Contemporary diagnostic criteria for autism have not changed much from the original descriptions offered by Leo Kanner in 1943 [1]. The three core features, which all individuals with autism must exhibit in order to be formally diagnosed, are impairments in social interaction, impairments in communication, and restricted and repetitive Read more…
In an earlier post, we tried to untangle some of the ethical issues surrounding the use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Miodrag Stojkovic (who incidentally produced Britain’s first human embryo clone) and his colleagues at the Prince Felipe Investigation Centre in Valencia, Spain, have managed to remove stem cells from blastocyst Read more…
Talk about culture shock. School starts Monday. I haven’t taught since last March. Cal Poly is on quarter system, and if you teach Summer Quarter as I did in 2005, you can either get extra money or take an academic quarter off. I chose to take off Spring Quarter. So Read more…
It surprises me greatly to wake up this morning on my 34th wedding anniversary. It took me a long time to be 34 years old, let alone be married that many years. One of my daughters had a poster in her dorm room of the ten steps to happiness. Step Read more…
The patient is a 23-year old woman, condemned to a vegetative state following a tragic automobile accident in 2005. Her sleep-waking cycles remain normal, but her eyes cannot focus or follow a person around the room. Adrian Owen and his colleagues [1] conducted fMRIs of the patient and 12 healthy Read more…