When the long-awaited Human Genome Project succeeded in 2003, mapping all the DNA, genes and chromosomes that operate the human body, it was hailed as a medical miracle, compared in scientific significance to the Apollo moon landings.
But the glow quickly faded. Progress has been slower and setbacks greater than expected, prompting some to say the whole idea is overblown, and research dollars could be better spent on other ways of fighting disease.
That’s about to change.
Researchers in South Florida and across the nation now are working on advances they say could soon create an explosion of new ways to prevent, detect, treat and someday even cure scores of intractable diseases.
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Saturday, June 25, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Iceland's Citizens Are Writing Its New Constitution Online
In the 18th century, if you wanted to draft a democratic constitution you crowded a handful of men into a room and hashed out the finer points of policy and philosophy until you had a document that was declared the law of the land. Same for the 19th and 20th centuries. But nowadays, the Internet--that great democratizer--is bringing a new kind of power to the people. Icelandic authorities overhauling that county’s constitution post-financial meltdown is tapping the power of the Web to allow citizens to give their two cents on how a new governing document should look.
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