Every state in the US wants successful businesses generating jobs in its own backyard. Now <a href="http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050319/NEWS/50
3190344/1001″ target=blank>Minnesota’s JOBZ program is getting sued for offering tax-incentives to encourage business owners to stick around and grow at home. Some accuse the program of allowing development officials to set tax policy.

Who should decide who gets tax advantages and who doesn’t? Who knows? But with tax and other incentives already being used extensively by so many cities, states, and countries—-North Carolina’s RTP runs a sophisticated marketing program to lure folks there—-it seems like biting the hand that feeds you to fault the guys working to bring in new business. The problem arises when sweetheart deals that may have lost revenue for city schools or other projects, end up not working out—when the star company jumps ship anyway or doesn’t fulfill the promise that the deal was based on.

While new business is always good, many business owners–in Northeast Ohio for sure–would agree it wouldn’t hurt use some of that incentive money to help some of the homeboys and girls grow a little easier.

Never thought radio frequency ID (RFID) would get into this arena. Apparently a UK couple finally conceived a child by in vitro fertilization (IVF)–but the child turned out to be of mixed race while they were both Caucasian.

Employees at IVF clinics are just likely as any worker to make a mistake–except the consequences of mixing genetic material can be much weightier. The solution may be to apply electronic tags, a la RFID, that set off an alarm if the wrong eggs and sperm are brought too close together. They’re also considering using barcodes–talk about having to write small…

So with RFID all they have to worry about is whether the low-frequency waves might hurt the eggs or sperm–and/or whether the electronic alarm that’s loud enough to alert a possibly sleepy employee might harm the genetic material–or just plain scare the bejeepers out of the embryos.

Unbelievable. Our great-grandchildren may one day be able to access genetic information from their long-dead ancestors and use it to correct undesirable genes of their own. Experiments with, for example, the mustard weed, indicate that plants have a molecular “memory” of ancestral genetic code they can actually copy from—seemingly as they reproduce—to correct their own DNA sequences. Now researchers speculate they may one day identify a similar treasure trove in human beings—and find ways to copy code that will replace that of broken, mutant, or just-plain-unwanted genes—including those that trigger cancer and other ravaging diseases.

Imagine if we could eventually eliminate disease by becoming wholly self-repairing creatures? Wow. What the hell would we do with all those healthy people in a world that’s already groaning under the weight of our staggering use—and abuse—of its natural resources? And/or what new afflictions might come along to replace disease as nature’s way to control populations?

Oh, we’ll find a way, I’m sure. But it might be a bumpy road for a while.

Swarms of ants? Subatomic particles? Unmanned air vehicles (UAVs)? Astounding to think these things could have behaviors in common. Listen to this. Scientists have now created a UAV that can transmit a “digital pheromone,” or message—similar to the methods ants and subatomic particles use—to tell a neighboring craft what it has seen.

And we wonder how geese manage to keep that perfect “V” formation?

Whew. This is heavy stuff. A Northeast Ohio biomed company, Orbital Research, is playing a big role in the new concept. It’s writing a software—called “emergent” because, like the swarms, it grows out of the interaction of the people writing it, the people using it and the environment they’re using it in—that uses genetic algorithms and programs that mimic natural selection (which passes algorithms through hundreds of thousands of generations in a short period) to create—well, they use the word “breed” so let’s go with it—control behaviors for these UAVs. Orbital will also try to figure out how to change emergent behavior on the fly.

Using biological tools to control inanimate objects. I don’t know about you, but I think Rod Serling just snuck in the back of the room. And man, the hairs on the back of my neck are standing straight up.

Biomed centers are, not surprisingly, courting each other’s staff just as hospitals have always done. Top hospitals have always teamed up with top medical schools in competition for research dollars and are now using the Internet to expand the possibilities—and the distance between partners. Can a thousand-mile distance be overcome by technology? Houston’s already planning to host two world-class medical research facilities, and now it’s adding a third by virtually networking with Cornell in New York.

Patients will still get sick locally, but new virtual competitive alliances will expand the reach of research stars and the spread of research dollars. For Cleveland—where the competition between giants Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals is legendary—it means a lesson in globalization and the happy news that the research pond just got a lot bigger. Instead of complaining that med staff who fraternize with others are disloyal, we have the option to put IT resources to work and come up with some dream-team virtual matchmaking of our own.

It’s hard for patients with chronic asthma to describe nuances of their condition to doctors and nurses. Now researchers from Belgium have found a fast new way to understand: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/03/20/hscout5
24634.html” target=blank>by quickly measuring nitric oxide levels in exhalation they can fairly accurately determine the quality of life an asthma patient is experiencing. More exhaled NO indicates greater stress on the lungs—and thus a lower quality of life.

