by Captain Skellett | Oct 6, 2010 | How Things Work, Science Communication
The winners of this years Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki, for their work in palladium catalysed reactions. Ah, a subject close to my own heart! As a student of Molecular and Drug Design, we studied this shizz in...
by Captain Skellett | Aug 27, 2010 | Drugs, Poisons, Sex and Reproduction, The Realm of Bizzare, Unethics
On August 15, 1951 a small town in southern France called Pont-Saint-Esprit briefly entered the twilight zone. Hundreds of people reported acute psychotic episodes and physical symptoms such as nausea. They experienced traumatic hallucinations, and 50 of those...
by Captain Skellett | Aug 1, 2010 | Drugs, Science in the Movies
Inception is a movie which grabs you by the throat and won’t let you go. Having seen it, I can’t stop thinking about it and I just have to write something down. For those who haven’t seen it, I will keep this vague enough to avoid spoilers. Dreaming...
by Captain Skellett | May 16, 2010 | Drugs, Recent Research
A recent study has found that mice are able to turn something normally found in mice brains into morphine. Morphine is a potent painkiller harvested from opium poppies. We can make it synthetically in the lab, but it’s cheaper to let plants do the hard work. If...
