The news today that anthrax researcher Bruce E. Ivins had committed suicide gave me a sick feeling, and brought to mind the Tom Wolfe novel Bonfire of the Vanities. For those who haven't read it, in the book a man is accused of running down a fellow New Yorker and has his life turned upside down as a result. The truth is that someone else did it. Reading the comments of Ivins' lawyer brought that back.

Worth noting that even as our blue chip medical institutes, universities and drug companies come up with space age molecules for baffling diseases, something as simple as pain medication remains beyond the reach of millions suffering.

I like this, from GlobalWarmingFacts.info:

Global warming is a dramatically urgent and serious problem. We don't need to wait for governments to solve this problem: each one of us can bring an important help adopting a more responsible lifestyle: starting from little, everyday things. It's the only reasonable way to save our planet, before it is too late.

So smart Science Blog readers, here's a question: What are the best ways to determine whether a regional market is experiencing a housing market bubble? For example, rent-to-mortgage ratios. What else? Specifically, anyone want to venture whether Los Angeles, Calif. is in a bubble, or as the destination of most of the nation's immigration, just doing what comes naturally? Reason: Yours truly is about to take the plunge on a 2-bedroom condo.

So I was listening to Art Bell last night as I was falling asleep -- always a risky proposition unless you like troubled dreams about Yeti, global warming and/or Area 51. Anyhow, my ears pricked up when I heard the guest was from Jane's Defense. I have some history with Jane's, count one or two of their staff as friendly acquaintances, and know they aren't a trivial lot. The topic was zero-point energy, and being a little buzzed from a night of beer and pool, I didn't follow it too closely. But this morning I managed to Google same topic and a terrific primer popped up here. The gist:

Maybe someone with a better grounding in immunology can answer my question. Does this mean AIDS-like diseases have been around millions of years, or that the protein involved here simply is a catch-all kind of thing that tackles HIV and numerous other, older bugs as well? Question 2: Now that it's identified, what good is it? Can medicines be devloped with it/based on it?

"Ancient Peruvians made chicha with local grains and fruit, which is quite different from today's commercial beers typically made with barley and hops." Prediction: Trader Joe's will have a version of this on the market within 18 months. Also, this does nothing to dispel the notion that beer=civilization

Update: Chicha de Maní recipe (Peanut Beverage)

Ancient brewery discovered on mountaintop in Peru - [Science Blog]

This seems promising. And particularly intriguing in that the aloe factor appears to be essentially a bio-lubricant: "'As a drag reducing polymer, it may provide better diffusion of oxygen molecules from red blood cells to tissues because of its ability to better mix in the plasma surrounding red blood cells." Coming on the heals of chitoson-infused bandages, it offers extra hope that folks hurt in action, industrial accidents or even car wrecks won't bleed out before they can be taken to a hospital.

Fluid from aloe prolongs life after hemorrhagic shock - [Science Blog]

Why isn't this being covered elsewhere? Seems there's a huge build up of sun spots pointed right at us. If all goes wrong, we could be in a world of hurt:

"At 20 times the size of Earth, the largest sunspot observed since the fall solar storm onslaught is now pointed directly at Earth. Its unusually large size also means that it's now visible with the naked eye (although you should never look at the Sun without a proper filter). The implications of this spot have scientists on the edge of their seats - if the active region gene

This strikes me as a great way to connect science students with the past: Showing data being generated (well, sort of) by a piece of equipment 35 years old. Science and medicine are so now-now-now/of the moment that the past, even the not so distant past, becomes an opaque blur. But when you actually start finding out about the weirdos who did the heavy lifting to get us this far, it's a hell of a lot of fun.
Science Experiment Left Behind on Moon Still Running - [Science Blog]