This is amazing. Kanzius RF therapy uses microscopic nanoparticles that attach to cancer cells, which then burn away tumors inside the body with harmless radio waves.

In trials with animal and human cells, the RF treatment destroyed 100 percent of malignant cells injected with nanoparticles, without harming surrounding healthy tissue.

A study in the November 2007 issue of the journal Cancer showed that tumor cells infused with nanoparticles and exposed to the electromagnetic field of the RF generator died within 48 hours of treatment, with no noted side effects.

A study in the Journal of Nanobiotechnology in January 2008 showed that destruction of human pancreatic cancer cells was 100 percent effective — again producing no noticeable side effects.

Here is some video:

I found this article about traders’ hormones pretty interesting:

They tracked those levels against the amount of money that a trader made or lost, and against the variation in the market. What they found was that when the traders made more money, they had elevated levels of testosterone. When the markets were particularly variable, they had elevated levels of cortisol.

A further analysis showed that traders who started their days with elevated testosterone made more money than those who didn’t. One trader went on a six-day winning streak, making twice as much money each day as the previous one. Over that period, his testosterone levels rose steadily, some 74 per cent.

“The popular view is that experienced traders can control their emotions,” Coates says, “but in fact their endocrine systems are on fire.”

You use your brain for trading and it is part of your body, so the chemicals in your body are going to have an effect on your trading. This is why some traders take cognitive enhancement drugs. And this is why other traders program automated trading systems.
This quote is funny: “maybe if more women and older men were trading, the markets would be more stable.”
They also talk about the long-term negative effects of these hormones.

This article in the NY Times about brain enhancement was pretty interesting.

…Two Cambridge University researchers reported that about a dozen of their colleagues had admitted to regular use of prescription drugs like Adderall, a stimulant, and Provigil, which promotes wakefulness, to improve their academic performance.

One person who posted anonymously on the Chronicle of Higher Education Web site said that a daily regimen of three 20-milligram doses of Adderall transformed his career: “I’m not talking about being able to work longer hours without sleep (although that helps),� the posting said. “I’m talking about being able to take on twice the responsibility, work twice as fast, write more effectively, manage better, be more attentive, devise better and more creative strategies.�

The article seems to be concerned about whether this is right or wrong. I see absolutely no reason why it would be wrong if there were no side-effects. In fact, I am confident that more and more people will be taking these drugs in the future, and that it will only benefit humanity.
As for traders - I’ve said it many times before - you are trading at a disadvantage if you are trading without cognitive enhancement drugs.

Wired has a new article about Ray Kurzweil and the Singularity. It’s pretty good - nothing really new, I guess. I like the picture of Kurzweil’s daily pill intake. I think I recognize the fish oil capsules.
They briefly mention FatKat, but no new information about his hedge fund.

“If you’re just very good at doing mathematical theorems and making stock market investments, you’re not going to pass the Turing test,” Kurzweil acknowledged in 2006 during a public debate with noted computer scientist David Gelernter. Kurzweil himself is brilliant at math, and pretty good at stock market investments. The great benefits of the singularity, for him, do not lie here. “Human emotion is really the cutting edge of human intelligence,” he says. “Being funny, expressing a loving sentiment - these are very complex behaviors.”

It is some expensive stuff, priced at about $150 an ounce, but Estée Lauder’s Re-Nutriv Ultimate Youth Creme contains “the Youth Molecule—Resveratrateâ„¢.” They describe this molecule as “a more potent, stable and time released form of Resveratrol, and was shown by in vitro testing to provide 6 times more protection from environmental damage, more than doubling the survival rate of skin cells.”

Research by Estée Lauder scientists working with scientists from a major university* has indicated that one of these “longevity genes”—SIRT1—helps to regulate the lifespan of our skin’s epidermal cells.

Inspired by these discoveries, Estée Lauder developed Ultimate Youth Creme to help prolong the youthful appearance of your skin.

Very interesting, but way too much for a cheap bastard like myself. Plus, I’m much more interested in being healthy than looking beautiful. I think I will just stick to the supplements for now. For those interested in learning more about resveratrol, here are previous posts I’ve written on the subject.

I’m too cheap to pay for water, but it may be worth it after reading this article:

Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.

If you haven’t been trading this recent awkward market very well, maybe you would do better by making yourself autistic:

Last night, in fact, a group German researchers announced they’d perfected the method for inducing autism. (They can also cure it.)

Some characteristics of autism that may help your trading: Ritualistic behavior, Compulsive behavior, and Restricted behavior. Some that may hurt your trading: Sameness, Stereotypy and Self-injury.
However, a small fraction of those with Autism show extraordinary skills and unusual abilities. If you can turn it off and on - like scientists say they now can - it may be worth trying just to see if you have some extraordinary trading skillz when you are autistic.
But do you know any autistic traders? Maybe it wouldn’t do any good.
Anyway this isn’t just another crazy idea - traders are now taking drugs to improve their trading. I think it will be even more common in the future.

I’ve posted before about how I think most traders will benefit from nootropics or “cosmetic neurology” (substances which are claimed to boost human cognitive abilities) in the very near future. This latimes article goes into some depth about it:

“There isn’t any question about it — they made me a much better player,” said Paul Phillips, 35, who credited the attention deficit drug Adderall and the narcolepsy pill Provigil with helping him earn more than $2.3 million as a poker player.

“Poker is the sort of game that a lot of people can play well sporadically, but tournaments are mostly won by people who can play close to their best at all times,” he said. “It requires significant mental effort to play in top form for 12 hours a day, five days in a row.”

Day traders: your competition is probably already eating this stuff now.

“You still have adrenaline flowing in your body, but you don’t feel that adrenaline rush so you’re not distracted by your own nervousness,” said Dr. Bernd F. Remler, a neurologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

On the chemistryworldblog, there is a post by a reader about resveratrol. It sounds almost identical to my experience:

…after two weeks the results were subtle but undeniable. He said that he had more energy during the day, was more alert throughout the day and was sleeping less but waking up more refreshed.

I still take the 500mg capsules every morning and have been doing so for months. Any other readers taking it? If so, I’m interested in your experience. Leave a comment or send me an email.