User:Aspro/sandbox

The Loop (harm reduction)

Template:Infobox company

The Loop is unique as being the only UK organization which provides free drug safety testing, harm reduction and welfare services at festivals, nightclubs, and other events.

Employing such techniques such fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy they can give immediate analysis of substances provided by event attendees. Whilst the small samples given over can not be returned for legal reasons, the analysis can identify substances that have been falsely sold and will pose considerable harm to those intending to take them. This reduces the chances of the the consumer becoming a medical emergency and possibly resulting in death.

The service also provides a quick and neutral consultation for event attendees who may want advice.

It has the support of the Royal Society for Public Health Let festival-goers and clubbers test their drugs to reduce harm

Loop follows the harm reduction work being done in the Netherlands and else were in Europe.Trimbos Institute

History

The Loop was established in 2013 as a not for profit Community Interest Company. The Director is currently Fiona Measham, Professor of Criminology at Durham University.

Onsite activities

The first ever onsite service was provided at the Secret Garden Party in Cambridgeshire. First ever festival to test users' drugs

Six UK music festivals are to allow drug testing including Reading and Leeds ]

See also

Transform

Trimbos Institute

External Links

Official website

https://www.trimbos.org/about-us/where-we-work/details1/?proj=80 Drugs Information and Monitoring System (DIMS) Trimbos Institute.

Why do they test drugs in the Netherlands and how does it work?

Jimmy Wales at Wikimania 2014 closing ceremony.

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Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience involving the search for creatures whose existence has not been proven due to lack of evidence. The animals cryptozoologists study are referred to as cryptids by cryptozoologists. This includes living examples of creatures that are otherwise considered extinct, such as non-avian dinosaurs; animals whose existence lacks physical evidence but which appear in folklore, such as Bigfoot and chupacabras; and wild animals dramatically outside their normal geographic ranges, such as phantom cats.

Ruins of a garum factory in Baelo Claudia in Spain.

Garum was a fermented fish sauce used as a condiment in the cuisines of ancient Greece, Rome, and Byzantium. Liquamen was a similar preparation, and at times the two were synonymous. Although it enjoyed its greatest popularity in the Roman world, the sauce was earlier used by the Greeks. The Romans thought the Latin word garum derived from the Greek garos, a fish from which it was supposed to have been originally made, but this fish-name is unattested in classical Greek. It is believed to have resembled the fermented anchovy sauce colatura di alici still produced today in Campania, Italy.

Manufacture

Garum factory in Portugal

Composition of garum

What is called liquamen is thus made: the intestines of fish are thrown into a vessel, and are salted; and small fish, especially atherinae, or small mullets, or maenae, or lycostomi, or any small fish, are all salted in the same manner; and they are seasoned in the sun, and frequently turned; and when they have been seasoned in the heat, the garum is thus taken from them. A small basket of close texture is laid in the vessel filled with the small fish already mentioned, and the garum will flow into the basket; and they take up what has been percolated through the basket, which is called liquamen; and the remainder of the feculence is made into allec.

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  – Geōponika: Agricultural pursuits, Vol. II, pp. 299-300; translated from the Greek by Thomas Owen; London 1806.

Garum

The best Garum is thought to have been prepared from the blood and eviscerate of the Mediterranean Mackerel. Being an oily fish it was, according to archeological evidence (and still is) considered best to snout them immediately they where hauled up and whilst still alive, to improve their keeping quality. This involves (in simple terms) cutting a vee shape notch in the snout (without immediately killing the fishes) so that they bleed out in a cask of sea water whilst still on board the fishing vessel. Afterwords, the fish are eviscerate and theses added to the blood in the cask. Extra salt was then added. It was important to keep the fish parts submerged, usually done with a wooden mesh on top and weighted down by stones. Any loss through evaporation would be made up by adding more liquid to ensure the fish parts did not get exposed to air which would have encouraged bacterial decomposition. The enzymes in the gut and muscle cells digest the solid matter through the process of autolysis. The resulting black past is the condiment Garum. This was normally served at the table. It is thought that unlike modern fish sauces (which which have a salt content of 25% by weight), the Romans used just 15%. This explains the shorter fermentation times recorded in ancient texts, as salt slows down the fermentation process. In practice the Romans would not have used percentages but more convenient fractions. One sextantis of salt by weight and the salt already in the fish and sea water in which it was fermented in would add up to just over 15%.

