Upcoming Events		Books
November 23rd, 2009 "Fun with Chemistry'' (A. Fenster) St John Bosco Elementary School Montreal, QC 12:30 P. M Click here to see all upcoming events		Now Available: "An Apple a Day " The Myths, Misconceptions and Truths About the Foods We Eat Click here to see all available books and to purchase #1 National Bestseller www.harpercollins.ca/
Science Issues		Science In The News
Bisphenol A and Sexual Dysfunction One thing is for sure.  Headline writers last week must have been thrilled by the study that linked exposure to bisphenol A with sexual dysfunction in Chinese men.  “Study a real downer.”  “Hard plastic has a soft side”  I think I could come up with some.  How about“The Rise and Fall of bisphenol A” or “Chemical Unglues Chinese Glue Producers.”  To be sure, any study that hits men below the belt can be expected to cause concern, except perhaps among writers who see an opportunity to rise to the occasion and show off their wit.  But if the results of this study are to be believed, rising to the occasion when it really matters may present a problem... more For more, please see Features.		Homeopathy and the Flu Here is a recipe.  Into a liter bottle, pour a mixture of pancreatic juice, glucose and water.  Then decapitate a muscovy duck and add 35 grams of its liver and 15 grams of its heart to the mixture.  Seal the bottle and allow it to stand for 40 days until it becomes a goo.  Then shake the bottle a hundred times, banging it into a leather pillow each time.  Then take a milliliter of this solution and add it to a hundred milliliters of water in another bottle and shake it again the same way a hundred times.  Repeat this dilution and shaking (succession) two hundred times.  Then take a drop of the final solution and drop it on a little sugar pill.  You have just made a homeopathic remedy against the flu!  All this would be funny if it weren’t so ridiculous and dangerous... more For more, please see Features.
You Asked...		Science From Afar - Melody in Grenada
Q. Is theobromine in chocolate a health problem?  Click here to find out... For more, please see Features.		So We Think We Can Hip Hop Bhangra! Med students dancing hip hop and bhangra
		Lectures on COOL
		Click here to visit COOL (COurses OnLine) Be sure to visit the "Special Lectures" section on COOL as well!
Did You Know?		Coin francophone
The first scientific observation about breast cancer was made in 1896 when it was noted that the disease sometimes regressed if the ovaries were removed.  Eventually this connection was understood in terms of estrogen, the female hormone produced by the ovaries.  Some types of breast cancer cells are stimulated to divide by estrogen and therefore blocking this effect constitutes a form of treatment.  Many anti-estrogen drugs have been tried with various degrees of effectiveness.  Tamoxifen is perhaps the best known of these medications.  Prostate cancer cells are also known to be stimulated by hormones, in this case by androgens, the male sex hormones which are produced mostly in the testes.  It has long been known that eunuchs do not develop prostate cancer because removal of the testes lowers the level of male hormones in the blood.  Indeed, prostate cancer is sometimes treated by surgical removal of the testes.  Drugs known as anti-androgens constitute the pharmaceutical treatment of this disease. Click here for more interesting facts		- - In memoriam Keith Fagnou For more, please see Features.
		"The Dr. Joe Show" on CJAD & CFRB (Sun. 3PM)
		Both George Bush Senior and his wife Barbara were diagnosed with Graves Disease.  This initiated the testing of the water in the White House for what substance? Click here to find out... For more, please see Features.

OSS receives support from McGill University, The Lorne Trottier Family Foundation, and private donors. © 2008 Department of Chemistry McGill University