A South Korean medical research team said on 16 December 1998 that they had succeeded in cultivating a human embryo using human cells, but claimed they had already been beaten by the British. Researchers at the infertility clinic of Kyunghee University Hospital in Seoul said they had grown a early human embryo in using an unfertilised egg and a cell donated by a woman in her 30s.  This follows an announcement four weeks earlier that another scientist had cloned himself using a cows egg in experiments kept secret for three years.

"My Genes Made Me Do It"

The Nuffield Council of Bioethics is asking all of us what to do if scientists find genes for homosexuality, shyness, intelligence, addiction, violence or any other behavior tendency. The public consultation on genes and human behavior will run until July.

I spoke myself to a Zimbabwe AIDS specialist recently who says in one area 60% of all pregnant women are now infected with HIV. It is not enough just to look at seroprevalence rates however. Take a group of 100 college leavers in Uganda, aged 22. Their seroprevalence rate is falling because of behaviour change but may still be 20% in some groups. That means one in five will probably be dead in 5-10 years. However, the even bigger question is what the LIFETIME seroprevalence rate will be? 

AIDS - HIV Protease inhibitors promise new hope.

HIV protease inhibitors offer new hope of a combined approach to HIV infection. Results in some cases have been spectacular with undetectable levels of HIV achieved for long periods. This has raised talk of perhaps even being able to eradicate HIV altogether, based on the fact that many infected cells have a limited life-span. By preventing viral replication one could in theory reach a situation where all infected cells had died.