The good news keeps rolling along

Special Dispatch #7 Thanksgiving, 2008

We’re still at it, tracking good news stories throughout the Thanksgiving
weekend.

Item 7

Fountain
of Youth: Drug Restores Muscles

A daily dose of an investigational medication has been found to restore muscle
mass in the arms and legs of older adults and improve some of their biochemistry
to levels found in healthy young adults, suggesting an anti-frailty drug has
been found.

The drug, called MK-677, was evaluated for its safety and effectiveness in
a study that showed the drug restored 20 percent of muscle mass loss associated
with normal aging. In fact, levels of growth hormone (GH) and of insulin-like
growth factor I (IGF- I) in healthy seniors who took the drug increased to
the levels found in healthy young adults, said Michael O. Thorner, a professor
of internal medicine and neurosurgery at the University of Virginia Health
System.

The Good News

As we often point out when the subject of life extension comes up, we aren’t
interested in extending human frailty, but rather human vitality. We want to
see people living longer so that they can continue to work, create, enjoy their
friends and families, and realize their dreams. To do that, we need sound minds
and bodies. Muscle mass is a key part of the "sound bodies" requirement.

Live to see it!

There are actually many more good news stories than we can hope to track!

Special Dispatch #6 Thanksgiving, 2008

"Black Friday" has arrived, the most media-covered shopping
day of the year, if not actually the biggest. If you’ve decided to start your
holiday shopping today, don’t worry that you’ll be missing anything. We’ll
keep tracking the good news, and it will be here for you when you get back
from the mall.

Item 6

How
Geothermal Heat Pumps Could Power the Future

A geothermal heat pump (sometimes called a ground source heat pump) can work
anywhere.

If you’ve ever touched the tubes on the back of a working refrigerator, you
know that it is pulling heat from the inside and radiating it to the rest
of the kitchen.

A heat pump is like a refrigerator run backwards. It pulls heat from outdoors
(as if it were trying to cool the outside) and releases it indoors.

In both a fridge and a heat pump, a system of tubes circulates a refrigerant
fluid that becomes hot when compressed and cold when expanded.

To heat a home, the hot compressed fluid is typically passed through a heat
exchanger that warms the air that feeds into a duct system. This "spent"
fluid is then cooled through expansion and brought into contact with a ground
source, so it can "recharge" with heat.

Although pumping the fluid requires electricity, a geothermal heat pump is
more efficient than any alternative heating system. In fact, current models
can produce as much as 4 kilowatts of heat for every 1 kilowatt of electricity.
This is because they are not generating heat, but rather moving it from the
outside.

The Good News

These systems can work anywhere. (Well, okay, the linked article says "anywhere
but Antarctic.") To heat an average-sized house, you need a hole that extends
150-200 feet into the ground or, if you have some land available, a small network
of horizontal pipes buried about six feet deep. Geothermal systems can provide
air conditioning, too.

Such systems will initially be more expensive than conventional heating systems,
but they will pay for themselves with the savings they provide. Imagine a hybrid
system in which a non-carbon-emitting power source such as solar, wind, or nuclear
provides the electricity, and then geothermal provides the heat or cooling.
Very nice!

Live to see it!