … Continue reading First human stem cells created through cloning…thank Mitalipov’s macaques!
Skeptical Science: Debunking Animal Rights Misinformation
Speaking of Research regularly puts its efforts into debunking the pseudoscience put about by animal rights groups. This post aims to bring together some of the more popular of those articles. Naturally, much of our debunking exists on our “Bad Science” page, where we explain the science behind some of the so called “myths of … Continue reading Skeptical Science: Debunking Animal Rights Misinformation
Speaking of Research 