Free Republic

Doctor prescribed drug cocktail to stimulate man's brain May 5, 2005 BY CAROLYN THOMPSON BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A brain-injured firefighter who started speaking after almost a decade of near-total silence has had moments of clarity but nothing as dramatic as that first long conversation Saturday, his wife said Wednesday. But she and his doctor remain hopeful. Don Herbert's startling improvment came three months after his medication was changed. Herbert, who will turn 44 Saturday, went without oxygen for several minutes after being trapped under a collapsed roof while fighting a house fire in December 1995. He spent 2-1/2 months in...

The lethal toxins produced by cone snails are in hot demand for neuroscience research, and are being developed as potent drugs. Laura Nelson visits a would-be snail ‘farmer’, for whom milking time is fraught with danger. 24 June 2004 LAURA NELSON This article is from the news section of the journal Nature Marine cone snails are among the most venomous beasts on the planet. © Nature Jon-Paul Bingham fumbles around for a condom. Big Bertha is waiting. There’s an awkward pause. “It has to be the non-lubricated kind,” he says. Bingham rips open the packet and slips the prophylactic over...