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Soundbites

“You can imagine eco groups who imagine the world would be better off without human beings.”

Martin Rees, president of the UK’s Royal Society, on the threat of cults allied to technology, and the need for scientists to work with mainsteam religious groups to tackle such extremism (The Guardian, London, 29 May)

“It is no better than selling organs – they are taking advantage of people in a desperate situation.”

Reiner Hofmann of the Dutch Transplant Foundation on the Big Donor Show, in which TV viewers vote which of three contestants on dialysis should receive a kidney from a woman with terminal cancer (The Sun, London, 29 May)

“We keep them alive in cages until the customer makes an order. Then we hammer them unconscious, cut their throats and drain the blood.”

A Guangdong chef on how to slaughter a pangolin, or scaly anteater. Pangolins were among 5000 critically endangered animals found on board an abandoned ship off the coast of China on 22 May (The Guardian, London, 26 May)

“Alarmist headlines and confident declarations help nobody.”

An editorial in The Lancet criticising the tone of a New England Journal of Medicine review paper that suggested the diabetes drug Avandia increased the risk of heart attacks (The Lancet, 23 May)

“This is the coldest water any human being will have swum in, and Lewis has been extraordinarily dedicated.”

Tim Noakes of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, on British adventurer Lewis Pugh’s proposed 1 kilometre, 1.8 °C swim at the North Pole to highlight the effects of global warming (Reuters, 28 May)

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