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Cause Brain Damage: Noise is another much neglected example of the nefarious effects of environmental pollution. Since steady, intense noise inflicts irreversible damage on the nervous system of the ear, American courts recognize its effect as an "occupational disease" and award compensation to workers whose hearing has been affected by exposure during work. In many cases, however, the level of city noise equals, and may exceed, that considered on the borderline of safety in industrial work. Recent laboratory investigations indicate that supposedly tolerable noise levels can cause brain damage ear damage in animals, and that sounds not sufficiently loud to awaken sleeping persons nevertheless affect their brain waves.
Among the most interesting developments in brain studies was a finding that corrected the long-held conviction that glucose was the only fuel the brain was capable of using. George Cahill studied brain metabolism in persons who fasted for more than 30 days as part of a weight reduction program. By sampling blood entering and leaving the head, he was able to show that during fasting the brain will readily metabolize fatty acids, the breakdown products from deposits of body fat. Careful intelligence tests before and after the fast failed to show any mental impairment during the period of fasting. Cahill said that in fact the subjects were at least as sharp after fasting, and maybe a bit sharper.
1. If new medical techniques can prolong a healthy life far beyond the present span, who will be selected to remain alive? Society, through law, probably will not leave it to the workings of the marketplace or the caprice of physicians. At the very least, it will try to prevent a black market in hearts and lungs. But if science manages to transplant a human brain, the law will be in serious trouble. Which individual will be considered legally "alive"—the one into whose functioning body the new brain has been deposited, or the one whose brain with all its memories has merely moved to a new home?
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