Walk on the Wild Side You have been part of a great biological experiment. You did not sign up for it. Yet it has changed the way you walk, the way you sleep, how you talk and socialize. Pretty much everything you do, in fact. In laboratories scientists make a major distinction between species born […]
Dying Off (6/24/13)
Ending Lives Across America, communities are expiring. The average population decrease is 4% a year. Smaller, more endangered groups are disappearing at a rate more like 12%. Government records argue that if the die-off continues at this pace, half these communities will be gone in 20 years. Who are they? Rural farmers? Skilled urban industrial […]
Unknown Unknowns – Some Future Health Crises (4/2/13)
The Known Unknowns You don’t have to read Nicholas Nassim Taleb’s “The Black Swan” to recognize unpredictable events produce inordinate impact. Consider the major events of your own life – marriage, work, serious illnesses. How many of them were predictable? Chance rules the world. Presently most “health” crises are, in policy terms, health care crises. […]
In Defense of Sleep (3/12/13)
In Defense Recently a journalist asked to summarize important facts about sleep. Here’s an attempt to defend sleep – and it’s role in human regeneration. Some will be interested by a new large European study showing that the worse the insomnia, the worse future heart failure. Yet the story is much bigger than that: The […]
Crazy About Drugs (2/4/13)
A Problem of Law Item: An Egyptian rights lawyer is sentenced to 5 years in jail and 300 lashes of the whip for bringing anti-anxiety drugs (xanax – alprazolam) into Saudi Arabia. The judge notes the perpetrator’s “good morals” in explaining his “lenient” verdict (anti-anxiety drugs are banned in Saudi Arabia.) Item: Florida regulators led […]