Real-life action hero Felix Baumgartner plans to take a balloon up to the edge of space and then to jump out. In freefall he hopes to break the speed record for a human travelling without a machine, the needle, as it were, reaching speeds in excess of the speed of sound. In the BBC newsclip there’s a nice simulation of the event.

Of more concern was Pallab Ghosh’s claim that if Baumgartner gets a hole in his protective space suit his blood could begin to boil because of the very low pressure at that altitude. Wrong. He might get cold and could suffocate, his saliva might bubble in his mouth, but the pressure of your blood is sufficient to prevent it from boiling even if you are hurled into a vacuum.

This is what NASA had to say on the subject:

“If you don’t try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury…theory predicts – and animal tests confirm – that otherwise, exposure to vacuum causes no immediate injury. You do not explode. Your blood does not boil. You do not freeze. You do not instantly lose consciousness.”

UPDATE: The low pressure lowers the temperature at which blood and other body fluids boil, but the elastic pressure of blood vessels ensures that this boiling point remains above the internal body temperature. Although the blood will not boil, the formation of gas bubbles in bodily fluids at reduced pressures, known as ebullism, can cause pain although tissues are elastic and porous enough to prevent rupture. A flight suit will reduce the effects of ebullism. Shuttle astronauts wore a fitted elastic garment called the Crew Altitude Protection Suit (CAPS) which prevents ebullism at pressures as low as 2 kPa (15 Torr). More here.

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Felix Baumgartner to freefall from almost 40 km up is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

A phantom limb is the perception that an amputated or missing limb or other body part is still attached to the body. The sensations, by most accounts, are unpleasant and commonly painful. Mirror therapy has been used to help alleviate some of the problems experienced by veterans, accident victims and others who have lossed limbs because of disease. A mirror box, has many limitations. Ben Blundell and colleagues at the University of Manchester, UK, thought the Microsoft Kinect gaming system coupled with an immersive 3D virtual reality environment might be able to help.

Kinect is a motion sensing input device for the Xbox 360 and Windows PCs. It is simply a webcam-style device with appropriate software that allows users to control the console or PC without needing to hold a physical game controller, mouse or keyboard: gestures (and words) are enough.

Blundell and colleagues report more details in this video and present their preliminary work at the International Conference of Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (GRAPP).

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Kinect could help phantom limb pain is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

UK government minister, Lord McNally, responded for the government declining to pardon Turing:

The question of granting a posthumous pardon to Mr Turing was considered by the previous Government in 2009.

As a result of the previous campaign, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an unequivocal posthumous apology to Mr Turing on behalf of the Government, describing his treatment as "horrifying" and "utterly unfair". Mr Brown said the country owed him a huge debt. This apology was also shown at the end of the Channel 4 documentary celebrating Mr Turing’s life and achievements which was broadcast on 21 November 2011.

A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence. He would have known that his offence was against the law and that he would be prosecuted.

It is tragic that Alan Turing was convicted of an offence which now seems both cruel and absurd-particularly poignant given his outstanding contribution to the war effort. However, the law at the time required a prosecution and, as such, long-standing policy has been to accept that such convictions took place and, rather than trying to alter the historical context and to put right what cannot be put right, ensure instead that we never again return to those times.

via UK Government declines to pardon Alan Turing | John Graham-Cumming.

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Testing times, but no pardon for Turing is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

A team in the US has created a boron compound that has the highest coordination number of any planar species, squeezing 10 spoke-like bonds from a central metal hub to 10 boron atoms equally spaced around a nanoscopic wheel.

I asked theoretical chemist Pekka Pyykkö of the University of Helsinki, Finland, for his thoughts on the work:

“This combined experimental and theoretical discovery is in my opinion worth of any coverage you can give it. The new record of 10 for an equatorial coordination number, in a perfect symmetry group D10h, will make lovers of records happy,” he told me.

“At a deeper, quantum mechanical level, I find the electronic structure entirely logical and a pretty example of the eighteen-electron (18e) rule,” he adds. “These objects have a classical beauty.”

10 out of 10 for boron's coordinated effort.

