RIP Albert Hofmann - April 30, 2008
Chemist Albert Hofmann has died at the age of 102.
In 1938 Hofmann isolated lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, while working for the Sandoz chemical company. As he notes in his book LSD: My Problem Child, not a lot happened immediately:
The research report also noted, in passing, that the experimental animals became restless during the narcosis. The new substance, however, aroused no special interest in our pharmacologists and physicians; testing was therefore discontinued.
However five years later he found himself in a dreamlike state. After concluding this was related to the lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate he had just started working with again, possibly through accidental absorption through his fingernails, he notes:
There seemed to be only one way of getting to the bottom of this. I decided on a self-experiment.
If we needed proof the green was 'the new black' it was surely supplied by the recent stampede by companies to brand their various products as environmentally friendly.
The Asian vulture could be flapping its last, according to Indian naturalists.
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We’re one step closer to making synthetic spider silk, thanks to work by researchers in Germany.
A coalition of 12 environmental groups is taking the US government to court in an attempt to overturn the gray wolf’s loss of protected status.
While we await a US decision on the status of the polar bear, a Canadian expert group has decided it is in trouble, but not quite enough trouble for it to be considered endangered just yet.
Prospect magazine has launched the second of its 
Here’s a shocking finding: messing around with our atmosphere could be a bad idea.
Analysis of a protein from Tyrannosaurus Rex confirms that our modern chickens really are 
Astronomers say they have peered for the first time into the massive jet of particles fired out of a ‘blazar’ – the most energetic type of black-hole at the centre of a galaxy.
Over in Texas they’ve just told the religious 
Our brains show distinctive patterns in the moments before we make mistakes, according to new research. This could one day lead to monitoring of those doing critical jobs, to prevent mistakes before they even happen.
In the UK, a 
Nasa has admitted that the 
A new front has opened up in sport’s war on drugs. Contestants in Spanish bullfights are to be subjected to dope testing if they ‘behave strangely’ during bouts.
Some people are really getting into the spirit of Earth Day, the annual environmental awareness day. Some are most definitely not. It’s like A Christmas Carol, but with Al Gore as Tiny Tim and maybe Bjorn Lomborg as Scrooge.
It’s all go for people claiming the sea floor. 
A Russian Soyuz capsule landed nearly 500 kilometres off course on Saturday.
A Swedish university last week announced the discovery of the ‘world’s oldest living tree’, a 9,550 year old spruce. This is far older than previous record holders, says Umeaa University, which were North American pines dated to around 4,500 years ago. 
Birds in Africa post their fellow warblers on sentry duty where they sing a song of reassurance to their foraging friends, researchers report.
A turtle that was thought to have gone extinct in the wild has been discovered living in a Vietnamese river.
Brazil’s president has defended biofuels at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s meeting in Brasilia.
Nasa has crushed the teenage dreams of a young German by rubbishing claims that he detected an error in its asteroid collision calculations.
Darwin’s private papers have been placed online for the first time. You can now read why he thought a wife was better than a dog.
A US Senate committee is to hold hearings into a controversial experiment that involved spreading sewage sludge onto lawns in poor, black neighbourhoods.
The Peruvian government is claiming that Yale has ten times as many artefacts from the Machu Picchu site as previously believed.
The world’s nicest nation™ has finally found something to get wound up about. Canada’s government has triggered a row by blocking a US company’s attempt to take over its biggest space-tech company.
Elephants share a common aquatic ancestor with manatees and dugongs, according to a 
We’re now in the middle of 
A strange swarm of earthquakes has been detected off the western coast of the United States. Such swarms are normally triggered by seismic activity, but there’s the rub –or rather the lack of it. This swarm is quite a long way from the local plate boundaries.
Although it’s the Nature piece on use of 
It’s become increasingly clear that there is a growing problem of food shortages across the world. And climate change is in the frame again.
New Zealanders are facing up to a serious climate change problem this week.
Americans can expect more hurricanes than normal this year, according to predictions from William Gray, who has been forecasting tropical storms at Colorado State University for 25 years.
The rain in Spain falls mainly ... oh wait ... not anymore it doesn’t. Things aren’t looking good as the Iberian peninsula faces the worst drought in nearly half a century.
The UN has teamed up with Google to bring the reality of refugees a bit closer to home.
An act designed to allow the teaching of creationism in schools passed a major hurdle in Florida yesterday.
A minor storm has erupted over a 
The BBC is facing allegations that it altered a 
In a remarkable victory for common sense a US government funded health website is allowing users to search for articles about ‘abortion’.
Personally I’m becoming a little inured to stories about climate change killing off species.
The US House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to push $50 billion into tackling AIDS, TB and malaria in the developing world over the next five years.
The 
An Australian politician wants his state to dedicate a day for citizens to go outside and look for wildlife. But this will not be one of those hippy “appreciate the wonders of nature” days if Shane Knuth gets his way. 
Three scholars this week confessed to a repeatedly spying on in flagrante octopuses.
The first excavation inside Stonehenge since 1964 is taking place right now. This is, of course, a great excuse to claim we soon know the truth of the mysterious stones.
The head of the International Olympic Commission has moved to ally fears over the health of athletes competing in Beijing’s notoriously polluted air. You can exercise outside for at least an hour without ill effects, says IOC chief inspector Hein Verbruggen.
A short and rather ugly chap called Cedric could hold the key to the survival of the Tasmanian Devil.
It’s easy to get paranoid when you’re writing about news stories on April 1st. However this one seems legitimate: scientists have discovered that we’re far more paranoid than generally believed.
Dextre, the Canadian space agency’s new robot, is meant to be helping construct the ISS. Instead it’s 
University of Texas at San Antonio students wanted to draft an honor code that discouraged cheating and plagiarizing.
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