Sceptici în România

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Skeptical Reporter for April 5^th, 2013

TED, the nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, has revoked its prestigious TEDx licensing for an upcoming West Hollywood event. The goals of the TEDx event, titled Brother can you spare a paradigm?, were to "illuminate the urgent need to change our fundamental value system or worldview to one in which humanity pulls together rather than separately," the official website for the event states. The conversation the TED representative had with the organizers reveals the reason behind the decision: “When we look at your speaker line-up, we see several people who promote — as fact — theories that are well outside what most scientists would accept as credible. The problem is not the challenging of orthodox views. We believe in that. We've had numerous talks which do that. But we have rules about the presentation of science on the TEDx stage. We disallow speakers who use the language of science to claim they have proven the truth of ideas that are speculative and which have failed to gain significant scientific acceptance”.

The Church of Scientology is planning a publicity drive in Australia to challenge what it calls “misconceptions” among the public and the media. The controversial religious group kicked off a PR drive with an appearance on Seven breakfast show Sunrise. The Sunrise interview followed the publication of a guide for journalists that outlined the areas where the organisation feels it has been wrongly represented in the past. The Church of Scientology plans to launch a localised version of a US-made TV ad that ran around the Super Bowl, use direct marketing activity to promote its videos and books, and encourage people to visit its churches to learn about Scientology for themselves. The TV ad bears similarities to Apple’s ‘Think different’ classic from 1997. Scientology has used PR agency Wells Haslem since 2009, the year that Scientology was branded a “criminal organisation” by South Australian senator Nick Xenophon.

Measles is responsible for thousands of tragic (and preventable) deaths each year. Which is perhaps why there has been enormous backlash against a new (and apparently self-published) book by Stephanie Messenger, an Australian author and anti-vaccine activist. According to the author’s page, “Melanie’s Marvelous Measles” was written to: educate children on the benefits of having measles and how you can heal from them naturally and successfully. The description says: “Often today, we are being bombarded with messages from vested interests to fear all diseases in order for someone to sell some potion or vaccine, when, in fact, history shows that in industrialized countries, these diseases are quite benign and, according to natural health sources, beneficial to the body”. Amazon reviewers have not taken kindly to Messenger’s suggestion that measles can be an “adventure,” either. Australian Medical Association president Dr Steve Hambleton said the disease was still dangerous, potentially fatal, and that anyone promoting it should be ashamed of themselves. He said children with measles were very ill and at risk of death or brain damage. In Australia, the book has been removed from sale, by the largest online bookstore.

Australian neuroscientists have attacked a taxpayer-funded brain-training and exercise program used in classrooms for making ''silly'' pseudo-scientific claims when explaining how it works. The Brain Gym program, created in the 1970s by an American educator and taught in more than 80 countries, is being used by teachers in all states in an attempt to improve students' learning. Practitioners usually charge $660 for the basic Brain Gym 101 course, aimed at teachers and students. But the program has generated controversy overseas, with the British Neuroscience Association in 2008 slamming the product for promoting neuromyths. Teachers can train with more than 60 Brain Gym practitioners in Australia outside school hours and use its activities in the classroom. The Teachers Federation confirmed NSW teachers can be reimbursed through their schools' professional development funds, provided by state governments. The Brain Gym website says its 26 physical exercises will "bring about rapid and often dramatic improvements in concentration, memory, organising and more" by developing "neural pathways" in participants' brains.

And now let’s look at some news in science.

Five years ago, an IBM-built supercomputer designed to model the decay of the US nuclear weapons arsenal was clocked at speeds no computer in the history of Earth had ever reached. At more than one quadrillion floating point operations per second (that's a million billion, or a "petaflop"), the aptly named Roadrunner was so far ahead of the competition that it earned the #1 slot on the Top 500 supercomputer list in 2008 and one last time in 2009. Today, that computer has been declared obsolete and it's being taken offline. Based at the US Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Roadrunner will be studied for a while and then ultimately dismantled. While the computer is still one of the 22 fastest in the world, it isn't energy-efficient enough to make the power bill worth it. Costing more than $120 million, Roadrunner's 296 server racks covering more than 500 square metres contained 122,400 processor cores. Super-computing researchers are now looking toward exascale speeds—1,000 times faster than a petaflop—but major advances in energy efficiency and price-performance are necessary.

Scientists have found a way to "read" dreams, a study suggests. Researchers in Japan used MRI scans to reveal the images that people were seeing as they entered into an early stage of sleep. Writing in the journal Science, they reported that they could do this with 60% accuracy. The team now wants to see if brain activity can be used to decipher other aspects of dreaming, such as the emotions experienced during sleep. Professor Yukiyasu Kamitani, from the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, in Kyoto, said: "I had a strong belief that dream decoding should be possible at least for particular aspects of dreaming... I was not very surprised by the results, but excited”. The researchers now want to look at deeper sleep, where the most vivid dreams are thought to occur, as well as see whether brain scans can help them to reveal the emotions, smells, colours and actions that people experience as they sleep.

A 2 billion dollar experiment on the Space Station has made observations that could prove to be the first signs of dark matter, a mysterious component of the Universe. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer surveys the sky for high-energy particles, or cosmic rays. It has seen evidence for what could be dark matter colliding with itself in a process known as "annihilation". But scientists stress that a precise description of this enigmatic cosmic constituent is still some way off. "It could take a few more years," said AMS deputy spokesman Roberto Battiston, a professor of physics at Trento University, Italy. "But the accuracy that AMS is displaying is far greater than past experiments, so we're getting closer to unveiling the cause of the particle events we're detecting," he explained. Dark matter accounts for most of the mass in the Universe.

Scientists showed they could erase a rat's cocaine habit by shining a laser light on its brain. The achievement could give rise to a new therapy for people crippled by an addiction to the drug, researchers say. For people and lab rats alike, a compulsive cocaine addiction can dull activity in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region thought to be important for impulse control and decision making. In the new study, scientists used genetic engineering to transform neurons in the rats' prefrontal cortex into a switch. They implanted light-sensitive proteins called rhodopsins in the neurons that they could turn on and off with a laser light. "When we turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine seeking is gone," said study researcher Antonello Bonci, scientific director of the intramural research program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

And, now, in local news from Romania, we learn that

In a famous Romanian murder case, know as ”Elodia”, the body of the victim was searched for using a device known to be a scam. The ADE 650 device, was said to be able to locate a dead body using just a few strands of hair, if it was handled by a capable person. But the inventor of ADE 650, James McCormick, has already been arrested by British authorities after the device was sold in Iraq and Afghanistan to detect bombs, but was proved inefficient.

