August 5th, 2010 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Humor, Opinion, Research
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This post follows a lengthy conversation I had with my wife, a physician-scientist, about this very topic.
Many of you who attended the ScienceOnline2010 conference here last January probably met Carmen Drahl, the Princeton-trained chemist who now writes for Chemical & Engineering News and their appropriately-named drug discovery blog, The Haystack, as well as their Newscripts feature.
For the latter, Dr. Drahl pointed us toward a recent “Crosstalks” paper in Chemistry & Biology by Thomas U. Mayer and Andreas Marx of the University of Konstanz (and her interview with the authors) who mused as follows from their abstract:
Which five molecules would you take to a remote island? If you imagine yourself as a castaway on an island you might pick water, glucose, penicillin, and ethanol in combination with aspirin. However, as a scientist, you may ask yourself which molecules impressed you most by their chemical or biological property, their impact on science, or the ingenuity and/or serendipity behind their discovery. Here, we present our personal short list comprising FK506, colchicine, imatinib, Quimi-Hib, and cidofovir. Obviously, our selection is highly subjective and, therefore, we apologize up front to our colleagues for not mentioning their favorite compounds.
The authors pose two different questions: a) Which molecules, drug or not, would you take as the sole occupant of a desert island? and b) Which drugs most impress you with their chemistry, biology, or impact on science? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata*
June 1st, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
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How fast should an ambulance go? The stereotypical speeding ambulance with lights flashing and sirens blaring is the image that most conjure up. But recent data suggests that transport speed may be overstated.
In a fascinating piece from Slate, emergency physicians Zachary F. Meisel and Jesse M. Pines examine that very question. They cite a recent study from the Annals of Emergency Medicine, which concluded that a fast transport speed didn’t necessarily save lives. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
December 19th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Humor, True Stories
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If you’ve ever had an Italian greyhound you know they hate the snow. They hate the cold. In general they hate the water but ours are starting to discover how fun water can be. They hate being uncomfortable. Mrs Happy and I have discovered that Marty and Cooper, our precious little babies, have a very tight range of comfort between 72 and 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything below that and they’re shivering. Cooper, our grey Iggy with the white boots, is slightly more tolerant of having cold feet. But Marty, our little white Iggy with the grey helmet, has no tolerance for snow or cold feet.
Just the other day I heard a whimper coming from outside only to discover little Marty struggling to climb the stairs of our deck. He hobbled into the house limping on three feet and crying, making high pitched shrieking noises and trying to garner all the attention he could get. Why you ask? Because his feet got cold after walking on the snow for less than a minute. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
