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Contents contributed and discussions participated by sirgabrial

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sirgabrial

Mad Science: Double Your Lifespan with a Drug that Mutates Your Ribosomes - 0 views

io9.com/...ug-that-mutates-your-ribosomes

binaryopposition

shared by sirgabrial on 07 May 08 - Cached
  • Double Your Lifespan with a Drug that Mutates Your Ribosomes
  • It's been known for a while that restricting your diet will increase your lifespan, but now researchers have shown one reason why: Eating less causes your ribosomes (your cells' protein factories) to mutate. And it's looking like mutated ribosomes (pictured here) could be one key to life extension.
  • Biologists at the University of Washington have managed to induce the life-extending mutation in ribosomes with a drug that doubles the lifespan of yeast cells.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • In this project, the UW researchers studied many different strains of yeast cells that had lower protein production.
  • Ribosomes are made up of two parts — the large and small subunits — and the researchers tried to isolate the life-span-related mutation to one of those parts.
  • had mutations in the large ribosomal subunit
  • drug called diazaborine
  • which specifically interferes with synthesis of the ribosomes' large subunits, but not small subunits
sirgabrial

CERN to Morons: Large Hadron Collider Won't Destroy Earth. Morons. - 0 views

gizmodo.com/...h-of-course-not-say-scientists

binaryopposition

shared by sirgabrial on 07 May 08 - Cached
  • CERN to Morons: Large Hadron Collider Won't Destroy Earth. Morons.
  • Contrary to the somewhat feverish claims laid out in an recent lawsuit, when our favorite particle-smashing, Force-finding Large Hadron Collider is switched on soon it will not result in the destruction of life as we know it.
  • Such claims are "complete nonsense" say the scientists at CERN (and everywhere else,) in response to the suit.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • They should know: it's their machine, they designed it and they've been telling everyone for a while that their research shows it's safe.
  • The lawsuit filed by a group of Hawaii residents is alleging that not enough safety checks have been made by CERN to prevent disaster when the LHC goes live in the coming weeks.
  • It may "create unsafe conditions of physics" which may have disastrous effects. How? Well, you may imagine a micro black hole gobbling up everything unstoppably, while a strangelet (a hypothetical clump of particles including strange quarks) may run amok converting all nearby matter into strange matter, also wrecking the Earth.
  • James Gillies, a CERN spokesman, suggests this is rubbish in this response to the New Scientist: "The LHC will start up this year, and it will produce all sorts of exciting new physics and knowledge about the universe." It's no threat at all, he says: "A year from now, the world will still be here." The LHC is actually designed to probe the boundaries of physics, and while a 2003 safety study did conceed that micro black holes or magnetic monopoles may be formed, they would be short-lived and offer no threat.
sirgabrial

Health Risks: Darque Tan Prevents You From Dying Of Vitamin-D Deficiency - 0 views

consumerist.com/...-dying-of-vitamin+d-deficiency

binaryopposition

shared by sirgabrial on 07 May 08 - Cached
  • Darque Tan Prevents You From Dying Of Vitamin-D Deficiency
  • According to an article in The Daily Texan, law student Emily Prewett, has filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General against the company Darque Tan because of their misleading and irresponsible ads. One of their television commercial begins with a man in white lab coat saying, "Science has discovered that UVB from tanning converts cholesterol into Vitamin D." Then the narrator says, "Mmm yeah. Vitamin D-licious. Come get yours with a free week of level 1 tanning." The TV ad and more details, inside...
  • In another advertisement a man in a lab coat says, "Getting the Vitamin D you need has never been easier. To get you 4000 IU, it takes 20 cans of sardines - Mmm good - or 40 glasses of milk, if you tolerate lactose. Better yet, get a full 4000 IU of Vitamin D in just five minutes in a tanning bed at Darque Tan."
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Prewett is concerned because the ads portray tanning as a health benefit with no risks. "I don't have an issue with the company, I just have in issue with that particular advertising campaign," said Prewett. "I think that's the wrong message to be sending potential customers. And it's prohibited for a reason, and it's because there are so many health studies that link cancer and other risks to UV exposure."
  • Darque Tan's health claims are in clear violation of Texas' health and safety code which states, "A tanning facility operator may not claim or distribute promotional materials that claim using a tanning device is safe or free from risk or that using a tanning device will result in medical or health benefits."
  • Obviously advertisements are going to be biased but there has to be a line that should not be crossed to help up us stay safe.
sirgabrial