Liquamen

The liquor strained of from Garum vessels was referred to as Liquamen. Liquamen and garum are fewquently confused as being the same product but this can be traced back to just one source. A book which is a collection of recipes and translation has suffered. Liquamen was only used in the kitchens as a flavorant, much as modern fish sources are used to day.

Another way of producing liquamen was to ferment 'whole' fishes, often of the more common fish such as anchovies, herrings, sardines and sprats etc. Calamari, shellfish and other sea food could also be used. Intestines of other fishes (containing the digestive enzymes) where often added to these pots to speed up the process of autolisis. The strained of liquor was also called Liquamen and used in cooking.

Alec

This was the paste from the bottom of the fermentation pot from lesser quality seafood. Archaeological evidence suggests that this was transported with the bones of the fishes still in the amphorae. It may be that the constant agitation during the sea voyage improved the quality. The bones were then removed. Any liquor strained off could also be called Liquamen.

Muria

In order to get the most out of the fermentation process, fresh brine was often added at various stages.The final stage yielded a low quality brine that was evaporated down to salt crystals and called Muria.

refer back to:Template:Cite book

Veriations

Many souces are made from seafoodrecipes used autolysis o

fish through the process of autolysis. Fishermen would lay out their catch according to the type and part of the fish, allowing makers to pick the exact ingredients they wanted. The fish parts were then macerated in salt, and cured in the sun for one to three months. The mixture fermented and liquified in the dry warmth, with the salt inhibiting the common agents of decay. Garum was the clear liquid that formed on the top, drawn off by means of a fine strainer inserted into the fermenting vessel. The sediment or sludge that remained was allec. Concentrated decoctions of aromatic herbs might be added. Flavors would vary according to the locale, with ingredients sometimes from in-house gardens.

The end product was very nutritious, retaining a high amount of protein and amino acids, along with a good deal of minerals and B vitamins.

Economic role

Garum jugs from Pompeii

The manufacture and export of garum was an element of the prosperity of coastal Greek emporia from the Ligurian coast of Gaul to the coast of Hispania Baetica, and perhaps an impetus for Roman penetration of these coastal regions. Amphorae recovered from shipwreck sites off Ansérune and Agde bear the traces of the garum they contained and date as early as the 5th century BC. In the ruins of Pompeii, jars were even found containg kosher garum, suggesting an equal popularity among Roman Jews.

Each port had its own traditional recipe, but by the time of Augustus, Romans considered the best to be garum from Cartagena and Gades in Baetica. This product was called garum sociorum, "garum of the allies". The ruins of a garum factory remain at the Baetian site of Baelo Claudia (in present-day Tarifa) and Carteia (San Roque). Garum was a major export product from Hispania to Rome, and gained the towns a certain amount of prestige. The garum of Lusitania (in present-day Portugal) was also highly prized in Rome, and was shipped directly from the harbour of Lacobriga (Lagos). A former Roman garum factory can be visited in the Baixa area of central Lisbon. Fossae Marianae in southern Gaul, located on the southern tip of present-day France, served as a distribution hub for Western Europe, including Gaul, Germania, and Roman Britain.

Umbricius Scaurus' production of garum was key to the economy of Pompeii. The factories where garum was produced in Pompeii have not been uncovered, perhaps indicating that they lay outside the walls of the city. The production of garum created such unpleasant smells that factories were generally relegated to the outskirts of cities. In 2008, archaeologists used the residue from garum found in containers in Pompeii to confirm the August date of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The garum had been made entirely of bogues, fish that congregate in the summer months.

Cuisine

Mosaic depicting a "Flower of Garum" jug with a titulus reading "from the workshop of [the garum importer Aulus Umbricius] Scaurus"

Like the modern fermented soy product soy sauce, fermented garum is rich in the natural amino acid monosodium glutamate, a source of umami flavoring. It was used along with murri to give an umami flavor to dishes.

