Scientists have created artificial blood. This is not a plot point from True Blood.
Researchers at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania, spent months trying to develop an artificial human blood substitute. While this could be considered a medical miracle and a marvel of modern science, the best part about this is that Cluj is located in the Romanian region of…Transylvania.
This is rare. You’ve probably heard, like we have, dozens of times, how scientists have proven that acupuncture is a bunch of hokum. (And heard dozens more times from friends, aunts, wandering musicians, etc., that “No, it really works! I quit smoking, became psychic, and had my piles cured—all from acupuncture!”)
Well, score one for Team B above, as for one of the first times we’re ever seen, a medical research team has just recently found that acupuncture does something quite good:
Acupuncture significantly reduces levels of a protein in rats linked to chronic stress, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) have found. They say their animal study may help explain the sense of well-being that many people receive from this ancient Chinese therapy.
Now, that’s not a complete vidication for acupuncture supporters, of course, but it is something.
And how they conducted he experiment is pretty cool, too:
Here’s another edition of “Ledes We Love,” accounts of openings to news stories that are so good you hardly have to read any further—but you’re going to. Because you must. Today’s entry:
Manitoban Janis Ollson and family are in magazine ads for the esteemed Mayo Clinic for a very good reason: she’s the first person surgeons cut in half, removed much of a cancerous midsection, then put back together with a happy ending.
