Detection of Pristine Gas Two Billion Years after the Big Bang

In the current cosmological model, only the three lightest elements were created in the first few minutes after the Big Bang; all other elements were produced later in stars. To date, however, heavy elements have been observed in all astrophysical environments. We report the detection of two gas clouds with no discernible elements heavier than hydrogen. These systems exhibit the lowest heavy-element abundance in the early universe and thus are potential fuel for the most metal poor halo stars. The detection of deuterium in one system at the level predicted by primordial nucleosynthesis provides a direct confirmation of the standard cosmological model. The composition of these clouds further implies that the transport of heavy elements from galaxies to their surroundings is highly inhomogeneous.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures, SOM included. To appear in Scienc

Homoeopathy

Homoeopathy is a system of treating patients using very low dose preparations according to the principle: "like should be cured with like". This paper summarises the research evidence presented in a recent issue of Effective Health Care on the effectiveness of homoeopathy. Increasing numbers of patients are seeking information on complementary medicines from NHS health professionals. Results of a 1998 survey of use and expenditure on complementary medicine in England suggested that 28% of respondents had either visited a complementary therapist or had purchased an over the counter herbal or homoeopathic remedy in the past year. From this survey it was estimated that there could be over 470 000 recent users of homoeopathic remedies in England