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Albert Hofmann's psychedelics doubts

Psychedelics are back! As readers of Scientific American know, scientists have recently reported that psychedelics show promise for treating disorders such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety in terminal cancer patients. This weekend, researchers and other enthusiasts are gathering in New York City for a two-day celebration, "Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics," sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, along with other groups.

Overall, I'm thrilled by the psychedelic revival. I've had good trips, which gave me first-hand evidence of the drugs' therapeutic potential. But like many other people, I've also had bad trips, which left me feeling alienated from, rather than blissfully connected to, the world. In fact, it's worth recalling that the godfather of psychedelic research—the chemist Albert Hofmann, whom I interviewed before his death in 2008—occasionally harbored doubts about these potent drugs.

In 1943, when war wracked the world, Hofmann was in Basel, Switzerland, working for the pharmaceutical company Sandoz. On April 16, he was investigating a compound related to ergot, a toxic extract of a fungus that infects grain-producing plants. Hofmann hoped that the ergot compound, which he had originally synthesized five years earlier, might have potential for stimulating blood circulation.

During his experiments, Hofmann was overcome by what he recalled later as "remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness." He guessed that he had absorbed the ergot compound through his skin. Three days later, to test his theory, he dissolved what he thought would be an extremely small dose of the chemical—250 millionths of a gram, or micrograms—in a glass of water and drank it. Within 40 minutes Hofmann felt so disoriented that he rode his bicycle home.

When he arrived at his house he spotted a female neighbor, who looked like a "malevolent, insidious witch with a colored mask." Inside his house "furniture assumed grotesque, threatening forms." Hofmann feared he was losing his mind or even dying. He was tormented by the thought that his wife and three children would never understand "that I had not experimented thoughtlessly, irresponsibly, but rather with the utmost caution."

Gradually, "the horror softened and gave way to a feeling of good fortune and gratitude." This sense of well-being persisted through the following morning. When Hofmann walked out into his garden after a rainfall, "everything glistened and sparkled in a fresh new light. The world was as if newly created."

Thus did Hofmann discover the psychotropic properties of lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD. Hofmann's psychedelic research continued. In the late 1950s he showed that psilocybin and psilocin are the primary active ingredients of Psilocybe cubensis, a "magic" mushroom consumed as a sacrament by Indians in Central and South America...

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John Horgan @'Scientific American'

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The sun at night

This picture of the Sun is hardly high-definition. But, in its own way, it is extraordinary. Why? Because it was taken at night. It was taken looking down through the Earth. And it was taken not with light but with neutrinos.

Neutrinos are ghostly subatomic particles which are created in abundance by the sunlight-generating nuclear reactions in the core of the Sun. To them solid matter is as transparent as a pane of glass.

Hold up your hand. You would never know it but about a 100 million million neutrinos are passing through every square centimetre of your flesh every second. That’s why it is possible to image the Sun on the other side of the Earth by looking down through almost 13,000 kilometres of rock.

This picture was obtained by the Japanese Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector, situated in the Kamioka metal mine in the Japanese Alps. While sunlight takes about 30,000 years to work its way out from the centre to the surface of the Sun, neutrinos take just two seconds.

Once at the surface, it is only another eight-odd minutes of free-flight before they get to the Earth. Consequently, neutrinos reveal what the core of the Sun is like “now”.

Since the Sun’s light was made at the height of the last Ice Age, for all we know its nuclear fires could have gone out 29,000 years ago. However, solar neutrinos, on account of being in the heart of the Sun just over eight minutes ago, tell us all is well with the Sun and there is no need to worry. For now.

Marcus Chown @'New Humanist'

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YouTube wins Spanish copyright case

A Spanish federal court has dismissed copyright infringement charges against Google’s YouTube that could have brought the online video service to a halt by forcing it to monitor every piece of content.

Telecinco, a Spanish broadcaster, had brought the charges against YouTube, arguing that it should be liable when users upload material that violates copyright protection.

Google, which owns YouTube, praised the court’s decision to reject the charges on the basis that YouTube offers users tools to remove content that infringes on copyrights.

“This decision is a clear victory for the internet and the rules that govern it,” Google said on its blog.

The ruling follows a similar victory in the US in a case brought by Viacom, creating clearer legal direction for Google’s copyright responsibilities on YouTube. Viacom has said it will appeal against that decision

It comes as Google steps up efforts to make the site a destination for professional content, as well as the home-made videos for which it is still best known.

Television programmes and films are already available for free viewing on the site in some countries, including shows from Channel 4 and Channel 5, the UK broadcasters. Vevo, its music video subsidiary, is expected to launch in Europe later this year.

YouTube has also shown live broadcasts of a U2 concert and Indian Premier League cricket matches, and Google has explored offering pay-per-view movies with Hollywood studios.

Under European law, owners of content are considered best placed to monitor how their work is being used rather than service providers such as YouTube.

The company said that more than 24 hours of video is uploaded to its website every minute and that the task of screening all of that content would make it and other social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace “grind to a halt”.

YouTube said it had created a content identification tool that allows content creators to remove edited copyrighted material and alerts them if something is wrongfully uploaded. This “Content ID” service is used by more than 1,000 media companies.

Aaron Ferstman, head of communications for YouTube’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa said the decision “demonstrates the wisdom of European laws” and that YouTube hopes to work with Telecinco in the “spirit of copyright protection.”

@'FT"

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