MEDICAL research advances at breakneck speed as pharmaceuticals companies
plough billions into the development of ever more sophisticated drugs. But
according to a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, they
might be all barking up the wrong tree.
The World Health Organization publishes a list of what it considers are
鈥渆ssential鈥� drugs鈥攄rugs that are 鈥渁s relevant today as they were 20 years
ago鈥�. Examples include anaesthetics, anticonvulsants and antibiotics such as
penicillin.
But if two Israeli doctors, Abraham Ohry and Jenni Tsafrir of Tel Aviv
University, have their way, the list will soon also include chicken soup. The
doctors argue that just because this nutritious concoction has been around for
thousands of years doesn鈥檛 mean its health-giving properties should be
ignored.
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Quite right too. And while we鈥檙e at it, how about including fish and chips on
the WHO list? After thorough trials, of course.
COULD any readers who know about space exploration lend us a hand? We
recently received a notice from the European Space Agency. 鈥淎nnouncement for
research opportunities using short-term bed rest as a tool for countermeasures
validation and fundamental research,鈥� it began. It then went on to say: 鈥淎
research announcement for a long duration bed rest has been issued.鈥� And,
finally: 鈥淲e are pleased to release now this second research announcement for
short duration bed rests.鈥�
This sounds like nice work if you can get it, but perhaps we haven鈥檛
understood it fully. Translation, please?
KNOWING things are there before you know they are there is an art that
Feedback has yet to acquire. But Australia鈥檚 national research organisation, the
CSIRO, has apparently mastered it.
In a recent press release, Sid Bain of the CSIRO entomology section stressed
the uniqueness of his country鈥檚 wildlife, and added: 鈥淚n Australia we鈥檝e got
plenty of insects, including several hundred thousand species yet to be
诲颈蝉肠辞惫别谤别诲.鈥�
How clever of him to know.
HERE, it seems, is a job opportunity for a good chemist. While he was
changing the toner cartridge of his Canon photocopier, David Whittle checked the
label to see if there was anything that might stop him from recycling the old
container. Prominently marked where he expected to find a list of 鈥渋ngredients鈥�
was: 鈥淐ontents partially unknown.鈥�
AND HERE is another example of the blindingly obvious being stated.
Children鈥檚 clothes sold by Marks & Spencer carry a label that warns: 鈥淚n the
interests of safety, it is advisable to keep your child away from fire and naked
蹿濒补尘别蝉.鈥�
This, of course, is sound advice, but why stop there? There is so much more
that could be said鈥攕uch as: 鈥淚t is also advisable not to let your child
play in the fast lane of a busy highway, jump off cliffs or drink paraquat.鈥�
MEMBERS of the ChemWeb website get a weekly e-mail giving updates on what is
happening on the site. The most recent one explained that a new patent search
database is now available. It is maintained by a company called Information for
Industry and is called, with remarkable honesty, the IFI Claims Database.
SONY is already in trouble with the PlayStation 2 machine recently launched
in Japan because its memory cards do not work properly. Also, the player can be
easily modified to defeat the system which is supposed to stop it playing North
American DVD movies.
Feedback cannot help wondering if Sony feared such problems even before the
PS2 hit the market. The company offered European journalists the chance to spend
a day in Tokyo for the launch. There was only one snag. They would have to pay
their own air fares to get there.
READER Chana Lajcher is the reference librarian of the Jerusalem College of
Technology library. While checking the library鈥檚 cataloguing against a large
American library system, Lajcher came across the following: 鈥淪tars by
James B. Kaler. New York: Scientific American Library. Distributed by W. H.
Freeman, 1992. Subjects: Scottish Tourism and Recreation Study.鈥�
Lajcher rather liked the American way of cataloguing this book, but, alas,
the Jerusalem College of Technology library has no section for Scottish tourism,
so the book had to go with the rest of the astronomy books.
ON A FLIGHT out of Amsterdam, reader Marcia Bjornerud noticed a courteous
statement printed on the bottom of a Royal Dutch Airlines sick bag: 鈥淜LM thanks
you for helping to create a cleaner environment.鈥�
As Bjornerud points out, the person in the seat next to you will doubtless
thank you too.
FINALLY, here is another redundant product instruction. Frederieke Kroon
recently bought a little plastic container with a screw-on lid for storing items
of food in the fridge. The label on it told him: 鈥淩emove lid before use.鈥�
Well, well, well.