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10 out of 10 for boron’s coordinated effort is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

Graphene is perhaps the thinnest material known. Essentially it is a single, isolated layer of the carbon allotrope graphite. In SpectroscopyNOW this week I discuss new research into how a single layer of graphene is transparent to water molecules in the sense that the water can “see” whatever is underneath without the graphene influence. More details on that and potential applications over on SN, but it was the coincidence of a paper by Geim and colleagues at Manchester, which I covered last week in Chemistry World that intrigued me. On the one hand water interacts with a metal coated with a single layer of graphene as if the graphene were not there, yet multiple layers of graphene oxide are impermeable to helium atoms but will let water pour through.

I asked the author of the single-layer work, Nikhil Koratkar of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York to compare and contrast his discovery with the Geim work:

“They appear to be working with a film which could be microns thick,” he told me. “The film is comprised of graphene oxide sheets that have aggregated to form a film. Now graphene oxide is very different from graphene. It is strongly hydrophilic and water spreads completely on graphene oxide. Given the fact that the film is an aggregate of graphene oxide sheets it will have a porous structure and hence it is not that surprising that water seeps through these pores. What is very interesting is that helium does not get through! Which means that the pores in the film are very small. Inspite of that water is able to force its way through these pores which is indeed interesting. In our system we have a single graphene (not graphene oxide) sheet and no pores. So there is no question of the water passing through the graphene.”

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Layers of graphene, water and helium is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

When you leave your body to medical science you might imagine some marvellous discovery among your organs and tissues that leads researchers to the wondrous discovery of a universal anticancer drug or something equally stupendous. In reality, it can be a much more mundane, especially for any women donating their mortal coil.

Researchers at Emory University have been testing two techniques for implanting silicone prosthetic breast implants into cadavers. Obviously, the implications of their work will be of relevance to living recipients, rather than the morticians. They have investigated whether the so-called Keller Funnel, which allows the implant to be inserted without the surgeon actually touching it, reduces potential contamination with skin or other bacteria. And, their results show that indeed it does. There’s a 27-fold reduction in transfer of a fluorescent paste smeared on the chest of the cadaver on to the implant surface compared with digital insertion.

Given that microbes such as MRSA could so easily be transferred with the implant using the digital insertion method it is perhaps time for surgeons to switch to this technique and so reduce infection, contracture, and the need for reparative surgery after implantation.

A more technical write-up appears in the 1st February issue of SpectroscopyNOW.

Incidentally, the only difference between industrial grade silicone gel and medical grade silicone gel is one of labelling and certification. As far as I know, surgeons have not been injecting women with the waterproofing material you use to seal around your bath.

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Post mortem breast implants is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

It was perhaps inevitable that a paper published in the journal Journal of Applied Toxicology that showed parabens (a preservative used in underarm deodorants and countless other products) to be present in breast cancer tissue samples would be grabbed by the tabloids and others and turned into the latest scare story about how deodorants cause breast cancer. Indeed The Daily Mail, for instance, not known for its scientific accuracy announced that: “Chemical found in deodorants, face cream and food products is discovered in tumours of ALL breast cancer patients”.

Of course, that wasn’t even close to the truth, the study tested samples from just 40 women who had had breast cancer mastectomy. All samples were found to contain parabens, but not all the women reported using underarm deodorants. It didn’t analyse the deodorants they actually used nor did it test 40 samples from women without breast cancer, nor did it even imply that parabens are linked to breast cancer.

However, The Sun, another notoriously sensationalist paper, quoted lead author of the paper, Philippa Darbre of the University of Reading as saying: “I ditched my deodorant to lower risk of breast cancer”. I spoked to Darbre and she confirmed that she had stopped using underarm deodorant 15 years ago. Some people switch to those so-called “natural” stone deodorants that are actually composed of aluminium salts to reduce sweating in the hope that they are safer. Aluminium salts inhibit sweating and are widely used in commercial anti-perspirants, but I think the toxicity of aluminium salts is even more prominent than parabens. Back in March 2006, I wrote about some of Darbre’s other work that looked into aluminium-containing deodorants and…you guessed it…breast cancer. If there were a link between deodorants and cancer risk maybe it could be in stifling the underarm sweat pores rather than some spurious chemical connection.

