- A million Americans now living with the AIDS virus
- Cholera epidemic feared in Afghan capital
- Arteries bio-engineered from elderly cells
- New Laws Make Antarctic Polluters Liable
- Labs Warned to Follow Disease Research Rules
- Africanized Bees Spotted in SW Arkansas

I'll be going on vacation for a week on Monday, but I'll keep updating news as time allow (don't just panic if I miss a day or two!). A 10 hours bus ride straight north, thats were I'm going!

As a side note, I almost completed the new comments system (some redirects to fix, better login system to add, and thats about it). I've been forced to take a tough decision; I've been fighting comments spam for the past few weeks, deleting comments 3-4 times a day. These, apparently, all came from the same person / network. So for the time being, the forums and comments are registered users only. So register! It takes only 30 seconds, and you'll get that warm, fuzzy feeling that you're part of a growing community :)

The State Government of Victoria, Australia announced that Melbourne scientists at Monash University have developed a unique technology that can grow large numbers of blood cells from human embryonic stem cells. The system which is more effective and cleaner than previous techniques will provide a tool for the study of blood development, much of which remains a mystery. It could also be used to produce red blood cells in the laboratory to solve the universal shortage of blood and may someday alleviate shortages of blood needed for transfusions, or provide cells for blood/bone marrow transplants for patients with leukemia or other cancers. The research will be published in the international journal Blood and be discussed at BIO 2005, the world's biggest biotechnology meeting being held in Philadelphia from June 19-22.

A multinational team of researchers has grown new muscle complete with its own network of blood vessels in the laboratory, and implanted the new muscle in a living mouse. The accomplishment is a first for tissue engineering, according to a report in the June 19 issue of Nature Biotechnology.

Scientists in the UK have proved that human embryonic stem cells can develop in the laboratory into the early forms of cells that eventually become eggs or sperm. Their work opens up the possibility that eggs and sperm could be grown from stem cells and used for assisted reproduction, therapeutic cloning and the creation of more stem cells for further research and for the improved treatments for patients suffering from a range of diseases.

A new research tool will allow University of Oregon scientists to replicate an extreme range of environmental conditions in their quest to test and understand the human body's response to everyday stresses.