Garum was produced in various grades consumed by all social classes. After the liquid garum was ladled off of the top of the mixture, the remains of the fish, called allec or alec, was used by the poorest classes to flavour their staple porridge or polenta. The finished product—the nobile garum of Martial's epigram—was apparently mild and subtle in flavor. The best garum fetched extraordinarily high prices, and salt could be substituted for a simpler dish. Garum appears in most of the recipes featured in the Roman cookbook Apicius.

In the 1st century AD, liquamen was a sauce distinct from garum, as indicated throughout the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum IV. By the 5th century or earlier, however, liquamen had come to refer to garum. The available evidence suggests that the sauce was typically made by crushing the innards of (fatty) pelagic fishes, particularly anchovies, but also sprats, sardines, mackerel or tuna, and then fermenting them in brine. In most surviving tituli picti inscribed on amphorae, where the fish ingredient is shown, the fish is mackerel.

When mixed with wine (oenogarum, a popular Byzantine sauce), vinegar, black pepper, or oil, garum enhances the flavor of a wide variety of dishes, including boiled veal and steamed mussels, even pear-and-honey soufflé. Diluted with water (hydrogarum) it was distributed to Roman legions. Pliny remarked that it could be diluted to the colour of honey wine and drunk.

Social aspects

The taste for garum had a social dimension that might be compared to an aversion to garlic in some modern Western societies, or to the adoption of fish sauce in Vietnamese cuisine (called nước mắm there). Seneca, holding the old-fashioned line against the expensive craze, cautioned against it, even though his family was from Baetian Corduba:

Do you not realize that garum sociorum, that expensive bloody mass of decayed fish, consumes the stomach with its salted putrefaction?

— Seneca, Epistle 95.

A surviving fragment of Plato Comicus speaks of "putrid garum". Martial congratulates a friend on keeping up amorous advances to a girl who had indulged in six helpings of it.

Garum was also employed as a medicine. It was thought to be one of the best cures for many ailments, including dog bites, dysentery, and ulcers, and to ease chronic diarrhea and treat constipation. Garum was even used as an ingredient in cosmetics and for removal of unwanted hair and freckles.

See also

• List of fish sauces
• Umami
• Murri (condiment)

Further reading

• Atik, S. "Marcus Gavius Apicius ve Garum" III-IV. Ulusal Arkeolojik Arastirmalar Sempozyumu, Anadolu / Anatolia Ek Dizi No. 2 / Suppl. Series No. 2, 15–25, Ankara, 2008.
• Butterworth, Alex and Ray Laurence. Pompeii: The Living City. New York, St. Martin's Press, 2005.
• Davidson, James N. (1997) Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens London: Harper Collins ISBN 9780002555913
• Downie D (2003) "A Roman Anchovy's Tale" Gastronomica - The Journal of Food and Culture, 3 (2).
• McCann, A.M. (1994). "The Roman Port of Cosa",(273 BC), Scientific American, Ancient Cities, pp. 92–99, by Anna Marguerite McCann. Covers: modifying harbor, for the garum industry, amphora factory, hydraulic concrete, of "Pozzolana mortar" and the five piers, of the Cosa harbor, the lighthouse on pier 5, diagrams, and photographs. Height of Port city: 100 BC. For: Garum Industry at port of Cosa, Italy, 273 BC.'
• Smith A.F. (1998) "From Garum to Ketchup. A Spicy Tale of Two Fish Sauces" Pages 299–306 in: Harlan Walker (Ed.) Food from the Waters, Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1997. ISBN 9780907325895.
• Grant, M. (2008) "Roman Cookery: Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens" pp. 26–29 Recipes for garum and vegetarian garum London: Serif ISBN 9781897959602

External links

• James Grout: Garum, part of the Encyclopædia Romana

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THIS ARTICLE NEEDS A COMPLETE REWRITE
Special:Randompage A prescription is is a health-care program implemented by a physician or other qualified practitioner in the form of instructions that govern the plan of care for an individual patient. A qualified practitioner might be a physician, Physician Assistant, dentist, nurse practitioner, pharmacist, psychologist, or other health care providers. Prescriptions may include orders to be performed by a patient, caretaker, nurse, pharmacist, physician, other therapist, or by automated equipment, such as an intravenous infusion pump. Formerly, prescriptions often included detailed instructions regarding compounding of medications but as medications have increasingly become pre-packaged manufactured products, the term "prescription" now usually refers to an order that a pharmacist dispense and that a patient take certain medications. Prescriptions have legal implications, as they may indicate that the prescriber takes responsibility for the clinical care of the patient and in particular for monitoring efficacy and safety. As medical practice has become increasingly complex, the scope of meaning of the term "prescription" has broadened to also include clinical assessments, laboratory tests, and imaging studies relevant to optimizing the safety or efficacy of medical treatment.