At the time Kat Arney, cancer information officer at Cancer Research UK told me that “…the main risk factors for breast cancer are age, reproductive history and a strong family history of the disease.” Other factors, such as excessive alcohol consumption, hormone replacement therapy, and menopause weight gain can also increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. She adds that, “In the case of deodorants and breast cancer, there is little scientific evidence to link the two.” Others have confirmed this and NHS Choices says as much in its debunking of the latest tabloid nonsense about parabens.

Nothing’s changed. This latest paper seems to be just another iteration. I reported on Darbre’s earlier work on parabens for Spectral Lines (now SpectroscopyNOW.com) back in June 2004, but even by then there had been epidemiological studies dating back to 2002 that showed pretty much conclusively that there is no link. Indeed, studies show that if you test the urine of anyone in the west you will most likely get a positive for the presence of parabens.

I asked Colin Sanders a cosmetic chemist who blogs at Colin’s Beauty Pages, based in Petworth, UK, to comment on the issue of parabens and the reporting of the Darbre study. “Parabens are still the most widely used preservative in cosmetic and personal care products,” he told me. “If you launch a product that is going to sell millions of units you know that you are going to get a few people reporting allergic reactions. It doesn’t take long to notice that formulations preserved with parabens get fewer skin reactions than other preservatives.”

Sanders adds that, “Bizarrely enough, antiperspirants generally don’t need to be preserved. A few contain very low levels of parabens, but most don’t have any kind of preservative. It doesn’t seem very likely that they would cause breast cancer. A couple of them are weakly estrogenic. If they do indeed accumulate in breast tissue then that might be a cause for concern. Darbre’s work suggests they do [accumulate] but it has not yet been confirmed by any other group.”

He also suggests that there is a philosophical flaw in taking that approach to investigating the causes of breast cancer. “The trouble is that if you ask the question ‘are parabens safe?’ we don’t have enough information to say definitely yes. But that isn’t the question that the people researching cancer would ask. They would start by asking which factors are most likely to cause cancer. If you look at it from that point of view, what case is there for looking at parabens? Not very much really. There are stronger estrogen mimics that we are exposed to in much greater quantities, especially in food.”

Sanders adds that, “As a cosmetic chemist I would love parabens to be investigated more thoroughly. But if I was trying to reduce the incidence breast cancer I would have bigger fish to fry. It is easy to write a story knocking a particular chemical, but if that diverts research away from the most profitable areas to work in it could delay the development of effective treatment.”

Some chemicals are hazardous and definitely cause harm, the hepatotoxic volatile organic solvent ethanol, for instance, found in wine, beer and spirits. Similarly, the natural products of combustion of the dried leaves of Nicotiana tabacum are well known carcinogens. The tabloids will be tabloids. Take all they print with a pinch of salt…although not too much, mind you, it will make your blood boil!

Barr, L., Metaxas, G., Harbach, C., Savoy, L., & Darbre, P. (2012). Measurement of paraben concentrations in human breast tissue at serial locations across the breast from axilla to sternum Journal of Applied Toxicology DOI: 10.1002/jat.1786

You can read a more detailed discussion from yours truly in my latest Research Highlight article for the magazine Chemistry Views.

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Deodorants still don’t cause breast cancer is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

The Alchemist learns how to manipulate tiny polystyrene beads with a set of micro-tweezers this week and spots the smoking gun in forensics using capillary-scale ion chromatography and suppressed conductivity. In the world of chemophobia has asked why parabens are still the focus of research into underarm hygiene and breast cancer despite the lack of evidence linking the two in any way. There is also an elemental discovery this week concerning that lowliest of metals, zinc, which may have activity in reducing the symptoms of the common cold. A venture that sounds truly alchemical sees research into burning ice heating up. Finally, a prize teacher.

From my fortnightly column The Alchemist.

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Alchemist Chemistry News is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

On Christmas Day 2006, I posted a blog about how snowflakes are not all different and some of the science underlying the formation of snowflakes. The American Chemical Society had a nice infographic at the time showing the principles of snowflake formation (PDF here). There’s no snow around here, but this is Britain, the weather could change at any moment and although we don’t quite have the four seasons in one day they get in New Zealand, give it a day or two and a warm spell can become a cold snap almost overnight.

