The widely held belief that depression is due to low levels of serotonin in the brain – and that effective treatments raise these levels – is a myth, argues a leading psychiatrist in The BMJ this week. David Healy, Professor of Psychiatry at the Hergest psychiatric unit in North Wales, points to a misconception that lowered serotonin levels in depression are an …
In Historic Ruling, Pair of Chimpanzees Recognized as ‘Legal Persons’ – Nadia Prupis
For the first time in U.S. history, a judge has effectively recognized two chimpanzees as legal persons, in an order Monday which will allow a pair of research primates—Hercules and Leo—to seek relief from unlawful imprisonment. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe on Monday granted the chimps a writ of habeas corpusthat will require Stony Brook University, where they are being kept …
Organic Food Industry Explodes as Consumer Demand Spikes – Lorraine Chow
Looks like organic food has gone from a new-age trend to a staple in supermarkets and many American diets. According to a new analysis from the Organic Trade Association (OTA), organic food sales in 2014 jumped 11 percent to $35.9 billion, claiming almost 5 percent of the total food sales in the U.S. The numbers are a huge spike since the OTA first kept record in 1997, where …
The Potentate Of Prague — How the War Party in Washington is Losing Eastern Europe, Hillary Clinton Too – John Helmer
Andrej Babis is the one of the wealthiest men in eastern Europe — if you bite bread, read a newspaper, fill your car with fuel, or put fertilizer on your window box in Prague, chances are you owe Babis money. He is also Deputy Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Finance Minister, and candidate to become the next Czech President. …
Money in Politics Is Darkening the Future for Millennials – Katie Rose Quandt
The Atlantic called millennials the “unluckiest generation,” and there’s no denying today’s young adults had the misfortune of graduating into a recession. Slatecalculated that stagnant incomes and mounting student loans are putting young people “deep in a hole.” If you include those who have given up searching, the unemployment rate for 18-29 year-olds reached 15 percent last September. And aDemos poll found alarming rates of young …
Study links swarm of quakes in Texas to natural gas drilling – Seth Borenstein
With real-time monitors, scientists have linked a swarm of small earthquakes west of Fort Worth, Texas, to nearby natural gas wells and wastewater injection. In 84 days from November 2013 to January 2014, the area around Azle, Texas, shook with 27 magnitude 2 or greater earthquakes, while scientists at Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey monitored the shaking. …
One-Third of Seniors with Dementia Are Being Given Antipsychotics
—even though such toxic drugs are not approved to treat dementia! A report [1] from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that nearly one-third of older adults with dementia who spent more than 100 days in a nursing home were given antipsychotics through Medicare’s prescription drug program in 2012. We previously reported that a similar situation exists with brain-damaged veterans [2]—and even with infants and young …
Glyphosate Is Spreading Like A Cancer Across The U.S. – Mary Ellen Kustin
American growers sprayed 280 million pounds of glyphosate on their crops in 2012, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. That amounts to nearly a pound of glyphosate for every person in the country. The use of glyphosate on farmland has skyrocketed since the mid-1990s, when biotech companies introduced genetically engineered crop varieties (often called GMOs) that can withstand being blasted with …
Phytoplankton, reducing greenhouse gases or amplifying Arctic warming?
Phytoplankton, commonly known as plant plankton that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, are potentially a key driver of Arctic warming under greenhouse warming, a study reveals. Scientists with Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), and Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), presented on Monday, April 20, in Proceedings of …
China’s struggle for water security – Giles HEWITT
Way back in 1999, before he became China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao warned that water scarcity posed one of the greatest threats to the “survival of the nation”. Sixteen years later, that threat looms ever larger, casting a forbidding shadow over China’s energy and food security and demanding urgent solutions with significant regional, and even global, consequences. The mounting pressure …









