Accidental Find May Lead To a Cure For Baldness 404
kkleiner writes "Science is full of stories in which great discoveries are made by accident: the discovery of radiation, the discovery of the universe's shape through x-ray detection, and now perhaps the cure for hair loss. At the time they returned to the cages to find that their bald mice had miraculously grown their hair back, the scientists at UCLA had no intention of curing baldness. Originally, theirs was in fact a study aimed at reducing the harmful affects of chronic stress. The unanticipated side effect of their treatment could prove a boon to balding men and women everywhere, not to mention to the drug company that delivers the cure to them."
Socialists find the answers that Capitalists cant? (Score:2, Interesting)
Just to poke my anti-socialist friends with a stick, I find it interesting that a publicly funded institute happened apon this discovery and not a private corporation.
Then again, if it is a "cure" then there is no capitalist drive for it to see the light of day when "treatments" that require continual purchase are available.
-Rick
Re:Uh, don't we maybe NEED that hormone? (Score:4, Interesting)
Not to mention athletes, body builders, and people like myself who get to adjust male hormones, if you do it with the right chemicals in the right doses, farking around with hormones isn't a problem.
Before I got my current treatment regimen going, I was at 39 ng/dl when normal total testosterone levels range from 300 - 1000 ng/dl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypogonadism [wikipedia.org]
Re:Socialists find the answers that Capitalists ca (Score:4, Interesting)
Problems (Score:2, Interesting)
There are some problems:
Mice are covered with hair. I envision getting an injection and suddenly sprouting hair ... freaking everywhere. Also what happens if my eyebrows and nose hair are out of control already, and now I turbocharge them? And my back hair that already keeps me warm in the winter?
This is reported on a website that also reports the following "NEW" stories:
1) Scare story about web traffic monitoring (around since the 90s)
2) designer babies are coming (since the 40s or so, at least since the 80s, I've seen the discover magazines to prove it)
3) multi-axis CNC milling machines exist and are shiny (uh, since the 60s)
4) automation might lead to economic problems (since the 00s, 1900s I mean)
5) nanotech techniques exist to engrave things (since the 90s)
So I'm just askin', and its a fair question, is this breathless report about that newly invented drug .. Minoxidil / Rogaine? Could the site really be so out of touch to report something that old as new? Or is it kind of a campy humor site, kinda like the onion?