Scientists Create First Memristor: Missing Fourth Electronic Circuit Element | Gadget L... - 0 views

blog.wired.com/...scientists-prov.html

binaryopposition

shared by sirgabrial on 07 May 08 - Cached
  • Scientists Create First Memristor: Missing Fourth Electronic Circuit Element
  • Researchers at HP Labs have built the first working prototypes of an important new electronic component that may lead to instant-on PCs as well as analog computers that process information the way the human brain does.
  • The new component is called a memristor, or memory resistor. Up until today, the circuit element had only been described in a series of mathematical equations written by Leon Chua, who in 1971 was an engineering student studying non-linear circuits. Chua knew the circuit element should exist -- he even accurately outlined its properties and how it would work. Unfortunately, neither he nor the rest of the engineering community could come up with a physical manifestation that matched his mathematical expression.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Thirty-seven years later, a group of scientists from HP Labs has finally built real working memristors, thus adding a fourth basic circuit element to electrical circuit theory, one that will join the three better-known ones: the capacitor, resistor and the inductor.
  • Researchers believe the discovery will pave the way for instant-on PCs, more energy-efficient computers, and new analog computers that can process and associate information in a manner similar to that of the human brain.
  • neuronal computing using memristors
  • While a lot of researchers are currently trying to write a computer code that simulates brain function on a standard machine, they have to use huge machines with enormous processing power to simulate only tiny portions of the brain.
sirgabrial

Growing meat without growing animals. - By William Saletan - Slate Magazine - 0 views

www.slate.com/2189676

binaryopposition

shared by sirgabrial on 07 May 08 - Cached
  • Tastes Like Chicken
  • People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has just offered a $1 million prize to anyone who develops a commercially viable "in vitro chicken-meat product." The catch is that the product can't contain or entail the use of "animal-derived products, except for starter cells obtained in the initial development stages."
  • The idea is simple: Instead of growing a chicken embryo into a bird and cutting meat from it, you skip the bird part and grow the meat directly from the embryo.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • if you can grow a hunk of flesh for transplant, you can grow it for food.
  • Purists see it as a moral surrender. "It's our job to introduce the philosophy and hammer it home that animals are not ours to eat," a dissident PETA official tells the Times. Purists also point out that carnivores suffer more obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. Getting your meat from stem cells might not change that.
  • Pragmatists point to all the issues lab meat would resolve. No more cages. No more body-inflating drugs. No more slaughter. Less environmental harm. "We don't mind taking uncomfortable positions if it means that fewer animals suffer," Newkirk concludes.
  • product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh."
  • has to satisfy "a panel of 10 meat-eating individuals sourced from a professional focus group services provider."
  • "If God wanted us to be vegetarians, why did He make animals out of meat?"
sirgabrial

Exposed: the great GM crops myth - Green Living, Environment - The Independent - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...reat-gm-crops-myth-812179.html

binaryopposition

shared by sirgabrial on 07 May 08 - Cached
  • Exposed: the great GM crops myth
  • Major new study shows that modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent
  • The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.
  • 77 bushels from the non-GM one.
  • modified crop produced only 70 bushels
  • Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety in the same field.
  • The GM crop – engineered to resist Monsanto's own weedkiller, Roundup – recovered only when he added extra manganese, leading to suggestions that the modification hindered the crop's take-up of the essential element from the soil.
  • it takes time to modify a plant
  • while this is being done, better conventional ones are being developed.
  • that the very process of modification depresses productivity.
  • GM cotton in the US, where the total US crop declined even as GM technology took over.
sirgabrial