Snowflakes have at their heart a minute grain of dust that was once floating in a cloud, this speck of dust is the nucleation centre around which water vapour from the atmosphere can condense and if it is cold enough crystallise as ice. As with any crystallisation process it follows a symmetry intrinsic to the atoms or molecules from which the crystal is formed. In the case of water, the underlying symmetry is hexagonal symmetry. There’s more on this in the snow crystal primer.

Caltech’s Kenneth Libbrecht’s is the snowflake guru, here’s a video montage of his snow crystal gallery set to the tune of A Guy Called Gerald by Humanity (Borngraber & Struver Remix):

One question that puzzled me as a child is how each of the six arms “knows” to grow in the same way? Well, they’re growing under almost identical conditions so that might be expected, except, of course, that pretty drawings and diagrams aside, the six arms of snow crystals don’t actually grow symmetrically at all. At first glance they might look nice and symmetrical but under the microscope a single snow crystal will be seen to be far less than perfect in its symmetry. Symmetrical snow crystals are very rare except on Christmas cards. Speaking of which I abandoned my Christmas rant about octagonal and pentagonal snowflakes which are common in those pretty pictures but are physically impossible in the real world of snow because of symmetry constraints.

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Shape of snowflakes is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

I’ve not yet seen the Aurora borealis, nor the Aurora australis, but they’re always on my mind. I am sure they’re amaaazing and wunderfuuul. This week a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun stimulated the earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field to produce some marvellous lights that were even seen as far south as Northern England. There are plenty of photos on the web now and video footage is growing. Amateur astronomers have been gripped by the aurorae, apparently as have amateur astrologers looking for aura…

The aurorae are a natural light show in the sky, most commonly seen at high latitudes (Arctic and Antarctic). They are caused by the collision of energetic charged particles from the sun (the solar wind) at high altitudes (thermosphere). The northern lights are named for the Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas, after Pierre Gassendi, 1621.

“The northern lights are in my mind, They guide me back to you” – Renaissance

Photo: US Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Strang. Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, Aurora Borealis glowing above Bear Lake.

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The Northern Lights are in my mind is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

A flavonoid compound found in fruit and vegetables, luteolin, was recently hailed as an anticancer supernutrient by the tabloid media. Aside from the fact that over-dosing on antioxidants could be detrimental to one’s front-line immune response to pathogens, the research was purely laboratory based and said nothing about whether or not luteolin might actually prevent bowel cancer. The compound has the chemical name 2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)- 5,7-dihydroxy-4-chromenone and in the laboratory shows activity as an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase enzymes as well as blocking interleukin 6.

NHS Choices, as ever, dissects the study, saying that the research may have homed in on the specific signalling pathway through which luteolin can kill bowel cancer cells in the laboratory. The study did not investigate whether upping one’s intake of luteolin-rich foods would have any effect on bowel cancer risk.

The lab study is an essential first step to understanding whether luteolin or more likely a chemical cousin might eventually be developed as an anticancer drug, although this is preliminary, fundamental molecular biology not clinical testing and animal studies for initial testing of such a compound are still a long way off. A drug might never emerge from this research.

Luteolin is found in celery, green pepper, thyme, dandelion, perilla, chamomile tea, carrots, olive oil, peppermint, rosemary, navel oranges, and oregano, fruit rinds, woody barks, clover blossom and ragweed pollen. It has also been isolated from Salvia tomentosa.

NHS Choices emphasises that, “It is important to remember that this study used pure luteolin, and not dietary sources of the compound. The effect of dietary luteolin on cancer is not clear from this research.” Of course, one has to presume that eating a diverse mixture of fresh fruit and vegetables as part of a well-balanced diet (whatever that means) is to be encouraged nevertheless.

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Is antioxidant luteolin an anticancer super-nutrient? is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

Sometimes an old viral video needs another airing. In this video from about three years ago, a mixture of corn starch poured into a speaker cone is vibrated at 30 Hz using a signal generator and the video shot at 30 frames per second (coincident timing with the speaker frequency).

