Thank you for clearing that up for me! Nice to have some technical info on the matter. =) Like ogdenk said, we'll have to wait to see what the future holds for ray-tracing.

Bring Intel's Larabee into the equation and things get a whole-lot more uncomfortable for the Green-Team... Maybe the days of discreet graphics solutions are over, but expect Larabee to give nVidia a jolly good thrashing in the market before on-die becomes the status-quo. Ray-tracing, anyone?

Ah, you have raised an interesting point, Falcon - medicinal use of cannabis... I was talking specifically about people justifying their recreational use of the drug with quasi-scientific claims about improved memory. With regards to the medicinal use of cannabis as a pain-killer for people suffering from MS and other afflictions, for whom normal anaelgesics do not work: as long as the patients are advised of the potential long and short-term side-effects of the drug; the drug's distribution and use is properly controlled and regulated, I see no reason why it should not be made available on a prescription basis. My only fear is that some might find a way to abuse the system and gain access to the drug fraudulently.

"I could be just sitting at home with pee stains on my rug."

Moreover, the increase in potency of cannabis (due largely to intensive hydroponic growing methods, as well as selective breeding and interbreeding of various strains of cannabis) over the past few decades has lead to a marked increased incidence in the onset of psychosis in long-term users of the drug. I hardly think that a lifetime of suffering from psychosis, and the hideous side-effects of anti-psychotic drugs, is a worthwhile price to pay for a minor increase in long-term memory later in life, not to mention a piss-poor short-term memory in the meantime. If people knew the torture of living with schizophrenia then they wouldn't be so quick to jump on the "let's-all-smoke-cannabis-and-have-an-awesome-time" band-wagon. I've smoked weed too - it feels good, I know. Not good enough to be worth risking that...

Outside of the US, Tylenol is known as paracetamol; one of the metabolic intermediates of which is extremely toxic and since paracetamol is metabolised in the liver, it is there that it accumulates and has its toxic effect. The toxic dose of paracetamol varies among individuals because of the polymorphic nature of the genes for the enzymes involved and because of differing rates of metabolism of this toxic intermediate. That said, the fatal toxic dose for a given individual is fairly high compared to the 500-1000mg (4000mg max. daily) recommended dosage. It would be considerably lower for a developing foetus, however, I am unsure as to how much paracetamol would be able to cross the placental membrane into the foetus' bloodstream; or indeed if the foetus would be able to metabolise the paracetamol (and thus produce the toxic intermediate, NAPQI). Pregnant mothers should know better than to drink more than a small glass of wine, and certainly not in conjunction with any painkiller. Paracetamol is the lesser of many possible evils. I hope this clears matters up?

In fairness, aspirin is fairly hazardous for quite a few people because of, among other things, its blood thinning properties (e.g. bad for anyone on warfarin or other anti-coagulants); as well as for people with stomach ulcers, because of the irritation it can cause. There are so many other pain-killers available now, that are comparatively safe, that aspirin's use for its analgesic properties has all but died out in my country (UK). Like gad_zuki! said before me, lots of drugs are prohibited during pregnancy for myriad reasons. There are usually plenty of alternatives and the benefits seldom outweigh the risks for pregnant mothers.

*neighbouring carbon atoms.

I hate to be a pedant, especially in my first post, however, I feel that I must inform you that each of the carbon atoms in graphene (as in a single sheet of graphite) only form 3 covalent bonds with their neighbouring carbon atom. The fourth valency remains unbonded and the electron in question is delocalised across the system - giving graphene its conductive capaicity. I hope that this clears things up. This whole thing does sound exciting, though... Who know what the future holds for this technology?