Synthetics

The website that hawks the "concentrated bath salts" warns in red letters: "Not for human consumption. " It cautions against using alcohol and prescription medications while "bathing," and adds, "PLEASE do not use this as SNUFF. " But the little packets of powder, with names like "Ivory Wave" and "Vanilla Sky," were never intended for the tub, and they're not among the fragrant samples in the bath and body shop at the local mall. The "bath salts," are powerful synthetic stimulants, designed to be comparable to cocaine or methamphetamine, and with similar risks, law enforcement and health officials say. But unlike cocaine or meth, the stimulants are legal in most of the United States, at least for now, selling for about $25 to $40 a packet online and in convenience stores and head shops.

The rain was unrelenting. All week long it swept in never-ending sheets across Arcadia and ? more important from the horsemen's standpoint ? across the city's fabled Santa Anita racetrack. It continued day after dismal day, quickly turning the Great Race Place into the Great Rain Place ahead of Sunday's opening of the track's 74th winter-spring meeting. It was remorseless, and more is on the way. Wednesday was the worst. That's when a pelting series of storms brought the recent rainfall total to a soggy 13 1/2 inches and raised doubts about whether the opening would take place as planned.

In the "True Blood" television series, sexy vampires quaff bottles of artificial blood that allow them to live alongside humans in polite society. In real life, people in distress need artificial blood, and scientists are working on several synthetic concoctions that could stand in for the crucial body fluid. Every year, 4.5 million Americans receive lifesaving transfusions, according to the New York Blood Center, and 1 in 3 people will need blood at some point in their lifetime.

Two Japanese and an American who developed a key synthetic technique for making complex organic molecules used in medicine, agriculture and electronics have been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Richard Heck, 79, emeritus professor at the University of Delaware, Ei-Ichi Negishi, 75, of Purdue University and Akira Suzuki, 80, a retired professor at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, will share the $1.5-million award for their creation of a family of reactions involving the metal palladium that allow chemists to link carbon atoms together more efficiently and with less waste.

An experimental synthetic cornea implanted in 10 patients may be a potential alternative to cadaver corneas for curing vision loss due to corneal inflammation and scarring, researchers said Wednesday. Eye surgeons currently use primarily cadaver corneas for transplants, but that requires the use of anti-rejection drugs and presents a risk of infection. Plastic corneas can also be used, but they present other problems and are generally tried only when tissue transplants have failed.

Synthetic nucleotides injected into monkeys can block the replication of Ebola and Marburg viruses, suggesting it eventually may be possible to protect humans against these deadly bioterrorism agents, researchers said Sunday. The monkeys get very sick, but most of them survive. The agents, called morpholino oligomers, are the first drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to go into clinical trials against the viruses — although those trials will, at least initially, be conducted in primates, not humans.

The California Horse Racing Board on Thursday rejected the Oak Tree Racing Assn.'s application to run its fall meeting at Santa Anita after the leaders of horse owner and trainer groups voiced concerns about the synthetic track surface, apparently clearing the way for Hollywood Park to host the Oak Tree meeting. Oak Tree is expected to present a new application to run its Sept. 29-Oct. 31 meeting at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, with a ruling by the board expected next week. Jack Liebau, president of Hollywood Park, said his track was eager to host the Oak Tree meeting, which has been held at Santa Anita since 1969.

The news Wednesday was that a dirt track racing surface will return to the major Southern California horse track. Several other issues remained unclear, mired in the politics and agendas of the sport. Frank Stronach, owner of Santa Anita's racetrack, told an audience of about 250 that he would install a dirt racing surface immediately after the Oak Tree meeting ends Oct. 31 at Santa Anita. He assured them it would be completed in time for the major thoroughbred meeting in Southern California that begins Dec. 26. "When Oak Tree ends, we will move right in," Stronach said.

The injury to defensive end Datone Jones refueled concerns about UCLA's synthetic turf at Spaulding Field. Jones suffered a broken right foot running on the turf during practice Tuesday and will have surgery Friday to insert a screw to hold together his fifth metatarsal. Coach Rick Neuheisel was optimistic that Jones could play again this season, though "the surgery is a 10- to 12-week deal," Neuheisel said. The injury occurred when Jones was "running, making a play on quarterback, and stepped in an awkward way and put a little pressure on that bone," Neuheisel said.

Because of renewed safety fears involving the synthetic surface at Santa Anita Race Track, the upcoming Oak Tree meeting could be moved to Hollywood Park. Santa Anita has been the home for Oak Tree since 1969, and this year's meet is scheduled to open Sept. 29. But last Friday, in a meeting involving Southern California trainers and owners, fears were raised that a recent aeration procedure on the track had punctured the mesh, or membrane, that is designed to hold base material such as rocks well below the surface.