Privacy: Should The Government Set Up A "Do-Not-Track" List? - 0 views

consumerist.com/...ent-set-up-a-do+not+track-list

binaryopposition

shared by sirgabrial on 07 May 08 - Cached
  • Should The Government Set Up A "Do-Not-Track" List?
  • Now two privacy advocacy organizations are calling for the creation of a "do-not-track" list that would protect registered users from online data collection.
  • They argue that a list is needed because too many consumers won't or can't understand the methods behind online tracking.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • To illustrate, one of the organizations "pointed to a 2005 University of Pennsylvania survey in which only 25 percent of respondents knew that a Web site having a privacy policy doesn't guarantee that the site refrains from sharing customers' information with companies."
  • and a fearful reaction against emerging technologies.
  • a do-not-track list is overkill
  • ad model of the web to the blind shotgun blasts of TV advertising?
  • targeted advertising is an improvement over traditional advertising.
  • Ultimately, the individual consumer has to understand the basics of online advertising before choosing to engage in any online behavior.
  • Telemarketing, and to a lesser extent junk mail, take public info that by necessity has to be public (telephone numbers and addresses, for example), then exploits that info to contact you without your permission.
  • reduce that data trail, or cloak it, or even disguise it as a different data trail.
  • arms race
sirgabrial

Nation & World | Roll of dice linked to roll in hay | Seattle Times Newspaper - 0 views

seattletimes.nwsource.com/...2004329276_moneystudy05.html

binaryopposition

shared by sirgabrial on 07 Apr 08 - Cached
  • Roll of dice linked to roll in hay
  • A new brain-scan study may help explain what's going on in the minds of financial titans when they take risky monetary gambles: sex.
  • When young men were shown erotic pictures, they were more likely to make a larger financial gamble than if they were shown a picture of something scary, such as a snake, or something neutral, such as a stapler, university researchers reported
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • The study involved 15 heterosexual men in the 18-26 age range at Stanford University. It focused on the sex and money hub, the V-shape nucleus accumbens, which sits near the base of the brain and plays a central role in what you experience as pleasure.
  • "You have a need in an evolutionary sense for both money and women. They trigger the same brain area,"
  • said Camelia Kuhnen, a Northwestern University finance professor who conducted the study with a Stanford University psychologist.
  • he arousing pictures lit up the same part of the brain that lights up when financial risks are taken.
  • When that hub was activated by the erotic images, the men were far more likely to bet high on a random chance game that would earn them either a dollar or a dime.
  • Each man made more than 50 gambles under brain scans.
  • it's all about the power of emotion and arousal and our financial decisions. The trigger doesn't have to be sex; it could be chocolate or a winning lottery ticket.
  • "It didn't matter if the sexy woman didn't tell you anything about the odds of winning a roulette game,"
  • "What really matters is that the sexy woman is having an emotional impact. That bleeds over into your financial decisions."
  • The study conforms with recent research that indicates men shown a pornographic movie were more likely to make riskier sexual decisions.
sirgabrial

AP Wire News - nvdaily.com - 0 views

hosted.ap.org/...UNEASY_ECONOMY_STICKER_SHOCK

binaryopposition

shared by sirgabrial on 07 Apr 08 - Cached
    • sirgabrial
      sirgabrial on 07 Apr 08
       
      reduce fat kids? so inflation = thiner healther kids
  • Food price inflation changes how we shop
  • Steadily rising food costs aren't just causing grocery shoppers to do a double-take at the checkout line - they're also changing the very ways we feed our families.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • The worst case of food inflation in nearly 20 years has more Americans giving up restaurant meals to eat at home. We're buying fewer luxury food items, eating more leftovers and buying more store brands instead of name-brand items.
  • For Peggy and David Valdez of Houston, feeding their family of four means scouring grocer ads for the best prices, taking fewer trips as a way to save gas and simply buying less food, period.
  • Record-high energy, corn and wheat prices in the past year have led to sticker shock in the grocery aisles. At $1.32, the average price of a loaf of bread has increased 32 percent since January 2005. In the last year alone, the average price of carton of eggs has increased almost 50 percent.
  • Ground beef, milk, chicken, apples, tomatoes, lettuce, coffee and orange juice are among the staples that cost more these days, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • Soaring prices are causing shoppers to rethink long-held habits such as store loyalty.
  • Wal-Mart and other supercenters that sell food now account for 24 percent of the market, according to the most recent annual survey of shopping habits by Hammonds' organization.
  • Nationwide, a family of four on a moderate-cost shopping plan now spends an average of $904 each month for groceries, an $80 increase from two years ago, according to the USDA
  • more canned food instead of fresh produce.
  • Portions are smaller
  • corn, now in high demand because of increased ethanol production, to wheat that has tripled in price over the past 10 months - has some industry observers suggesting that higher food prices aren't a temporary fluctuation but instead may be here to stay.
sirgabrial

