theonion.com

nydailynews.com

abcnews.go.com

A high-ranking official resigned Tuesday from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity after a dispute over whether the group should give funding to Planned Parenthood, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Karen Handel, the charity’s vice president for public policy, told Komen officials that she supported the move to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. She said the discussion started before she arrived at the organization and was approved at the highest levels of the charity.

Good riddance.

Alzheimer’s frightens the pants off of me. Yes, this is a news article about science, but I’m really hoping these studies bear fruit.

nytimes.com

Alzheimer’s disease seems to spread like an infection from brain cell to brain cell, two new studies in mice have found. But instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau.

The surprising finding answers a longstanding question and has immediate implications for developing treatments, researchers said. And they suspect that other degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson’s may spread in a similar way.

Alzheimer’s researchers have long known that dying, tau-filled cells first emerge in a small area of the brain where memories are made and stored. The disease then slowly moves outward to larger areas that involve remembering and reasoning.

I noticed someone refer to acupuncture the other day as if it were a serious medical treatment. I figured I should share this.

sci-ence.org

blogs.independent.co.uk

Call it the soul, spirit or transcendent human consciousness – the idea that human ‘minds’ exist outside of and separate from the body has been pervasive throughout history. It’s certainly comforting – an assurance that we are special, unique and separate from animals in a clear-cut way. Although traditionally afforded to us by a God, the concepts of ‘soul’ and human exceptionalism that allow this easy view of humanity are carried over virtually unexamined into the more secular principles of humanism.

Unfortunately, science marches on. Although no branch of scientific thought has all the answers, we have known for some time that there is no theoretical need to look outside of the human body for a explanation of the many and varied phenomena that we collectively refer to as ‘consciousness’.

dailymail.co.uk

One of the joys of following @feliciaday are links like these.

towelday.org

Wednesday, don’t forget!

blastr.com

Stephen Fry!