January « 2009 « Sharon Writes

January 28, 2009

How the ‘Mouse Man’ changed medical research

Filed under: Magazines and newspapers, New Scientist — Sharon @ 12:00 pm

New Scientist, January 29, 2009

By Sharon Oosthoek

One hundred years ago in a lab at Harvard University, a young zoology student was busily overseeing the breeding of pair after pair of brother and sister mice. The “Mouse Man”, as he was known on campus, was trying to create the first inbred lab animal – a strain of mouse whose genes would be stable and identical. Such a mouse would allow biologists to reliably replicate their experiments for the first time. His professor said it couldn’t be done, but the Mouse Man proved him wrong. We are all indebted to those inbred mice and their descendants, which have helped researchers develop treatments for a wide range of human diseases.

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January 23, 2009

Registered with the do-not-call list? Expect more calls, says consumer watchdog

Filed under: CBC.CA, Online media — Sharon @ 9:14 pm

CBC.CA

January 23, 2009

by Sharon Oosthoek

Canada’s highly touted do-not-call list is having the opposite effect, leading to more telemarketer calls, says the Consumers’ Association of Canada.

“It’s a travesty,” president Bruce Cran said Friday. “Here we have all these people thinking they were getting rid of incoming phone calls. Anyone who is registered should suspect their phone number is being broadcast to the four winds.”

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission launched the registry in September to great fanfare, promising that those who registered would see a drop in unwanted calls soliciting goods and service. Millions of Canadians have registered their names, home phone numbers and in some cases their cellphone numbers.

The problem, said Cran, is that the CRTC sells the registry list online. “In Toronto, you can get 600,000 names for $50,” he said.

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