Statins not so nice, after all

Statins are drugs that lower cholesterol. Zillions of Americans are on them. But it seems their effects may not be limited to lowering cholesterol. New research indicates that statins cause changes in the brain's neurons. This is not a simple, innocent side effect. It's serious and very creepy.

If you were put on statins and then began to suffer memory lapses, the side-effect described in this article may be the cause of your problems.

If I was on statins, I'd stop taking them immediately.

Live human heads in jars

Remember the living Nixon head-in-a-jar on the show Futurama? This might be a possibility -- no, not Nixon's head, but maybe yours.

A story at physorg suggests that brain neurons do not have pre-set life spans. This is shocking and intriguing. Scientists moved neurons from the brain of a mouse with a rather short life span, and put them into a rat's brain. The neurons continued to live -- and aged at a rate similar to the rat's longer-lived neurons. The inference is that neurons live as long as their surroundings support them.

Get the picture? Heads in jars may be coming to a site near you. Just imagine what fun it will be to have Aunt Tilly's head in a jar on the mantel, where you can talk to her all you want. Who needs bodies when you've got heads?