Format and definition

Prescription symbol U+211E ℞ PRESCRIPTION TAKE (℞)

Prescriptions may be entered into an electronic medical record system and transmitted electronically to a pharmacy. Alternatively, a prescription may be handwritten on preprinted prescription forms that are assembled into pads, or printed onto similar forms using a computer printer. In some cases, a prescription may be transmitted from the physician to the pharmacist verbally by telephone, although this practice may increase the risk of medical error. The content of a prescription includes the name and address of the prescribing provider and any other legal requirement such as a registration number (e.g. DEA Number in the United States). Unique for each prescription is the name of the patient. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the patient's name and address must also be recorded. Each prescription is dated and some jurisdictions may place a time limit on the prescription. In the past, prescriptions contained instructions for the pharmacist to use for compounding the pharmaceutical product but most prescriptions now specify pharmaceutical products that were manufactured and require little or no preparation by the pharmacist. Prescriptions also contain directions for the patient to follow when taking the drug. These directions are printed on the label of the pharmaceutical product.

℞ is a symbol meaning "prescription". It is sometimes transliterated as "R_x" or just "Rx". This symbol originated in medieval manuscripts as an abbreviation of the Late Latin verb recipe, the imperative form of recipere, "to take" or "take thus". Literally, the Latin word recipe means simply "Take...." and medieval prescriptions invariably began with the command to "take" certain materials and compound them in specified ways.

Folk theories about the origin of the symbol ℞ note its similarity to the Eye of Horus, or to the ancient symbol for Zeus or Jupiter, (♃), gods whose protection may have been sought in medical contexts.

The word "prescription", from "pre-" ("before") and "script" ("writing, written"), refers to the fact that the prescription is an order that must be written down before a compound drug can be prepared. Those within the industry will often call prescriptions simply "scripts".

The fact that a prescription instructs someone to "take" rather than "give" is not a trivial distinction, but makes clear it is directed at the patient, and is not directly an instruction to anyone else. In certain states medical marijuana legislation has been drafted calling for a health care professional's written or oral "recommendation", in the belief that a written one would be legally distinguishable from a prescription, but since written advice to a patient is what a prescription is, that belief is mistaken. Jurisdictions may adopt a statutory definition of "prescription" that applies as a term of art only to the operation of that statute (see below about prescriptions that may legally be filled with prescription-only items), but the general legal definition of the word is this broad one.

Contents

Many brand name drugs have cheaper generic drug substitutes that are therapeutically and biochemically equivalent. Prescriptions will also contain instructions on whether the prescriber will allow the pharmacist to substitute a generic version of the drug. This instruction is communicated in a number of ways.

In some jurisdictions, the preprinted prescription contains two signature lines: one line has "dispense as written" printed underneath; the other line has "substitution permitted" underneath. Some have a preprinted box "dispense as written" for the prescriber to check off (but this is easily checked off by anyone with access to the prescription). Other jurisdictions the protocol is for the prescriber to handwrite one of the following phrases: "dispense as written", "DAW", "brand necessary", "do not substitute", "no substitution", "medically necessary", "do not interchange". In other jurisdictions they may use completely different languages, never mind a different formula of words. In some jurisdictions, it may be a legal requirement to include the age of child on the prescription. For pediatric prescriptions some advise the inclusion of the age of the child if the patient is less than twelve and the age and months if less than five. (In general, including the age on the prescription is helpful.) Adding the weight of the child is also helpful.

Prescriptions often have a "label" box. When checked, the pharmacist is instructed to label the medication. When not checked, the patient only receives instructions for taking the medication and no information about the prescription itself.

Some prescribers further inform the patient and pharmacist by providing the indicator for the medication; i.e. what is being treated. This assists the pharmacist in checking for errors as many common medications can be used for multiple medical conditions.

