to keep me amused while I eagerly await tonight’s two (count ’em!) political debates.
Seminar notice that I just received:
Title: Tracking UPS Using Mass Spectrometry
Surely this is not the most economical way to track parcel delivery. Maybe they just included a cool technique to make their grant application sexier.
NIH grant RFA that I spotted yesterday:
Biosignatures of Chronic Drug Exposure (R21)
From the website:
1. Research Objectives
On September 5, 2007 NIDA held a workshop “In Search of Signatures of Chronic Drug Use” to discuss whether or not it might be possible to detect a molecular signature/profile in peripheral tissue that would indicate prior chronic drug use and could serve the following important goals:
– Identification of patients predisposed to repeated drug use, critical for early intervention strategies
– Revealing the natural history/pathogenesis of addiction, and thus suggesting points of intervention
– Assessment of disease progression, other than clinical evaluation.
Hmmmm. Can anyone think of any other reasons why the US government might want to be able to detect prior drug use?
Can anyone think of any other reasons why the US government might want to be able to detect prior drug use?
it couldn’t be because you are more likely to fall off the wagon if you’ve been on it… and you wouldn’t want to employ a “former addict” when you need to pay for health care and all?
Nahh, of course nobody would judge people on their previous actions now would they? And of course, nobody would discriminate of use it as a sifting/narrowing down tool…
Why not just give the government (and larger coopt) access to that chip in us – you know, the biochip who detects how many cigarettes and drinks we had in our teens and how few miles you ran last week?
(_shakes head and eats lunch_)
Surely not??!! I don’t know where you get these ideas from 😉
Although maybe these biomarkers would have kept W out of the Whitehouse.
I have noooo idea. All these blasted books I keep reading. Burn them all I say! No need for conspiracy ideas when the world is nice and good 😉
Maybe they would’ve… but then again, I’m not sure biomarkers on ‘addiction’ would differ between alcohol or food or religion or any other thing you can get addicted to (sex and gamble comes to mind too).
Then again, as a true Lutheran I would say that moderation is a virute in all things so I don’t want any addiction at all.
[I’ll stop with the sarcasm now since I know it is difficult to see it through the internet and written word…] I am, however, curious on how far they have gone with the research since it has been ongoing since 2007…and there is a grant written up…
No need to burn books, just ban them!