Technocrat

good evening, Mr. Phelps....

John Smith
Tue Jan 30 16:44:25 -0800 2007
 (in reply to good evening, Mr. Phelps.... ) manage
Predominantly because the things that articles get posted on are too far away from clinical testing to be verifiably working.  You hear about breakthroughs in potential medication, but the truth is that massive amounts of safety analysis has to be done before something is truly considered allowable, and even then it's touch and go as to whether or not the thing will get approved - look at Vioxx as an example.  It was an enormously powerful medical breakthrough with some largely unknown and difficult to explain side effects, and because of those side effects it died a horrible death.  Even the most innocuous-seeming and incredible medical breakthrough will have unforeseen side effects, the full ramifications of which won't be known until deep statistics are produced.  That's why it's silly to take articles like this as any more than 'huh, that could be interesting' bits, and purely academic exercises.  Treatment doesn't come for a long time, and adoption of treatment by the medical community typically takes even longer.
good evening, Mr. Phelps....
President4242
Tue Jan 30 16:57:17 -0800 2007
 manage
Yeah, but it happens with other things as well.  For instance, I saw an article back in 1986 in the Statesman Journal about a guy in Idaho who had created an alpha radiation-to-alternating current converter.  He had it refined to the point that a small radioactive source, surrounded by the converter, surrounded by a lead can the size of a gallon soup can, was producing 75 watts.  The article contained a prediction that for $15,000 you could remove your house from the grid with this invention.  And then nothing for several years- the next home use nuclear power I heard about was the Canadian Thorium Hot Water Heater for use in the Northern Territories.  I wonder what ever happened to that guy?
good evening, Mr. Phelps....
scott7477
Wed Jan 31 06:22:54 -0800 2007
 manage
Since Ms. Gavini has made her findings publicly available, I suppose there is nothing stopping any person from using her results to test the treatment on themselves.  Now that I consider it, she could still earn some money from this work by coming up with a delivery system for this treatment and publishing a book on how to isolate the correct molecule and make a usable drug from it.  I believe that a lot of folks would be willing to self-medicate if standard medical procedures aren't helping them.

This story is a nice reminder that you don't have to climb the academic ladder and get a position at a leading research institute to produce meaningful research.  I suppose most Technocrat members have had some idea or other that you've dabbled with that you think might possibly become successful; I know I have a few projects on my wish list.  Let's get doing something on those projects :).....
 

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