In 1968, a comedy called "The Odd Couple," starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, told the story of two divorced men, Felix Ungar (a neurotic neatfreak) and Oscar Madison (a fun-loving slob) who decide to live together. This is a script that plays itself out again and again as college starts and students find themselves paired with roommates whom they do not know and do not get along with.
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It’s not what you think – The giant monoliths of Easter Island are worn, but they have endured for centuries. New research suggests that a compound first discovered in the soil of this tiny South Pacific island might help us stand the test of time, too. You can never tell what you’ll find hidden at a sacred site.
When dirt from the Easter Island compound, called “rapamycin” after the island’s Polynesian name Rapa Nui, was fed to middle-aged mice, it their expected lifespans by 28 to 38%. In human terms, this would be greater than the predicted increase in extra years of life if cancer and heart disease were both cured and prevented.
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We’ve written before that being dirty can be GOOD for you. Now a newly RE-discovered type of clay found in France has been found to kill dangerous germs?even superbugs!
Among the malevolent bacteria that this French clay, which was used in traditional French medicine, has been shown to fight is a “flesh-eating” bug in Africa and the germ called MRSA, which was blamed for the recent deaths of two children in Virginia and Mississippi.
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We know why dirt is good?but if we’re not careful, most of it may not be here anymore?and one kind of dirt can even cure cancer!
The bark of the rare Pacific yew tree is the main ingredient in the medicine Taxol, which is a major breakthrough in cancer cures. In LiveScience.com, Charles Q. Choi reports that the dirt the trees grow in contains the ingredient as well.
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