Wednesday, January 9, 2008

#1 Unofficial Market: Law Students

From Slate's Human Nature:

A study suggests a drug [orexin-A] can compensate for sleep deprivation. Monkeys that were kept awake for 30 to 36 hours were "significantly impaired" on cognitive tests, but in those that got a peptide dose just before the tests, "cognitive skills improved to the normal, non-sleep-deprived, level." Official market: "patients suffering from narcolepsy and other serious sleep disorders." Unofficial market: truckers, "shift workers, the military and many other occupations where sleep is often limited." Caveats: 1) The drug didn't enhance performance in well-slept monkeys. 2) Let's check it for side effects before troops and truckers start using it.

In the kind of coincidence that writers pray for, apparently the drug is particularly potent when taken through the nose.

2 comments:

treyermg@gmail.com said...

sounds interesting...A few people I knew in college took this new drug, but they called it cocaine.

David the Grape said...

mmmmm....coke....