Alexander Graham Bell

2007-06-05T15:22:48Z

Pickler:

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was the inventor of the telephone.<ref>This is disputed, as Elisha Gray filed a patent the same day and Antonio Meucci reportedly had working models a few years before Bell.</ref> Born in Scotland, Bell invented the telephone in 1875 after he emigrated to the United States. Bell's mother was deaf, and he devoted his life to attempting to help the deaf. His invention of the telephone was simply a byproduct of his devotion to helping the deaf communicate.

[[Image:Alexander_Graham_Bell.jpg|right|thumb|Telephone pioneer]]

As a boy, Bell was began reading and writing at a very early age, under the instruction of his deaf mother. He also attempted new techniques for speaking to her:<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/telephone/peopleevents/mabell.html</ref>

:Unlike others, who spoke to Mrs. Bell through her ear tube, Aleck chose to communicate with her by speaking in low, sonorous tones very close to her forehead. Young Aleck surmised that his mother would be able to "hear" him through the vibrations his vocal intonations would make. This early insight would prove significant as Alexander Graham Bell went on to develop more elaborate theories regarding the characteristics of sound waves. It would also lend rationale to Bell's opinions as to how the deaf could be assimilated into a world of sound.

By the age of 14, Bell invented a device that could produce human-like sounds. When he was 16, he was already ''teaching'' music and elocution at a boarding school. He later studied at the University of London, where he read German papers by the physicist Hermann Von Helmholtz. Bell, who did not understand German well, misinterpreted Von Helmholtz's thesis, ''On The Sensations of Tone'', to say that vowel sounds could be produced from combining electrical tuning forks and resonators. He later described this as his "very valuable blunder," because Bell thought this meant that a wire could transmit vowel sounds.

After Bell emigrated to Canada, and then to the United States, he pursued his dream of carrying sound over a wire. By legend the first sentence spoken over the telephone was by Bell to his assistant Watson: "Watson, come here; I want you."

Bell founded American Bell in 1875 to develop and market his invention, which founded American Telephone & Telegraph as a subsidiary in 1885. AT&T, as it is now called, has undergone many changes since then but remains profitable today.

==Other Inventions==

Alexander Graham Bell is also credited with the invention of the [[hydrofoil]] boat, the [[metal detector]], the [[fibre optic jesus]] and a predecessor to the [[iron lung]].

== References ==

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[[Category:Scottish People]]

Human embryos in medical research

2007-06-05T15:21:51Z

Pickler:

'''Embryonic stem cell''' research is the utilization of [[stem cells|stem cells]] from [[embyro]]s which can then be grown in a laboratory culture and produce specialized cells supposedly to treat [[disease]]s or used for research purposes. A common source of such cells is discarded embryos at [[fertility clinic]]s. The use of embryonic stem cells in medicine has met with some controversy, particularly from the [[pro-life]] movement that is concerned about the destruction of embryos that they believe constitute human life.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/29/AR2005072900158.html</ref>

Adult stem cell research is similar except it does not use destroyed embryos, and instead is based on stem cells that can be taken from adults. These cells are less versatile than those harvested from discarded embryos, but they do not raise the associated [[ethics|ethical]] dilemas.<ref>http://www.isscr.org/science/faq.htm</ref>

The primary reason for wanting to use embryonic stem cells is that they are capable of producing any type tissue in the body. Thus, theoretically, a stem cell could be used to generate a new liver, or that same cell could be used to generate brain tissue. The failure of this argument lies in the fact that no one knows how to control the cell and make it create the desired tissue. Thus it becomes hit or miss, and there is a tendency for stem cells to create "monsters" or "freaks" commonly found in humans and called "teratomas". These mostly consist of hair and teeth. Only when "control" of the cells can be estabalished can there be reliable use of any kind of stem cell. If and when that "control" is established, it would make more sense to use adult stem cells from a persons own body so there would be no problem with foreign body DNA.

== Arguments for and Against Embryonic Stem Cell Research ==

A variety of arguments are used both for and against embryonic stem cell research. Some proponents argue that the embryos do not constitute human lives or that even if they do since the embryos would be destroyed anyways and thus it makes sense to use the embryos.<ref>http://www.spinneypress.com.au/178_book_desc.html</ref>. These arguments have been accepted by some [[Christian]] groups and by many [[Jewish]] groups, even Orthodox ones.<ref>http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/stemcellres.html</ref>.

Opponents to such research have argued that such embryos are human lives with the full rights of humans and that even if they are not human lives the slippery slope is too great. Furthermore, they argue that the sanctity of human life is so great that even the destruction of such embryos for research is not permissible even when they would be destroyed anyways. Opponents have also argued that the potential of embryonic stem cells have been exaggerated and that more research must be done with cord and adult stem cells.<ref>http://www.americancatholic.org/News/StemCell/</ref>, <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,31748,00.html</ref>,
<ref>http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/18/D8IUKSRO0.html</ref>.

An alternative approach would be to use parthenogenesis, the term that's applied to an egg that activates spontaneously on its own. It is common for eggs to activate and often form cysts or benign tumors in the ovary. When the activated eggs begin to divide, they look like early embryos and form blastocysts with stem cells inside. A young woman with Type 1 [[diabetes]] could donate her eggs, which could be activated in the laboratory without being fertilized. Her own stem cells, gathered when the eggs develop to the blastocyst stage, could be used to treat her Type 1 [[diabetes]].

Stem cells developed from an unfertilized monkey egg that went through parthenogenesis are being used to treat [[Parkinson's disease]] in [[monkey]]s. This line has proven to be as robust as stem cells from human eggs.

One of the reasons this line of research has not been pursued is that in the Dickey Amendment that was put in place by [[Congress]] in 1996, parthenogenesis was specifically included with the rest of embryo research, so scientists cannot get federal funding to do work even on unfertilized human eggs.
<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3209/04-alternative.html</ref>

== References ==
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[[category:science]]
[[category:politics]]

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Alexander Graham Bell

Human embryos in medical research