A couple of years ago I was given the most excellent book, The Trouble With Physics by Lee Smolin.
Briefly, it outlines many of the problems that String Theorists have faced: what was once the most elegant of potential Great Unification Theories lost itself and couldn't be reconciled with many of the various theories and proofs that had gone before. Depends on how many dimensions you can fit into an atom. Probably.
I don't claim to understand any of it, but it's a cracking good read if you like this sort of thing: Brief History of Time, etc. Anyway, there's a group at Leiden University who claim that they can actually marry String theory with Quantum theory , all to do with materials becoming super-conductive at high temperatures, rather than extremely low ones. And while we haven't exactly been given the answers to the universe, these findings do actually demonstrate that String Theory may have a place in physics after all.
Oh, and if you happen to go to Amazon to look for Lee Smolin's book, have a look at this one as well for a bit of light reading and mighty amusement. Be sure to check out the reviews. And make sure you wear your 3 wolf T-shirt while you're doing so. It will make you the greatest theoretical physicist ever.
Perhaps not.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
The lie that is BMI
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439&sc=fb&cc=fp
Having worked for a few years in obesity / cardiovascular biology and also struggling with my own weight and health, I came to the conclusion many years ago that the Body Mass Index was a big ball of dung. For the life of me I couldn't get to a BMI of less than 27 - it became an obsession - even though I was dieting, exercising and doing everything right. But the article I've linked to points out very succinctly that the BMI does not take into account tissue content. Bone and muscle all contribute and therefore should be adjusted for.
Why, in that case, have doctors failed to dismiss the BMI in favour of something like impedance or DEXA to measure body content combined with serum cholesterol and blood pressure? Maybe this is what they're doing, but every clinic I walk into STILL has that damn BMI chart. Burn them! Burn them all!
Having worked for a few years in obesity / cardiovascular biology and also struggling with my own weight and health, I came to the conclusion many years ago that the Body Mass Index was a big ball of dung. For the life of me I couldn't get to a BMI of less than 27 - it became an obsession - even though I was dieting, exercising and doing everything right. But the article I've linked to points out very succinctly that the BMI does not take into account tissue content. Bone and muscle all contribute and therefore should be adjusted for.
Why, in that case, have doctors failed to dismiss the BMI in favour of something like impedance or DEXA to measure body content combined with serum cholesterol and blood pressure? Maybe this is what they're doing, but every clinic I walk into STILL has that damn BMI chart. Burn them! Burn them all!
Monday, 6 July 2009
Some rather funky photos, including that volcano one again
The Grauniad's put some satellite photos from NASA up on its website, rather good ones, too.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jul/03/satellite-eye-on-earth-june?picture=349739629
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jul/03/satellite-eye-on-earth-june?picture=349739629
Friday, 3 July 2009
A quick trawl of the stories I find VERRRYY INNNTERRRESSSSTING
They’ve found more creatures that perished in Noah’s Flood in Queensland, apparently. That’ll be dinosaurs, then. We have Banjo, a carnivore, Matilda and Clancy, two herbivores, all named after Waltzing Matilda but not nearly as wonderfully named as Muttaburrasaurus.
On a slightly related note, as I was looking at the various diseases that are afflicting the nation (Ronnie Biggs has MRSA, everyone!) there was an article about an extremely ancient alternative therapy: ground up dragon bones used in Chinese medicine. Those guys!
Seriously, we’re all going to die. How many cases of Swine Flu in August? Take care, Ronnie Biggs, you’re not a healthy man. You’d have thought with all this hot weather flu wouldn’t be an issue, but now it seems even the buses are turning into incubators.
One final thing, and I honestly thought this was a joke story, but it seems the Scots are keen to recycle the oil from the deep fat fryers. First thought, very good, very ecologically sound, I thought it was a biodiesel alternative, but no. I was wrong, and so is this. I mean… as a tanning agent? Wrong on so many levels.
On a slightly related note, as I was looking at the various diseases that are afflicting the nation (Ronnie Biggs has MRSA, everyone!) there was an article about an extremely ancient alternative therapy: ground up dragon bones used in Chinese medicine. Those guys!
Seriously, we’re all going to die. How many cases of Swine Flu in August? Take care, Ronnie Biggs, you’re not a healthy man. You’d have thought with all this hot weather flu wouldn’t be an issue, but now it seems even the buses are turning into incubators.
One final thing, and I honestly thought this was a joke story, but it seems the Scots are keen to recycle the oil from the deep fat fryers. First thought, very good, very ecologically sound, I thought it was a biodiesel alternative, but no. I was wrong, and so is this. I mean… as a tanning agent? Wrong on so many levels.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Slight qualification
OK, maybe not ALL over 50's. But it's on a par with the fluoride in the drinking water thing.
Lies, damned lies and statins. Well, maybe not lies...
Oh, my eyes! There’s no cure for looking at the Daily Mail, is there? Oh, I feel so dirty.
I couldn’t help but spot this article, recommending the compulsory treatment of the over 50’s with statins, a group of compounds known to inhibit hydroxy-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA reductase), an enzyme key to the production of cholesterol in the body. The chap responsible for this mass-dosing plea in the UK is the heart czar Roger Boyle, who has been championing the prescription of statins since… well, since he was appointed.
There is no doubt in my mind that statins can benefit people who are:
1) Male
2) Diagnosed with atherosclerosis
3) Have high (>7 mmol) serum cholesterol
4) At risk of heart failure
…but I think a general catch-all 50+ strategy might be flawed. Malcolm Kendrick makes a pretty good case against here.
Boyle does not appear to be an advocate of that old favourite, diet and exercise. Certainly he would appear to side with the drug therapy side of things. I’m almost tempted to try a bit of investigative journalism to see if he’s lobbied by any drug companies.
By the way, Simvastatin is a good example of the grapefruit juice effect. Patients on this particular statin are very clearly advised not to eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice. Ever.
I couldn’t help but spot this article, recommending the compulsory treatment of the over 50’s with statins, a group of compounds known to inhibit hydroxy-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA reductase), an enzyme key to the production of cholesterol in the body. The chap responsible for this mass-dosing plea in the UK is the heart czar Roger Boyle, who has been championing the prescription of statins since… well, since he was appointed.
There is no doubt in my mind that statins can benefit people who are:
1) Male
2) Diagnosed with atherosclerosis
3) Have high (>7 mmol) serum cholesterol
4) At risk of heart failure
…but I think a general catch-all 50+ strategy might be flawed. Malcolm Kendrick makes a pretty good case against here.
Boyle does not appear to be an advocate of that old favourite, diet and exercise. Certainly he would appear to side with the drug therapy side of things. I’m almost tempted to try a bit of investigative journalism to see if he’s lobbied by any drug companies.
By the way, Simvastatin is a good example of the grapefruit juice effect. Patients on this particular statin are very clearly advised not to eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice. Ever.
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