Science

Diet soda tied to heart attack, stroke risks

"Diet soda may benefit the waistline, but a new study suggests that people who drink it every day have a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke. The study, which followed almost 2,600 older adults for a decade, found that those who drank diet soda every day were 44 percent more likely than non-drinkers to suffer a heart attack or stroke. The findings, reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, don’t prove that the sugar-free drinks are actually to blame. The findings do build on a few recent studies that also found diet-soda drinkers are more likely to have certain cardiovascular risk factors, like high blood pressure or high blood sugar." Continue reading →

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Diet sodas linked to higher risk of Type-2 diabetes in women

"Artificially-sweetened sodas have been linked to a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes for women than sodas sweetened with ordinary sugar, according to French research unveiled on Thursday. 'Contrary to conventional thinking, the risk of diabetes is higher with ‘light’ beverages compared with ‘regular’ sweetened drinks,' the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) said. The evidence comes from a wide-scale, long-term study, it said in a press release. Sugar-sweetened sodas have previously been linked with an increased risk of diabetes, but less is known about their artificially-sweetened counterparts." Continue reading →

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Here Come the Salt Police!

"Medical researchers at Harvard University have released a report which says that Americans eat too much salt. This is a follow-up report on an earlier report by the same team, authored by the same man with the unpronounceable name, which concluded that Americans eat too much sugar. The author of the report, predictably, called for the federal government to enact legislation to limit the intake of salt in processed foods. In other words, he wants to turn the federal government into the equivalent of Nanny Bloomberg. He doesn’t like sugar. He doesn’t like salt. And, most of all, he doesn’t like liberty." Continue reading →

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Government Healthcare Propaganda versus The Truth (Seniors Vaccine Edition)

"USA Today reports that, overall, the vaccine was only 56 percent effective in terms of cutting the need for influenza-related medical visits. Specifically for folks age 65 and older, the vaccine was only 9 percent effective against this season's most prevalent flu strain, H3N2. 'Everyone at CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting was scratching their heads over this,' William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University's School of Medicine in Nashville, told USA Today." Continue reading →

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The Centralization of Intellectual Control Proceeds Apace

"How has publishing in top economics journals changed since 1970? First, annual submissions to the top-5 journals nearly doubled from 1990 to 2012. Second, the total number of articles published in these journals actually declined from 400 per year in the late 1970s to 300 per year most recently. As a result, the acceptance rate has fallen from 15% to 6%, with potential implications for the career progression of young scholars. Third, one journal, the American Economic Review, now accounts for 40% of top-5 publications, up from 25% in the 1970s." Continue reading →

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Study: Depenalizing Drug Possession Associated With Lower Youth Drug Consumption

"An investigator from Purdue University in Indiana assessed the association between drug laws and drug consumption patterns in a representative survey of 15,191 adolescents aged 15-24 years from various European nations. The study reports, '[R]emoving criminal penalties [for controlled substances] does not necessitate a higher number of users compared to countries with penalties, and the former actually have comparatively lower usage. In fact, higher possession offenses are associated with greater drug use.'" Continue reading →

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Taiwanese billionaire launches Asian ‘Nobel prize’

"One of Taiwan’s richest men on Monday launched what has been widely touted as the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Samuel Yin, head of the sprawling Ruentex business empire, said that by donating Tw$3 billion ($101 million) for the Tang Prize he had fulfilled one of his biggest dreams. 'I hope that the prize will encourage more research that is beneficial to the world and humankind, promote Chinese culture and make the world a better place,' he said. Beginning in 2014 prizes will be awarded every two years in four different categories — sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, sinology and the 'rule of law' — to individuals, regardless of nationality." Continue reading →

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Marijuana Fights Cancer and Helps Manage Side Effects, Researchers Find

"Cristina Sanchez, a young biologist at Complutense University in Madrid, was studying cell metabolism when she noticed something peculiar. She had been screening brain cancer cells because they grow faster than normal cell lines and thus are useful for research purposes. But the cancer cells died each time they were exposed to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient of marijuana. Instead of gaining insight into how cells function, Sanchez had stumbled upon the anti-cancer properties of THC." Continue reading →

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Genetically engineered virus kills cancer

"A genetically-engineered virus tested in 30 terminally-ill liver cancer patients significantly prolonged their lives, killing tumours and inhibiting the growth of new ones, scientists reported on Sunday. Sixteen patients given a high dose of the therapy survived for 14.1 months on average, compared to 6.7 months for the 14 who got the low dose. Pexa-Vec has been engineered from the vaccinia virus, which has been used as a vaccine for decades, including in the eradication of smallpox." Continue reading →

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The bacterium that lays tiny nuggets of gold

"Among the more peculiar organisms that inhabit our Earth exists a bacterium that turns water-soluble gold into microscopic nuggets of solid gold, scientists said Sunday. Chemists have often pondered why the germ Delftia acidovorans is frequently found on the surface of tiny gold nuggets. Its presence led scientists to speculate it may be creating the particles from soluble gold — ions of gold that are dissolved in water. But the puzzle was how D. acidovorans did this trick, as soluble gold is toxic. The answer lies in a molecule excreted by the microbe that both shields the organism and transforms the poisonous ions into particles." Continue reading →

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