Warning: nicotine could be good for your health. As David Cohen reports, an article in the latest
Scientific American serves notice that one of
western society's most reviled substances could be due for an image
overhaul, at least biomedically.
Hot on the heels of news that nicotine can improve
symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and ulcerative colitis comes the announcement that
the substance might help to alleviate sepsis, the most lethal of
inflammatory conditions and the third leading cause of death in the
developing world. The finding was announced by Luis Ulloa of, North Shore
University Hospital , an academic campus
in New York.
Such findings might be weighed in light of past medical
discoveries linking vilified substances with rude health - a
recently uploaded photographic collection of which can be seen here
here. Note, in particular, the photo taken at
the University of Heidelburg circa 1900 showing young scholars take a
musical break from their studies while smoking opium.
Elsewhere
Also in the blogosphere: SpeedDatingNews offers an interesting
global wrap on why marriage and science careers often don't cohere ...
LiveScience.com sorts out a rather unfortunate
[ incident in Norway involving a university professor who
reported a nuclear-size explosion had hit northern Europe ... a blogger at King Saud University in Riyadh,
lifts the veil on life as a female translation student in the
desert kingdom ... and a brilliant free chapter from one American
scholar on why listening to experts could be worse for your health than
nicotine.
