Some bioethics stories of note this past week....

For you trekkies, could this be Data version 1.3? -
Selmer Bringsjord, director of the Rensselaer Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Laboratory at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, spends a lot of time in Second Life, but not for recreation or entertainment -- he and his team at RPI (RPI) are the creators of synthetic agent Edd Hifeng, who they have endowed with a limited ability to converse and reason.

See the rest of the article here.

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Do difficult times call for deep brain stimulation?

Brain-stimulation devices for treating depression have faced unexpected setbacks. To serve the 40 million or so sufferers who fail to respond to antidepressant drugs, a few companies have tried to treat the disorder with electronic implants and electromagnets. These therapies, however, have stumbled en route to the doctor's office.

To take a crack at those intractable cases, experiments exploring five device therapies will start this year. In total, nine different technologies are now under investigation in at least 27 human trials.

Full story here.

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A Superhighway to Bliss

JILL BOLTE TAYLOR was a neuroscientist working at Harvard’s brain research center when she experienced nirvana.

But she did it by having a stroke.

On Dec. 10, 1996, Dr. Taylor, then 37, woke up in her apartment near Boston with a piercing pain behind her eye. A blood vessel in her brain had popped. Within minutes, her left lobe — the source of ego, analysis, judgment and context — began to fail her. Oddly, it felt great.

Access the rest of the story here.

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Concerns about carbon nanotubes as carcinogenic

Nanotechnology experts are calling for prompt government action to ensure that carbon nanotubes are properly regulated, after researchers discovered that some carbon nanotubes can cause precancerous growths in the same way that asbestos does.

Researchers led by Ken Donaldson of the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Inflammation Research, UK, found that in mice, long, straight, multi-walled carbon nanotubes can cause the same kind of damage as that inflicted by asbestos fibres when they are injected into
the lung's outer lining, called the mesothelium.

Full article accessible here.

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How Our Brains are Wired for Belief

From the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, transcripts from a discussion about how recent advances in neuroscience and brain-imaging technology have offered researchers a look into the physiology of religious experiences. The whole article and transcripts accessible here.

Weekend in Review

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving weekend and found something for which to be grateful. (After all, we all know that expressing gratitude heightens well-being and that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits). While we were taking a well-deserved break and counting our blessings, some notable stories with a bioethics theme came out over the last few days:

Our colleague, Paul Root Wolpe, has some interesting bioethical questions about manned space travel -- here's a sampling:

* What would we do if a crewmember became violent because of a
traumatic brain injury or mental illness?
* Do we include a straitjacket as standard issue on the craft?
* How much medical training is adequate for the crew as a whole?
* What if the designated physician gets sick?
* What level of treatment is enough?
*If a crewmember is disabled in space, who becomes their surrogate
decision maker? Their spouse? NASA physicians? Other crewmembers on the
craft?
The full article can be seen here.

The latest on deep brain stimulation for treatment of brain disorders, courtesy of PBS, Wired Science and YouTube.

From the NY Times, "Are Scientists Playing God? It Depends on Your Religion."

And, also from the Old Grey Lady, a psychiatrist examines how taking money from pharma can cloud your judgment, despite going into the deal with eyes wide open -- the article, Dr. Drug Rep.

Happy reading and remember, as the Washington Post suggests, if you start feeling too stressed out from the end of semester crunch or the holidays, take a deep breath and practice going "Om for the Holidays."