Most US scientists do not believe in god!

LONDON : Most US scientists do not believe in a god. but 40 per cent do — the same percentage as did in 1916, researchers reported on Wednesday, says Reuter.

The findings show that better and more widespread education has not destroyed the need to believe, according to Edward Larson, a historian at the University of Georgia and a member of Seatie's Discovery Institute and co-author Larry Witham of Burtonsville. Mary Land.

In 1916. researcher James Leuba shocked the nation with his survey that found only 40 per cent of scientists believed in a supreme being. He predicted such ungodliness would spread as education improved.

To test that belief, we replicated Leuba's survey as exactly as possible." Larson and Witham wrote in a commentary for the science journal Nature.

"The result, about 40 per cent of scientists still believe I a personal god and an afterlife. In both surveys, roughly 45 per cent disbelieved and 15 per cent were doubters (agnostic)."

They surveyed 1.000 randomly chosen scientists listed in the reference book "American Men and Women of Science." a later version of the 1910 work Leuba used.

Then we asked whether they believed in a god who would answer prayers, whether they believed in human immortality and whether they wished for an afterlife of some sort.

Today, even more than in 1916. most scientists have no use for god or an afterlife." they found.

"But to the extent that both surveys are accurate readings, traditional western theism has not lost its place among US scientists, despite their intellectual preoccupation with material reality." they wrote. "Americans will doubtless be pleased to know that as many as 40 per cent of scientists agree with them about god and an afterlife." there were notable differences among the disciplines.

The 1996 survey showed that mathematicians are most inclined to believe in god (44.6 per cent).'' they wrote.

Scientists identify natural brain chemicals

NEW YORK: Scientists have identified natural bjain chepu-cals that act kk^rnorphine, possSMpfovidingafl&fd.tcTdeiel-oping new painkillers and therapies for drug abuse, reports AP.

Morphine and its chemical cousin heroin act by binding to specific sites in the brain called mu receptors. The new work found two brain chemicals that also bind to these sites, and that block pain in mice.

The work is reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature by scientists led by James Zadina of Tulane University and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New Orleans.

The researchers named the newfound substances endomor-phin-I and endomorphin-2.

Since the two newfound substances zero in on the mu receptor while ignoring other, similar receptors, they may have fewer side effects than morphine. Zadina said.

Current medical therapies for heroin addiction, like methadone, are aimed at the mu receptor. Zadina said. So the newfound substances may provide a lead to better ones, he said.