On the fast lane

Thanks to C.S.J. for telling me about the studies of Robert Levine and others.

The pace of life in cities around the world is literally getting faster, a study shows.
Psychologists have measured the speed at which people walk and discovered a 10 per cent increase in the past decade. The findings, from 32 countries, reflect the increasing numbers of people living in the fast lane.

The page above Continue reading On the fast lane


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Osteopontin bridging air pollution and immunology of allergic inflammation

Ostepopontin (OPN) is a remarkable substance. The many aliases already point towards a multitude of biological functions: SPP1=secreted phosphoprotein 1, BSPI 1=bone sialoprotein-1, CIT, ETA-1, GC110940, nephropontin, osteoprotegerin, uropontin, bone sialoprotein I, early T-lymphocyte activation among others. Continue reading Osteopontin bridging air pollution and immunology of allergic inflammation


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Asthma no more a disease but a symptom

There already some rumors – an earlier Lancet perspective named asthma a symptom “like fever” (scienceblog:doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69271-4:). A new editorial now compares it to “diarrhea” Continue reading Asthma no more a disease but a symptom


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Ca2+ and IgE

Two decades ago, 10% calcium gluconate had been recommended for the treatment of anaphylaxis (couldn’t find any explanation for that but renember one of my teachers saying it will stabilize the membranes). There is now an update in scienceblog:doi:10.1038/ni1441: Continue reading Ca2+ and IgE


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Where do I come from, where will I go

The fate of an individual cell in the human body is a mystery. A new Nature paper now provides a follow up of single cells of the epithelial cell layer. It is certainly a paper that will rank among the top 10 this year, Continue reading Where do I come from, where will I go


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Human head with wrong orientation?

There was a funny comment by Friedemann Schrenk in a recent radio duo podcast [link to br online] that the human head sits with a wrong orientation on the human body as the pipelines for food and air cross over. Continue reading Human head with wrong orientation?


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Vitamin D as a treatment of tuberculosis

There is now a lot of hype around the usefulness of vitamin D in the treatment of tuberculosis (scienceblog:doi:10.1164/rccm.200701-007OC ). The authors mention even their previous review (scienceblog:doi:10.1016/j.jsbmb.2006.12.052:) summarizing 13 studies between 1947 and 1998. Continue reading Vitamin D as a treatment of tuberculosis


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Ending decay (and suffering)

It sounds unbelievable – not only to me but also to the editors of Nature who needed half a year to publish a paper of (probably the first true) genetic treatment. Two high-throughput screens comprising ~800,000 low molecular weight compounds were needed to identify 3-[5-(2-fluorophenyl)-[1,2,4]oxadiazol-3-yl]-benzoic acid Continue reading Ending decay (and suffering)


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Physician’s industry dependency

The NEJM has an article about “A National Survey of Physician’s Industry Relationships” – a topic that I did not expect in the NEJM at least from what I have read during the recent change at the editorial office. That’s life – always a surprise. Continue reading Physician’s industry dependency


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