Links:

• http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/346918
• http://mumbrella.com.au/scientology-137346?religionnewsblog.com
• http://www.salon.com/2013/01/07/anti_vaccine_book_tells_kids_to_embrace_measles/
• http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/controversial-anti-vaccination-book-removed-from-sale/story-fneuzlbd-1226551911539
• http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/brain-gym-claims-challenged-20130112-2cmes.html#ixzz2Hw4ZtQ6h
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22031074
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22016504
• http://www.livescience.com/28409-zap-a-cocaine-addiction-with-lasers.html
• http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/worlds-fastest-supercomputer-from-09-is-now-obsolete-will-be-dismantled/
• http://www.realitatea.net/dispozitivul-misterios-folosit-in-cazul-cioaca-demasca-o-frauda-de-propor-ii_1154250.html

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Skeptical Reporter for March 29^th, 2013

Professor Edzard Ernst, a researcher specializing in the study of complementary and alternative medicine, was fired from the journal “Homeopathy”, by the editor in chief. He has published part of the letter in which he was informed of the decision: “This is to inform you that you have been removed from the Editorial Board of Homeopathy.  The reason for this is the statement you published on your blog on Holocaust Memorial Day 2013 in which you smeared homeopathy and other forms of complementary medicine with a ‘guilt by association’ argument, associating them with the Nazis”. Edzard Ernst who has explained that he was merely recounting historical facts disagrees that he used a fallacy in the text on his blog: “My article and my motives for writing it could have been thoroughly misunderstood – in my view, this is unlikely because I explained my motives in some detail both in the article and in the comments that follow the article. Another explanation could be that Dr Fisher, who also is the Queen’s homeopath, lacks sufficient skills of critical thinking to understand the article and its purpose. Alternatively, he has been waiting for an occasion to fire me ever since I became more openly critical of homeopathy about five years ago”.

Parents may be growing increasingly reluctant to immunize their teenage daughters with the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, a new study suggests. In 2008, almost 40 percent of parents surveyed said they did not intend to vaccinate their daughters against HPV, according to the study. But that number rose to nearly 44 percent by 2010, even as more parents said their pediatricians recommended the series of three shots. "Our study is the first to look at the reasons parents report for not getting their children immunized over time, and it's one of the few studies to look at this in a national sample," said study author Paul Darden, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Safety concerns about the HPV vaccine and worries about its side effects grew dramatically among parents over the study period. But the most common reason parents gave for not immunizing their children was parents' belief that this vaccine was not needed. Darden said that the rate of acceptance for the HPV vaccine is rising much more slowly than for other teen immunizations, and he suspects parents' fears are tied to sex.

The future of reality TV could be kids who think they've had past lives. A Los Angeles production company is currently holding a nationwide casting call for children who claim to have, or have had, past life memories. The casting is held for a new reality series, "Ghost Inside My Child," scheduled to air on the Bio Channel later this year. A pilot episode of the series aired a few months ago, with three kids who had gone through various steps of recovering memories of their alleged past lives. Now, producers Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina -- who are married to each other -- are looking for other families with kids who, as the request states, "have inexplicable memories and experiences of another life." The producers want to eliminate stories that are fabricated or kids whose tales of past life seem obviously prepped. There is another criteria to which the reincarnated rugrats will have their alleged past lives explored: access to documentation. Parents should make sure to analyze possible sources of information that may have inspired a child's "past existence."

A California creationist is offering a $10,000 challenge to anyone who can prove in front of a judge that science contradicts the literal interpretation of the book of Genesis. Joseph Mastropaolo, who says he has set up the contest, the Literal Genesis Trial, in the hope of improving the quality of arguments between creationists and evolutionists, has pledged to put his own money into an escrow account before the debate. His competitor would be expected to do the same. The winner would take the $20,000 balance. The argument would not be made in a formal court, but under an alternative dispute resolution model known as a minitrial. Mastropaolo said he would present the argument in favor of a literal interpretation of the creation story once he had found a willing scientist to argue that a non-literal interpretation of Genesis is more scientific.

And now let’s look at some news in science.

British scientists have developed a new method to create an entirely synthetic vaccine which doesn't rely on using live infectious virus, meaning it is much safer. What's more the prototype vaccine they have created, for the animal disease foot-and-mouth, has been engineered to make it more stable. That means it can be kept out of the fridge for many hours before returning to a cold area, overcoming one of the major hurdles in administering vaccines in the developing world. "What we have achieved here is close to the holy grail of foot-and-mouth vaccines. Unlike traditional vaccines, there is no chance that the empty shell vaccine could revert to an infectious form," said Dave Stuart, Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Oxford. "This work will have a broad and enduring impact on vaccine development, and the technology should be transferable to other viruses from the same family, such as poliovirus and hand-foot-and-mouth disease, a human virus which is currently endemic in South-East Asia", he added.

Europe's Planck telescope, which last week showed us a picture of the oldest light streaming across the Universe, has another trick up its sleeve. It has also mapped the distribution of all the matter in the cosmos. This was done by analysing the subtle distortions in the ancient light introduced as it passed by the matter. The effect is a direct consequence of Einstein's theory of general relativity which tells us that space is warped by the presence of mass. Professor Simon White likens it to the way light is bent as it passes through the lumpiness of an old glass window pane. "There have been 'gravitational lensing' detections before, over small areas, but this is the first time we've been able to do this kind of thing over the whole sky," he explained. The telescope has produced a new contents list for the Universe: 4.9% normal matter - atoms, the stuff from which we are all made, 26.8% dark matter - the unseen material holding galaxies together, 68.3% dark energy - the mysterious component accelerating cosmic expansion. The number for dark energy is lower than previously estimated.

The skeletal remains of an individual living in northern Italy 40.000-30.000 years ago are believed to be that of a human/Neanderthal hybrid, according to a paper in PLoS ONE. If further analysis proves the theory correct, the remains belonged to the first known such hybrid, providing direct evidence that humans and Neanderthals interbred. Prior genetic research determined the DNA of people with European and Asian ancestry is 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal. “From the morphology of the lower jaw, the face of the Mezzena individual would have looked somehow intermediate between classic Neanderthals, who had a rather receding lower jaw (no chin), and the modern humans, who present a projecting lower jaw with a strongly developed chin,” co-author Silvana Condemi, an anthropologist, explained. The genetic analysis shows that the individual’s mitochondrial DNA is Neanderthal. Since this DNA is transmitted from a mother to her child, the researchers conclude that it was a “female Neanderthal who mated with male Homo sapiens.”

