Surprising Science — November 2, 2009

Lupus Promise

For the first time an experimental drug to treat lupus has been found to be effective in a second round of clinical trials.

bigthinkeditor

“Human Genome Sciences said early Monday that its experimental drug to treat lupus was effective in its second big clinical trial, raising the chances that the first new treatment for the disease in more than 40 years will make it to market,” reports The New York Times. The new drug, called Benlysta succeeded in its first clinical trial in July “to almost everyone’s surprise” following several failed drug candidates from numerous companies. “The lupus community has waited for decades for one positive phase three trial of an investigative drug developed for lupus,” Dr. Joan T. Merrill, a lupus expert at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and an investigator in the trial, said in a statement issued by Human Genome Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline. “Now we have two.”

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

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