NEWS OF THE WEEK INTERNATIONAL
CHINA WINS CHEMISTRY OLYMPIAD Taiwan, South Korea, and the Russian Federation tie for second place
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China's team won gold medals at the 38th Inter national Chemistry Olympiad heldjury 2-11 in Gyeongsan, South Korea. In a three-way tie for sec ond place, Taiwan, the Russian Federation, and the host country
U.S. MEDALISTS Freddo (from left), Blaisse, Zozula, and Brockman earned one bronze and three silver medals.
each won three gold and one silver medal. Poland ranked fifth, earning two gold, one silver, and one bronze medal. China did not participate in last year's Olympiad but had won the three previous international competitions. Olympiad organizers awarded a total of 28 gold, 56 silver, and 81 bronze medals in Gyeongsan, which is south of Seoul. More than 250 students from 68 coun tries competed in theoretical and practical exams that each lasted five hours. Cheng-Yi Kao of Tai wan won an individual award for performance on the practical test, while Lichao Cai of China received recognition for excellence on the
P H A R M A C O L O G Y
PSILOCYBIN STUDIES TURN A NEW LEAF Scientists aim to set psychedelics research on a sound scientific footing psychedelics have powerful effects in many areas of the brain that are scribe as a watershed study that critically important for cognition could resurrect an arena of drug and awareness," notes Nichols, and behavioral research that has who synthesized the pure psilo been all but off-limits for decades, cybin used in the research. scientists have confirmed that psi locybin, the psychedelic agent in In t h e i r study, R o l a n d R. Psilocybe mushrooms, elicits mys Griffiths of Johns Hopkins Uni tical experiences in some people versity School of Medicine and and "bad trips" in others. his colleagues recruited 36 healthy men and women, ages 24 to 64. "The prospects for far-ranging None had taken hallucinogenic scientific advancement are excit drugs before. In a two-session pro ing," medicinal chemist David tocol designed to avoid suggestion E. Nichols of Purdue University effects, participants received psi writes in a commentary accom locybin and a nonhallucinogenic panying the study (Psychopharmacology, DOI: 10.1007/s00213- control compound in an order unknown to them. During each 006-0457-5). "We know that Ν WHAT SOME OBSERVERS DE-
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theoretical component. Hande Boyaci from Turkey earned the award for Best Female Student. U.S. team members Michael R. Blaisse, Gregory D. Brockman, and Andrew M. Freddo garnered silver medals, and Alexander B. Zozula earned a bronze. This year's team arrived home with the same collection of medals as last year's team. More than 10,000 U.S. high school students took local qualify ing exams. In June, 20 high scor ers participated in a study camp at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, where they received college-level training with an em phasis on organic chemistry. Four students and two alternates were selected to go to Korea. Blaisse and Freddo were alternates last year in Taiwan. Students also participated in several cultural tours and activities in South Korea. The next Chemis try Olympiad will be held in Russia at Moscow State University injury 2007—RACHEL PETKEWICH
session, a monitor was present to help participants manage any fear, anxiety, or other ill effects experi enced during the sessions. Eight participants rated their experience as negative, two of them indicating they would never want to repeat it. But 22 partici pants reported having mystical experiences, as assessed with a bat tery of questionnaires. Two-thirds of the participants rated their psi locybin experience as among the most meaningful of their lives. The abuse of hallucinogens, most notably LSD, in the 1960s and poorly designed and conduct ed studies at the time led to legal, societal, and logistical baggage that rendered research with psychedel ics costly and professionally risky. Praised for its design, controls, and rigor, the new work could spear head an era of scientifically sound research into the physiological, behavioral, and cognitive effects of psychedelic compounds, observers s a y — I VAN AM ΑΤ0
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