Michellekraus: RT @RepMikeHon. Elliot Washor: Making Their Way: Creating a Generation of "Thinkerers. "Rise above oneself and grasp the world. " -Archimedes (engraved on the Fields Medal) Making is making a comeback. A cornucopia of fabrication and tech labs public and private are sprouting throughout the country. Maker Faires -- sprawling outdoor extravaganzas that combine the atmosphere of a medieval fair with old low-tech and new high-tech garages -- are bringing makers of all ages together to share their work and their learning. These new expressions of "thinkering" bring the wizened tinkerer and the tech-savvy youth together in playful competitions that range from the serious and sublime to the deliberately frivolous and outrageous.
Fab labs provide makers with easy access to powerful and expensive technology tools in a community of like-minded minds. Making provides opportunities for young people to use their hands and their minds together. Making is a celebration of an alternative and powerful way of knowing and of thinking things through. Stem Cell Ruling Threatens Children's Cancer Research. The Media Consortium: Weekly Pulse: Stem Cell Hell, Bad Eggs, and DIY Abortions. By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger On Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that all federally funded human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research is illegal, thereby throwing the scientific community into turmoil.
The judge decided that any experiments on these cells is research "in which a human embryo is to be harmed or destroyed," and is therefore disqualified for federal funding under an obscure provision known as the Dickey Amendment. Researchers called the ruling "absolutely devastating. " The ruling flies in the face of science and logic. The lineage of stem cells The first line of human embryonic stem cells was created in 1998. According to the judge's logic, a scientist is destroying an embryo when she tests a drug on an embryonic stem cell that is the great-great-great-granddaughter of a cell that belonged to a 5-celled embryo that was destroyed in 1998.
Ignoring the facts What's next? Bad eggs Back alley abortions are back. U.S. to Freeze New Grants After Stem-Cell Decision.