July 2009 - Posts - Lab Rats

July 2009 - Posts

What divorce damages, remarriage cannot heal

Posted by Seema Singh at 
Marriage and health have a close connection, whatever level - physical or metaphysical -- you may want to consider. So, when researchers say divorce, and widowhood, have a lingering and detrimental impact on health even after a person remarries, you take notice. To be published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior , the...

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This blogpost will Vanish...

Posted by Seema Singh at 
...if I download this tool and choose to make it disappear from Labrats. For now, I have no such intention, but here's the story of how it could happen: Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a way to put an expiry date on electronic text. So. if any email, Facebook or chat message, blogpost or any electronic stuff (in future...

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waiting for the sun...

Posted by Jacob Koshy at 
Going by the amount of media space that the moon landing anniversary generated, Albert Einstein will surely be a tad jealous. Folks, it is 90 years--last May 20--since Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was proved right! Arthur Eddington, famous astronomer and supposedly the first true blue fan of the shock-haired, tongue-popping Einstein...

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Clichés you may want to dump

Posted by Seema Singh at 
Here's a must-read from the science section of Wired - 5 " atrocious science clichés to throw down a black hole ". I think they are not only used in science but elsewhere as well, with equal triteness and hit discerning readers with annoying banality. For those who don't have the time on hand, here's a summary of what sucks in...

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Cancer care from the heart

Posted by Seema Singh at 
It may sound a little over the top but what do you call it when a private, for-profit hospital founder and a heart surgeon insists on keeping the radiotherapy cost at his new hospital lower than the government hospital in the city. That is the story of the new 1500-bed cancer hospital that two entrepreneurs in Bangalore - Dr Devi Shetty and Kiran Mazumdar...

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Romancing the Moon

Posted by Seema Singh at 
Today is the 40 th anniversary of man's landing on moon, lift-off actually, the landing was on July 20. The heady days of that 1969 summer will be re-lived and reminisced (depending on people's involvement) by many. Justifiably, media outlets across the world have planned special features around this. To commemorate this day, Nature today presents...

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Waste, fraud, and abuse in healthcare

Posted by Seema Singh at 
How can the beleagured US healthcare system raise money for its reform? By rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. That's the US president's new prescription in trying to reform the US healthcare system which is, now famously, into deep trouble. According to an article in the July 16 issue of New England Journal of Medicine , Obama recently wrote...

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Obsession with pretty colours

Posted by Seema Singh at 
Disclaimer: this is the last of the Lindau posts and you'll see why this had to be posted even a few days after the meeting ended. As for the title, it was one of Roger Tsien's (Nobel 2008) self-proclaimed neuroses - obsession with pretty colours - that not only got him the Nobel but spearheaded him in a direction that is soon to become a boon...

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Pachauri & Lomborg: eco-politics of climate change

Posted by Seema Singh at 
The ambience was perfect-the flower island of Mainau in Lake Constance in southern Germany -- to debate the subject of ‘sustainability and climate change' with some 600 students, media persons and 23 Nobel laureates. The panel couldn't have been better with the IPCC chairman RK Pachauri, atmospheric chemist and Nobel winner Mario Molina, German...

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What wrong did Enron or Madoff do?

Posted by Seema Singh at 
"They promised payback in this lifetime", says the British Nobel laureate Sir Harold Kroto, with a pun on the way humans are destroying the planet with blatant disregard for future generations. [[ 20 July: Sir Kroto says his comment was misinterpreted. His reply in the message section below.]] One of the star speakers at the 59 th Lindau Nobel...

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