Hi all,

After an extremely speedy, but otherwise smooth delivery our daughter Femke (say: femkuh) was born yesterday evening April 18th at 11:19 PM CEST (that's 6 hrs ahead of Eastern, 9 ahead of Pacific summer time). Both Femke and I are doing very well.

I'll check in again in a couple of days with some more details and perhaps a picture or two.

You will be pleased to know that finally the Vatican decided to honour Gallileo for his scientific accomplishments like discovering Jupiter, many things about our Moon and the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun. He will get a statue in the Vatican gardens.

It only took them about 4 centuries after trying and convicting him for heresy.

There's a little more below the fold...

There's a fun one-page article in today's Science telling us that despite 'common knowledge' women do NOT talk more than men - so, should the title of this blog be changed? Guess not, 'cuz we do talk quite a bit here :-)

The article is here, but it is subscribed content (thanks for checking, cbfly). Some key paragraphs are quoted below the fold. Let me know if you would like the have the whole article.

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine today indicates that fertilised eggs that are tested for genetic disorders have a significantly (about 33%) smaller chance of leading to a successful pregnancy. The research was carried out at a Dutch University, which is why I found a report of their press release here (sorry, it's in Dutch).

The news report notes that preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) is not currently used in The Netherlands (apart from in this trial), but that it is fairly common in the US (2 out of 3 clinics offering IVF offer PGS as well), Belgium and the UK. PGS is also very expensive and generates substantial revenue for the clinics. People considering IVF should be aware of this.

The original paper is published in the NEJM here and accompanied by an editorial from which I quote below the fold. Note that both links are probably to subscribed content. If anyone is interested, please let me know in the comments, and I will find a way to send you the paper (I have access at work).

Today, the Dutch parliament passed a law that will allow gay couples to adopt children from foreign countries. Adoption of Dutch children by gay couples has been allowed since 2001.

I have not found this reported in English yet. Since the original report is in Dutch, I provide a quick translation below the fold. Please follow me there...

I am not sure whether this is already widely known, but I had not seen it here.

In yesterday's issue of the scientific journal Nature (note that it was published on International Women's Day) I just read a brief news article (this link will not work for most of you, since it is subscribed content) saying that the US FDA is considering a plan to slash the budget of its its small office dedicated to women's health by one third.

A little more below the fold...

Dear Mother Talkers,

I've been hanging around here for a while but just don't get around to commenting, let alone posting a diary to introduce myself. But here goes...