More than 80 new genetic markers linked with an increased risk of breast, prostate and ovarian cancer have been identified, according to the results of a dozen new studies published this week. Together, the studies involved more than 250,000 people around the world. In five of the studies, to be published in the journal Nature Genetics, researchers analyzed genetic information from 100,000 patients with breast, ovarian or prostate cancer and 100,000 healthy people in the general population. The researchers looked for spots in the genetic code (known as markers) where the two groups differed. They found 49 genetic markers that increased the risk of breast cancer, 26 that increased the risk of prostate cancer and eight that increased the risk of ovarian cancer. Some of these markers were shared among the three cancers, which is not unexpected given that these cancers are all hormone-related, the researchers noted. Currently, there's no cancer screening test available that incorporates these new markers. "We definitely believe that the results of these studies will be used in clinical practice," said study researcher Dr. Per Hall, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

And, now, in local news from Romania, we learn that

Several ads for nutritional supplements have been banned from airing on television, in Romania. The National Audiovisiual Council of Romania decided that the ads for Artrostop, ArtroStop rapid, UrinalAkut and Zeolit do not respect national laws. These nutritional supplements promised to cure certain diseases or contribute in curing certain medical conditions, something which is forbidden by the audiovisual law.

Links :

• http://edzardernst.com/2013/03/ive-been-fired/
• http://www.livescience.com/27986-hpv-vaccine-teens-recommendations.html
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/24/reincarnated-kids-needed-_n_2934103.html
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/25/creationist-trial-bible-genesis-evolution
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21958361
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21940434
• http://www.livescience.com/28270-neanderthal-skeleton-provides-evidence-of-interbreeding-with-humans.html
• http://www.livescience.com/28227-genetic-markers-breast-prostate-ovarian-cancer.html
• http://www.realitatea.net/ce-spoturi-a-interzis-cna-de-la-difuzare_1145977.html

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:33 — 8.7MB)

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Skeptical Reporter for March 22^nd, 2013

Three “male enhancement” products being sold online say they’re all herbal, but they contain hidden prescription drug ingredients and could be dangerous, the Food and Drug Administration warned. The three contain compounds similar to the active ingredients in the erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra and Cialis and can cause serious problems in men being treated for heart disease. They should not be taken without a doctor’s supervision. The names of the three products -- “Rock-It Man”, “Libido Sexual Enhancer” and “Stiff Days” -- leave little doubt what they are supposed to be used for. But while they are marketed as alternatives to the prescription drugs to be used without the guidance of a doctor, they are in fact virtual copies, without any oversight to ensure they are safe. Anyone who has bought any of the products should just toss them, the FDA advises. “Consumers who have experienced any negative side effects should consult a health care professional as soon as possible,” it adds.

The Psychic Access organization is warning the public about the possibility of being conned by psychic scammers. Normally they explain that their organization can provide people with legitimate psychic services while others may take advantage of people without offering “professional” advice. This is what an announcement for Psychic Access has to say: “Psychic Scams conjured up by fake fortune-tellers continue to be a major concern for legitimate, professional psychic companies. Every day unsuspecting members of the public are conned into forking out ridiculous amounts of money to line the pockets of con artists, despite the fact that potential victims have access to online information on the subject. Phony psychics not only damage the reputation of other legitimate psychic services, but they also wreak havoc in the lives of innocent, vulnerable people”. In an effort to combat the prevalence of online psychic fraud and swindles, Psychic Access has now published a set of tips and guidelines on their website.

Dr. Oz is being sued by a man who suffered severe injuries after taking the advice promoted on Oz’s show in order to help him sleep. Frank Dietl was watching an episode of Dr. Oz that recommended viewers warm their socks in the microwave with rice inside. Dietl is suing Dr. Oz, his production company and NBC Studios for recommending on television a cure for insomnia with an Oz remedy, called the knapsack heated rice footsie. The only warning he offered was to not get the socks too hot in the microwave. Oz capped the segment by telling viewers, “If you do this the right way, you’ll be thanking me for years to come”. But Dietl revealed he suffers from neuropathy, or numbness in his feet, due to diabetes — a condition Oz did not address. “There were no proper instructions or proper warnings,” Dietl’s lawyer explained. The man didn't realize how hot the socks were until he got up in the middle of the night and tried to walk. Tim Sullivan, a spokesman for Harpo Productions, which produces “The Dr. Oz Show,” said the company could not comment until it had reviewed the lawsuit. “However, we stand by the content in our program as safe and educational for our viewers,” Sullivan said.

The Australian Vaccination Network has to come up with a new name for the group in a short amount of time. Last year, the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading ordered the organisation to come up with a new title that accurately describes its position on immunisation. This follows complaints from medical groups that the network's name was misleading to the public. The Australian Medical Association said the name gave the impression that the Network provided unbiased information for and against immunisation. The Fair Trading Assistant Commissioner, Robert Vellar, says a more appropriate title is needed for the organisation. "We had a look at the Australian Vaccination Network's name and thought their name should reflect something more in line with the anti-vaccination stance they take," said Vellar. "It is not the responsibility of the Department of Fair Trading to pick a name for them." he said.

And now let’s look at some news in science.

The UK has moved closer to becoming the first country to allow the creation of babies from three people. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has advised the government that there is no evidence the advanced forms of IVF were unsafe. The fertility regulator's public consultation also showed "general support" for the idea as the benefits outweighed the risks. A final decision on whether to press ahead rests with ministers. If the techniques were approved it could help a handful of families each year. Around one in 6,500 children develop serious "mitochondrial disorders" which are debilitating and fatal. Research suggests that using mitochondria from a donor egg can prevent the diseases. However, it would result in babies having DNA from two parents and a tiny amount from a third donor. Concerns have been raised both about the safety and the ethics of creating such babies. The results of a public consultation at the end of 2012 showed there was support for the idea. Professor Neva Haites, who was on the expert panel supervising the consultation, said: "Broadly speaking the public was in favour of these novel techniques being translated into treatments”.

Fossil trees that approached the heights of today’s tallest redwoods have been found in northern Thailand. The longest petrified log measures 72.2 meters, which suggest the original tree towered to more than 100 meters in a wet tropical forest some 800,000 years ago. The trees appear to have been closely related to a species alive today called Koompassia elegans, which belongs to the same family as beans, peas and black locust trees, explained lead author of the study, Marc Philippe of France’s University of Lyon. That is to say, the ancient trees are not closely related to today’s tallest trees, which are the Eucalyptus (gum trees) of Australia and Sequoia (redwoods) of California. Both of those living trees can reach about 130 meters in height. Interestingly, there are no trees living today in Thailand that approach the size of the ancients. The sediments in which the fossil trees were found suggest that they lived in a wet forest at the edge of a lowland plain. In 2006, the name of the park were the trees were found was changed to the Petrified Forest Park because of the fascinating discoveries. As to why there were big trees in the past that are unrelated to today’s giant trees, it appears to be just another case of what’s called convergent evolution. That’s where similar environmental factors lead to traits that are similar in unrelated species.

