Everyone Will Smoke These in the Future

A new way to get sick and annoy passersby

By M. Farbman Posted 04.13.2009 at 12:00 pm 6 Comments

An E-Cigarette Jakemaheu/Wikimedia

How's this for innovation?: electronic cigarettes. Little white tubes that look like the real thing have a nicotine solution that's heated by a battery, and the user exhales a water vapor that looks like smoke. The FDA isn't quite sure what to make of them, although the manufacturer is clear: "It is not a drug, if you will. This is an adult smoking experience."

Also in today's links: a battle over pork and science, scratching an itch with a phantom limb, and more.

Questions of race, sex and intelligence may be too toxic to touch -- for political and social reasons. But that may be just as well, as measures of intelligence and categories of race aren't nearly so clear-cut as they're usually made out to be.
A woman can use her phantom third arm to scratch real itches on her face, and brain scans indicate that the woman does indeed experience, and move, this limb.
Scientists aren't the only ones with the power to name newly identified phenomena. Some of the words we use frequently today in the context of research and technology -- like computer virus and worm -- come not from science, but from science fiction.
Pork smackdown! Professor number one writes a New York Times op-ed stating that free-range pigs pose a greater danger than factory-farmed pigs. Professor number two calls foul, stating that the op-ed misrepresents the findings of a study, which was sponsored by a not-unbiased source.

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6 Comments

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boka

04/14/09 at 3:14 pm

I hate smokers. But if they want to use these that's fine. I really despise what smokers do to them selves and the people around them.

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rickyg001

04/15/09 at 11:14 am

You HATE smokers, eh? I find it difficult to believe that there is no one in your life that smokes.... does that mean you HATE those people as well?

anyway... I seriously doubt this 'smoke' will catch on. Seems too gimmicky to me.

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muilenta

04/17/09 at 2:32 am

Hehe, they don't hate the smokers, just that their health is affected by a choice made by someone else. I think there will be a group of folks that will use these. If I could fill an addiction in a way that would be less harmful to those around me, I would be interested in giving it a shot at the very least.

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dragontooth6

from oklahoma city, oklahoma

04/19/09 at 12:19 pm

This is all true but the really interesting matter will be to see how the FDA handles a cigarette that more than likely causes no harm to other.

If this were marketablr would it affect how our kids look at cigarettes? would you really be able to tell them that only some kind of cigarettes are bad?

Or like most parents do anyways, just tell their kids that everything illegal or frowned upon is wrong and that they are wrong if they do it.

Hopefully the FDA can handle this legal and moral conundrum

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ecuapride92

04/21/09 at 9:24 am

i'm usin this for my Cannabis!!!

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limrick777

06/02/09 at 2:23 pm

my wife and i were smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day each!
2 months ago we dicovered the e-cigarettes and have been throughly satisfied with them, we were both immediately able
to stop smoking and start vaporing instead.i am under a dr. care and this has helped my oxygen level and my blood pressure.so my opinion is if you dont want to quit smoking
this technology is a viable option. and we are saving a fortune to boot.let your conscience and good sense be your guide