Search
Skin grafts carried out using a 3D printer
The James Dyson Prize for innovative, investigational projects has just been awarded to two students, Arianna McAllister and Lian Leng, of Toronto University for their invention of the bio-printer, Print Alive. This fast, inexpensive printer, which is no bigger than a...
High-tech: Intracellular processes filmed with a microscope
American scientist, Erik Betzig, has just developed a new technique allowing "intracellular processes to be observed in 3D and in real time". According to the Sciences & Avenir website, "the main problem with microscopes used to observe objects...
Elon Musk: artificial intelligence, “a threat to humanity”
On the occasion of the centenary symposium organised last week by MIT AeroAstro, Elon Musk, founder of the PayPal, SpaceX (Space Launcher) and Tesla Motors (Electric Vehicle) Companies expressed concerns about artificial intelligence (AI): "I think that we must be...
Cambodia and Thailand: rapid expansion in the black market for organs
According to the latest WHO estimates, of the almost 100,000 organ transplants carried out annually across the globe, 10,000 can be attributed to international trafficking networks. To illustrate this substantial business, the Lepoint.fr website recounts...
Scotland: debating a draft law on assisted suicide
In Scotland, the Parliamentary Justice Committee is preparing to debate a draft law that would legalise assisted suicide from the age of 16 for the terminally ill or those suffering from serious diseases with only a short life expectancy. In order to block this draft...
Germany: heading towards a law regarding organised assisted suicide?
In Germany, with effect from November 2014, a draft law devised by Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party to ban organised assisted suicide, will be put to the vote in the German Parliament. Currently, based on a legal loophole, two organisations, namely the...
Surgeons succeed in resuscitating and transplanting a “dead” heart
On Friday, Australian surgeons at the Saint-Vincent Hospital in Sydney and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute announced that they had succeeded, in a world first, in transplanting hearts that were no longer beating. To date, doctors have used hearts that are...
In-vitro fertilisation : “glue” to increase the chances of fixing the embryo
According to the Daily Mail newspaper, a British couple managed to have a baby after 15 years by using a new in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique: "embryoglu" or "colle embryonnaire" in French. Developed by a specialist English clinic, Care Fertility, this...
Chromosome Y altered with age: increased risk of cancer?
During the last annual congress of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) in San Diego, geneticists presented the results of a study according to which "the ageing-related loss of chromosome Y [...] is associated with an increased risk of cancer and...
Japan: iPS cells provide cardiac tissue
According to a study published in the British journal entitled Scientific Report, a team of Japanese scientists has succeeded in obtaining cardiac tissue membranes from induced pluripotent stem cells. According to the team of scientists, this is the first time that...
Belgium: a second detainee requests euthanasia
Held for nearly 30 years in a secure psychiatric centre of a prison near Anvers for the rape and murder of a 19 year old female student, Franck Van Den Bleeken requested euthanasia three years ago in Belgium. He has just been given a favourable response from the...
The United Kingdom – a leader in genomic medicine?
Over the summer, British Prime Minister, David Cameron announced a series of financial investments in the field of genomic medicine. The aim? "To transform the way in which patients will be diagnosed and treated – making the United Kingdom a world leader" in this...