Chimps who work together know what their partners need to achieve a goal, and they're happy to lend a helping hand, recent research finds. The study demonstrates that humans' close primate relatives are true team players, perhaps revealing the evolutionary roots of human cooperation, said study leader Alicia Melis, a behavioral scientist at Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom. "This study provides the first evidence that one of our closest primate relatives, the chimpanzees, not only intentionally coordinate actions with each other, but that they even understand the necessity to help a partner performing her role," Melis said in a statement. The chimpanzees in the the experiment had to share tools they were given in order to be able to reach grapes that they could eat. Ten out of the 12 chimpanzees figured out that they had to give one of the tools to their partner to successfully get the grapes. In 73 percent of attempts, the chimp chose the right tool to hand over to get the job done. "There were great individual differences regarding how quickly they started transferring tools to their partner," Melis said. "However, after transferring a tool once, they subsequently transferred tools in 97 percent of trials and successfully worked together to get the grapes in 86 percent of trials." The study reveals that chimps are savvy strategizers, Melis said, adding that the chimps understand when they need a partner for a task and which tools that partner needs.

Think about energy development in the Middle East, and you'll probably think of oil. But the petroleum-rich region is also home to the world's largest solar power facility, which started producing electricity this month. The Shams 1 solar plant outside Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates will produce 100 megawatts of electricity at full capacity. That's enough energy to electrify 20,000 homes and could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 175,000 tons each year — roughly the equivalent of taking 35,000 cars off the road. The Shams 1 plant is just one of several ambitious solar projects in the Middle East: Noor-1, a 100-megawatt solar photovoltaic facility planned for the UAE, is expected to begin development later this year. And Saudi Arabia plans to generate 100 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2032, while Qatar's renewable energy target is 1.8 gigawatts by 2014.

And, now, in local news from Romania, we learn that

There are great concerns over the students’ results in the upcoming baccalaureate exam later this year. In a simulation, in the district of Arad, 95% of students were unable to get a passing grade in mathematics and 83% were in the same situation when it came to the Romanian language examinations. Last year, a lot of university programs could not attract a sufficient number of students because many had failed the baccalaureate exam. The authorities have noted that students are simply not prepared for the examinations.

Links:

• http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/21/17401199-fda-male-enhancement-products-deliver-more-than-you-bargained-for
• http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/psychic-access-warns-public-to-avoid-psychic-scams-224467.htm
• https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/man-sues-dr-oz-burned-feet-article-1.1292333
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-18/new-name/4579550?&section=news
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21806911
• http://www.livescience.com/28052-giant-trees-found-in-thailand.html
• http://www.livescience.com/28030-chimps-work-together-with-tools.html
• http://www.livescience.com/28023-shams-1-largest-solar-energy-plant.html
• http://www.realitatea.net/bacalaureat-2013-doar-cinci-la-suta-au-luat-nota-de-trecere-la-matematica_1140239.html

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:16 — 8.5MB)

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Skeptical Reporter for March 15^th, 2013

The majority of homeschooled children in America belong to evangelical Christian families, but some parents are dismayed by the textbooks they can use to teach their children. For many evangelical families, the rationale for homeschooling has nothing to do with a belief in Young Earth Creationism or a rejection of evolutionary theory. Now, evangelical families who embrace modern science are becoming more vocal about it -- and are facing the inevitable criticism that comes with that choice. At least one publisher, Christian Schools International in Grand Rapids, Michigan has noted the demand and produced textbooks that promote Christian values and modern science. "Most science textbooks that attempt to present the content from a Christian perspective also attempt to discredit the theory of evolution," says Ken Bergwerff, a science curriculum specialist at Christian Schools International. "Some do it discreetly; others are quite blatant. The CSI science curriculum clearly presents science from a Christian perspective, but does not attempt to discredit the theory of evolution. The content presents God as the author of all of creation, no matter how he did it or when he did it."

Following six years of preparations, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) school in the Canadian province of British Columbia has applied to local educational authorities to become the first institute in the country to offer a TCM curriculum at university-degree level. PCU College of Holistic Medicine in Burnaby wants to launch a five-year degree program in TCM this September. Currently, the college offers three-year diploma programs in both acupuncture and Chinese medicine. With some 1,400 TCM practitioners and 400 students currently registered in the western Canadian province, PCU College Dean Dr. John Yang exaplined in a recent interview that he hopes this move will offer a greater public acceptance of the practice. He also supports the idea that TCM shouldn't be taken in tandem with western medicines.

In Australia a new study has revealed that sickness being attributed to wind turbines is more likely to have been caused by people getting alarmed at the health warnings circulated by activists. Complaints of illness were far more prevalent in communities targeted by anti-windfarm groups, said the report's author, Simon Chapman, professor of public health at Sydney University. His report concludes that illnesses being blamed on windfarms are more than likely caused by the psychological effect of suggestions that the turbines make people ill, rather than by the turbines themselves. "If windfarms were intrinsically unhealthy or dangerous in some way, we would expect to see complaints applying to all of them, but in fact there is a large number where there have been no complaints at all," Chapman said. The report, which is the first study of the history of complaints about windfarms in Australia, found that 63% had never been subject to noise or health complaints. In the state of Western Australia, where there are 13 windfarms, there have been no complaints. The study shows that the majority of complaints (68%) have come from residents near five windfarms that have been heavily targeted by opponent groups. The report says more than 80% of complaints about health and noise began after 2009 when the groups "began to add health concerns to their wider opposition".

In Malawi, a traditional healer has been sentenced to eight years imprisoned with hard labour for wounding two 10-month-old babies when he was cleansing them from witchcraft. Frank Josamu was arrested on February 21st for wounding the children in a witchcraft cleansing ritual which ended in the babies sustaining second degree burns that covered 18 percent of their total body surface. Police Prosecutor, Inspector Lloyd Kachotsa told the court that the accused deserved the harsh sentence due to the permanent scars inflicted on the unsuspecting children and for not adhering  to messages promoted by advocacy groups regarding the issue of witchcraft. However, Josamu who pleaded guilty to the offence told the court to be lenient with him claiming he did not choose to cleanse people, but was forced to because they insisted and explained that he looks after orphans and his children who will suffer if he is imprisoned.

And now let’s look at some news in science.

Rapid treatment after HIV infection may be enough to "functionally cure" about a 10th of those diagnosed early, say researchers in France. They have been analysing 14 people who stopped therapy, but have since shown no signs of the virus resurging. However, most people infected with HIV do not find out until the virus has fully infiltrated the body. The group of patients, known as the Visconti cohort, all started treatment within 10 weeks of being infected. The patients were caught early as they turned up in hospital with other conditions and HIV was found in their blood. They stuck to a course of antiretroviral drugs for three years, on average, but then stopped. The drugs keep the virus only in check, they cannot eradicate it from its hiding places inside the immune system. Normally, when the drugs stop, the virus bounces back. This has not happened in the Visconti patients. Some have been able to control HIV levels for a decade. This suggests that by hitting the virus hard when it first infects the body, it might be possible to live for years without needing treatment - a functional cure. The hope is that by investigating how patients treated early, and a group of people who are genetically resistant to HIV, can combat the virus - it will give scientists clues for developing cures for everyone else.

