“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”
Albert Einstein
Well, there’ve been a few replies to all the emails I’ve sent. Brief, polite, non-committal. I’ve also been reading about Mark Purdey‘s experiences in pursuit of the cause of BSE. Enough said.
Meanwhile, a bit more nitrogenous sleuthing has revealed that nitric oxide research is about the sexiest thing going in the biological sciences right now. It’s been linked with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia,Inflammation-mediated Neurodegeneration, a collective term for such conditions as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, MS, ALS and AIDS dementia,Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, even Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. The latter is especially interesting in view of the fact that this condition started life as “shell shock”; a result of over-exposure to battlefield environments. The air of battlefields is, of course, notoriously full of cordite which is 40% nitrocellulose, 60% nitroglycerine. (Thanks to Carol Willis for supplying many of the links.)
Surely no coincidence that these are all modern syndromes, and as such potentially also correlate to the increases of fixed nitrogen in the environment? Except for shell shock, that is, but then that has a correlation to a potential role for nitrogen too. And surely no accident that we should be waking up to nitric oxide’s role in a wide variety of metabolic processes at a time when its role is becoming more obvious and significant?
“It is because Humanity has never known where it was going that it has been able to find its way.”
Oscar Wilde
Tags: cardiovascular disease, CVD, heart disease, nitrate fertilisers, nitrates
