Two stories about science and rock music made me smile this week.
Ozzy Osbourne, the 62 year old former lead singer of Black Sabbath, has had his full genome sequenced.
If life was fair, Ozzy would be dead.
Mr Osbourne has survived 40 years of every possible sort of substance abuse, not to mention quad bike accidents, chemically induced comas and biting the head of a bat live on stage.
The American researchers hope the analysis of his genome will help us understand to what extent we can credit his genes for this small miracle.
The report in this week’s Guardian newspaper (NOTE – in the music section, not the science pages!) reports that “Genetic analysis of Black Sabbath star reveals he is more likely to experience hallucinations on marijuana and has increased risk of alcohol and cocaine addiction, researchers say”.
More background information can be found here at the Times online. And fans of Ozzy may want to read this “Health Column” he wrote for the Sunday Times earlier this year….
The people at NASA must be feeling fairly sad as they prepare for the final Space Shuttle flight early next year. But despite this they have launched a Song Contest for the final Wake Up song. The Wake Up has been part of each mission since the early days, and in keeping with the spirit of invention and exploration, people are invited to compose an original song to accompany the final scheduled flight.
You have till January 10th 2011. Perhaps Ozzy will give it a shot…
//Esther Crooks
