Experts urge caution in the use of brain science in court

LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Understanding the growing scientific workings of the brain in the future may change the way criminals are viewed by the law, but British experts advise extreme caution for the moment on the use of lie detector tests, brain scans and genetic data in the courts.

In a report released Tuesday by the national authorities in the UK, Science Academy, the Royal Society, scientists and lawyers looked at the scope of neuroscientific evidence to "read minds" in an attempt to find the truth or to explain why a person acted in a particularly violent or sadistic manner.

He claims that murderers can be identified by imaging studies of their brains before committing the crime, or that a gene for psychopathy or violent behavior, are "completely far from reality," they said.

But they do suggest that neuroimaging and genetics of behavior, along with existing techniques in the future can be used as part of risk assessments to determine how long someone sentence to serve, or if an inmate should receive parole.

"No question in neuroscience provides some startling revelations about human behavior, but we can not get ahead of us," said Nicholas Mackintosh, professor of experimental psychology at Cambridge University in Britain, who chaired a panel of the Royal Society for on the subject.

"Understanding how the brain gives us an idea of ​​the mental processes underlying human behavior, and how the law relates primarily to regulate people's behavior makes sense that they can influence others at some point in the future . "

At a briefing on the report, Mackintosh said a growing number of defense lawyers in the United States and other countries were beginning to use neuroscientific evidence in criminal cases, particularly in cases of murder and other violent crimes .

BRAIN psychopath

Roger Brownsword Law School King's College London, who worked on the report, said that the admissibility of such evidence should be properly analyzed and lawyers, judges and experts that should explain in detail their strengths and weaknesses.

"It is clear that some neuroscientific evidence could be very disruptive in court," he told the press conference. "The jury could easily be influenced by this. ... So the threshold of admissibility has to be pretty high."

British scientists published a study in 2009 found that psychopaths who had committed serious crimes such as murder and rape had faulty connections in the brain that appear in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans.

"To the extent that neuroimaging data suggest that differences in the brains of psychopaths ....( we ask) that brain imaging may be useful?" Said Mackintosh. "The answer is that we have no idea because it has not done the research, but is at least something worth thinking about."

However, he stressed that "having a psychopathic brain is not a general defense against any criminal charge, and that's because it has absolutely force you to behave in a criminal ... simply increases the probability."

Functional neuroimaging experiments with students have also shown differences in brain activity when they are told the truth and when they lie, Mackintosh panel said in its report.

However, experts warned that the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging in defense of suspects in serious crimes, or to detect lies between the defendants or witnesses, is fraught with difficulties - including the fact that people can quite easily be taught to beat the lie detectors.

Stem cells High-grade saw an increase in research trials

British scientists have made ​​the first human embryonic stem cells of a grade high enough for use in patients and deposited in a bank of stem cells for public development in human trials by pharmaceutical companies and researchers by 2014.

A team from King's College London said Monday they had submitted two clinical quality stem cell lines in the UK Stem Cell Bank (UKSBC), which will test and validate them before offering them to researchers.

This could accelerate the path to new stem cell treatments for conditions such as blindness, serious injury or heart disease.

"This first batch of cells is the culmination of nearly 10 years of research. This is an important step, "said Peter Braude, who led the team of the King.

The cells are the first to be grown completely free of animal products, known as "xeno-free," and developed specifically for clinical quality and public use.

The hope is that the cells will be grown and processed by the bank stocks to feed the cells to human trials and, in addition, treatment of patients.

The cells have the potential to become the "gold standard" lines of development of new therapies based on stem cells for use in trials in patients with regenerative medicine, Braude told reporters at a briefing.

It may be several years before the treatments are fully developed and licensed, but the cells could be used in human trials of potential therapies by 2014, the team said.

Stem cells are master cells of the body, the source of all other cells. Scientists say they could transform medicine, providing treatment against blindness, spinal cord and other injuries, as well as generating cells of damaged organs.

Human Embryonic Stem (HES) cells can be grown in the laboratory indefinitely while retaining their ability to develop into different specialized cell types such as nerve or heart muscle cells, which can then be used in clinical trials.

British bank of stem cells has already more than 90 lines of level of stem cell research for use in laboratory studies, but does not yet have clinical category xeno-free lines for use in human trials.

"In the future, patients hoping for the benefit of regenerative medicine for serious medical conditions caused by illness, injury and aging can expect progress on improving the remedies and improvement hES therapy cell, "said Dusko Ilic, professor of stem cell science to the King.

Some companies, like Pfizer and Advanced Cell Technology, already conduct or are about to start human trials using hES cells - which are harvested from embryos - to test their potential to repair spinal cord and eye disorders such as macular degeneration.

But the lines of hES cells for these first tests have been reclassified to "research grade" to "clinical grade" for specific short-term clinical studies in the areas of selected diseases.

Braude said it is not considered appropriate for the future of cell therapy because of the cost of further testing and rehabilitation, and potential risks.

"While it might be reasonable to additional risks for these first pioneering studies, it is not reasonable to accept these risks to the long-term future," he said. "Therefore, the highest standard of xeno-free lines are urgently needed."

Team Braude cells were grown from frozen embryos donated by patients who had in vitro fertilization (IVF) and did not want to use their remaining embryos stored. The embryos would otherwise be discarded, Braude said.

Glyn Stacey, director of the UKSCB, said the front lines of clinical grade is an "important resource" and a first step towards the objective of the bank to provide a range of clinical tests contours in the next three years.

"The testing process is rigorous and not all cell lines received will be up," he said

The End of the World in 2012 ? (Video Attached)

The world would be destroyed with the coming on 2012.12.21 said, scientists have predicted. But it's not possible for them to express their opinion against opinion, confirmed by now.

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YOU REALLY HATE MANKIND, because you show at the end a moon like rock hitting the earth and blowing it to bits, one asteroid killed all the dinosaurs millions of years ago but you know all life on this world didn't die because if it did we the human species wouldn't exist today. even though this film is just make believe there are millions of people who are getting a bit nervous about 2012 and SHOWING FILMS LIKE THIS DOESN'T HELP THEM AT ALL .YOU WANT THE WORLD TO END! YOU HATE HUMANS