Mosquitoes and malaria. Photo credit: www.trebol-a.com
Anti-malaria drug on its way
The first patient trials of a new anti-malaria drug could begin by the end of this year, The Times reported today (using a picture of Cheryl Cole, who contracted malaria this year, to illustrate the news). According to the paper, the new drug, known by the hefty moniker, NITD609, was used effectively against the disease in animal trials and could prove a major breakthrough in fighting resistant strains of the parasite. Said The Times, “Such fresh therapies are considered to be critical to the prospects of containing malaria, which causes 243 million infections worldwide and 863,000 deaths each year. The disease, caused by the parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, kills a child in Africa every 45 seconds.”
The Stalker Button
Facebook is introducing its answer to Twitter, a subscription feature that would allow users to receive updates every time a friend posts actions on their Facebook page, like updates their status, posts photos, or makes a comment. As explained so far, you cannot “follow” someone with whom you are not already friends, so it’s not quite like Twitter, but it does offer a way to sort through the masses of information clogging your Facebook news feed to prioritise who you want to hear from.
However, some tech bloggers have already expressed concern that the so-called Stalker Button would be a bonus to, well, stalkers. Wrote Jolie O’Dell at social networking blog Mashable, “If Facebook thinks subscriptions are a useful for the majority of average users, people who might want to get special notifications for family members’ or loved ones’ activities, they’re also potentially damaging if rolled out to jealous ‘frenemies,’ vindictive exes or nosy bosses.”
Just another addition to the Facebook juggernaut in an attempt to stay relevant or welcome information sorter? You decide.
We always knew beer was good for you. Photo credit: Adam Fagen
Beer that really is good for you
Beer is great, but the ancient Nubians evidently had other reasons to love the stuff: Their beer came with antibiotics.
According to DiscoveryNews, researchers from Emory University have discovered large amounts of tetracycline, a commonly prescribed antibiotic, in the bones of 2,000-year-old African mummies. “What’s more,” the science news site explained, “they probably got it through beer, and just about everyone appears to have drank it consistently throughout their lifetimes, beginning early in childhood.” Ancient Nubians, living along the Nile, may have derived the tetracycline from the fermented grain they used to brew beer; they were probably also aware of the medicinal effect of the antibiotic brew, given the sheer amount found in their bones.
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