Gonna Have To Face It...

Time for a rant.

Now, I know addiction is a sad thing, I know that it's very tough to break any habit, especially when the means for your addiction is so readily available. Think smoking, drinking, gambling, even food (more on that later). The accessibility of these makes it so easy to feed a habit it's quite scary to think how difficult it might be to break the cycle.

Then there are the excuses: I'm fat because of my genes, I smoke because of my nerves, I need a drink to relax, etc, etc. I have heard these excuses recycled time and time again and when I see someone wheeled into my place of work with a whole bunch of tubes up the nose and so many cannulae they could be at an acupuncturists I can't help but think "if you'd laid off the fags / pies / special brew / crack and smack party bags then this would never have happened and you would not be in such pain from whatever it is you've got."

So when I saw this article from the BBC my heart sank. It actually popped up a couple of years ago when the same researchers found a so-called "smoking gene": a polymorphism that appears to correlate with increased tobacco consumption (and increased lung cancer risk - now how about that?). The polymorphism (well, three of them to be precise) encodes the nicotinic receptor that is usually activated by acetylcholine - part of the parasympathetic nervous system. But enough of that stuff.

The implication that arises from this is what really worries me: are smokers likely to use this as yet another excuse to not give up?

The mechanisms behind addiction are pretty well defined: you take a stimulus, the result of which is a good feeling: caused by dopamine and endorphin release via something called the CART peptide (Cocaine-amphetamine-related-transcript, which according to the paper I've linked to also may be related to schizophrenia). The more you take of the substance, the fewer dopamine receptors are available to be activated: they downregulate. Hence you need to take more and more, just to get the dopamine hit...

Where the food thing comes in, ah yes: basically eating produces the same dopamine release. Makes sense, the brain rewards you for eating, for surviving. Well done, you. This leads me to wonder: while this smoking gene apparently predisposes people specifically to smoke, when they give up are they more likely to become overweight / obese through the dopamine thing or is this a nicotinic receptor-specific thing? From past experience I can truthfully say I put on weight when I gave up smoking but then I also gave up playing rugby around the same sort of time: lack of exercise and overeating, d'oh! Who knows? Anyway, I honestly think one addiction leads to another, but anyone who specifically says "oh, I have an addictive personality" needs to be shot. EVERYONE has an addictive personality, it's just that some people are more in control of it than others. Stop making bloody excuses.

Anyway, as if the likes of ASH, the NHS and WHO didn't have enough on their hands already.

Do me a flavour

Some genius has been writing about High Fructose Corn Syrup. I don't know who he is but he seems like a bright guy.

Really, really beautiful!

Big ups to those folks at CERN. Having cranked up the system to start producing 7TeV collisions they've announced the detection of a B+ particle, or Beautiful Particle. Apparently it stayed in existence for only about 15 thousandths of a nanosecond however before decaying so one wouldn't even have had time to blink before it was gone.

Just to give an idea of how hard this particle is to spot, it took around 10 million proton-proton collisions to generate a detectable emission. That's some going.

If you thought this was a great demonstration of how humanity is advancing then be aware that the beasts are starting to catch us up; last week an article showing crows using no less than three tools to get to some food hit the news. That's more than my next door neighbours who only use one: a phone to contact the pizza delivery company.
It may be harsh to describe them as dinosaurs but it makes me laugh.

Happy Birthday, Hubble

Well, it's been up there twenty years, now. And in all that time, the Hubble Telescope has been doing some incredible things. There's that Deep Field view for starters, wonderful work there. Some cracking pics of the Eagle Nebula which stayed on my desktop for a good two years. And then quite recently this rather stunning image of the Butterfly Nebula.

Breathtaking.

I know that these aren't true images, I know they've been enhanced and artificially coloured but I don't care, it's still a marvellous piece of human engineering. One can only imagine how good the James Webb telescope is going to be!

Common sense prevails

Hurrah for Simon Singh!

Having won his appeal (at great expense, it must be said) against the Chiropractic Association surely the UK's "supreme court" must now turn its attention to the libel laws and overturn them? For a respected scientist such as Singh to be gagged for trying to point out quackery in the first place surely highlights the ridiculousness of the legal system.
Hopefully Justice Eady will rethink things as well, otherwise... well...

They could do a lot worse than appoint Judge Nutmeg!

Spin, spin, spin the wheel of justice...
See how fast the bastard turns...

Ha ha ha

A crusty old Marine Sergeant Major found himself at a gala event hosted by a local liberal arts college. There was no shortage of extremely young idealistic liberal ladies in attendance, one of whom approached the Sergeant Major for conversation.

"Excuse me, Sergeant Major, but you seem to be a very serious man.. Is something bothering you?"

"Negative, ma'am. Just serious by nature."

The young lady looked at his awards and decorations and said, "It looks like you have seen a lot of action."

"Yes, ma'am, a lot of action."

The young lady, tiring of trying to start up a conversation, said, "You know, you should lighten up a little. Relax and enjoy yourself."

The Sergeant Major just stared at her in his serious manner. Finally the young lady said, "You know, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but when was the last time you had sex?"

"1955, ma'am."

"Well, there you are. No wonder you're so serious. You really need to chill out and relax! I mean, no sex since 1955! Come with me."

She took his hand and led him to a private room where she proceeded to "relax" him several times.

Afterwards, panting for breath, she leaned against his grizzled bare chest and said, "Wow, you sure didn't forget much since 1955."

The Sergeant Major said in his serious voice, after glancing at his watch, "I hope not; it's only 2130 now."