blivet radio
The Radio weblog of Hal Rager

Thursday, May 30, 2002

20-year study backs organic farming "The world's longest running experiment in comparing organic and conventional farming side-by-side has pronounced chemical-free farming a success. "(...)We have shown that organic farming is efficient, saves energy, maintains biodiversity and keeps soils healthy for future generations," says Paul Mader of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Frick, Switzerland, which carried out the 21-year study. Although crop yields on organic plots in the experiment were on average 20 per cent lower than those on conventional plots, the ecological and efficiency gains more than made up for it, Mader says. (...)Mader argues that the biggest bonus is the improved quality of the soil under organic cultivation, which should ensure good crops for decades to come." [New Scientist] 9:00:38 PM    comment   trackback []

New Depression Studies Reveal Persistent Serotonin System Abnormality In Patients. "They [Dr. Robert Golden and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill --ed.] found that depressed people showed a blunted hormonal response to a test he developed that boosts serotonin, an important neurotransmitter chemical in the brain. "This neuroendocrine challenge test, which involved giving depressed volunteer patients a medicine called clomipramine, indicated that depressed patients' serotonin systems were sluggish in response and not working efficiently," Golden said. "An analogy I use is that their serotonin 'engine' needs a tune-up because they aren't getting much mileage out of the gas being burned." Now, newly published work by his laboratory shows that as a group, people suffering from the illness have that biological abnormality even when they are not depressed. "We believe this work is an important step forward in our understanding of depression because it demonstrates an ongoing trait that distinguishes patients who have had the illness from the rest of the population," he said. "It is strong evidence that depression reflects a genetic trait, which clinicians have believed for a long time because depression tends to run in families."" [Science Daily] 7:11:49 AM    comment   trackback []

Smallpox immunity is long gone. "If you had a smallpox vaccination as a child and think you are still protected, think again - almost everyone vaccinated before smallpox was eradicated in the mid-1970s has now lost their immunity. The bad news comes from a study of 621 microbiologists in Maryland who received fresh vaccinations between 1994 and 2001 to protect them in their work. Only about 40, or just six per cent, were still immune from their earlier vaccinations." [New Scientist] 7:01:00 AM    comment   trackback []