Rosie Mestel of the L.A. Times takes six pages to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about sugar replacements, but never knew you wanted to know it. For example, artificial sweetners are a $1 billion market in the U.S. alone, and there are currently only five available, of which sucralose (400 times sweeter than sugar) is the most popular and neotame (7,000-13,000 times sweeter) is the newest. As you would expect, the Sugar Association hates fake sugar and calls them all a bunch of liars, LIARS, and other not-so-sweet names. The Times also includes a helpful sweetness timeline starting...

Next month, the FDA is expected to approve Vivitrex for use by alcoholics. Vivitrex is a once-a-month injection containing the drug naltrexone which blocks pleasure pathways in the brain associated with alcohol addiction. Those that have been on the medication during ten years of clinical study report that, yes, it really works. Alcoholism has often been seen as more of a moral failing or character flaw than a treatable disease, and alcoholics have had to treat it by denying themselves the thing their body constantly craves through AA meetings, counseling and therapy. You can't just tell an alcoholic they shouldn't drink...

After 1,000 embryo transplants into 123 recipients, South Korean scientists have finally managed to make the world's first dog close, named Snuppy, which stands for Seoul National University puppy. Snuppy was made from the genetic material taken from an ear cell from a 3-year-old male Afghan, which was then placed into an empty egg cell. The egg was implanted in a yellow labrador, gestated for two months and the resulting clone was removed by caesarean section. The scientists maintain that this isn't about perfecting a method of allowing pet owners to recreate their beloved friends all over again, but rather to create...

First, take some carbon nanotubes. Then coat them in folate molecules (a type of B vitamin, available at most Chinese delicatessens). Inject these into cancerous cells. Don't worry if you get some on your normal cells. Finally, point a near-infrared laser at them to heat them to 70ºC. Et voilá! Dead cancer cells! Researchers at Stanford have discovered that carbon nanotubes make excellent heaters to go inside cancer cells and kill them, without harming any other healthy cells around them. Cancer cells tend to be coated with folate receptors, so coating nanotubes in folate molecules make them mutually attractive. When they...

It has already been established that America's obese population is adding a significant toll to the nation's medical bill, up to an estimated $75 billion a year. But how does one's weight effect one's personal finances? Badly. Although there are no studies currently showing the exact figures, being fat in America penalizes you in several ways, including paying more for airline tickets, out-of-pocket medical expenses, missing work, being bypassed for management positions and diet spending. Researchers at New York University found that when a woman's body mass increases by 10%, her income decreases by 6%. Another study out of Ohio State traced...

How are today's teens coping with the need to have six-pack abs, bulging biceps, trim little tummies and pert little buttocks? According to a survey in the August edition of Pediatrics, about how you'd expect them to. 12% of boys say they're using supplements to achieve that rippled look, from protein shakes to steroids and HGH. Unrealistic expectations about how their bodies should look contributes mightily to this obsession, and 15% of the girls and 23% of the boys were chubby or seriously overweight. But there's good news, too. The obsession with a sculpted body is prompting more kids to join...

Why worry about Iraq and terrorism and gay marriage? By 2036, we'll all be dead anyway -- or at least as-good-as if a certain asteroid manages to dance a little to the left so that it can slam into the Earth on its round-trip. Yes, once again we're being told that an asteroid is headed our way, but like every other doomsday prediction this one has a slew of caveats if we want everything to work out exactly wrong. The asteroid will certainly miss us on its first pass on April 13, 2029 (yes, it's a Friday). But if it passes...

Scientists in Vancouver are DNA-testing tufts of Sasquatch fur in order to find out what a Bigfoot is made of. The hair was turned in by residents of a Yukon town who think VancouverEdmonton scientists are really, really gullible. One geneticist believes the fur will turn out to be from a bear or other large creature already catalogued in the analsannals of scientific discovery, but admits that if there's even a remote chance that the stuff really is Bigfoot fur, the tests are worth having. Meanwhile, PETA has issued a statement defending the Sasquatch's right to its own fur and has vowed...

Okay, so... here's a little something to think about when you've nothing better to do than ponder the future of meat production. A team of scientists is divising a way to grow meat in a laboratory that would be edible and more nutritious than standard cow-based food. They've already produced small amounts of edible muscle tissue that could be used in future space missions, and cultured meat for mass production is the next step in the process. How would they do it? Hold on to your gorge! One method is to grow healthy muscle tissue in large flat sheets on thin membranes...

Scientists have discovered a planet that they can't quite explain, because although it's 75% as big as Jupiter, its core is as big as 70 Earths. The planet was detected because it was tugging on its own star, rather than vice versa. "This is a very weird object," said one astronomer with what we will assume was a kind of small smirk and wiggling of eyebrows. For one thing, its mere presence kind of throws what we thought we knew about planetary development out the window. So it's back to the drawing board and another stupid mystery to be solved by...