Dentists may one day be able to replace missing teeth with ones newly grown from gum cells, say UK researchers. The team from King's College London took cells from adult human gum tissue and combined them with another type of cell from mice to grow a tooth. They say using a readily available source of cells pushes the technology a step nearer to being available to patients. But it is still likely to be many years before dentists can use the method. In the latest study they took human epithelial cells from the gums of human patients, grew more of them in the lab and mixed them with mesenchyme cells from mice. The mesenchyme cells were cultured to be "inducing" - they instruct the epithelial cells to start growing into a tooth. Transplanting the cell combination into mice, researchers were able to grow hybrid human/mouse teeth that had viable roots. The next step will be to get an easily accessible source of human mesenchyme cells and grow enough of them for it to be a useful technique in the clinic.

Researchers have conducted a remote reconnaissance of a distant planetary system with a new telescope imaging system that sifts through the blinding light of stars. Using a suite of high-tech instrumentation and software called Project 1640, the scientists collected the first chemical fingerprints, or spectra, of this system's four red exoplanets, which orbit the HR 8799 star, 128 light years away from Earth. "An image is worth a thousand words, but a spectrum is worth a million," said lead author Ben R. Oppenheimer, associate curator and chair of the Astrophysics Department at the AmericanMuseum of Natural History. The planets surrounding the star of this study, HR 8799, have been imaged in the past. But except for a partial measurement of the outermost planet in the system, the star's bright light overwhelmed previous attempts to study the planets with spectroscopy, a technique that splits the light from an object into its component colors. Because every chemical, such as carbon dioxide, methane, or water, has a unique light signature in the spectrum, this technique is able to reveal the chemical composition of a planet's atmosphere. With this system, the researchers are the first to determine the spectra of all four planets surrounding HR 8799.

A complete ban on the sale of cosmetics developed through animal testing has taken effect in the EU. The ban applies to all new cosmetics and their ingredients sold in the EU, regardless of where in the world testing on animals was carried out. The 27 EU countries have had a ban on such tests in place since 2009. But the EU Commission is now asking the EU's trading partners to do the same. The anti-vivisection group BUAV and the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE) said they had spent more than 20 years campaigning on the issue and had enlisted celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney, Morrissey and Sienna Miller to their cause. They congratulated the EU Commission for putting the ban into effect. The EU Commission says it is working with industry to develop more alternatives to animal testing, and that it allocated 238 million euros in 2007-2011 for such research.

And, now, in local news from Romania, we learn that

Students at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science in Cluj have presented the robots they have been working on for months. The robots were a success with the public present at the UBBots challenge and promise to help people in various tasks. Some of the most appreciated robots were “Bad dog Nicuşor” who will protect the owner’s home, Dronică, the robot that will do your dishes and the automated bartender.

Links:

• http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/old-earth-young-minds-evangelical-homeschoolers-embrace-evolution/273844/
• http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/health/2013-03/09/c_132219571.htm
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/15/windfarm-sickness-spread-word-australia
• http://www.maravipost.com/scope/law-and-order/3279-traditional-healer-gets-8-yrs-ihl-for-causing-bodily-injury-to-babies-in-witchcraft-rutial.html
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21783945
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21718402
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130311173756.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21740745
• http://www.realitatea.net/studentii-clujeni-au-prezentat-robotii-casnici-nicusor-caine-rau-si-dronica_1131497.html

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Skeptical Reporter for March 8th, 2013

Continuing their raid on quacks and faith healers, health officials in India nabbed as many as 36 persons this week. The officials said a self-proclaimed doctor they cayght had more medicines than food items in his kitchen. The quack was identified as M K Singh who fled from the spot when he saw the team arriving. His neighbours told the health team that Singh retired as a sweeper from a central public sector undertaking. Chief medical offices Dr Yadav said, "These so-called doctors are playing with the health of the rural people. The quacks not only fleece them, they spoil their medical condition. In many cases, the quacks are to be blamed for the death of patients." He revealed that his teams had to face resistance at three different places. In Kakori, the superintendent of the community health centre heading the team was held hostage by the employees of Seher nursing home. Officials in the health team revealed that the quacks were well connected. In many places, the moment the health team cracked down, cell phones of the team leaders started ringing. "Politicians and their aides used all sorts of measures to deter us. Block pramukhs and government officials also pleaded for certain quacks," said a deputy chief medical officer who preferred to remain anonymous.

The tsunami that engulfed northeastern Japan two years ago has left some survivors believing they are seeing ghosts. But in a society like Japan’s, where people are wary of admitting to mental problems, many are turning to exorcists for help. Tales of spectral figures lined up at shops where now there is only rubble are what psychiatrists say is a reaction to fear after the March 11, 2011, disaster in which nearly 19,000 people were killed. "The places where people say they see ghosts are largely those areas completely swept away by the tsunami," said Keizo Hara, a psychiatrist in the city of Ishinomaki, one of the areas worst-hit by the waves. In some places destroyed by the tsunami, people have reported seeing ghostly apparitions queuing outside supermarkets which are now only rubble. Taxi drivers said they avoided the worst-hit districts for fear of picking up phantom passengers.

An analysis of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America has revealed how the centers manage to promise survival rates better than national averages after turning away patients. CTCA is not unique in turning away patients. A lot of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers in the United States decline to treat people who can't pay, or have inadequate insurance, among other reasons. What sets CTCA apart is that rejecting certain patients and, even more, culling some of its patients from its survival data lets the company tout in ads and post on its website patient outcomes that look dramatically better than they would if the company treated all comers. CTCA reports on its website that the percentage of its patients who are alive after six months, a year, 18 months and longer regularly tops national figures. For instance, 60 percent of its non-small-cell lung cancer patients are alive at six months, CTCA says, compared to 38 percent nationally. And 64 percent of its prostate cancer patients are alive at three years, versus 38 percent nationally. Such claims are misleading, according to nine experts in cancer and medical statistics who were asked to review CTCA's survival numbers and its statistical methodology. The experts were unanimous that CTCA's patients are different from other patients, in a way that skews their survival data. It has relatively few elderly patients, even though cancer is a disease of the aged. It has almost none who are uninsured or covered by Medicaid - patients who tend to die sooner if they develop cancer and who are comparatively numerous in national statistics. Accepting only selected patients and calculating survival outcomes from only some of them "is a huge bias and gives an enormous advantage to CTCA," said biostatistician Donald Berry of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The company defends its practices. Spokeswoman Pamela Browner White said CTCA's survival data are in "no way misleading, nor do they deviate from best practices in statistical collection and analysis."