Norwegian hospital to equip babies with anti-theft alarms - 0 views

physorg.com/news124992891.html

realitybites

shared by sirgabrial on 07 Apr 08 - Cached
  • Norwegian hospital to equip babies with anti-theft alarms
  • A Norwegian hospital said Monday it was planning to equip all newborn babies with anti-theft alarms to protect them from kidnappings and help avoid identity mix-ups.
  • "The main reason is that we want to emphasise security," Erik Normann, head of the Akershus University Hospital near Oslo told AFP.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • "There was a period in which Norway experienced several infant kidnappings and that is something we want to avoid,"
  • The alarm system consists of two small chips, one attached to a bracelet clasped around the baby's ankle as soon as it is born and the other stuck on the mother's bracelet.
  • When the two chips are separated by a certain distance the alarm is set off. If a woman tries to leave with a baby who is not her own, or if someone tries to rip the bracelet off an infant, the hospital doors automatically lock shut and the hospital elevators grind to a halt.
  • The Akershus hospital, which has one of Norway's largest maternity wards with some 4,200 babies delivered there each year, has never experienced an infant kidnapping, Normann said.
sirgabrial

Taking a bath on water tax :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State - 0 views

www.suntimes.com/...861008,CST-NWS-water26.article

7min

shared by sirgabrial on 31 Mar 08 - Cached
  • Taking a bath on water tax
  • BUDGET | Revenue from new fee far below what was expected
  • Are Chicagoans trekking to the suburbs to buy cases of bottled water -- and avoid a new nickel-a-container tax that adds $1.20 to the price of a 24-pack? Or are they making the switch to tap water to save money?
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Revenues from Chicago's new bottled water tax are trickling in -- at a rate nearly 40 percent below projections -- exacerbating a budget crunch that has already prompted Mayor Daley to order $20 million in spending cuts.
  • January collections were $554,000. That's far short of the $875,000-a-month needed to meet the city's $10.5 million-a-year projection.
  • "Since January is generally one of the coldest months of the winter, we don't think January collections are a strong indicator of potential revenue for the remainder of the year," she said.
  • But that doesn't explain away what Vite calls "enormous increases" in suburban bottled water sales, particularly in stores near the Chicago border.
sirgabrial

Suicide Robot: Man Kills Himself In Australia |Sky News|Technology - 0 views

news.sky.com/...0,,91221-1310084,00.html

shared by sirgabrial on 31 Mar 08 - Cached
  • Man Kills Himself With 'Suicide Robot'
  • An Australian pensioner has reportedly killed himself after building a "suicide robot" from plans downloaded from the internet.
  • The 81-year-old, from Queensland, set up the machine to remotely fire a semi-automatic pistol.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • When he activated it, it fired several shots into his head.
  • The man, who lived alone, left a suicide note saying he was unhappy at being forced by relatives to move into care home.
  • Full details of how the machine worked have not been released.
  • The man explained in his notes that he set the machine up on his driveway as he knew there were builders next door, and they would be alerted by the sound of gunshot.
  • There has been a recent increase in the use of robots for military purposes.
  • "Once the new weapons are out there, they will be fairly easy to copy. How long is it going to be before the terrorists get in on the act?"
sirgabrial

