Word: humanism
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...That makes sense for a human. But exactly how much new information does a fruit fly acquire in a day? How complex could Drosophila's world be that it actually needs shut-eye to recharge its brain? You'd be surprised. For a fly, its brief, two-month life can only be about mating and eating - or eating and mating, depending on whether mates or food are in shorter supply - but these activities involve complex social interactions that, frankly, can be exhausting...
...next step, obviously, would be to see if these same genes appear in mammals' or even the human genome. Chances are good: the fruit-fly genome is made up of 14,000 genes, while the human genome contains 20,000. Much of the molecular machinery underlying species as varied as flies and humans might therefore be conserved, which is why the lowly fruit fly makes a worthy model for understanding human beings, even for such complex behaviors as aggression...
...Trying to understand the relationship between a set of neurons and its behavioral output is going to be difficult unless we are able to look at an organism that is simple enough where we can use our genetic tools," says Herman Dierick, a human- and molecular-genetics expert at Baylor College of Medicine. "That's where the usefulness of flies lies. Fruit flies have made such a difference in biology over the past century." And if the recent papers are any indication, these fascinating, high-spirited and surprisingly engaging little bugs will continue to do so for a long time...
...idea, first put forth by leading AIDS researcher Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center more than a decade go, is to blitz the virus in its first days of infecting a new human host, before it can establish a beachhead and launch a full-scale AIDS attack. And so far, the strategy seems to be working. Early treatment of newly infected patients has significantly reduced the death rate from AIDS in regions of the world where antiretroviral therapies (ART) are readily available. (Read about the surge in HIV/AIDS in Washington...
...1990s, at the height of a dirty war fought against Kurdish separatists, state-sanctioned death squads allegedly killed hundreds of people and then buried them in unmarked pits, according to human-rights groups. Those groups estimate 5,000 people died; 1,000 have never been found. Now, like the pale crocuses emerging underfoot, there are stirrings of change across Turkey. For the first time, a public prosecutor has authorized excavation of one of the sites where missing Kurds are believed to be buried. The ruling represents something of a revolution in a country that has long oppressed Kurdish rights...