Radioactive scorpion venom used to treat brain cancer: Quick, let’s put Cheney in a blender and heal the world!
(D.C. with mask)
I’ve said this before but science can be so amazing, and such fun and, sometimes, even useful:
Radioactive scorpion venom sounds like the ultimate poison but it is now being tested as a treatment for malignant brain cancer. Scientists have discovered that a non-toxic extract from the venom seeks out and locks onto malignant cells after it is injected into the body. By irradiating it before it goes in the body it can be used to target the cancer cells with killer radiation but at the same time leave the healthy cells unharmed.
Now, all of that is wonderful news, of course but – as with the latest online testicle recipe book – it does beg the following question:
Which relatively sane person would ever think of and then propose the idea of taking a deadly scorpion, whack it in some kind of microwave, put it in a blender and then feed it to someone with brain cancer…?!
(Which question also, more or less literally, applies to that testicle cook book, of course.)
Hm? No, I don’t know the answer to that – or the more fundamental question of what makes homo sapiens such an incredibly weird species.
Anyway, never mind now how they arrived at the conclusion that this idea might work but this whole thing does prove that even the weirdest, ugliest, most aggressive and poisonous creatures can be put to some benign use.
Which leaves me with one final question:
Could there be even some hope that, some day, somehow, we may find some positive use for Dick Cheney…?
(D.C. unmasked)
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