Paul Krugman
TruthoutMon, 21 May 2007 18:52 UTC
Yesterday I did something risky: I ate a salad.
These are anxious days at the lunch table. For all you know, there may be E. coli on your spinach, salmonella in your peanut butter and melamine in your pet's food and, because it was in the feed, in your chicken sandwich.
Who's responsible for the new fear of eating? Some blame globalization; some blame food-producing corporations; some blame the Bush administration. But I blame Milton Friedman.
A 5-year-old Indonesian girl from Central Java province has died of bird flu, a Health Ministry official said on Wednesday.
Researchers at Harvard University and Princeton University have made a crucial step toward building biological computers, tiny implantable devices that can monitor the activities and characteristics of human cells. The information provided by these "molecular doctors," constructed entirely of DNA, RNA, and proteins, could eventually revolutionize medicine by directing therapies only to diseased cells or tissues.
Sally Clark spent three and a half years in jail wrongly convicted of murdering two of her babies after a jury was assured there was no other explanation for their sudden deaths than that she had deliberately smothered them. Yet five hours before her second child, Harry, was found lifeless in his baby chair, he had been injected with a combined vaccine with a long history of serious adverse reactions.
It's no longer just a medical debate. A small but growing number of Jewish parents are questioning why they should circumcise their sons - and are deciding to reject a fundamental tenet of their faith
NBCThu, 24 May 2007 09:59 UTC
Gay men remain banned for life from donating blood, the government said Wednesday, leaving in place, for now, a 1983 prohibition meant to prevent the spread of HIV through transfusions.
The Food and Drug Administration reiterated its long-standing policy on its Web site Wednesday, more than a year after the Red Cross and two other blood groups criticized the policy as "medically and scientifically unwarranted."
"I am disappointed, I must confess," said Dr. Celso Bianco, executive vice president of America's Blood Centers, whose members provide nearly half the nation's blood supply.
BBCThu, 24 May 2007 09:44 UTC
US scientists have developed "super-oxidised" water which they say speeds up wound healing.
Oculus, the Californian firm which developed the water - made by filtering it through a salt membrane - says it kills viruses, bacteria and fungi.
It is also effective against MRSA and UK trials are being carried out on patients with diabetic foot ulcers, New Scientist magazine reported.
Experts said wound healing was a major problem for people with diabetes.
More than 300 cases of mumps have surfaced in May in the Maritimes - 56 in New Brunswick alone - and health officials say those in their late teens and early 20s are most at risk.
Jeannette Macey, the head of Disease Surveillance with the Public Health Agency of Canada, said the outbreak stems from waning immunity within that age group.
New X-Ray scanners at British airports could be exposing passengers to potentially dangerous levels of radiation, according to one senior radiologist.
The machines are designed to "strip search" passengers by using low-level X-Rays, which produce an image of their bodies, revealing whether they are secretly carrying weapons, explosives or illegal drugs.
But the scanners may not be safe for certain people, particularly children and women in the early stages of pregnancy, according to Dr Sarah Burnett, who works as an independent radiologist in London.
"A quick look at the lengths of children's index and ring fingers can be used to predict how well students will perform on SATs, new research claims."