Universe Today » 13.73 Billion Years - The Most Precise Measurement of the Ag... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...of-the-age-of-the-universe-yet

shared by sirgabrial on 31 Mar 08 - Cached
  • 13.73 Billion Years - The Most Precise Measurement of the Age of the Universe Yet
  • NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has taken the best measurement of the age of the Universe to date. According to highly precise observations of microwave radiation observed all over the cosmos, WMAP scientists now have the best estimate yet on the age of the Universe: 13.73 billion years, plus or minus 120 million years (that's an error margin of only 0.87%… not bad really…).
  • Sun-Earth second Lagrangian point (L2)
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • 1.5 million km from the surface of the Earth on the night-side
  • The reason for this location is the nature of the gravitational stability in the region and the lack of electromagnetic interference from the Sun.
  • Constantly looking out into space, WMAP scans the cosmos with its ultra sensitive microwave receiver, mapping any small variations in the background "temperature" (anisotropy) of the universe.
  • 3.3-13.6 mm
  • This microwave background radiation originates from a very early universe, just 400,000 years after the Big Bang, when the ambient temperature of the universe was about 3,000 K.
  • These measurements refine our understanding about the structure of our universe around the time of the Big Bang and also help us understand the nature of the period of "inflation", in the very beginning of the expansion of the Universe.
sirgabrial

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Brown criticised over embryo bill - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7308224.stm

shared by sirgabrial on 31 Mar 08 - Cached
  • Brown criticised over embryo bill
  • The leader of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland has urged the prime minister to rethink "monstrous" plans to allow hybrid human-animal embryos.
  • The prime minister has said the bill would improve research into many illnesses.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Supporters of the bill believe hybrid embryos could lead to cures for diseases including multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.
  • Leading scientists accused the Roman Catholic Church of "scaremongering" over research which had the potential to save many lives.
  • Cardinal O'Brien, who is the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, also wants Catholic ministers serving in the Cabinet to stand down rather than support the bill.
  • The cardinal describes the practice as "grotesque" and "hideous".
  • "There will be a limit of 14 days' development of the embryo, and they cannot be put in a woman or an animal," she added.
  • "This is not about 'creating monsters'. It is purely laboratory research, and is aimed at increasing knowledge about serious diseases and treatments for them."
  • Lib Dem MP Dr Evan Harris
  • "He is entitled to reject any treatment coming from this research on behalf of himself and his more devout followers but the millions of people hoping for medical research breakthroughs using stem cell technology would regard his attempt to veto this for them as well to be 'monstrous'."
sirgabrial

Scientists claim cannabis can offer hope for Alzheimer's sufferers | the Daily Mail - 0 views

www.dailymail.co.uk/...healthmain.html

shared by sirgabrial on 18 Mar 08 - Cached
  • New cannabis-based treatments could improve memory loss in Alzheimer's sufferers, scientists claim.
  • Scientists claim cannabis can offer hope for Alzheimer's sufferers
  • One of the 400 compounds in the drug can significantly slow memory problems caused by the disease, tests show.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Although there is growing evidence that cannabis can trigger harmful mind-altering effects in users, scientists say the medicinal compound in question, cannabidiol, is not a hallucinogenic ingredient.
  • They are calling for human trials to be funded after researchers from Israel and Spain successfully conducted tests in mice.
  • found that symptoms of type 1 diabetes can also be helped by cannabidiol, warned against the use of cannabis by Alzheimer's patients because the psychoactive ingredient THC could have damaging effects on memory.
sirgabrial

Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...idUSN0454699420080305

shared by sirgabrial on 18 Mar 08 - Cached
  • Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.
  • The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."
  • Vermont, home to maple syrup and picture-postcard views, is known for its liberal politics.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney, and several towns have also passed resolutions of impeachment. None of them have caught on in Washington.
  • Bush has never visited the state as president, though he has spent vacations at his family compound in nearby Maine.
  • Roughly 12,000 people live in Brattleboro, located on the Connecticut River in the state's southeastern corner. Nearby Marlboro has a population of roughly 1,000.
sirgabrial

Prescription drugs found in drinking water across U.S. - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by sirgabrial on 18 Mar 08 - Cached
  • A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
  • To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.
  • But the presence of so many prescription drugs -- and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen -- in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas -- from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit, Michigan, to Louisville, Kentucky.
  • Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found.
  • How do the drugs get into the water?
  • People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.
  • "Based on what we now know, I would say we find there's little or no risk from pharmaceuticals in the environment to human health,"
  • damaging wildlife
  • male fish are being feminized, creating egg yolk proteins, a process usually restricted to females.
sirgabrial