Some prescriptions will specify whether and how many "repeats" or "refills" are allowed; that is whether the patient may obtain more of the same medication without getting a new prescription from the medical practitioner. Regulations may restrict some types of drugs from being refilled.

In group practices, the preprinted portion of the prescription may contain multiple prescribers' names. Prescribers typically circle themselves to indicate who is prescribing or there may be a checkbox next to their name.

Writing prescriptions

Who can write prescriptions (that may legally be filled with prescription-only items)

National or local (i.e. state or provincial) legislation governs who can write a prescription. In North America, physicians (either M.D. or D.O.) have the broadest prescriptive authority. All 50 states and the District of Columbia allow licensed certified Physician Assistants (PAs) prescription authority (with some limitations to controlled substances). All 50 states allow registered certified nurse practitioners and other advanced practice registered nurses (such as certified nurse-midwives) prescription power (with some states including limitations to controlled substances). Many other healthcare professions also have prescriptive authority related to their area of practice. Veterinarians, dentists, and podiatrists have prescribing power in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Clinical pharmacists are allowed to prescribe in some states through the use of a drug formulary or collaboration agreements. Florida Pharmacists can write prescriptions for a limited set of drugs. In all states, optometrists prescribe medications to treat certain eye diseases, and also issue spectacle and contact lens prescriptions for corrective eyewear. Several states have passed RxP legislation, allowing clinical psychologists (PhDs or PsyDs) who are registered as medical psychologists and have also undergone specialized training in script-writing to prescribe drugs to treat emotional and mental disorders. Physicians who practice chiropractic medicine may have the ability to write a prescription, depending on scope of practice laws in a jurisdiction.

Legibility

Prescriptions, when handwritten, are notorious for being often illegible. In the US, medical practitioners' sloppy handwriting kills more than 7,000 people annually, according to a July 2006 report from the National Academies of Science's Institute of Medicine (IOM). Historically, physicians used Latin words and abbreviations to convey the entire prescription to the pharmacist. Today, many of the abbreviations are still widely used and must be understood to interpret prescriptions. At other times, even though some of the individual letters are illegible, the position of the legible letters and length of the word is sufficient to distinguish the medication based on the knowledge of the pharmacist. When in doubt, pharmacists call the medical practitioner. Some jurisdictions have legislated legible prescriptions (e.g. Florida). Some have advocated the elimination of handwritten prescriptions altogether and computer printed prescriptions are becoming increasingly common in some places.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ herbalist prescription Veterinary physician

Nomenclature of Medical prescription forms by country.

By alphabetical order....

vet scipts can treat a group not just limited to individual named patients. [2]

TEXT: Medical prescriptions forms usually require the following: Patients name. Address of patient. The doctors name and signature. the doctors registration number Suuper XXXX ect

Help:Table/HTML and tables

Prescription form

Country	Name of form	Human	Vet
United Kingdom	Prescription	abbaa	xxx
Germany	Recipy	row2cell3

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Prescription	Reading	Translation
For off-the-shelf morphine tablets:
Rp. Sevredol tbl. 60x20 mg Exp. orig. No II (duas) D.S. For pain 4x1 by mouth	Recipe Sevredol tabulettae sexaginties milligrammae viginti Expeditiones originales numero duas Da Signa: For pain, one pill four times a day by mouth	Take Sevredol, sixty twenty-milligramme tablets Two packages Directions for use: For pain, one pill four times a day by mouth
Individually compounded medication
Rp. Pentobarbitali natrici 3 Morphiae sulphas 2 Chlorali hydrati 15 Saccharum ad 50 M.f.plv. Div. in doses aeq. No XXX (triginta) D.S. For sleep: one sachet to be taken at bedtime	Recipe Pentobarbitali natrici grammata tres Morphiae sulphas grammata duo Chlorali hydrati grammata quindecim Saccharum ad grammata quinquaginta Misce fiat pulvis Divide in doses aequales numero triginta Da Signa: For sleep: one sachet to be taken at bedtime	Take of pentobarbitone sodium, three grammes of sulphate of morphia, two grammes of hydrate of chloral, fifteen grammes of table sugar, enough to make fifty grammes Mix to make powder Divide into thirty equal doses Directions for use: For sleep: one sachet to be taken at bedtime

