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A Drink a Day May Keep Alzheimer's Away Fran Lowry   August 26, 2011 — Light to moderate drinking seems to reduce the risk for dementia and cognitive decline, according to a new study published in the August issue of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment. A meta-analysis of 143 studies on the effects of alcohol on the brain showed that moderate drinking, defined as no more than 2 drinks a day for a man and no more than 1 drink a day for a woman, reduced the risk for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia by 23%. "It doesn't seem...

HELSINKI - Finnish scientists are analyzing a golden, cloudy beverage found in a 19th century shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, hoping new beers can be modeled on an ancient brew. The VTT Technical Research Center of Finland said Tuesday that through chemical analysis it aims to determine the ingredients and possibly the recipe used in brewing what it called "one of the world's oldest preserved beers." VTT scientist Arvi Vilpola said he had "the honorable task" of being the one on the research team to sample the brew. "It was a little sour and you could taste...

Professor Charles Cockell from the OU explains how the experiment worked A small English fishing village has produced an out-of-this-world discovery. Bacteria taken from cliffs at Beer on the South Coast have shown themselves to be hardy space travellers. The bugs were put on the exterior of the space station to see how they would cope in the hostile conditions that exist above the Earth's atmosphere. And when scientists inspected the microbes a year and a half later, they found many were still alive. These survivors are now thriving in a laboratory at the Open University (OU) in Milton Keynes....

By now it’s become a disturbingly familiar pattern for conservatives: A candidate who seems promising at first glance wins a Republican primary, and then suddenly the press — often fed by a Democratic rival’s opposition-research team — begins looking in-depth at every controversial and regrettable statement and act that candidate ever made. Just days after it’s too late to change the nominee, the choice of GOP primary voters appears to be an egregious mistake.

Inspired by the Russian roulette scene in the excellent Vietnam War film The Deer Hunter, for our money this is one of the most dramatic and enjoyable of all drinking games.