This new one-minute NO test could help medical professionals reliably evaluate a patient’s condition, measure ongoing progress, and adjust treatment accordingly. That’s really good news for those who suffer the potentially life-threatening misery of severe asthma. And given the extraordinary role of NO is so many conditions, it may mean hope for using the test to discover better treatments for other conditions as well..

Reported everywhere in the media“Warning signs of an ischemic stroke may be evident as early as seven days before an attack and require urgent treatment to prevent serious damage to the brain, according to a study of stroke patients published in the March 8, 2005 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.”

The signs of TIA are much the same as for a full-blown stroke–they simply resolve themselves quickly (within 24 hours). Here’s the list:

numbness, tingling, hyperesthesia (increased sensitivity), paralysis, localised weakness, dysarthria (difficult speech), aphasia (inability to speak), dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), diplopia (double vision), amaurosis fugax (temporary loss of vision in one eye) difficulty walking, incoordination, tremor, seizures, confusion, lethargy, dementia, delirium and coma.

Read more about TIA. It’s good to know that there are warning signs and that preventive treatment can work–since the incidence of stroke is likely to increase as baby boomers age.

It was bound to happen. As baby boomers jog up on 60, their bodies begin to protest a bit more. The breakneck pace of some exercise classes starts to knock out more people–at least temporarily–with injuries. Tennis elbow, torn Achilles tendons, wrenched knees, sprained ankles, back problems and more plague the forever-youthful-wannabes.

So now, in addition to the burgeoning number of slow-moving yoga classes–once thought the province of weirdos and women, now even guys are going for it in a big way–we have a study that confirms the powerful benefits of t’ai chi, another eastern approach to keeping the body healthy, for frail elderly folks.

Speaking of which, who the hell invented the idea that if you speed the music up you get a better workout? And then the abomination of selling music by the beats-per-minute? Some insane exercise freak in California (no offense, Californians) who has little or no genuine feeling for music, is my guess. I was stunned the first time I saw an exercise CD with BPM listed after each recording.

I guarantee you there’s scientific evidence out there that people participate more enthusiastically (and have a higher heart rate) when they’re enjoying themselves to music that’s played at the speed the artist wrote the song–not simply abusing their bodies to rhythmic sounds.

I won’t be sorry when the pendulum swings away from classes taught with artificially speeded-up CDs back to normal and slower speeds–and especially back to music played the way it’s supposed to be.

…and it won’t be just the frail and elderly getting a better workout.

Clint Eastwood is getting old–and aren’t we the beneficiaries? Saw “Million Dollar Baby” last night. The flood of thoughts and observations I experienced set me to wondering what modern science is saying these days about aging brains.

Old wives’–or should we say old scientists’–tales about aging brains losing tons of neurons have now been proven to be just that–tales. But “Use it or lose it” says a distinguished professor of anatomy at U.C. Berkeley. Funded by a grant and writing for the research section of the magazine Aging, she says challenging your brain results in it expanding, both physically and in chemical activity.

Oh, and guess what else keeps your brain healthy and extends life TLC–yep, that’s right. Hugs. Social interaction. Friends. Fun. And if the rodents they tested this stuff on are any model, it doesn’t take much. All the researchers changed was that instead of picking the rats up by the tail (standard practice) they hugged them against their chests for “a few moments.”

Thought Eastwood getting old was a nice subject for my first entry on that “sinister cabal” of folks over at Blogcritics (we’re linked to them from here now). Brace yourself–there’s a lot to read there.

Well, well, well. Not only did was he one of three researchers who got the Nobel Prize for independently discovering the role of nitric oxide (NO) in heart disease, now he’s gotten really smart and written a book about it.

And hired a professional copywriter to write the press release headline, too, I’ll wager. Check this out: Nobel Laureate Award Winner Announces #1 Solution to the #1 Killer in America, Heart Disease; Announces St. Martin’s Press

Pretty hard to ignore that one, isn’t it? Which, of course, is what we copywriters and true-voice-finders are paid to do. I surely want to know he says in the book, and as a committed Internet researcher, I’m happy to say I’ve found the kernel of the research in this online article, Nitric Oxide and Vascular Health.

The gist is that healthy endothelial cells (cells that line blood vessels and filter various gases, fluid and various molecules across their cell membranes) produce the NO that signals another substance and your blood vessels end up dilating. Good for lots of things–it’s even the basis on which Viagra was created.

Ah, the wonders of science.