Flashback: Scientists find way to make us slavesALDOUS HUXLEY may have got it right. In Brave New World, his classic futuristic novel, the author envisaged a society divided into castes from Alpha at the top to Epsilon at the bottom.
The Epsilons were content to plod on with tedious tasks, their brains numbed by drugs. Until now this has been the stuff of science fiction.
However, experiments conducted on rhesus monkeys have shown for the first time that animal behaviour can be permanently altered, turning the su... (more)
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Flashback: DARPA seeks to create cyborg servant racePopular Mechanics: Can an electronic device replace damaged brain circuits?
by Michael Rosenwald
In a few months, researchers at the University of Southern California will test the world's first prosthetic brain part. Biomedical engineer Theodore Berger has created a 2 mm-wide silicon chip that he hopes will one day substitute for damaged or diseased brain regions, holding promise for victims of Alzheimer's disease, stroke and other brain traumas.
Berger engi... (more)
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Super-soldiers may get brain-chipUS military experts are attempting to create an army of super-human soldiers who will be more intelligent and deadly thanks to a microchip implanted in their brains.
Scientists believe the implant will vastly improve the memory of troops so that they can recall every detail of their training and become more effective fighters.
Researchers at the University of Southern California's bio-engineering department have created the chip, which acts in exactly the same way a... (more)
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TeenScreen: Welcome to the Psychiatric StateColumbia University has developed a screening questionnaire for children. It is designed to indicate whether a child may have "a mental disorder."
The whole Columbia program is called Teen Screen. The program site stresses that this is a voluntary undertaking resting on parental consent, and that it does not constiture a medical or psychiatric diagnosis. If a child "tests positive" on the questionnaire, he is referred to a "clinician" who does an "in-depth interview"...
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ADHD advice secretly paid for by drugs companiesSupport and advice groups for parents of children with so-called behavioural disorders are being secretly funded by pharmaceutical firms, it can be revealed.
The groups give out advice on stimulant drugs and other controversial medical treatments for young children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Their internet sites provide extensive details of medications that doctors can prescribe.
But at the same time they are also being secretly ... (more)
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Schools may offer cervical cancer vaccination to all girls Vaccination against cervical cancer could become as common in schools as jabs against meningitis are now, following the dramatic results of the latest clinical trials. The breakthrough is generally seen as a real victory against one of the commonest cancers and may eliminate it in the UK.
The good news comes as steady but much slower progress is being made against other forms of cancer. Most of the advances are in the treatment of cancer - not in preventing it. In most cancers, th... (more)
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Hyperactive disorder drug 'raises risk of suicidal thoughts in children'A drug taken by 15,000 children in the UK has been found to increase the risk of suicidal thoughts, the Government's medicines safety watchdog says.
Strattera, which is manufactured by Lilly and is used to treat attention deficit and hyperactive disorder (ADHD), was licensed in the UK in July 2004.
Yesterday's warning was issued by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which said it would re-examine the risks and benefits of the drug. It follows the... (more)
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Is Normal Now A Mental Illness?Is your child easily distracted? Or perhaps he talks excessively, or can become impatient?
Most, if not all, parents would perhaps answer yes to these questions, as they are, what many of us believe to be, normal expressions of child behaviour.
Not so, according to Psychiatry. It could be that your child has "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder", a "disease" of the mind that could require medical treatment.
The American Psychiatric Association's ... (more)
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Alarm as prescriptions of Ritalin to children reach a record highThe number of children being prescribed drugs for so-called behavioural disorders has soared to a record high, causing alarm that children are being unnecessarily "drugged into submission".
Prescriptions of Methylphenidate - most commonly sold as Ritalin - rose to 359,100 last year, a rise of 344,400 since 1995. Figures from the Prescriptions Pricing Authority reveal that there has been a 180-fold increase in prescriptions since 1991 when only 2,000 were issued in England.
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Patients put down: Doctors euthanized katrina victimsDOCTORS working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leave them to die in agony as they evacuated.
With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in the flooded city, senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive.
One New Orleans doctor told how she "prayed for God to have mercy on her soul" after she ignored every tenet of medical ... (more)
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Cambridge firm readies push on alcoholism drugIn the high-stakes world of biotechnology, a Cambridge company's experimental injection to treat alcoholics should have all the makings of a big winner.
But first the company, Alkermes, will have to convince doctors across the country that alcoholics should be put on a drug in the first place.
The drug, called Vivitrex, has a distinct advantage over alcoholism pills now on the market: A single shot delivered by a needle slowly releases itself into the bloodstream ov... (more)
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The Disappearing Male"We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment in which our children and our children's children are the experimental subjects." Dr. Herbert Needleman
The Disappearing Male is about one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system.... (more)
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