Travelers to Indonesia beware: smuggling drugs will still earn you jail time but, if an official draft of the country's new criminal code becomes law, witches and people practicing "black magic", even adulterers and those living together outside wedlock, may also be locked away. The new draft law is meant to modernize Indonesia's 1918 Criminal Code, which was last updated in 1958, but some of its proposals constitute a big step back to the Middle Ages. In a country where many people earnestly believe that they could be killed, injured or robbed by a sorcerer using black magic, that crime will, for the first time, become part of the criminal law. People guilty of using black magic to cause "someone's illness, death, mental or physical suffering", face up to five years in jail or a consistent sum in fines. Even claiming to have the power to cast dark spells would become a criminal offence, and if the magic was performed for financial gain, the penalty would increase by one-third. "White" magic would remain legal.

And now let’s look at some news in science

Doctors announced that a baby had been cured of an HIV infection for the first time, a startling development that could change how infected newborns are treated and sharply reduce the number of children living with the virus that causes AIDS. The baby, born in rural Mississippi, was treated aggressively with antiretroviral drugs starting around 30 hours after birth, something that is not usually done. If further study shows this works in other babies, it will almost certainly be recommended globally. The United Nations estimates that 330,000 babies were newly infected in 2011, the most recent year for which there is data, and that more than three million children globally are living with HIV. If the report is confirmed, the child born in Mississippi would be only the second well-documented case of a cure in the world. That could give a lift to research aimed at a cure, something that only a few years ago was thought to be virtually impossible, though some experts said the findings in the baby would probably not be relevant to adults.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has been put into "safe mode" after a computer glitch caused by corrupted files. The robot, which is analyzing rock samples on the Red Planet, is now running from a back-up computer. NASA engineers are looking into possible causes for the files on the robot's flash memory being damaged. The fault means the rover's work has been put on temporary hold while the back-up computer is reconfigured so it can take full control. "We're still early on in the process," said project manager Richard Cook, in an interview. "We have probably several days, maybe a week, of activities to get everything back and reconfigured." The corrupted files may have been caused by stray cosmic rays.

Neuroscientists are pushing for a major project that would map the activity of the brain, potentially illuminating the causes of depression, schizophrenia and other major mental health disorders. The Brain Activity Map (BAM) project, as it is called, has been in the planning stages for some time. In the June 2012 issue of the journal Neuron, six scientists outlined broad proposals for developing non-invasive sensors and methods to experiment on single cells in neural networks. This February, President Barack Obama made a vague reference to the project in his State of the Union address, mentioning that it could "unlock the answers to Alzheimer's." This week, the project's visionaries outlined their final goals in the journal Science. They call for an extended effort, lasting several years, to develop tools for monitoring up to a million neurons at a time. The end goal is to understand how brain networks function.

The surface of the planet Mercury has been completely mapped for the first time in history, scientists say. The closest planet to the sun hasn't received as much scientific attention as some of its more flashy solar system neighbors, such as Mars, but NASA's Messenger spacecraft is helping to close the gap. The probe has been in orbit around Mercury since March 2011, and its team announced that the spacecraft had finished mapping the planet's surface. "We can now say we have imaged every square meter of Mercury's surface from orbit," said Messenger principal investigator Sean Solomon of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. "Admittedly, some regions are in permanent shadow, but we're actually peering into those shadows with our imaging systems." In addition to photographing the unseen parts of Mercury, the spacecraft substantially improved on the resolution of existing maps.

And in local news from Romania we learn that

An 18-year-old student from Botosani who invented a bionic hand has impressed NASA specialists and won first place in the TechSchool competition. He wants to use the prize money, 7.000 euros to develop an improved version of the prototype. „Robo Hand”, the project for a bionic hand developed by Constantin Voiniciuc has also won the student a trip to NASA. The invention can imitate hand gestures and can be used in extreme precision tasks.

Links :

• http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-04/lucknow/37436467_1_quacks-health-team-chief-medical-officer
• http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/05/us-japan-exorcist-ghosts-idUSBRE9240YZ20130305
• http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/us-usa-cancer-ctca-idUSBRE9250L820130306
• http://www.smh.com.au/world/push-to-make-black-magic-a-crime-in-indonesia-20130308-2fpc7.html
• http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/health/for-first-time-baby-cured-of-hiv-doctors-say.html?_r=0
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21654308
• http://www.livescience.com/27721-brain-activity-map-project-launch.html
• http://www.livescience.com/27669-mercury-map-nasa-messenger.html
• http://www.realitatea.net/elev-de-18-ani-din-botosani-la-nasa-pentru-inventia-mainii-bionice_1126550.html

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:27 — 7.7MB)

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Skeptical Reporter for March 1st, 2013

Universal Pictures has won a bidding battle for movie rights to Proof Of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey Into The Afterlife, the runaway bestselling non-fiction book about a man who glimpsed the afterlife during a near death health crisis. It was a six figures deal and three studios chased the book. Proof of Heaven has topped The New York Times bestseller list since it was published in late October by Simon & Schuster. It is a first person account by Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who taught at HarvardMedicalSchool and other universities, embracing science over faith. Despite being a Christian, he did not embrace religious theories of the afterlife. That was until he contracted a rare bacterial meningitis that penetrated his cerebro-spinal fluid and attacked his brain. He lay near death, comatose for seven days in 2008. He awoke with a clear recollection of what he described as a journey to heaven. Several studios went after a book for its huge appeal to a faith-based readership.

Scientists are skeptical about a device that claims it can 'remotely detects hepatitis C', called C-Fast. The developers say C-Fast – developed from bomb detection technology – will revolutionize diagnosis of other diseases, being able to “scan” the body for hepatitis. The prototype operates like a mechanical divining rod – though there are digital versions. It appears to swing towards people who suffer from hepatitis C, remaining motionless in the presence of those who don't. One of the developers claimed the movement of the rod was sparked by the presence of a specific electromagnetic frequency that emanates from a certain strain of hepatitis C.  The device's scientific basis has been strongly contested by physicists. A Nobel prize-winner has said that it "simply does not have sufficient scientific foundation".

In the United States, two bills in Arizona and Oklahoma that might have hindered the teaching of science have not passed the respective Senates. Arizona's Senate Bill 1213 died on February 22, when the deadline for Senate bills to be heard in their Senate committees passed. A typical instance of the "academic freedom" strategy for undermining the integrity of science education, the bill targeted "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning" as supposedly controversial.  Senate Bill 758, the so-called Oklahoma Science Education Act, which would have undermined the integrity of science education has also failed to pass. February 25, 2013, was the deadline for Senate bills to pass their committees, but the Senate Education Committee adjourned its February 25, 2013, meeting without considering it. If enacted, SB 758 would have required state and local educational authorities to "assist teachers to find more effective ways to present the science curriculum where it addresses scientific controversies" and permitted teachers to "help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories pertinent to the course being taught."

