Word: allen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Descartes noted, our own consciousness is the most indubitable thing there is. The major religions locate it in a soul that survives the body's death to receive its just deserts or to meld into a global mind. For each of us, consciousness is life itself, the reason Woody Allen said, "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying." And the conviction that other people can suffer and flourish as each of us does is the essence of empathy and the foundation of morality...
That's the idea behind the Allen Brain Atlas (ABA). Launched in September with $100 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the atlas is the first Web-based, public-access database of all 20,000 or so genes expressed in the mouse brain. Want to know where in the brain a specific gene is active? The ABA has it, in vivid three-dimensional color. Curious about what types of brain cells are actively expressing a particular gene? The atlas provides molecular-level data that tell you. "Even though it's a mouse project, it really is a wonderful resource...
...been a revelation for drug developers as well. Its data make clear that there are almost no genes that are exclusively expressed in any one structure or region. That, says Allan Jones, chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, means "people will have to think harder about targeting pathways with combinations of drugs." Researchers like Dietrich Stephan at the Translational Genomics Research Institute are doing just that. Relying on the ABA, Stephan has identified a group of genes involved in age-related memory loss and has developed five compounds that mimic the activity of the genes...
...Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the CDC, said the vaccine was included for the first time in its annual schedule of recommended childhood immunizations, released earlier this month. The advisory group that publishes the scientific documents about the recommendation is still working on the language for a final document, which he said should be released in about six weeks. "But it's a pretty straightforward recommendation," Allen said. He added that girls "ages 11 to 12, and downward to as young as 9 and up to 26, should get the vaccine...
...McConnell's other prejudice that is not going to help the CIA is the outsourcing of intelligence. The CIA is hemorrhaging people, with the vast majority leaving to work for contractors, like Booz Allen. They're lured by higher salaries and double dipping (on top of their government retirement packages). They often end back up at the CIA with a green contractor's badge, doing pretty much the same job. The important difference is they answer to the company they work...