SCUBE3 molecule may get lost hair to grow again
Researchers have found a molecule that tells neighboring stem cells to start dividing. It could offer a way to treat a common form of hair loss.
Can Tylenol in wastewater help track COVID-19?
At a wastewater treatment plant near Buffalo, NY, acetaminophen levels in wastewater spiked about two weeks before levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater.
Supreme Court Refuses to Reconsider its Patent Eligibility Doctrine
by Dennis Crouch
As its final act for the 2021-2022 term, the US Supreme Court has denied certiorari in the pending patent eligibility cases of American Axle v. Neapco and Spireon v. Procon.
The Patent Act expressly lists four categories of patentable inventions: “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor.” 35 U.S.C. 101. This language is almost identical to the list created for the Patent Act of 1790. The Supreme Court added further atextual caveats — no abstract ideas; laws of nature; or natural phenomenon.
Continue reading Supreme Court Refuses to Reconsider its Patent Eligibility Doctrine at Patently-O.
Brain practices new info while we sleep
New research involving a brain-computer interface device confirms that the brain uses a phenomenon called “replay” to remember new information.
Adapting to climate change may put some animals in a ‘trap’
Animals are altering their lives to adapt to climate change, but those changes may make them worse off, researchers warn.
SCT: Breyer to Jackson
by Dennis Crouch
Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring today from the Supreme Court after 28 years on the bench. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be sworn-in as his replacement. Congratulations! Justice Breyer was an administrative law and copyright scholar at Harvard before moving into the judiciary in 1980 (1st Circuit). President Bill Clinton nominated Breyer to the Supreme Court in 1994 on the retirement of Harry Blackmun.
Justice Breyer wrote the opinion for a unanimous court in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 566 U.S. 66 (2012). That decision established the two step eligibility test and broadly construed the concept of a ‘law of nature.’ In Dickinson v. Zurko, 527 U.S. 150 (1999), Justice Breyer wrote the majority opinion holding that the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) standards applied to appellate review of USPTO factual findings. The result is a high level of deference and thus a low chance of overturning a PTAB factual finding on appeal.
Judge Jackson was a D.C. district court judge and then later on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. on the the D.C. In those roles, she handled a number of administrative cases in the FDA/Patent space.
Expert: End of Roe endangers health and democracy
The end of Roe v. Wade will have profoundly harmful effects on people forced to continue unwanted pregnancies and on democracy, says legal scholar Khiara M. Bridges.
Couples can sway each other’s views on climate change
Couples may be an untapped resource in the effort to get people concerned about climate change, new findings show.
Your unique brain structure explains how well you can see
“Our findings show differences in visual perception are inextricably linked to differences in the structure of the primary visual cortex in the brain.”
System shaves 75% off electric vehicle battery test time
“The goal is to design a better battery and, traditionally, the industry has tried to do that using trial and error testing.” New work may speed things up.