Eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in a breakthrough process that could change the face of parenthood.

It paves the way for infertile men and women, including those left sterile by cancer treatment, to have children that are biologically their own.

The ground-breaking research also raises the prospect of a ‘miracle pill’ that staves off the menopause, allowing women to wait longer to have a child.

But the ability to generate life from the earliest stages also raises myriad moral and ethical concerns.

These include the possibility of children being born through entirely artificial means and men and women being sidelined from the process of making babies.

The U.S. government-funded research, published in the prestigious journal Nature, centres on stem cells, ‘master cells’ widely seen as a repair kit for the body.

The Stanford University scientists found the right cocktail of chemicals and vitamins to coax the cells into turning into eggs and sperm.

The sperm had heads and short tails and are thought to have been mature enough to fertilise an egg.

Read more: Daily Mail

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Heavy Snow Disrupts Lives from Colorado to Dakotas

Snow will continue to cause problems for motorists, residents and travelers across the Rockies and High Plains through Thursday.

The storm dumping the snow will intensify into a blizzard over the northern High Plains. Already, snow totals have surpassed 2 feet on some of the higher terrain outside of Denver, Colorado.

The heaviest snow will stretch from Colorado to southeastern Wyoming Wednesday night, while rain continues to change to snow over the central and northern High Plains.

Travel on interstates 70, 80 and parts 25 through Colorado and Wyoming will remain slow and treacherous into Thursday.

Full Report – AccuWeather

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Despite a 30-year lifespan that gives ample time for cells to grow cancerous, a small rodent species called a naked mole rat has never been found with tumors of any kind—and now biologists at the University of Rochester think they know why.

The findings, presented in the October 26, 2009 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the mole rat’s cells express a gene called p16 that makes the cells “claustrophobic,” stopping the cells’ proliferation when too many of them crowd together, cutting off runaway growth before it can start. The effect of p16 is so pronounced that when researchers mutated the cells to induce a tumor, the cells’ growth barely changed, whereas regular mouse cells became fully cancerous.

“We think we’ve found the reason these mole rats don’t get cancer, and it’s a bit of a surprise,” say Vera Gorbunova and Andrei Seluanov, professors of biology at the University of Rochester and lead investigators on the discovery. “It’s very early to speculate about the implications, but if the effect of p16 can be simulated in humans we might have a way to halt cancer before it starts.”

Physorg

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What crime has the United States committed to initiate the UN to investigate us?

They UN may have already made up their minds that we are not providing enough affordable housing in urban areas. It’s no secret that our country has been going through the worst financial crisis it has ever faced.

At the heart of this crisis is the housing market, which has imploded in on itself. Many people have lost their homes because of this crisis and admittedly, that is not a good thing.

I fail to understand however, why the United Nations believes there is a basis for an investigation. Raquel Rolnik, an independent human rights expert for the United Nations, had this to say about the mortgage crisis last week.

The mortgage crisis that is at the heart of the current financial turmoil reflects “fundamental” flaws in the way countries approach housing, and highlights the danger in thinking that markets alone will ensure adequate housing for all.

Raquel Rolnik is the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing and she reports directly to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. You would think she would have enough on her hands with countries like Iran, Burma, and Darfur, but evidently our own government has different ideas. They were the ones who invited her to visit and check us out.

Here is the press release from the UN

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A Florida man says he was fired from his job at The Home Depot for wearing an American flag pin that said “One nation under God, indivisible.”Trevor Keezer, 20, said he had worn the button ever since he started working at the home improvement retailer 19 months ago. He said it was his way of supporting U.S. troops, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Keezer, whose brother Army Spc. Steven Keezer Jr. is set to return to Iraq in December, said none of his supervisors had anything negative to say about the pin until last month when he began bringing his bible to work, the paper reported.”That’s when I was told it had to come off, or I would be sent home,” Keezer told WPTV last week.”So they sent me home for six straight days without pay. And then today they terminated me.”

Home Depot spokesman Craig Fishel said he could not comment specifically on Keezer’s termination but said, “The company’s dress code policy states that we do not allow non-company buttons, regardless of their message or content.”Fishel said The Home Depot has its own sanctioned patriotic pins that employees have the option to wear.

Sun Sentinel

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