the eye of Nova's mind

Florida Dad Beats Teen He Found Raping His Son | more -- " The dad will not be charged, said Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood, according to WESH-TV. 'Dad reacted like a dad,' Chitwood said. 'He's acting like a father, protecting his son, and he's furious over what has occurred.'"

More questions arise in probe of Fruitland Park police, KKK ties

Teens arrested in connection with deadly attack against homeless men: Two homeless men beaten to death while sleeping in vacant lot

Detroit Water and Sewerage suspends controversial water shutoffs for 15 days

Hopkins Settles Pelvic Exam Suits for $190 Million

The Trouble With "Lady Parts"

Drug offenders in federal prisons can seek shortened sentences

Eye test may be able to detect Alzheimer's decades before onset

Common Genes Implicated in Autism Study

Scientists Discover New Way to Make Human Platelets

Blow to multiple human species idea -- "Writing in Science, the team says that Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis and Homo erectus are all part of a single evolving lineage that led to modern humans."

Some Monkeys Have Conversations That Resemble Ours -- marmosets

Scans prove NFL brain drain -- Well, the league certainly settled their lawsuit at the right time.

Donor Eggs Increasingly Used for IVF, With Rising Success -- I had no idea that black women who use IVF experience lower rates of success. Interesting.

Teen girls in most deprived areas 5 times as likely to be assaulted

New research: 'Un-growth hormone' increases longevity

How exercise grows a healthy heart -- "The studies in mice suggest that exercise turns on a genetic program that leads the heart to grow as heart muscle cells divide."

Some brain tumors mimic the genetic program of germline cells

Milestone: A methane-metal marriage: UA scientists have inserted metal atoms into methane gas molecules -- a potential advancement for industrial hydrocarbon chemistry and our understanding of how nature uses metals in the molecules of living organisms

Researchers find gene that protects against dementia in high-risk individuals

You are what your father ate: UMMS research suggests paternal diet affects lipid metabolizing genes in offspring

Why must we compensate after buying gifts that threaten our identities? -- "If a vegetarian has to buy a steakhouse gift certificate for a friend, her discomfort will lead her to buy something else that reaffirms her identity, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research."

Ancient DNA points to additional New World Migration (thanks, davidfcooper)

Black and white twins: Brothers from the same mother -- Odds are "one in a million," but it seems to be happening a lot in the last handful of years. What I think would be amazing would be to have fraternal twins, opposite sex, different skin tone, hair type & eye color. That would be a sight to see.

Edit: Actually, I was thinking a little deeper than I'd originally stated. I'm imagining an egg that splits in two before fertilization and the two are fertilized by different sperm cells (the polar body phenomenon).

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In other news: 'Yeti hair' to get DNA analysis

120 or 180 Yrs Old? Experts Debate Limit of Aging

Fancy living another 100 years or more? Some experts said on Saturday that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last decades beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.

"I think we are knocking at the door of immortality," said Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. "I think by 2075 we will see it and that's a conservative estimate."

Zey spoke on the sidelines of the annual conference of the World Future Society, a group that ponders how the future will look across many different aspects of society.

In a presentation at the meeting in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in manipulating cells and genes as well as nanotechnology make it likely humans will live in the future beyond what has been possible in the past.

"What was science fiction a decade ago is no longer science fiction," he said.

"There is a dramatic and intensive push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years," he said. "Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years."

Outside the conference, many scientists who specialize in aging are skeptical of such claims and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and other organs will eventually condemn all humans.

"These people spout off as though a large part of the population is going to be able to do something like this. It's just way beyond reality," said Thomas Perls, who leads the New England Centenarian Study, the largest such analysis of the oldest of the old. "It's just pure science fiction."

"We are fast approaching what our bodies are capable of achieving," he said in a telephone interview. "To get even the average person to be 100 or to get them to 180 is like trying to get a space shuttle to Pluto."

Any dramatic extension of the human life span would depend on altering the onset of disabilities that accompany the aging process by changing one's genetic make up, said Harvey Cohen, director of the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development at Duke University Medical Center.

"It's certainly unlikely any time in the near future," he said in an interview. "Sure there is a possibility but there is no data currently available to suggest ways that would happen."

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