The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
U.S. top court bars patents on human genes unless synthetic
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/13/us-usa-court-genes-idUSBRE95C0PW20130613
It has always stuck in my craw that the simple act of sequencing a gene could possibly be considered ‘novel, useful and non-obvious’, yet we have (had) thousands of …
MS Treatment That Resets Immune System Shows Promise In Safety Trial
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/261536.php
I mentioned earlier about some work using nanoparticles for work attempting to reset the immune system to stop attacking self. Well this article talks about an approach using …
Is Barefoot-Style Running Best? New Studies Cast Doubt
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/05/is-barefoot-style-running-best-new-studies-cast-doubt/
I talked earlier about my intention to try out ‘barefoot’ running (not really barefoot, more like a foot glove). After switching to jogging on the balls of my feet for about …
I feel sure I blogged about high fructose corn syrup at some point, but am not finding it in my searches…
Sweet Confusion
Does high fructose corn syrup deserve such a bad rap?
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/350460/description/Sweet_Confusion
Fructose has got a bad rap …
Is It Better to Walk or Run?
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/is-it-better-to-walk-or-run/
I wonder if there is a confounding factor in that runners have generally more healthy behaviors than walkers (clearly both have better behaviors than couch potatoes) which could explain the weight discrepancy. …
Report questions benefits of salt reduction
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/14/report-questions-benefits-of-salt-reduction/?hpt=hp_bn13
Earlier I talked about the ‘deadly’ nature of salt (sodium chloride, the stuff that makes food so tastee) but mentioned I was far from convinced that the rather hysterical proclamations were scientifically valid. …
Doctors driven to bankruptcy
http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/08/smallbusiness/doctors-bankruptcy/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
There is an uncomfortable element with any change in paradigm (for better or worse). In order for there to be any winners, there always have to be losers. Sometimes the losers just have some bad …
Knowledge is Health
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/knowledge_is_health/
This is an interesting article, but what struck me was the idea that we (as a society) have already become cyborgs (the melding of machine and man), what with our dependence on smart phones and all. …
Can you smell obesity?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/27/health/time-obesity/index.html?hpt=hp_t5
This is also related to the idea of the microbiome that I have talked about before. I really think our medicine is going to start to transform much like the IT industry has and functional …
Heart Failure: Is There a Breath Test?
http://www.medpagetoday.com/CriticalCare/CHF/38076
It seems I haven’t talked about this before, but there is a lot of very interesting science that is under development that allows for the potential of some rather incredible medical information …