Corn starch is a non-Newtonian fluid, which means it does not behave in a “classical” way, it undergoes shear thickening, which means it gets more viscous when a force is applied. You may have noticed it is much easier to stir it slowly than to try and stir it fast.

When the force applied is cyclic, as in the vibrations of the speaker cone, something very odd happens…weird tendrils form and crawl and collapse and regrow.

It’s also worth checking out the ferrofluid sculpture videos that show up when this Youtube clip finishes.

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Cornstarch monsters on a speaker cone is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

My gut feeling is that visceral manipulation is yet another sCAM practice based on falsehoods, an economy of truth, and, basically, lies. Science-based medicine gives us the low down:

“I think we can reasonably assume that any abdominal manipulation sufficient to disrupt adhesions would risk tissue damage and internal bleeding, but [visceral manipulation] is not likely to do that. As practiced, VM amounts to relaxation, suggestion, and gentle massage; so it is not likely to cause physical harm unless it replaces other, effective treatments. It’s more likely to cause harm to the wallet and to critical thinking.

From Science Based Medicine on VM

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Visceral manipulation is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

A stream of very viscous syrup falling from a nozzle on to a moving belt. At first, the speed of the belt is enough that the thread of syrup is just pulled out straight. However, as the belt is slowed down, the thread at first bifurcates to a meandering state, producing a sine wave and then to a “figure of eight” state and finally, it shifts to a coiling motion similar to what you would observe when drizzing syrup on to your pancakes, for instance. A wonderfully visual example of a Newtonian fluid in action.

There was a little confusion over whether or not the behaviour of the fluid is Newtonian or non-Newtonian. By definition, a Newtonian fluid is one in which the ratio of stress to strain rate is linear. Its graph would pass through the origin and the constant of proportionality is the fluid’s viscosity. A non-Newtonian fluid is any fluid that doesn’t follow that rule, by contrast. Examples include many salt solutions and molten polymers, ketchup (who knew?), custard, toothpaste, starch suspensions (check out cornstarch videos), paint, blood, and shampoo.

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Viscous fluid on a moving belt is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

The UK’s Guardian newspaper is reporting that researchers working to prevent the spread of bird flu and the possible millions of deaths it could cause should a pandemic occur, have suspended their research for 60 days amid fears that they might accidentally trigger the very  epidemic they hope to stop. A letter published on Friday in the scientific journals Nature and Science and signed by scientists from around the world appeals for public debate about the security of the work.

Bird flu scientists suspend work amid epidemic fears.

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Bird flu research halted is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

It’s almost a hypochondriac’s dream come true…a chance to be tested for all kinds of physical and health parameters. Fitness tests, dual x-ray absorptiometry for body composition determination, blood pressure, height and weight, urine tests, jogging test on a treadmill with heart monitoring, the works. People pay good money for a raft of tests like this to find out there’s nothing wrong with them. Me, I got recruited (randomly selected via my GP) into the Fenland Study and am expected to attend the MRC facilities at New Addenbrooke’s Hospital next month.

I have to fast from 10pm the night before, wear loose clothing and trainers for the tests and bring along a fully indexed folder with all my meds (okay, it’s not that bad, just a short list, honest). They want to know if you have any X-ray procedures the week before the testing, presumably to avoid giving you a second (unnecessary) dose of radiation in a short time…oh and they ask you to confirm that you’re not pregnant.

In fact, aside from the very scary thought of discovering that I am perfectly fit and well, the worst outcome is that in order for them to attach a heart monitor that you wear for six days after the testing session they will have to shave off a patch of chest hair.

Needless to say, I will let you know how I get on…with the tests, not the shaving.

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A hypochondriac’s dream is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

A strain of tuberculosis (TB), wholly resistant to antibiotics has been reported and confirmed in India among patients from the slums of Mumbai.

Drug-resistant strains have emerged before in Italy and Iran and multiple-resistant strains have been seen in China and Russia. This emergent strain has meant 12 patients have failed to respond to any antibiotics despite months of treatment. Three have died, the BBC reports.

The American Centers for Disease Control CDC confirmed that the Indian strain appears to be fully resistant to available antibiotics, the BBC says.