In South Africa, a woman claiming to be a psychic, who has requested to address the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on the "mental state" of athlete Oscar Pistorius who is accused of murder, has approached the Constitutional Court. The woman, who identified herself as Annamarie said she was contacted in a dream by Pistorius's late mother Sheila, who told her to make sure Pistorius was sent for psychiatric evaluation. After being rebuffed by the magistrate, she approached the High Court with her request to halt the bail application, but this court also rejected her application. Pistorius is charged with murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The athlete has had bail set at 1 million Rand or more than 100.000 dollars. Annamarie claims to be the ex-wife of Dr Gerald Versfeld, who amputated Pistorius's legs when he was a child. She believed Pistorius had had a mental breakdown.

And now let’s look at some news in science.

The way cancers make a chaotic mess of their genetic code in order to thrive has been explained by UK researchers. Cancer cells can differ hugely within a tumour which helps them develop ways to resist drugs and spread round the body. A study in the journal Nature showed cells that used up their raw materials became "stressed" and made mistakes copying their genetic code. Scientists said supplying the cancer with more fuel to grow may actually make it less dangerous. Scientists at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute and the University College London Cancer Institute have been trying to find out how cancers become so diverse in the first place. Their study showed the problem came from making copies of the cancer's genetic code. Cancers are driven to make copies of themselves, however, if cancerous cells run out of the building blocks of their DNA they develop "DNA replication stress". The study showed the stress led to errors and tumour diversity. It helped to prove that replication stress was the problem and now new tools could be developed to tackle it.

Two X-ray space observatories have teamed up to measure definitively, for the first time, the spin rate of a black hole with a mass 2 million times that of our sun. The supermassive black hole lies at the dust- and gas-filled heart of a galaxy called NGC 1365, and it is spinning almost as fast as Einstein's theory of gravity will allow. The findings, which appear in a new study in the journal Nature, resolve a long-standing debate about similar measurements in other black holes and will lead to a better understanding of how black holes and galaxies evolve. "This is hugely important to the field of black hole science," said Lou Kaluzienski, a NuSTAR program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The observations also are a powerful test of Einstein's theory of general relativity, which says gravity can bend space-time, the fabric that shapes our universe, and the light that travels through it.

A smartphone has been blasted into orbit from India by a team of researchers from the University of Surrey. They hope to use a purpose-built app to test the theory, immortalized in the film Alien, that "in space no-one can hear you scream". The phone will play out several of the screams submitted by people online. The test will monitor the durability of standard commercial components in space. It will also test two new innovative propulsion systems. The first - named Warp Drive uses the ejection of a water-alcohol mixture to provide thrust. The second technology is pulsed plasma thrusters. These use an electric current to heat and evaporate a material, producing a charged gas that can then be accelerated in one direction in a magnetic field to push the satellite in the other direction. The mission will see the so-called "smartphone-sat" - a world first - orbit the Earth for six months.

In an experiment that sounds straight out of a science fiction movie, a Duke neuroscientist has connected the brains of two rats in such a way that when one moves to press a lever, the other one does, too — most of the time. The neuroscientist, Miguel Nicolelis, known for successfully demonstrating brain-machine connections said this was the first time one animal’s brain had been linked to another.  Much of Dr. Nicolelis’s work is directed toward creating a full exoskeleton that a paralyzed person could operate with brain signals. Although this experiment is not directly related, he said, it helps refine the ability to read and translate brain signals, an important part of all prosthetic devices connected to the brain, and an area in which brain science is making great advances. He also speculated about the future possibility of a biological computer, in which numerous brains are connected, and views this as a small step in that direction.

And, now, in local news from Romania, we learn that

The makers of Colon Help, a colon cleansing product, who had sued WordPress in order to silence a Romanian blogger who had pointed out that they were making unsubstantiated claims, have lost the trial. After initially demanding the blogger pay 100,000 Euros for damage to their reputation and not managing to convince him to take the articles down, Zenith Pharmaceuticals, who produce Colon Help, sued WordPress. They lost two separate actions in court, but still have the right to appeal the decision.

Links:

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/25/scientists-divided-device-hepatitis
• http://ncse.com/news/2013/02/antiscience-bill-dies-arizona-0014725
• http://ncse.com/news/2013/02/antiscience-bill-dies-oklahoma-0014724
• http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Psychic-in-Cons-Court-over-Oscar-dream-20130223
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21603235
• http://www.astronomynow.com/news/n1302/28nustar/#.UTCV2TDQmgQ
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21577780
• http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/science/new-research-suggests-two-rat-brains-can-be-linked.html?_r=0

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:13 — 9.4MB)

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Skeptical Reporter for February 22^nd, 2013

Announcement.

Registrations for this years Amaz!ng Meeting have begun. The Amaz!ng Meeting or TAM is the leading conference focused on scientific skepticism. People from all over the world come to TAM each year to share learning, laughs, and the skeptical perspective with their friends and a host of distinguished guest speakers, panelists, and workshop presenters. The theme of this year’s program is “Fighting the Fakers,” focusing on scientific skepticism. The Amaz!ng Meeting will take place in Las Vegas, US, from the 11^th to the 14^th of July, this year.

And now for some skeptical news.

Australian Skeptics are again organising a major test of water divining, repeating an exercise last undertaken 11 years ago at the Mighty Mitta Muster in northern Victoria. Organised by the Borderline Skeptics with input from Australian Skeptics Inc and the Victorian Skeptics, diviners putting themselves up for the test will, depending on their results, be in the running for the Skeptics $100,000 challenge. The Mighty Mitta Muster is an annual event, held on the Victorian Labour Day weekend, featuring the usual range of events at rural shows – woodchopping, tent pegging, stunt riding and egg throwing – but it hasn’t had a water divining test since the last time the Skeptics rolled up in 2002. At the 2002 event, 30 diviners put their skills to the test, but out of 20 bottles containing either water or sand (a 50/50 chance of being correct), the highest score was only 13, which is well within the realms of chance alone. The excuses used post-trial to explain away the failures were many and varied. A video report on the event by Richard Saunders can be seen on YouTube. The 2013 divining challenge will be held on March 10, and will again be conducted by placing water in plastic containers covered by paper bags.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK warned people not to buy or use potentially dangerous unlicensed Chinese medicines sold online after some products were found to contain excessive levels of mercury or lead. Health authorities in Hong Kong told the MHRA that various products are being recalled and they should not be used by people in the UK because of an increased toxic poisoning risk. The toxic effects of lead include abdominal pain, anaemia, changes in blood pressure, reproductive disorders such as miscarriage, weakness, concentration problems, weight loss, insomnia, dizziness, kidney and brain damage. The toxic effects of mercury include irritability, tremors, memory loss, insomnia, concentration problems, kidney and brain damage. There is no evidence that these products are available on the UK market but they could have been purchased over the internet or by people traveling to Hong Kong. MHRA Head of Herbal Policy, Richard Woodfield said: “We would advise any one who has taken these products to seek GP advice immediately. This highlights the dangers of buying unlicensed herbal medicines and the risk to people’s health. These medicines contain toxic impurities and the side effects can be serious”.

