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By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 9, 2008; A01

A six-year-old article mistakenly seen by Bloomberg financial news users yesterday reported the bankruptcy of United Airlines and triggered a massive sell-off that nearly obliterated the company's stock in a matter of minutes.

The light-speed wipeout is a powerful reminder of how quickly bad information can spread via the Internet to a trigger-happy Wall Street that is willing to dump millions in stock before checking the facts.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program on Wednesday released a final report on the safety of bisphenol A (BPA) accusing the chemical for health and developmental problems.

BPA is a synthetic hormone that has been shown to leach out of a certain type of plastic when heated, endangering the health of consumers. Hard polycarbonate plastic is used in baby bottles, toddler cups, water bottles and other recipients.

Jerry Seinfeld's long-running sitcom is often described as a show about nothing. The same might be said of a baffling new Microsoft Corp. commercial featuring the comedian and Bill Gates -- not, as "Seinfeld" characters might say, that there's anything wrong with that.

The first highly anticipated commercial in an ambitious $300 million campaign to burnish Microsoft's Windows brand was mostly panned by early viewers. The TV spot -- which began airing during an NFL game on Thursday and was later seen hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube -- follows Messrs. Gates and Seinfeld around a shopping mall as the Microsoft chairman tries on shoes, but doesn't mention Windows once.

Pfizer Inc. is due to appear Monday before outside medical experts and Food and Drug Administration officials to make a case for allowing its Fablyn osteoporosis drug on the market. It will be the drug's third go-round, and approval is important for a pharmaceutical company that, like its rivals, is eager to fill its new-product pipeline.

In briefing documents posted ahead of the meeting, the FDA said patients taking Fablyn were at a lower risk of developing spine fractures compared to those on a placebo. The agency noted, however, there were more cases of deaths in patients who took the drug than a placebo. For its part, Pfizer said in briefing documents that the increased number of deaths "appears to be due to an unusually low mortality rate for the placebo group" during the study period.

By Candace Rondeaux and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 4, 2008; A01

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 3 -- Helicopters carried U.S. and Afghan commandos many miles into Pakistan on Wednesday to stage the first U.S. ground attack against a Taliban target inside the country, Pakistani officials said. At least 20 local people died in the raid, according to the officials.

Pakistan filed a formal protest with the U.S. government, which had no comment on what appeared to be a new escalation of U.S. pressure on Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan's mountainous border regions.

By Mike Musgrove
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 6, 2008; D01

After years of delays, the universe is set to begin this weekend -- and it's about time.

Tomorrow marks the U.S. launch date of Spore, an ambitious and long-awaited computer game that takes on the broad topics of life, the universe and everything. For publisher Electronic Arts, the unusual game is one of the biggest debuts of the year.

Scientists with the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center at the Johns Hopkins University have managed to draw a map of the genetic mutations involved in two of the most aggressive cancers: glioblastoma, the most common form of brain cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

Researchers found 12 pathways - a series of successive molecular changes in a cell - that were abnormal in most of the tumors. The findings offer a different perspective from the approach currently taken by most drug companies, suggesting that it may be more productive to target the specific pathways. The genomic analysis found an average of 63 genetic alterations in pancreatic cancer and 12 cellular pathways. The average brain tumor had 60 genetic alterations, researchers found.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN, is ready to step into the next phase of its biggest and most expensive experiment to date. Over the past few years the agency has spent more than $8 billion working on a 27-km long tunnel near Geneva, which is packed with today’s latest technology.

The Large Hadron Collider, as the Geneva machine is called, will recreate never before seen nature conditions by putting together subatomic particles called protons.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. federal regulators outlined their takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Sunday morning, including control of the firms by their regulator and a Treasury Department purchase of the firms' senior preferred stock.

The plan, outlined jointly by the Treasury Department and Federal Housing Finance Agency, also includes a plan for the Treasury to purchase mortgage-backed securities from the firms in the open market, and a lending facility through the Treasury from its general fund held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Next Wednesday, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, will be switching on the Large Hadron Collider, which is a particle accelerator that will send beams of protons around a 17-mile underground ring. The LHC, which cost $6 billion, is aimed at recreating Big Bang’s effects by crashing protons into each other. Thus, hopes are high that the Universe’s mysteries will be no harder to solve than a corny 100-piece puzzle.

Nevertheless, opponents to the LHC fear that the experiment will create a black hole, putting the Earth and all of its creatures at risk. Therefore, on August 26, Professor at the Eberhard Karis University of Tubingen Otto Rossler, filed a lawsuit against CERN. It was filed with the European Court of Human Rights, the German Chemist reasoning that, in case switching on the LHC produces a black hole, humans’ right to life will be violated. Last March, another lawsuit was filed by two American environmentalists who demanded that the United States pull the plug on its participation in the project.