If you develop a disease, the amount of pollution in the air you breathe may determine how sick you get. Men who live in polluted areas are more likely to develop lung cancer, and SARS patients affected by air pollution are more likely to die. This is important news in the wake of the new Clean Air regulations, which mean that some areas of the U.S. will end up with more pollution than others.
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The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic shield that protects us from solar radiation. The problem is, it can leak. Researcher Harald Frey says, "We’ve discovered that our magnetic shield is drafty, like a house with a window stuck open during a storm. The house deflects most of the storm, but the couch is ruined." Can we safely colonize Mars, which does not have a shield to protect us from the sun? Only if we’re careful.
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Physicist Michio Kaku says he knows of nothing that makes time travel impossible and “In the laws of physics, if it’s not forbidden, it’s mandatory. This is pretty much proven every time.” And an amateur explorer says he’s discovered a portal where time is altered.
In msnbc.com, Alan Boyle quotes Kaku as saying, “Over the last 10 years there’s been a sea change. Ten years ago, you would be considered a lunatic if you proposed that time travel was possible?Now, the burden of proof has shifted to the cynics, who have to prove that it?s not possible.”
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Just when the controversial new Medicare drug bill has been passed, a new report has come out showing that half the time, prescription drugs don’t work. And a couple of illegal drugs can cause changes in DNA that can be passed down to future generations.
Steve Connor reports in the Independent that Allen Roses, vice-president drug company GlaxoSmithKline, says that more than half of the patients who take expensive prescription drugs don’t get any benefit from them. Connor writes, “It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public.”
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