Caution with claims that a species has been rediscovered

The Americas region declares that rubella has been eliminated.

It has been conjectured that self-replicating systems will enab

It has been conjectured that self-replicating systems will enable complex macroscale objects to be made in a reasonable time using nanoscale assembly processes [1]. Self-replicating systems might also be used within reconfigurable structures on any scale, such as micro-circuits. An abstract model of a programmable constructor in a kinematic simulation environment is presented. This programmable...

The accuracy of Medicare's hospital claims data: progress has been made, but problems remain.

BACKGROUND Health care databases provide a widely used source of data for health care research, but their accuracy remains uncertain. We analyzed data from the 1985 National DRG Validation Study, which carefully reabstracted and reassigned ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes from a national sample of 7050 medical records, to determine whether coding accuracy had improved since the Institute ...

New Claims from Paul Sharp - But Has the Source of HIV-1 Really Been Located?

February 2006. In recent days there has been much press coverage about new claims by American, British and Belgian scientists that they have discovered the geographical source of AIDS. These researchers have apparently detected simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) that are closely related to the AIDS pandemic virus, HIV-1, in the stools of wild chimpanzees living in the very south-eastern cor...

Never Has There Been a Shade1

“O this date [in 1618] Abu’l Hasan the artist, who had been awarded the title Nadir al-Zaman [Wonder of the Age], presented a painting he had made .... Since it was worthy of praise, he was shown limitless favor. Without exaggeration, his work is perfect, and his depiction is a masterpiece of the age.” These were the words of Emperor Jahangir of the Mughal Dynasty of India. “Abu’l Hasan’s fathe...