Judy Illes Blows Lid on Inaccurate Marketing of "Body Scans"

Judy Illes of Stanford has authored a piece from an analysis of the content of company brochures selling body scans, sometimes called "full-body preventative scans" and conducted with CT or MRI. In their review they found that there were all sorts of horrific exaggerations and some awfully intense sales tactics. Illes and colleagues had argued in 2003 that there are insufficient standards and guidelines for scanning, and that the industry has grown very rapidly. The piece is in the 12/13 issue of Annals (thanks for the correction!).

The Hypo-Allergenic Cat

From Allerca: A cat that just does not make you sneeze. But is it just hype?

It is probably possible to create cats that do not produce the most common protein allergen, says Thomas Platts-Mills, director of the Asthma and Allergic Disease Center at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, US. But he adds that cats produce many more allergens, and that blocking production of the protein could damage the cat's health. Moreover, Allerca's claims that a technique called RNA-induced gene silencing can work in cats are "unfounded", says Greg Hannon at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York state, and author of the book RNAi: A Guide to Gene Silencing. So far the technique has been used only in mice.

Please, Someone, Teach These Journalists?

In the fiftieth poorly-researched assisted reproductive technology piece of the year, New Scientist lets us all in on the big news of the week: the Brits have "applied for a license" for something that is "banned" - yes banned - in the U.S., supposedly: "creating children with three parents." You have to be curious as to whether they just make these little snippets up...three person reproduction isn't banned in any national or even in any state law. The truly interesting thing is that New Scientist was able to miss any of the facts about the multiple egg issues in either the literature or even among those who work on these questions all the time. So get ready for a spate of "three moms" pieces!