Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (/ˈseɪɡən/; November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences. His contributions were central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of Venus. However, he is best known for his contributions to the scientific research of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages that were sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan always advocated scientific skeptical inquiry and the scientific method, pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). §Early life[edit] My parents were not scientists.
A POTENTIAL ROLE FOR CANNABIS IN ADDICTION TREATMENT « doctorK's blog Many people have already seen the CNN documentary by Soledad O’Brien “Gary and Tony Have a Baby”. Those who have not seen the documentary yet will likely see it, as CNN practically goes out of its way to bring this touching story to millions of people around the country. The story is about two professional gay men in a stable relationship of twenty years who, determined to have a family, overcame many obstacles, both legal and financial, in their quest to become parents, a story that they agreed to share, in all its intimate details, with their fellow countrymen, and they did it with a clear sense of pride and accomplishment. This story, as far as I could see, was not just about Gary and Tony and the people who helped them in their quest, it was about our society’s views on this sort of things, or rather the evolution of these views that has taken place over the last 35 years or so. The same, the very same logic would apply for addiction treatment.
How to grow a Rainbow Rose, Naturally In 2004, two dutch companies, River Flowers and F.J. Zandbergen, experimented and successfully grew a rose that had its petals rainbow colored. As petals get their nourishment through stem, the idea is to split the stem into several channels and dip each one in a different colored water. This way all the colors will be drawn by the stem into petals and resultant rose will have all the colors in it. The same method can be applied to other flowers especially to Chrysanthemum and Hydrangea. Sources: 1, 2, 3 Watch: Flowers Color Time Lapse
Smart People Do More Drugs--Because of Evolution - Entertainment Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa has this theory, which he calls the Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis. Here's how it goes: intelligence evolved as a way to deal with "evolutionary novelties"--to help humans respond to things in their environment to which they were, as a species, unaccustomed. Thus, smart people are more likely to deal with new things and try them. Those new things seem to include drugs. Why? Kanazawa even finds a study with support: Consistent with the prediction of the Hypothesis, the analysis of the National Child Development Study shows that more intelligent children in the United Kingdom are more likely to grow up to consume psychoactive drugs than less intelligent children. ... If that pattern holds across societies, then it runs directly counter to a lot of our preconceived notions about both intelligence and drug use: People--scientists and civilians alike--often associate intelligence with positive life outcomes. Illustration via digitalbob8's Flickr
Medical cannabis Cannabis indica fluid extract, American Druggists Syndicate, pre-1937. A dried bud of Trainwreck strain cannabis Cannabis has been used to reduce nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy and people with HIV/AIDS, and to treat pain and muscle spasticity;[6] its use for other medical applications has been studied, but there is insufficient data for conclusions about safety and efficacy. Short-term use increases minor adverse effects, but does not appear to increase major adverse effects.[7] Long-term effects of cannabis are not clear,[7] and there are safety concerns including memory and cognition problems, risk for dependence and the risk of children taking it by accident.[6] Medical uses Cannabis as illustrated in Köhler's book of medicinal plants from 1897 The Institute of Medicine, run by the United States National Academy of Sciences, conducted a comprehensive study in 1999[dated info] assessing the potential health benefits of cannabis and its constituent cannabinoids. Nausea and vomiting
"The egg" Page 11 | highDEAS You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. And that’s when you met me. “What… what happened?” “You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. “There was a… a truck and it was skidding…” “Yup,” I said. “I… I died?” “Yup. You looked around. “More or less,” I said. “Are you god?” “Yup,” I replied. “My kids… my wife,” you said. “What about them?” “Will they be all right?” “That’s what I like to see,” I said. You looked at me with fascination. “Don’t worry,” I said. “Oh,” you said. “Neither,” I said. “Ah,” you said. “All religions are right in their own way,” I said. You followed along as we strode through the void. “Nowhere in particular,” I said. “So what’s the point, then?” “Not so!” I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. “How many times have I been reincarnated, then?” “Oh lots. “Wait, what?”
Feds Remove Anti-Tumor Cannabis Info After Just Days Online Just 11 days after adding a section on medical marijuana to its treatment database, the National Cancer Institute has altered the new page, removing any mention of the evidence that marijuana can diminish and even reverse tumor growth. In an edit appearing Monday afternoon, NCI replaced a sentence about marijuana's direct anti-tumor effect with one saying that it is prescribed mainly to control nausea, pain and insomnia for cancer patients, reports Kyle Daly at The Colorado Independent. The original language, published to the Web on March 17, had read: The potential benefits of medicinal Cannabis for people living with cancer include antiemetic effects, appetite stimulation, pain relief, and improved sleep. In the practice of integrative oncology, the health care provider may recommend medicinal Cannabis not only for symptom management but also for its possible direct antitumor effect. After being changed Monday, it now reads: Was Big Pharm behind the changes?
The surprising effect of cannabis on morphine dependence (PhysOrg.com) -- Injections of THC, the active principle of cannabis, eliminate dependence on opiates (morphine, heroin) in rats deprived of their mothers at birth. This has been shown by a study carried out by Valérie Daugé and her team at the Laboratory for Physiopathology of Diseases of the Central Nervous System (France) in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. The findings could lead to therapeutic alternatives to existing substitution treatments. In order to study psychiatric disorders, neurobiologists use animal models, especially maternal deprivation models. Previously, Daugé and her colleagues had shown that rats deprived of their mothers at birth become hypersensitive to the rewarding effect of morphine and heroin (substances belonging to the opiate family), and rapidly become dependent. Such animal models are validated for understanding the neurobiological and behavioral effects of postnatal conditions in humans. Provided by CNRS
New Insights on Marijuana in Israel, Where It’s Illegal In Israel, he said, research in the field is “definitely a work in progress,” and he cautioned, “Science is not a 100-meters Olympic race; it is not who is first on the line that is important.” The real advances, he said, are being made not on farms but in laboratories around the world, including in the United States and Europe. The professor, who collaborates with many teams abroad, said that chances were that in the next few years well-defined mixtures of the compounds, refined into something more like a medical drug, would replace today’s medicinal marijuana. In the meantime, he said, offering products with different levels of key ingredients, as Tikkun Olam does, “is going towards personalized medicine.” Yet experts say that many medical professionals in Israel remain skeptical and are reluctant to encourage patients to use marijuana, be it because of conservatism or a lack of knowledge about its potential benefits. Still, there are stories of transformation.
Carl Sagan on Mary Jane. GREAT READ. by _david Jun 29