Tag Archives: science

Turning Gay Mice Straight?

The science journal Nature has published a study claiming that the sexual orientation of mice can be changed with the neurotransmitter 5-HT. Although the question of to whom a male directs his mating attempts is a critical one in social interactions, little is known about the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlling mammalian sexual preference. Here we report that the neurotransmitter …

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New Study: Nine Million LGBT Americans?

According to a study released today by the Williams Institute (PDF), there are almost nine million LGBT persons in the United States. That works out to 3.5% of the adult population. Via press release: The Williams Institute, a leading think tank dedicated to the field of sexual orientation and gender identity-related law and public policy, released new research that estimates …

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A Gay Caveman?

The discovery of a 5000 year-old skeleton in the Czech Republic has scientists speculating. During that period, men were traditionally buried lying on their right side with the head pointing towards the west; women on their left side with the head facing east. In this case, the man was on his left side with his head facing west. Another clue …

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Tainted Love

Male fertility probably isn’t a major concern for most of you, but scientists say they’ve found a new predictor for low sperm count. It’s the length of your taint. SRSLY. That distance, measured from the anus to the underside of the scrotum, is linked to male fertility, including semen volume and sperm count, the study found. The shorter the AGD, …

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Religious Extinction

Census researchers say there are nine countries around the world where religion may be “headed for extinction.” The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. [snip] Dr Wiener continued: “In a large number …

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AIDS Healthcare Foundation Denounces PrEP Study: There Is No Magic Pill

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is denouncing the study of using existing HAART medications as a daily preventive for HIV infection. From their website, No Magic Pills: AIDS Healthcare Foundation takes the matter of HIV prevention very seriously. We are concerned about the implications of a recent study of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) using Gilead Sciences, Inc.’s drug Truvada using 2,500 gay …

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A Day Made Of Glass

Yeah I want pretty much everything in this ad. And a flying car. We were all promised flying cars, you know.

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Jeopardy: Humans Lose To Computer

It should be obvious by the absence of Ken Jennings, but this is a news story about the technology, not a recap of the ongoing challenge.

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The Search For Planet X

Astrophysicists at the University of Louisiana said today they are close to proving the existence of an enormous gas planet on the far outer edges of the solar system. The long-pondered tenth planet (if you still count Pluto) could be four times larger than Jupiter and its existence would explain the behavior of nearby comets. The potential new planet has …

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James Randi Rips Homeopathy

“Pharmacies like Walgreens, Rite-Aid, CVS and a lot of other major retailers are silent accomplices in this scam.” Randi is offering a $1M reward to any homoepathic manufacturer that can prove that their product is the slightest bit effective.

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CDC Issues Interim PrEP Guidance

Last last year researchers announced some success in preventing HIV among gay men who were taking a daily dose of the HIV medication Truvada. The concept of warding off infection by pre-dosing with a medication is known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP.) But alarmed by the prospect for abuse, yesterday the CDC issued some interim PReP guidance as studies continue. CDC …

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AIDS Denialists: Science Under Attack

In the first half of this BBC Science Under Attack special aired Sunday night, Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse examines the mindsets of folks who deny the science behind global warming. Interesting stuff, but skip forward to 43:00 where Nurse takes on a New Yorker who blithely denies that HIV causes AIDS. (Via –Atheist Media Blog)

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Tears Kill Boners

When scientists exposed men to women’s tears, they expected the men to respond with sympathetic emotions. Instead, they lost interest in sex. In several experiments, researchers found that men who sniffed drops of women’s emotional tears became less sexually aroused than when they sniffed a neutral saline solution that had been dribbled down women’s cheeks. While the studies were not …

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A Cocaine Vaccine?

Scientists are testing a vaccine that causes the body to treat cocaine like an attacking virus and thereby keep it away from the brain. So far, the vaccine has only been tested on mice, but the results are extraordinary. Mice given the vaccine no longer exhibited any of the hyperactive signs of a cocaine high when they were next given …

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Quote Of The Day – Michael Weinstein

“Recent headlines that heralded taking medication as a means of preventing transmission of HIV among gay men were applauded by many AIDS experts. The news came in a study of nearly 2,500 men in six countries that found that an average man taking the medication was 44 percent less likely to become infected than a control group taking a placebo. …

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FDA Approves One-Minute HIV Test

The FDA has approved an HIV test that provides results in one minute. “We believe the speed, accuracy, and unique technology of our 60-second HIV test will make the testing and early treatment of HIV/AIDS more efficient in all patient settings, including hospital emergency rooms and public health clinics,” said bioLytical Laboratories president Philip Bligh in a press release. “Additionally, …

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Offspring Created From Two Male Mice

Using stem cell technology, scientists have been able to create male and female baby mice from two male parents. Most notably for us here, the breakthrough raises the possibility of same-sex couples having children genetically related to both parents. In the work reported today, the Behringer team manipulated fibroblasts from a male (XY) mouse fetus to produce an induced pluripotent …

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Poppers May Damage Your Eyes

From a little-noticed October story in the New York Times: In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, the ophthalmologists describe four cases over three months in which patients’ vision was affected after they used poppers at parties. Several complained of seeing bright dots of light, and retinal imaging revealed damage to the photoreceptors in the fovea, part …

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HIV Drug Effective In PrEP Study

A just-released pre-exposure prophylactics (PreEP) study reveals that taking the HIV drug Truvada once a day reduces the incidence of HIV infection by about 44%. The result was even better among men who were the most compliant about taking the drug every day. The drugs tenofovir and emtricitabine, packaged as a once-daily pill and sold in drugstores as Truvada, reduced …

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New Survey: 8% Gay, 7% Lesbian

In what they are calling the “largest nationally representative study of sexual and sexual-health behaviors ever fielded,” a just-released survey commissioned by Indiana University says that 8% of adult American men self-identify as gay or bisexual, with 7% of women identifying as lesbian or bisexual. Those numbers are almost triple the percentages claimed by some anti-gay groups. ABC News takes …

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