Oh no, sad...

Quoted: Randy Pausch, a former Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an international sensation, died Friday. He was 47.

Interesting Slate piece on how the E. coli breakouts of 2006 illustrate how hard it actually is to engineer a biological weapon.

Quoted: An outbreak of E. coli isn't usually the stuff of feel-good stories. But a close look at recent outbreaks of E. coli—and a closer look at the bacteria themselves—may help us to put aside our fears for the moment. Engineering plagues is harder than it looks.

Interesting Explainer from Slate...

Quoted: The first babies to be born in 2008 will have a chance to win savings bonds and other goodies from local businesses, not to mention get their wrinkly mugs  in the paper. With so much on the line, how do doctors determine a baby's official time of birth?

I think if you spend and cook wisely, eating in can be so much cheaper and healthier...

Quoted: Americans are dining in restaurants more than ever, and with eateries trying to hold the line on prices, it's not necessarily a big money-saver to buy your own groceries.

Yeah, I always feel thrown off by Daylight Savings. Apparently, it might have something to do with sleep disorders - not surprising when you think about it.

Quoted: You can't fool Mother Nature, experts say. Daylight savings time may be one cause of what Till Roenneberg called our lack of seasonality. By seasonality, he means that our internal clock is in tune with the natural change in light throughout the year. "This could have long-term effects," he said.

I definitely buy the argument that Rachel Carson's work uses scare tactics. But it's not like she was entirely wrong about DDT. I think this journalist is right in suggesting that reading both books helps form a balanced opinion...

Quoted: Rachel Carson’s warning on pesticides in “Silent Spring” ignored the good that they did. Students who read this work should read it against I.L. Baldwin's 1962 "Chemicals & Pesticides," which found that “Silent Spring” was not a scientific balancing of costs & benefits but rather a “prosecuting attorney’s impassioned plea for action.”

This is really scary - the problem's particularly rampant in Southeast Asia. Fake, dangerous medicines are being produced on an industrial scale.

Quoted: Officials estimate that counterfeits of life-saving drugs may be a factor in up to 200,000 deaths each year.

Looks like my doctor was right on in suggesting probiotics to me. I've noticed a considerable difference from including them in my diet. Based on what she said, though, you really only need a certain amount - you don't need probiotics in practically every dairy product.

Quoted: More food makers are scrambling to offer products with special live microbes, known as probiotics, that boast health benefits.