DUSSELDORF, Germany, November 10, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The registration figures for MEDICA 2010, World Forum for Medicine -International Trade Fair and Congress (Dusseldorf, 17th - 20th November) has led to optimism in the medical-technical sector. The number of participants who have signed up for the world's largest medical trade fair, which will take place next week, is significantly higher than last year's, at around 4,4000 exhibitors from over 60 nations and a booking increase of 2,000 square metres to a total of 116,000 square metres. 

The medical technology markets in North America and Europe have suffered from low demand in recent times.

Hurricane forecasts were way off again last year so if you're still wondering if a trained chimp 'can predict hurricanes better than NOAA'(1) a Nature Geoscience article has good news for you; forecasts can still be wrong 75% of the time but now can be wrong for years in advance too.

Michael White made a comment in response to a poorly explained point I made about behaviours in the original version of Twelve Misunderstandings of Evolution, but in his haste to present his own take on the issue he added this: “The reason tigers hunt alone and lions hunt in packs is genetic. Anyone who doubts that should propose what kind of environmental change would make tigers, as they are now genetically, hunt in packs.”

I think it’s safe to assume that most readers would find nothing to criticize in that statement. The influence of the gene-centric view of evolution and of life has been so overwhelming that statements of that type provoke no doubts at all; they are accepted as being totally uncontroversial. But the statement is wrong.

Several media outlets reported last week that Omega-3 fish oil supplements fail to show positive results for Alzheimer's patients, based on the study Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplementation and Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer Disease: A Randomized Trial in JAMA.

The researchers reported that supplementation with DHA compared with placebo did not slow cognitive and functional decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer disease.