Segmentation Fault: Core dumped..;-)

Diseases are beat, or not..:-(

anand — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 19:13:17 +0000

Humans are accumulating new pathogens at a rate of one per year. This accumulation of new pathogens has been going on for millennia - this is how we acquired TB, malaria, smallpox. But at the moment, this accumulation does seem to be happening very fast. So it seems there is something special about modern times - these are good times for pathogens to be invading the human population. The sort of image I want to get away from is the famous statement from the 1960s when the US Surgeon General said, 'diseases were beat'. Pathogens are evolving ways to combat our control methods. The picture is changing and looks as if it will continue to. We're going to have to run as fast as we can to stay in the same place.
- Professor Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University Of Edinburgh, UK

Global Warming, Oil Shortage and now this. Wonder which one is going to take us down first

Mother Nature’s curveball

anand — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 23:28:57 +0000

Scientists have discovered a biological brake for a hunger hormone: a competing hormone that seems to counter the urge to eat. The substance, named obestatin, has been tested just in laboratory rats so far. But if it pans out, the discovery of the dueling hormones could lead not only to a new appetite suppressant, but also help unravel the complex ways that the body regulates weight. It turns out that the same gene sparks production of the two opposing hormones, Stanford University researchers say in Friday's edition of the journal Science."It is an unexpected but very, very intriguing finding," said Matthias Tschop of the University of Cincinnati, who reviewed the work. "It seems counterintuitive that Mother Nature would press on the brake and gas pedal at the same time."
- Appetite-Suppressing Hormone Discovered

Funny, isin't it?

Be S.M.A.R.T. about your health

anand — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 03:40:11 +0000

I wish I was S.M.A.R.T.