Dec 10, 2006

Emerging environmental contaminants

Posted in Chemistry, Environment, Science, podcast at 11:58 am by David Bradley -- Click to comment

More than forty research papers highlight the effects of emerging contaminants on human health and the environment in the December 2006 issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology, among their number are reports on nanoparticles, pharmaceuticals, disinfectant by-products, and fluorochemicals.

“It might be tempting to define emerging contaminants as one thing or following certain criteria but it’s not that simple,” says the journal’s guest editor Jennifer Field of Oregon …

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Nov 27, 2006

Ayurvedic analysis

Posted in Chemistry, Health, podcast at 3:03 pm by David Bradley -- 3 Comments; add yours

I, like many with a chemistry training, have on occasion dismissed the more mystical-seeming strands of non-western medicine. The origins of homeopathy, for instance, relied on literal Bible bashing of glass phials to ensure the infinitely dilute remedies would work. Which of course western medicine says is ludicrous. Herbal medicine on the other hand needed the industrial age to extract its active ingredients and bring us the likes of aspirin from the sap of the …

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Oct 6, 2006

Women as fast as men, almost

Posted in Sex, podcast at 6:00 pm by David Bradley -- Click to comment

Scientists in Canada have used a close relative of night-vision goggles to watch women and men become sexually aroused while watching videos. Their study reveals that arousal happens in women just as rapidly as it does in men.

“Comparing sexual arousal between men and women, we see that there is no difference in the amount of time it takes healthy young men and women to reach peak arousal,” says Irv Binik …

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