The James Randi Educational Foundation has announced it is publishing a book series on Science-Based Medicine. This is what the representatives of the foundation explained: “In cooperation with the Science-Based Medicine blog, which is an invaluable source of expert information on all manner of medical topics, JREF is publishing a number of books on the topic. Led by executive editor Dr. Steven Novella, who heads JREF’s Science-Based Medicine Project, the blog’s team of writers regularly shine the light of good science on spurious health claims, and these new books anthologize their best writing on issues ranging from vaccines and naturopathy to homeopathy and nutritional supplements. Their science-based and skeptical treatment of these issues are of interest to skeptics, non-skeptics, and educated medical consumers alike”. The titles are available on Kindle, iBooks, and Nook for the low introductory price of just $4.99 each for the next week. You can buy a whole library of books on science based medicine for the cost of dinner out.

And in the United States, in Palm BeachCounty deputies are hunting for a man who robbed a psychic center in Delray Beach. On February 5th, a suspect entered the PsychicCenter, located in the 3300 block of Federal Hwy, Delray Beach and committed an armed robbery. During the robbery the suspect forced three women and an autistic child to lie down on the floor. Anyone who can help identify the robber is asked to cooperate with local authorities. Although catching the robber should be no problem given the talents of the people working at the respective center.

And now let’s look at some news in science.

Star Trek fans have something to rejoice in: "Vulcan" is the leading contender in a vote to name two of Pluto's recently discovered moons. In the TV series and films, it is also the name of Spock's home planet. Vulcan has taken more than 100,000 of some 325,000 votes cast in the online poll. A new 20 to 30 kilometres wide moon of Pluto currently known as P4, was discovered in 2011; another of similar size - P5 - was spotted last year.

Star Trek actor William Shatner, who portrayed the Enterprise's captain James Kirk, had previously called on the vote organisers to add Vulcan and Romulus to the list of names in contention. The organisers accepted Vulcan, but rejected Romulus. Both Romulus and Remus (the names of twin brothers in the Roman foundation myth) are already in use as names for the moons of the asteroid 87 Silvia. However, Mr Shatner appeared pleased that Vulcan made the list, tweeting: "I think we are over 100k votes for Vulcan on PlutoRocks.com that's wonderful!". The poll is being run by the Seti Institute in California and Dr Mark Showalter, who led the scientific team behind the discovery of P4 and P5. The team have said they would take the results of the vote into account when they propose their choices to the International Astronomical Union (IAU). However, the IAU has the final say on the matter.

Some of the world's richest internet entrepreneurs, including Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, have awarded 11 disease researchers 3 million dollars each. Nine of the recipients of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences are based at US institutions. The other two are from the Netherlands and Japan. Many of the winners work on cell genetics and how it relates to disease. In addition to Mr Zuckerberg, his wife Priscilla Chan and Ms Wojcicki, the prize is sponsored Ms Wojcicki's husband Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, and Yuri Milner, a Russian entrepreneur. Mr Milner, along with the new foundation's chair, Arthur Levinson, a former chief executive at a biotech company and current chairman of Apple, chose the prize winners. Cornelia Bargmann, a winner from RockefellerUniversity, told the website Fast Company that she initially thought it was a practical joke or an internet scam. From 2014 on, the foundation will award $3m to five scientists each year. There is no age restriction on the prize and past winners can win again.

UK scientists exploring the ocean floor in the Caribbean have discovered an "astounding" set of hydrothermal vents, the deepest anywhere in the world. Deploying a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) in the Cayman Trough, they stumbled across a previously-unknown site nearly 5000 metres below the surface. Video pictures relayed back to the research ship show spindly chimneys up to 10 metres high. They are belching out dark water - "a stunning sight", one scientist said. In the immense pressure of the sea three miles down, the ROV, known as ISIS, was gently steered around the vents, taking pictures and gathering samples. Hydrothermal vents are among the strangest features of the deep ocean and their existence was not known until the 1970s. Since then they have been discovered at about 200 sites around the world including the Southern Ocean and the Atlantic. But it was only three years ago that vents were first detected in the Cayman Trough, a deep trench formed by the boundary between two tectonic plates. One set of vents, known as Beebe, was established as the deepest on record - until this discovery of a slightly deeper set nearby. Despite the hostile environment around the vents, they are home to a stunning array of species, such as this fireworm. The water being blasted from the newly-found vents was measured at 401C, making this set among the hottest on the planet.

A light mist of sugar could help the broccoli (and other veggies) go down, according to new research that tested ways to make vegetables more palatable for children. In preliminary studies, preschoolers who were served lightly sweetened vegetables (sprayed with a mist of sugar) at lunchtime ate more of the healthy foods compared to those who were served unsweetened vegetables. Although the researchers tested other ways to mask the vegetables' bitterness, including various salts, plain sugar worked the best. Adding such a small amount of sugar means the vegetables do not taste markedly sweet, said study researcher Valerie Duffy, a professor at the University of Connecticut's Department of Nutritional Sciences. Genetics make some people more sensitive to the bitter flavor found in vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. She stressed that the sweetened vegetables aren't meant to be served throughout a child's life. Rather, serving the sugar-enhanced veggies a few times should be enough to get children accustomed to eating them.  Once that happens, it's no longer necessary to spritz the veggies. Sweetened vegetables don't have many extra calories, either. The researchers added about a half a teaspoon of sugar, which has a mere 8 calories.

And, now, in local news from Romania, we learn that

Romanian researcher Corina Sas from the University of Lancaster and Steve Whittaker from the University of California, Santa Cruz, might have found a way to help people after they have broken up with their partners. The two researchers studied the way people managed various memories of their exes and have proposed that social media networks should provide more options for people to store or delete painful memories.

Links:

• http://www.amazingmeeting.com/
• http://www.skeptics.com.au/latest/news/calling-all-diviners/
• http://www.mhra.gov.uk/NewsCentre/Pressreleases/CON239403
• http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-psychic-center-robbed-20130219,0,2660545.story
• http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/jref-news/2023-jref-publishes-three-volumes-on-science-based-medicine.html
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21526436
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21525391
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21520404
• http://www.livescience.com/27289-kids-sweetened-vegetables.html
• http://www.descopera.ro/dnews/10565983-un-cercetator-roman-propune-solutia-prin-care-despartirile-devin-mai-usor-de-suportat