Teens losing touch with historical references - USATODAY.com - 0 views

www.usatoday.com/...2008-02-26-teens-history_N.htm

shared by sirgabrial on 10 Mar 08 - Cached
  • Teens losing touch with historical references
  • Big Brother. McCarthyism. The patience of Job. Don't count on your typical teenager to nod knowingly the next time you drop a reference to any of these. A study out today finds that about half of 17-year-olds can't identify the books or historical events associated with them.
  • Among 1,200 students surveyed: •43% knew the Civil War was fought between 1850 and 1900. •52% could identify the theme of 1984. •51% knew that the controversy surrounding Sen. Joseph McCarthy focused on communism.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Twenty-five years after the federal report A Nation at Risk challenged U.S. public schools to raise the quality of education, the study finds high schoolers still lack important historical and cultural underpinnings of "a complete education." And, its authors fear, the nation's current focus on improving basic reading and math skills in elementary school might only make matters worse, giving short shrift to the humanities — even if children can read and do math.
  • n all, students earned a C in history and an F in literature, though the survey suggests students do well on topics schools cover. For instance, 88% knew the bombing of Pearl Harbor led the USA into World War II, and 97% could identify Martin Luther King Jr. as author of the "I Have a Dream" speech.
  • Fewer (77%) knew Uncle Tom's Cabin helped end slavery a century earlier.
  • "School has emphasized Martin Luther King, and everybody teaches it, and people are learning it,"
  • The findings probably won't sit well with educators, who say record numbers of students are taking college-level Advanced Placement history, literature and other courses in high school.
sirgabrial

Study doubts effectiveness of antidepressant drugs | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...idUSN2527622020080226

shared by sirgabrial on 10 Mar 08 - Cached
  • Antidepressant medications appear to help only very severely depressed people and work no better than placebos in many patients, British researchers said.
  • Researchers led by Irving Kirsch of the University of Hull reviewed a series of studies, both published and unpublished, on four antidepressants, examining the question of whether a person's response to these drugs hinged on how depressed they were before getting treatment.
  • Effexor
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Prozac
  • They are all so-called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.
  • Paxil
  • The researchers found that compared with placebo, these new-generation antidepressant medications did not yield clinically significant improvements in depression in patients who initially had moderate or even very severe depression. The study found that significant benefits occurred only in the most severely depressed patients.
  • "Drug-placebo differences in antidepressant efficacy increase as a function of baseline severity, but are relatively small even for severely depressed patients.
  • The researchers obtained data on all the clinical trials submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the licensing of the four drugs.
  • Although patients get better when they take antidepressants, they also get better when they take a placebo, and the difference in improvement is not very great. This means that depressed people can improve without chemical treatments," Kirsch said in a statement.
sirgabrial

Noah's ark for crop seeds opens in Arctic Norway | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...idUSL2643545020080226

shared by sirgabrial on 10 Mar 08 - Cached
  • Noah's ark for crop seeds opens in Arctic Norway
  • Norway launched a Noah's ark of the plant kingdom on Tuesday to protect crop seeds, among mankind's most valuable resources, from cataclysm inside an Arctic mountainside.
  • Blasted out of icy rock 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, the air-locked vaults would stay frozen for 200 years even in the worst-case scenario of global warming and if mechanical refrigeration were to fail, officials said.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Initially 100 million seeds from more than 100 countries have been sent for safekeeping at the $10 million facility which holds 268,000 seed samples, each from a different farm or field.
  • "Biological diversity is under threat from the forces of nature ... and from the actions of man," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at the opening ceremony.
  • insurance policy
  • threats such as war, natural disasters or climate change, he said.
  • Dubbed a doomsday vault, the cavern in the Svalbard archipelago off the northern tip of Norway is a backup storage for seeds from gene banks around the globe.
  • The deposits range from major African and Asian staples such as rice, maize, wheat, cowpea and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley and potato. Genetically modified varieties will not be included.
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