Automakers urged to implement ‘smart car’ devices. Federal safety officials say new technology offers first credible possibility of eliminating much of the human error behind collisions. (Approaching innovations include radar to sense stationary obstacles, night vision, adaptive cruise control that senses the distance to vehicle ahead, smart steering assistance to keep a car travelling down the center of its traffic lane, linking emergency services to car-borne GPS etc.) Nando Times Some human error, of course, may not be eliminated. There was a replay of an extraordinary audio clip from last year on this evening’s All Things Considered on NPR. Jack E. Robinson, the hapless Republican contender for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, had been getting carried away ranting to an ATC interviewer over his cellular phone about the Massachusetts Republican leadership’s lack of confidence in him, as he drove down the road. All of a sudden, slam! he has a clearly audible auto accident.

Radioactive runoff reported near Los Alamos lab. Yes, indeed, as feared, first significant rainstorms since the wildfires are flushing radioactive isotopes down Los Alamos Canyon.

EyeTracking Online News. For four years, a study by Stanford University and the Poynter Institute has examined online news readers’ eye tracking patterns. They find, contrary to expectations, that the eyes go first to text rather than photos or graphics. A further finding from the study is that banner ads do catch readers’ attention for long enough to perceive the ad. Many other findings about online news-reading habits here.

Quakes may explain the mystery of the Oracle of Delphi. Reading that (archaeological) headline, why did I think of the information technology industry first? [grin]

New autism study buoys parents’ hopes but has doctors worried: “First, parents clamored

for the hormone secretin in hopes it would help their autistic children, but the tests proved

disappointing. Now a new theory is triggering desperate parents’ interest – and this time the

stakes are higher because it could spur misuse of the nation’s most precious antibiotic,

vancomycin.” No placebo-controlled trials yet. Nando Times

Is it Wise to Bet on Mathematical Progress? The publishers of a book about a man obsessed with Goldbach’s conjecture — a deceptively simple but famously unproven mathematical hypothesis from 1742 — have offered a $1m prize for a reputable proof of the conjecture before March 2002. They’ve indemnified themselves against the possibility of having to pay out; thus, the underwriter of the iinsurance policy is in essence placing a bet against a solution to the conjecture within the timeframe. Would mathematicians agree on the odds — around 100:1 — that the unnamed insurance company took on? Lingua Franca

The next new important antipsychotic drug wins FDA nod. Concerns about ziprasidone’s cardiac safety held up approval in 1998 but new clinical data is clears it for release. Schizophrenia, the major target condition for antipsychotic medications, is an immensely tragic disease with a devastating toll. A series of newly developed medications has made it far easier to treat in the last decade, the first real advances since the initial introduction of antipsychotic medications in the 1950’s set in motion the possibilities (for better or worse) of deinstitutionalization and community treatment of the seriously mentally ill. Despite the broad incidence of schizophrenia and the likelihood that your life has intersected with that of someone who has the disease or has the disease in their family, the seriously psychotic are a disenfranchised population; so this revolution does not attract as much public attention as the previous decade’s more “sexy” breakthroughs in antidepressant drugs, starting with Prozac. No bestselling Listening to Zeldox or Zyprexa Nation in the offing, I’m afraid.

And what’s up with this? It seems that marketing consultants have decreed that almost all newly developed psychiatric medications have to have an ‘x’ or a ‘z’ — if not both — in their brand name to be taken seriously these days. Zeldox, Zyprexa and Clozaril are three of the last five antipsychotics. If we include ‘q’, we can add Seroquel. Turning to antidepressants, we find Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Trazodone, Celexa, Serzone, Luvox and Effexor. Zyban is sort of in there too; it’s Wellbutrin marketed for smoking cessation instead of antidepressant use.