It's a helluva drug.

Researchers may have discovered the initial steps to helping cocaine abusers overcome their addiction.

A study conducted by scientists at UCSF and the National Institute of Health found that activating neurons in the brainʼs prefrontal cortex eliminated cocaine addition in lab rats.

The paper, published this week in the journal Nature, suggested that clinical trial in humans is not far away.

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Your new bed mate

Do thoughts of miniature helicopters hovering and peeking into your bedroom keep you up at night? Maybe you are worried about Uncle Sam seeing what you do when nobody is watching?

Well, so is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital civil liberties group that filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security hoping to find out who has access to the agency's unmanned Predator drones.

See also: Alameda County Sheriff Just Might Employ Unmanned Drones to Catch Criminals

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Today's college students overwhelmingly think that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden won their debates, according to a new app from the University of California at Davis that measures live student reaction.More »

Travis Isaacs

Internet shopping for e-cigarettes

Cell Phone users in the 21st century are just like cigarette smokers were in the 1950s -- addicted to the buzz.

But, like cigarettes, do cellphones really need "warning labels" alerting us to their potential health dangers? Well, that's exactly what San Francisco is trying to find out.

On Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hold oral arguments, during which proponents and opponents of San Francisco's cell phone ordinance will duke it out.

In June 2010, San Francisco became the first city in the U.S. that required retailers to post information about how much radiation cell phones emit. The San Francisco Department of the Environment was also forced to disclose possible health risks caused by cell phones, including the mobile devices' specific absorption rates (SAR).

As a result of this ordinance, the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry sued San Francisco last year in federal court on the grounds that the SAR label misled consumers and violated the industry's First Amendment rights. City officials agreed to shelve the original law in May, and enforcement of the ordinance is now on hold, pending appeal.

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luc legay

Lode Runner > Angry Birds

Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference kicked off today at the Moscone Center. Here's a brief rundown on some of the highlights from the first day that are sure to get your iHearts pumping.

• The next generation of Apple notebooks  New versions of the MacBook Air (starting at $1,199), and the MacBook Pro (starting at $2,199) were announced. Both are faster, lighter, and sleeker than their predecessors, and feature new Intel Ivy Bridge processors and Retina display screens. Also announced was a smaller, but less advanced, 11-inch MacBook Air.

• Mountain Lion The newest operating system for all Mac computers. Sleeker package, more Multitouch options, built-in Twitter integration, and Dictation -- Apple's newest speech-to-text technology. Will retail at $19.99.

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Courtesy of Greenpeace

How much material was wasted to make that costume?

Giant walking iPhones greeted Apple employees as they entered the company's headquarters in Cupertino this morning, where Greenpeace activists criticized Apple's iCloud for using "dirty power."

Demonstrators stood outside demanding employees and executives stop powering its iCloud using coal-fired power plants, and instead rely on renewable energy sources to operate the phone. The protest was part of a 24-hour action, which started with a laser projector at midnight, where protesters displayed Facebook and Twitter messages on Apple's front entrance. At 7:30 a.m. those same messages were broadcasted over a loudspeaker, operated by two activists who were locked inside a giant iPod outside the headquarters.

As far as we know, the giant iPod was removed by 10 a.m., after more than two hours of broadcasting outside the store. Two activists --- Brandy Palm, 29, and Elizabeth Donahue, 21 -- were hauled away in handcuffs, but no charges have been filed at this time, officials said.

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Joe Eskenazi

The lil' robot bore a striking resemblance to Johnny No. 5

As SF Weekly reported earlier, employees of the Bank of America at 33 New Montgomery found a small, yet off-putting, object in an old safety deposit box earlier today. They subsequently phoned police, who shut down one of San Francisco's major thoroughfares as the sandwich-sized object was recovered and disposed of at a remote location.

Police now say bank employees reported in the device to the cops as a "low-priority call" -- but when officers arrived, they decided this was a job requiring the bomb squad. No news yet on the identity of the object at the center of all this -- though it's safe to say it wasn't the normal safety deposit box fare.

It's also safe to say that, for a number of bemused gawkers, the joy of observing a cute, remote-controlled robot on tank treads was greater than the fear of possible death always present when police cordon off an area and roll in multiple bomb-disposal units.

But, hey, it was a really cute robot.

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codepinkphoenix via Flickr

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Solyndra, a Fremont-based solar module manufacturer, closed its doors this morning, filed for bankruptcy, and promptly laid off about 1,100 employees.

After only six years since its inception, the company faced steep challenges from cheaper Chinese flat-solar panels that saturated the market and shut down operations despite its $1 billion in private funds, and $535 million from the Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee program.

Those funds helped Solyndra expand its tube-shaped solar technology, which was touted alongside an easier and more cost-effective solar installation method. But silicon prices dropped, other competitors began making rival products, and investors who had bet on Solyndra's promise found themselves let down.

"Global economic and solar industry market conditions have forced the company to suspend its manufacturing operations," Solyndra said in a statement. "Solyndra could not achieve full-scale operations rapidly enough to compete in the near term with the resources of larger foreign manufacturers."

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susolarcar /flickr

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Barely three feet tall and plastered with shiny panels, Xenith looks more like a spaceship for miniature aliens than a car. But the tiny vehicle is the pride and joy of the Stanford Solar Car Project, and will carry the group 2,000 miles across the Australian outback from Darwin to Adelaide in their bid to win the 2011 World Solar Challenge. More »

​San Francisco's elected officials are worried that the radiation from cellphones will melt your brain. Our citizenry is certain that the radiation from PG&E Smart Meters will melt your brain. Our school board is terrified that irradiated meats will melt your children's brains. 

So the city's new policy of blasting all the tapwater with ultraviolet radiation will ... be fine! Just fine!

Actually, federal regulations now require cities to employ a second line of disinfection for their water systems. San Francisco already puts chloramine -- that's, essentially, chlorine and ammonia -- in its water. Now it's zapping it with UV radiation as well. UV systems have been used in Europe for years; along with our continental cousins' enjoyment of unpasteurized cheeses and offal meats, it's never been proven to do them a lick of harm.

Still, this is San Francisco. There's always someone worried his brain is going to be melted, right?

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