Hot and fresh
April 30, 2008
This is my new pet project / blog / website. Any posts pre-May 2008 can be found over at my Tumblr.
Gun ownership | Is that a small arm in your pocket?
April 30, 2008
Gun ownership | Is that a small arm in your pocket? | Economist.com
AN ESTIMATED 875m small arms are in circulation worldwide: one for every seven people on the planet. Nearly three-quarters of these are owned by civilians. And about 80% of those guns in civilian hands are found in just 30 countries, according to the Small Arms Survey, a research group. Although America accounts for 40% of firearms in civilian ownership, people put them to more deadly use elsewhere. The gun murder rate in Colombia and South Africa, for example, is much higher than in America.
Six Diseases You Don’t Want
April 30, 2008
Six Diseases You Don’t Want : DivineCaroline
I’ve had friends and family with diseases like cancer, lupus, bipolar, and diabetes, but I’ve never known anyone with a disease I could laugh at. They say laughter is the best medicine; that’s good news for the sufferers of these diseases.
Understanding the Global Rice Crisis
April 30, 2008
Understanding the Global Rice Crisis
What’s behind the current food shortages: Is the increase in ethanol production to blame or is hoarding the problem?
Some Athletes’ Genes Help Outwit Doping Test
April 30, 2008
Some Athletes’ Genes Help Outwit Doping Test – New York Times
The 55 men in a drug doping study in Sweden were normal and healthy. And all agreed, for the sake of science, to be injected with testosterone and then undergo the standard urine test to screen for doping with the hormone.
The results were unambiguous: the test worked for most of the men, showing that they had taken the drug. But 17 of the men tested negative. Their urine seemed fine, with no excess testosterone even though the men clearly had taken the drug.
It was, researchers say, a striking demonstration of a genetic discovery. Those 17 men can build muscles with testosterone, they respond normally to the hormone, but they are missing both copies of a gene used to convert the testosterone into a form that dissolves in urine. The result is that they may be able to take testosterone with impunity.
The gene deletion is especially common in Asian men, notes Jenny Jakobsson Schulze, a molecular geneticist at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. Dr. Schulze is the first author of the testosterone study, published recently in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
This was also on The Economist a few weeks back.
