In the first study examining American physicians' use of placebos in clinical practice in the 21st Century, 45 percent of Chicago internists report they have used a placebo at some time during their clinical practice researchers report in the January issue of Journal of General Internal Medicine.

This study indicates a need for greater recognition of the use of placebos and unproven therapies and discussion about its implications," say the study authors, Rachel Sherman, a fourth year medical student at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine, and John Hickner, MD, MSc, professor of family medicine, at the University of Chicago and University of Chicago Medical Center.

The authors sent questionnaires inquiring about placebo use to 466 internists at the University of Ch

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, January 3 /PRNewswire/ --

Mersana, a cancer therapeutics company, announced today the appointment of C. Boyd Clarke as Chairman of the Company's Board of Directors. Mr. Clarke is a senior biotechnology and pharmaceutical executive with a significant record of accomplishment over a 30-year industry career.

FREMONT, California, January 3 /PRNewswire/ --

- USB Drives Have Capacity to Hold Over 16 Full-Length High-Definition Movies or an Entire Season of a TV Series

Corsair(R) http://www.corsair.com, a worldwide leader in high performance computer and flash memory products, announced today that it is expanding its Flash Voyager and Flash Survivor USB family lines with new 32GB capacity offerings. The new Corsair 32GB Flash Voyager and Flash Survivor USB drives will be debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 (CES) next week in Las Vegas in the Corsair Suite at the Wynn Hotel and at Showstoppers CES 2008.

Ultimate Solution for Storing, Transporting & Backing-up Critical Data

BOSTON and CAMBRIDGE, England, January 3 /PRNewswire/ --

- ZigBee technology connects people with their homes via the Internet and mobile phones

AlertMe.com, provider of people-friendly home security, has teamed up with Ember to make it easy for people, wherever they may be, to keep a close eye on their homes by combining ZigBee wireless technology, the Internet and mobile phone networks.

As structures made of metal get smaller — as their dimensions approach the micrometer scale (millionths of a meter) or less — they get stronger. Scientists discovered this phenomenon 50 years ago while measuring the strength of tin "whiskers" a few micrometers in diameter and a few millimeters in length.

LONDON, January 3 /PRNewswire/ --

- Higher Paycheques, Flexible Work Arrangements, Candidate Screening Online Among Major Trends for 2008 -

CareerBuilder.co.uk, a leading job site in the UK, released the results of its annual job forecast, conducted by Harris Interactive(R), tracking projected hiring and job search activities for the upcoming quarter and 2008. The survey, titled "2008 UK Job Forecast" was conducted between November 14 and December 3, 2007 and included 281 hiring managers and human resource professionals and 507 workers.

CALGARY, Canada, January 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncolytics Biotech Inc. ("Oncolytics") (TSX:ONC, NASDAQ:ONCY) announced today that the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) has filed a protocol with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for patients with metastatic ovarian, peritoneal or fallopian tube cancers using concurrent systemic and intraperitoneal administration of REOLYSIN(R), Oncolytics' proprietary formulation of the human reovirus. The NCI is sponsoring the trial under its Clinical Trials Agreement with Oncolytics, while Oncolytics will provide clinical supplies of REOLYSIN(R).

LYON, France, January 3 /PRNewswire/ --

- Exclusive Agreement for Rabies Monoclonal Antibodies to Fight Fatal Disease

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, announced today that it has signed an exclusive collaboration and commercialization agreement with Crucell N.V. (Euronext, NASDAQ: CRXL) for Crucell's rabies monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), next-generation rabies biologicals to be used in association with rabies vaccine for post-exposure prophylaxis against this fatal disease.

BEVERLY HILLS, California, January 3 /PRNewswire/ --

Pop singer Alisa Apps shuns the idea of signing with major record label and decides to go her own way. Apps, who just launched her website and singing career 10 days ago, announced that she is not seeking to be signed with a major record label.

Her fantastically successful YouTube campaign started 10 days ago and has fans raving.

Alisa started with "Will somebody PLEASE sing Jingle Bells with me???" Within 2 days she had 90,000+ views.