Organisms from insects to humans create their own natural protein based antibiotics in order to ward off microbes. Now, chemists are using supercomputers to model new drugs that will work the same way in humans and may lead to new and better antibiotics. Chemist William DeGrado and his company PolyMedix has created such a drug […]

Jonah Lehrer writes about neuroscience and that part of the brain found to control insight where the brain makes incredible remote connections. See The Eureka Hunt in The New Yorker July 28,2008.  The aha moment–when an answer pops into our head seemingly out of the blue and when we know it is right, happens in a […]

Virtual biobank is a  developing concept created to assist researchers in tracking human tissue samples for testing and data mining towards new disease therapies. The concept of a central biobank containing the greatest numbers of tissue samples that are analyzed and translated into usable data, has failed to develop as a result of privacy concerns […]

Researchers are now testing a novel new treatment to treat cancer by encapsulating tumor cells in seaweed and implanting them into the stomachs of cancer patients. The process causes the body to send a message to the cancerous growth to stop proliferating. The research is being done at the Rogosin Institute affiliated with Weill Cornell […]

The Emperor of All Maladies, a book by Siddhartha Mukerjee M.D. a physician oncologist is subtitled a “biography of cancer”. It appears to be an historical overview of the disease. I say appears because I have not read it yet. What caught my eye was the title of the book review of Dr. M’s book: […]

FutureVigil’s focus during the coming year will be about  the significant work being done on the brain and our increasing understanding of how it works. Some of this stems from studies using Functional MRI imaging and PET scans and others are animal studies which are leading to clinical trials. Jonah Lehrer, who writes about neuroscience […]

A pacemaker like upper airway stimulation therapy unit is entering limited patient trials in the US and Europe and is hope to be an asnwer for the 12 million Americans suffering from obstructive sleep apnea. The new system sends a small electrical stimulation to the nerve at the base of the tongue in order to […]

The pressure is now on FACEBOOK to make the move and go public, in part due to special rules of the Security Exchange Commission relating to the amount of private stock issued in a company and the securities issues that arise when private companies are so large that informal trading already occurs. The SEC is […]

Imagine you are a child attending one of our public schools, being raised as a Humanist,within a family which does not believe in the existence of a God. Each morning, you are required to recite or remain silent while everyone recites the pledge of allegiance including the words “One nation under God…” A friend of mine, David […]

In his annual end of the year address to the College of Cardinals and representatives of the Roman Curia, the Pope said that the scandal of the sexual abuse of children by Catholic Clergy was the fault not just of the Church but also with the “context of our times”. He equated child pornography with […]