Breast feeding mothers may affect the length of other women's menstrual cycles, claims Professor Martha McClintock of the University of Chicago. She found that lactating women can alter the cycle length of other women, perhaps through pheromones, chemical signals emitted by the body. The researchers placed absorbent pads in the...
UK scientists have changed the wording in a controversial patent application covering a method for making genetically altered animals using cells grown in the laboratory. It now specifically excludes the use of the process to clone humans, announced the environmental pressure group Greenpeace last week. The application, jointly submitted by...
A US Senate committee has heard the ethical and scientific arguments for and against government funding of embryo stem cell research, reported last week's Nature. Among those who testified were individuals who could benefit from such research, including US actor Christopher Reeve, who was paralysed following a horse-riding accident. Embryo...
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Patenting and Trademark Office (USPTO) are in disagreement over the patenting of genes with no known function, according to a news report in last week's Nature. USPTO officials say that patents can be granted on genes with no known function if...
The European Commission has set up a panel of 11 prominent biologists to advise it on the scientific aspects of public controversies sparked by advances in bioscience and biotechnology, reports Nature. The 'Biosciences High Level Group' (BHLG) was set up by research commissioner Philippe Buskin to complement the existing advisory...
People living on Norfolk Island, an isolated community located 1500 kilometres east of Australia, are helping scientists look for genes that predispose to heart disease. A team of Australian geneticists is currently collecting DNA samples from the islanders, reported New Scientist last week. Most of the island's population is descended...
A British woman who gave birth to twin baby girls for a European couple is now involved in a dispute with the couple in California who eventually adopted them, reported last week's Mail on Sunday. Claire Austin, who has acted as a surrogate parent twice before and has run her...
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When adults fight over children
by Juliet Tizzard
Surrogacy is back in the news. One British tabloid, the Daily Mail, has talked of little else over the past few days, churning out article after article on the gory details of the story of Claire Austin and her disastrous surrogacy arrangement. The story has all the ingredients of a...