Anne Strieber has noticed that a lot of unquestionable pronouncements have been made over the years by so-called ?experts,? and that a lot of these folks ended up with egg on their faces. She looks at some of the gaffes of the past and some of the ones that are likely to turn up in the future.
To read Anne?s Diary,click here.
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SoloTrek is a new kind of flying machine that you strap on and fly. This compact aircraft lets you takeoff vertically and land literally anywhere. Using readily available fuel, SoloTrek can hover for up to 2 hours, reach speeds of up to 70 knots, and traverse distances of up to 120 nautical miles.
It weighs 325 pounds and has so far succeeded in making a 19 second test flight (which is better than the Wright Brothers did on their first try). ?We have to walk before we can run,? says inventor Michael Moshier, who is a former Navy pilot and aerospace engineer. ?We?re getting more confident, and not yet taking it too far before we get too comfortable.?
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The advice to ?feed a cold, starve a fever? may be right after all, researchers have discovered. Until now, most doctors and nutritionists have rejected it as myth. But Dutch scientists have found that eating a meal boosts the type of immune response that destroys the viruses responsible for colds, while fasting stimulates the response that destroys the bacterial infections responsible for most fevers.
?To our knowledge, this is the first time that such a direct effect has been demonstrated,? says Gijs van den Brink of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam.
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Leena Peltonen of UCLA has discovered the genetic basis for lactose intolerance. Her study supports the theory that retaining the ability to digest milk evolved only in some peoples during the past ten thousand years, as an adaptation to dairy farming.
For the majority of people in the world, including most southern European, Asian and African populations, lactose intolerance is normal. It sets in at weaning or shortly after, when the body stops producing lactase, the enzyme it needs to digest the milk sugar lactose. Without lactase, lactose passes through the stomach undigested and reaches the bacteria in the large intestine. There bacteria feed on it, producing by-products that can make people feel gassy and nauseous.
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