Option #1 Pills made of poop
You may want to hold your nose before reading this: Doctors have
found a way to put healthy people's poop into pills — and these pills are now
being used to cure serious gut infections. Canadian researchers tried this
method on 27 patients and cured them all. And this was after strong antibiotics
— medicines designed to kill harmful bacteria — had failed to help.
It's a gross topic but a serious
problem. Half a million Americans get Clostridium difficile, or C-diff,
infections each year, and about 14,000 die. The germ causes upset stomachs,
cramping and extremely severe diarrhea. A very strong and expensive antibiotic
can kill C-diff, but it also destroys good bacteria that live in the gut and
help keep us healthy. This makes future infections more likely.
Recently, studies have shown that
fecal transplants — in which infected people are given poop from a healthy
person — can restore the good bacteria. And this in turn helps prevent
reinfection.
Option #2 Blowing Up Asteroids
First Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen
bomb, spoke up. He urged the others to consider building huge, new nuclear
weapons to protect the planet. Then some top Russian weapons experts lent their
support.
It was really strange, Melosh said, to see scientists agree to
build "the biggest bombs ever.”
Since then he has been speaking out
against the idea. He argues that non-nuclear solutions are both possible and
far less dangerous.
Option #3 Oreos are Addictive
According to a new study from Connecticut College
The study was run
by neuroscience professor Joseph Schroeder and his students. It was designed to
consider the addictiveness of foods with high fat and sugar content. The
results were surprising: Cookies activated more neurons in the brain's
"pleasure center" than cocaine or morphine.
The study also
looked at something else: the associations rats formed between things they
liked and the places they received them. It found that the association rats
formed between Oreos and a feeding chamber were as strong as associations to
places where drugs were given.
"Our research
supports the theory that high-fat, high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the
same way that drugs do," Schroeder said. "It may explain why some
people can't resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad
for them."
