Interesting Facts

According to a survey from the London-based Institute of Economic Affairs retiring (stopping work) can make you miserable and ill. (The study found that after giving up work, the average adult was 60 per cent more likely to have at least one diagnosed illness. Retirement was also found to increase the risk of depression by 40 per cent. I hope the people running the survey are aware that people who retire are "old".  Personally I just want to be able to afford to retire.) Source

A team of researchers in the US has discovered the earliest sample of human-made medicine. (They found traces of wine compounds and plant-derived ingredients from a jar, basically a medicinal alcoholic drink. The bottles are more than 5,000 years old and were found in the tomb of one of the first pharaohs of Egypt, Scorpion I. So the next time I have a tipple, it will be purely medicinal.)

powered by ODEO Blood can turn a dark greenish-black - like Spock's - if you take a certain type of migraine medication. (A team of Canadian surgeons got a shock when the patient they were operating on began shedding dark greenish-black blood, but the unusual colour was due to the migraine medication he was taking. The patient had been taking large doses of Sumatriptan, which seemingly can cause a rare condition called sulfhaemoglobinaemia, where sulphur is incorporated into the oxygen-carrying compound haemoglobin in red blood cells. Actually I think he was really a Vulcan. Live long and prosper.)