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Treating the Dead
FlyByPC writes "According to a NewsWeek article, oxygen deprivation doesn't kill patients as much as the resumption of oxygen does. This discovery could bring about new ways of resuscitating people whose hearts have stopped."
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I remember reading somewhere in the last few months (possibly here on /.) that the new preferred version of CPR was 10 compressions to one breath, as opposed to the traditional 3. More compressions = less oxygen. . .
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
While I agree that traditional Chinese medicine has disagreed with western treatments, I'd be very interested in seeing any kind of supporting documentation that this specific bit of knowledge has been know to Chinese practitioners for any length of time that would be considered long.
This reminds me of Freezing Frogs. Basically they fill their cells with glucose, and are actually able to freeze themselves for the entire winter and then wake up in the spring. I remember a radio show where they were saying you could freeze them over and over again, without any adverse effects.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
It even makes sense to me why sudden resumption of oxygen should be lethal. Oxygen is extremely toxic and aerobic organism, such as ourselves, had to evolve complex cellular machinery in order to utilize it for metabolic efficiency, while keeping the oxygen from damaging cellular structures, especially DNA. The sudden surge in oxygenated blood would probably overload this system. Apoptosis in this case may be a protective step by killing the cell before its DNA becomes damaged and possibly cancerous. Thus, flooding the heart with oxygen causes the whole heart to "take one for the team," and shut down completely.
The discovery that the cells are still alive, and can be revived with special treatment is extremely encouraging for the development of better techniques.
Other arguments against socialized medicine include: years-long queues for certain sorts of procedures (which aren't strictly Necessary, but may be Incredibly Useful), the sheer cost of paying for it, and a tricky sort of little moral hazard problem with implications against freedom. (Specifically, if the government has to pay for your health care, then a - you're probably less likely to try and take preventative measures to maintain your health since the Government will deal with it and you won't have to pay for it as heavily as you would otherwise; this contributes to a larger problem: b- being unhealthy means more money out of the federal budget, so the government has a big incentive to make unhealthy activity illegals, and the next thing you know, they could be forcing tofu cubes down your throat screaming "it's good for you!!!!!" when all you want is a hamburger, a simple hamburger, for the love of all that is holy - well, figuratively speaking, anyway; you get the idea.)
The unarguable fact that's in support of socialized medicine is "it will make certain peoples' lives better". It will also probably make people's lives worse - rich people, healthy people who pay taxes, and Future people. For typical middle-class people, it's less than clear.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I've put a similar principle in practice with yeast cultures (I am a homebrewer). I don't recall the exact ratio off the top of my head, but if you replace some of the water in a yeast slurry with glycerin, you can safely freeze yeast cultures for a long time. This is very useful to me, since certain beers are seasonal (like Belgian Wit), and in order to maintain the yeast's viability, I would otherwise have to brew this beer regularly, or buy the yeast from a store, which can get expensive (~$7 a vial). The glycerin prevents the yeast's cell walls from bursting due to the crystallization of the freezing water. I am not a chemist, so I have no idea how this actually works, I just know it does.
Unfortunately, my girlfriend doesn't share my enthusiasm for frozen fungus, so our freezer has more room devoted to more mundane things, like frozen vegetables and animals.