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Philip Morris Experimenting with GMO Tobacco

Scientists have genetically modified tobacco plants to knock out a gene that helps turns nicotine into one of the carcinogens in cured tobacco.

The Philip Morris-funded North Carolina State researchers say the work could lead to less cancer-causing chewing tobacco. In large-scale field trials, they compared the levels of N-nitrosonornicotine, a chemical known as NNN, between GM tobacco plants and a control group. They found a six-fold decrease in NNN and a 50 percent overall drop in a whole class of nasty substances known as tobacco-specific nitrosamines.

Comment: Perhaps Philip Morris should leave the natural product be, to focus attention on the many artificial chemicals added to cigarettes and other tobacco products?


Question

US: Mysterious, Unexplained Illness Strikes Kentucky Classroom

A mysterious illness struck an elementary school classroom in Kentucky on Mar. 19, forcing officials to call out a fleet of ambulances.

More than a dozen students got sick.

What's worse though, is no one knows why.

Three Rivers Hospital officials worked to reassure frightened parents the children were going to be OK.

"My child has breathing problems, I hope he'll be all right," said parent Angel Chaffins.

Attention

EU watchdog won't ban 'problem' colours

A Europe-wide ban on artificial additives commonly found in sweets and drinks and linked to hyperactive behaviour in children has been ruled out by regulators.

People

Childhood Personality Can Predict Important Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood

A new study in the Journal of Personality reveals the extent to which children's personality types can predict the timing of key transitional moments between childhood and adulthood.

The study set out to examine whether childhood personality would predict the timing of important transitional events moving into adulthood, including leaving the parents' home, establishing a romantic relationship, and entering the world of part-time work.

Participants consisted of 230 children who were studied every year from their first or second year in preschool until age 12. After age 12, the sample was reassessed twice, at ages 17 and 23. Researchers led by Jaap Denissen of Humboldt-University Berlin assessed degrees of shyness and aggressiveness through parental scales and teacher reports.

Gear

Athletica nervosa, the new lads' disorder: Craze to build body beautiful

The laddish culture promoted by men's magazines has spawned a new medical condition: athletica nervosa, or an obsession with exercise.

Question

Autopsy on woman found dead after denial of euthanasia request is inconclusive

Results were inconclusive for an autopsy performed on the body of a woman found dead days after French authorities denied her euthanasia request, the Dijon prosecutor said Friday.

Jean-Pierre Alacchi said analyses performed on Chantal Sebire's body showed her death was not related to the rare tumor from which she suffered, which was lodged in her sinuses.

Arrow Down

Antismoking Pill May Ease Depression ... Or Cause Suicidal Thoughts

Two drugs that act on nicotine receptors are now being tested as antidepressants -- offering hope to the millions of people who don't respond to traditional antidepressants.

chantix
©Rob Lee/Flickr
While anti-smoking drug Chantix can provide soothing feelings, its use has elicited suicidal thoughts in some people.

Comment: Quit smoking, that might actually benefit you, and get these drugs, that might or might not make you wanna kill yourself! Meanwhile, drug companies keep getting wealthier.


Evil Rays

How Cellphone Radiation Affects Your Cells

Radiation from cell phones is too weak to heat biological tissue or break chemical bonds in cells, but the radio waves they emit may still change cell behavior.

cellphone
©Unknown

Light Sabers

Those who resort to punishment are losers

Taking the law into your own hands is ineffective. Nor is it true that sparing the rod spoils the child, according to a study that shows people who resort to punishment are losers.

These are not the ravings of someone who has been penalised once too often but the conclusion of an eminent group of biologists, economists and mathematicians at Harvard University, led by Prof Martin Nowak.

Light Sabers

Flashback Need for punishment rules out Utopia

The utopian society, in which it is in everyone's interest to co-operate and there are no sanctions, is an impossible dream, a study using game theory suggests.

The threat of punishment is the glue that holds society together, according to Swiss researchers.