Daily placebo more effective than erratic pill

A recent study suggests that when you take your medicine may be more important than what medicine you take. A placebo, taken regularly, was found to be more effective than the blood pressure medication Atacand taken irregularly. This finding not only sheds doubt on the effectiveness of Atacand, but also adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the “placebo effect” is far more important than western medicine may acknowledge. This effect is a phenomenon that occurs in medical studies, where patients given fake drugs, such as sugar pills, will improve in health-sometimes even more than those taking the actual drug. The placebo effect in the past was often seen as a nuisance, but to some this phenomenon is now showing itself to be worthy of study itself.

-Zoe Cormier
Source: Nature

Foxes, gays, dems heading north

By pooling together results from 40 different climate change and ecological studies, researchers say global warming is undoubtedly affecting the ecosystems of the US-right now. The researchers claim this is the first report that links local wildlife changes with human-induced climate changes. The average temperature of the US has risen 0.6 C in the past 100 years, annual precipitation has increased by almost 10 per cent in some places, flowers are blooming earlier, checkerspot butterflies are moving away from coasts and into the mountains, and red foxes (much like gays and Democratic voters) are moving north into Canada.

-Z.C.
Source: Science

Supercomputer built super fast

The world’s second-fastest computer was built in only 120 days. Nobody has ever made a machine this complex this quickly. Columbia, which was built by NASA and California tech companies Silicon Graphics and Intel, can process 51.9 trillion calculations a minute (teraflops). The designers were able to build it so quickly because Columbia was assembled from off-the-shelf components. The fastest computer in the world, IBM’s BlueGene/L runs at 70.7 teraflops, but by June 2005 should reach a speed of 360 teraflops.

-Z.C.
Source: Nature