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| Star Wars - Darth Vader - Inside (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
New way to fight bacterial infections: 'Naked Darth Vader' approach could tame antibiotic resistant superbugs
Rather than trying to kill bacteria outright with drugs, Université de Montréal researchers have discovered a way to disarm bacteria that may allow the body's own defense mechanisms to destroy them. "To understand this strategy one could imagine harmful bacteria being like Darth Vader, and the anti-virulence drug would take away his armor and lightsaber," explained Dr. Christian Baron, the study's lead author and Professor at the Department of Biochemistry. "A naked Darth Vader would be an easy target and similarly, pathogenic bacteria without their virulence factors would be rendered harmless and eliminated by our immune system."
You have to hand it to a scientist that would use Darth Vader as an illustrative point. Makes it pretty easy, even for this laymen, to understand what they are talking about. Wish more would use pop culture in their explinations.
Long-lost Egyptian pyramids found on Google Earth? | Fox News
A self-described "satellite archaeology researcher" has garnered widespread media attention with claims that she has found two possible pyramid complexes in Egypt using Google Earth. But experts say her pyramids are nothing more than eroded hills infused with a heavy dose of wishful thinking.
Would be cool if it were true, turns out that they are just common buttes with a little erosion thrown in.
Haunted by the voices - The West Australian
Sir Anthony Hopkins heard them. So did Martin Luther King, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Mahatma Gandhi, Joan of Arc and Socrates. These well-known identities have all reported hearing voices - a phenomenon which is reasonably common, with 4-10 per cent of the population admitting to it.
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Joe Calleja, chief executive of the RFWA, said research shows that a lot of distressing voice hearing results from early childhood trauma, including sexual and physical abuse, or emotional trauma such as bullying, neglect, abandonment or the sudden death of a loved one. In one well-documented case, a man used to hear the voice of a priest who had sexually abused him.
Hearing voices can be debilitating to some. While this article gives a good overview of the issue, there are still some that the skeptics just can't really quantifiy by these determinations. Noting, they have mentioned joan of Arc and Socrates in this article. Who can say where their voices came from, but surely all can't be explained away by science.
Homeopaths offer to rebrand products as 'confectionery' | Martin Robbins | Science | guardian.co.uk
Homeopaths offer to rebrand products as 'confectionery'
Faced with an MHRA crackdown on unlicensed medicines, one of Britain's leading manufacturers of homeopathic remedies has indicated it would be prepared to relabel its products 'confectionery' to circumvent regulation
Homeopathic remidies scare me. If it can't medically be proven to be helpful, why take it? When my father was diagnosed with cardiomiopathy, he tried all sorts of suggested homeopathic supliments. Included in the list were garlic tablets and royal honey. He also started drinking aloe vera juice. Now, I'm sure none of this harmed him in anyway, but he didn't just fall on homeopathy to treat his condition either. Those who do, run the risk of further complications in their conditions.
Reliance on supernatural explanations for major life events -- such as death and illness -- increases rather (than decreases (BW Ed.)) as people age,
U.S. researchers say. Lead author Cristine Legare, assistant professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin, and colleagues reviewed more than 30 studies on how people -- ages 5-75 -- from various countries reason with three major existential questions: The origin of life, illness and death.
Seems accurate to me, I don't know how many adults I know think that death and illness may be caused by their God.
Gleaned from the Archives of The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, LLC - dedicated to promoting critical thinking, reason, and the public understanding of science through online and other media. The first episode of the SGU podcast went online on May 4th, 2005. It soon became a popular science/skeptical podcast, and remains one of the most popular science podcasts on iTunes.
SGU Podcasting Awards:
- 2009 People's Choice Podcast Award in the Education category
- 2010 People's Choice Podcast Award in the Science category
- 2010 Physics.org Best Podcast Nominee
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