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Incurable TB hits India is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

A few days ago, I blogged about the “drug addict’s Facebook timeline”, which showed the fictional life and alternative life of Adam Barak. It was “a creative social media campaign” by media agency McCann Digital Israel. Within a few minutes of posting, I had a tweeted comment from a reader pointing out that it was totally unrepresentative of drug addicts prescribed their addictive meds. I am sure it is, but I don’t think that was the target audience for the campaign, despite how tragic any form of drug addiction can be.

I was intrigued to start reading a comment just now on the post that started:

I take 4 medicines a day for Bipolar Disorder, OCD, ADHD & Depression. I have heard MANY people tell me how bad these medications are for me. But, the problem is, I am 17 & I don’t think that I can refuse medication yet. I live in Missouri & I don’t know what the law is here on refusing medication.

It was only as I got further into the rather long comment post that I spotted the author had signed themself “medicines” and used a rather dodgy-looking Yahoo email address. My immediate suspicion was that it was nothing more than a spam and as I got to the bottom of the comment the give away appeared with a spammy link to some online pharmacy. I did a quick search for a random snippet of text from the comment to confirm and found several sites on which the exact same comment had been posted. So almost certainly pure, uncut spam. Now sliced and diced by my blog spam filter and the IP address blacklisted.

• A drug addict’s Facebook timeline In what Mashable calls "a creative social media campaign", media agency McCann Digital Israel has ...
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Drug addict spam is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog

Finding sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels that would both solve the problem of dwindling supplies of oil and cut the net carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles running on hydrocarbon fuels is a cause high on the environmental agenda. The use of biomass as a source for fuels compounds has benefits, but the setting aside of the great tracts of land required to “grow” adequate crops for conversion into biodiesel detracts from a parallel agenda of major concern: land use and food security.

Now, Johannes Lercher and his colleagues, Baoxiang Peng, Yuan Yao, Chen Zhao, at the Technische Universität München have developed a new catalytic process that might offer a solution to both problems. Their catalyst can efficiently convert biomass, or more properly biopetroleum, generated by microalgae into diesel fuels for use in suitable vehicles.

David Bradley on SpectroscopyNOW.com.

If someone suggests trying a medicine from the realm of complementary or alternative medicine and it sounds too good to be true offering to cure almost any ailment and illness, like some kind of panacea, then check this handy chart before you part with your hard-earned cash or put your life in the hands of quacks.

Phrases like “helps your body heal itself” or “removes toxins” essentially means it’s a sCAM, you cannot boost liver or kidney function by ingesting a herbal extract. In fact, when you think about it ingesting any additional substance simply gives your liver and kidneys more work as they have to then metabolise and excrete the components of that substance too. Moreover, some physiologically active extracts of plants and animals may actually interfere with liver enzymes and slow down the detoxification of other substances in your blood or interfere with the normal processing of prescription and/or over-the-counter medicines. By contrast, homeopathy has no physiological activity, it’s just water and sugar pills. Period.

If your putative sCAM practitioner mentions energy as being some kind of universally pervasive force, point out that energy is nothing more than the capacity to do work in the thermodynamic sense and ask them in what units they are measuring the mystical energy of which they speak. If they try to invoke ancient wisdom point out that demons, blood-letting and trepanning are ancient wisdom. If they hint at ancient eastern mysticism, remember the words of the mighty Tim Minchin: “There is no eastern and western medicine, there’s medicine and then there’s the stuff that hasn’t been proven to work.”

To paraphrase the words of physicist turned comedian Dara O’Briain: Just because science doesn’t know everything (if it did, it would stop), doesn’t mean you can fill in the gaps with whatever fairy tale most appeals to you, such as quantum realignment through touch therapy. And, remember, herbal medicine has (indeed) been around for thousands of years (indeed), we tested it and the stuff that worked became medicine.

The best motto to follow is be skeptical and be safe. But, I suspected I’m preaching to the choir here…pardon the analogy, and the alt med brigade will simply cry conspiracy and tell me I’m a shill for the pharma companies. There is no conspiracy and I am not.

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Have they found a miracle cure-all? is a post from: Sciencebase Science Blog