In the 1995 film “The Basketball Diaries”, Leonardo DiCaprio brilliantly portrays Jim Caroll’s descent into heroin addiction. When I attempt to explain to people who do not suffer from obesity what complete, sudden withdrawal from refined carbohydrates is like, based on my own experience, I get a mental picture of what DiCaprio’s Jim Carroll goes through as he suffers the torture of withdrawal from heroin.

In the spirit of raising awareness of the ethical challenges inherent in today’s most advanced medical technologies, the IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics and Bioethics International recently sponsored a one-day conference in New York City entitled “New Dilemmas in Medicine”. Three panels of distinguished experts, in turn, addressed three pressing issues: Professor Julian Savulescu’s theory of “Procreative Beneficence” (Journal of Medical Ethics 2007;33:284-288; doi:10.1136/jme.2006.018184), ethical considerations in pharmaceutical R&D, and “conscientious objection” by medical professionals to performing medical procedures, such as abortions, to patients who want them.

Sword Swallowing is a technique that when seen often leaves its viewers in a momentary state of shock and awe. The audience simply cannot believe what they are viewing, after all, who in their right mind would stick sharp and dangerous objects directly into their body?

At the Colorado Water Congress last week, Colorado Department of Natural Resources Director Harris Sherman stated, “We have a new frontier of water challenges that needs to be evaluated.” He was talking specifically about Colorado: the scene being played out in Colorado is simply a microcosm of the situation facing all of the Rocky Mountain States.

Hey, this is Kenyatta, another member of TalkingScience! I am broadcasting this message under Katrina’s blog because, well, I do not have my own yet. Recently, Talking Science hosted a Science Cabaret and let me tell you: it was a blast! It had all the elements needed to have fun with the family, and to also learn some new and interesting things. Forget your boring old physics class– this Cabaret was a mixture of Bill Nye [The Science Guy] meets the Spicy New Generation!

When is the last time you were connected to your mother via a life-supporting cord, floated in lieu of walking, and thought it normal to urinate and defecate on yourself? If your answer is, “When I was living in embryonic fluid, in my mother’s belly” you’ve clearly never gone on a space walk (the connection to a mother is the “mother ship,” by the way).

Amazing what bad publicity and strong reactions can achieve when elections are imminent.

Today, August 20th, Sen. John McCain, has backed away from his comment last week that a key water agreement among seven Western states should be “renegotiated over time” and now says the deal should not be reworked.

When people think about animal sex, they generally think about the type of mating habits that we’ve all seen on the Discovery Channel. With animals, we think that the sex is all about procreation and there is nothing more into that simply that.

I recently saw one of Exxon Mobil’s slick new TV ads espousing Exxon’s commitment to developing new technologies that will reduce global warming. I was actually very impressed. Subsequently, I opened an email from Greenpeace showing a dead beached whale, with news of a pod of rare melon-head whales that beached themselves due to seismic testing conducted by Exxon off the coast of Madagascar.

An increase in heart rate is one component of the “fight or flight” response. When we are startled, frightened, or angry, our bodies automatically ready themselves to stand up and fight or to run away.