1. The Earth is full - CNN.com
CNN 2012-04-08
(CNN) -- For 50 years the environmental movement has unsuccessfully argued that we should save the planet for moral reasons, that there were more important things than money. Ironically, it now seems it will be money -- through the economic impact of climate change and resource constraint -- that will motivate the sweeping changes necessary to avert catastrophe.
The reason is we have now reached a moment where four words -- the earth is full -- will define our times. This is not a philosophical statement; this is just science based in physics, chemistry and biology. There are many science-based analyses of this, but they all draw the same conclusion -- that we're living beyond our means.
The eminent scientists of the Global Footprint Network, for example, calculate that we need about 1.5 Earths to sustain this economy. In other words, to keep operating at our current level, we need 50% more Earth than we've got.
2. Chinese Medicine Goes Under the Microscope
The Wall Street Journal April 2, 2012,
There's growing acceptance that herbal medicines could be effective for medical conditions, but the scientific evidence to vault such a treatment into an approved drug is often lacking. As Shirley Wang explains on Lunch Break, researchers are making progress on a cancer treatment based on a common herbal combination in Chinese medicine.
Scientists studying a four-herb combination discovered some 1,800 years ago by Chinese herbalists have found that the substance enhances the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with colon cancer.
Chinese peony Chinese licorice
Early studies show a traditional four-herb combination has cancer-treatment benefits. The herbs are Chinese peony (pictured), Chinese jujube, Chinese licorice and baikal skullcap.
The mixture, known in China as huang qin tang, has been shown in early trials to be effective at reducing some side effects of chemotherapy, including diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. The herbs also seem to bolster colon-cancer treatment: Tests on animals with tumors have shown that administering the herbs along with chemotherapy drugs restored intestinal cells faster than when chemo was used alone.
The herb combination, dubbed PHY906 by scientists, is a rare example of a plant-based product used in traditional folk medicine that could potentially jump the hurdle into mainstream American therapy. A scientific team led by Yung-Chi Cheng, an oncology researcher at Yale University, and funded in part by the National Cancer Institute, is planning to begin Phase II clinical trials to study PHY906's effectiveness in people with colon cancer.
Chinese jujube Baikal skullcap.
Many conventional medications are derived from individual chemical agents originally found in plants. In the case of huang qin tang, however, scientists so far have identified 62 active chemicals in the four-herb combination that apparently need to work together to be effective.
"What Dr. Cheng is doing is keeping [the herbal combination] as a complex entity and using that as an agent," says Josephine Briggs, head of the federal National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which is helping fund some of the PHY906 research. "It's polypharmacy," or the equivalent of several drugs being administered at once.
Dr. Cheng began his research on huang qin tang about a dozen years ago when he sought a better way of dealing with the chemotherapy's side effects. A variety of medications are currently used to treat these symptoms, but with varying success. A more effective technique could improve patients' quality of life and possibly allow them to tolerate a larger dose of chemo, which might speed up their course of treatment, he says.
3. India links better ties to Pakistan's counterterrorism efforts
DW-TV April 09, 2012
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Pakistani President Zardari has met with the Indian prime minister in New Delhi raising hopes for further reconciliation between the nuclear rivals. Both agreed to work at improving the bilateral relationship.
The high-voltage political meet between the leaders of India and Pakistan went according to script. Over a mouth-watering spread of delicacies, tastefully selected from various regions, Sunday's lunch meeting in New Delhi between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the visiting Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari seems to have set the stage for an early and productive visit by the former to Islamabad.
Fresh hope
Singh and Zardari had a 40-minute meeting before the lunch that was described as "very constructive and friendly."
"We have a number of issues and we are willing to find practical and pragmatic solutions to all those issues and that is the message President Zardari and I would wish to convey," said Prime Minister Singh.
In response, Zardari, who hoped to meet the Indian leader on Pakistani soil very soon, said, "We have had very fruitful bilateral talks."
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