Help:Table/Manual tables

For off-the-shelf morphine tablets:			header 1	header 2	header 3
row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2	row 1, cell 3
row 2, cell 1	row 2, cell 2	row 2, cell 3

Prescription form reads	Reading on Continental Europe	Translation
For off-the-shelf morphine tablets
Name of the pateint	Address	Rp. Sevredol tbl. 60x20 mg Exp. orig. No II (duas) D.S. For pain 4x1 by mouth	Recipe Sevredol tabulettae sexaginties milligrammae viginti Expeditiones originales numero duas Da Signa: For pain, one pill four times a day by mouth	Take Sevredol, sixty twenty-milligramme tablets Two packages Directions for use: For pain, one pill four times a day by mouth
Individually compounded medication
Rp. Pentobarbitali natrici 3 Morphiae sulphas 2 Chlorali hydrati 15 Saccharum ad 50 M.f.plv. Div. in doses aeq. No XXX (triginta) D.S. For sleep: one sachet to be taken at bedtime	Recipe Pentobarbitali natrici grammata tres Morphiae sulphas grammata duo Chlorali hydrati grammata quindecim Saccharum ad grammata quinquaginta Misce fiat pulvis Divide in doses aequales numero triginta Da Signa: For sleep: one sachet to be taken at bedtime	Take of pentobarbitone sodium, three grammes of sulphate of morphia, two grammes of hydrate of chloral, fifteen grammes of table sugar, enough to make fifty grammes Mix to make powder Divide into thirty equal doses Directions for use: For sleep: one sachet to be taken at bedtime

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NOT NOTABLE

Weird Beard Brew Co.

Weird Beard Brew Co.

Type	Handcrafted Beer
Location	Boston Business Park, Trumpers Way, Hanwell, London W7 2QA, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′0.13″N 0°20′17.48″W
Opened	17th March 2013
Key people	Head Brewer: Gregg Irwin Brand Manager:Bryan Spooner
Website	http://weirdbeardbrewco.com/#

Logo is called Lup'in No Isinglass insted they use Protofloc made from sea weed or rather sea vegetables

The Weird Beard Brew Company is a small craft brewery in Hanwell, West London. It is now the only brewery in the whole of the London Borough of Ealing. In its first year of production it was voted 5th in Top Ten Brewers In the World. http://www.ratebeer.com/RateBeerBest/newbrewers_012014cc.asp

Apart from distributing beers all over the UK they also exported to Sweden and Italy.

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<!-- Please only add significant events to this time-line -->

John Sloane ^[a] John Sloane ^[b] John Sloane ^[c] John Sloane ^[d] John Sloane ^[e] John Sloane ^[f]

^[a]

Notes

First photo. ^{^} b. ^{^} c. ^{^} f. ^XXX

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A way forward RE: A possible way forward in promoting astrobioligy on the international stage. Dear Robert , There may be a way to to bring astrobioligy to the forefront. I'll explain this as a pons asinorum, so forgive me if it should at first read like ramblings. What if China announced that it was going to spend billions on searching for life on Mars in the full knowledge that it might not find any? Yet, considered it a worth while risk, for the scientific/economic benefits that 'China' could derive from such discoveries. At the start of 1957 the US tax payer was not interested in having their dollars spent on expensive rocketry... until Sputnik was put into obit by the USSR. Suddenly option changed over nite. They demanded that their politicians saw to it the US caught up with the USSR. By the time Uri Gagarin went into obit the US economy was over-heating. The best way to mitigate that is to increase taxation. However, every president knows this is politically unpopular. JFK saw a way to square the circle. Putting a man on the Moon was not going to cost the taxpayer anymore than their wife's where spending on lipstick and other cosmetics per year– at the same time cooling the economy. Framed that way it was politically acceptable, appealed to national pride and promised technological spin-offs to bolster US industry. Well, that was back in the 1960's and things have change manifold. What hasn't changed is the desire and aspirations of scientists. Whilst China may be politically communist society, yet its scientists follow the same credo as those in another part of the World.

Now, I come the crux of the matter... There are may more biologists than geologists! The weight of scientific need should reflect this.

Discovering fossil fuels and economical mineral deposits is important on Earth - But even if we discover gold on Mars it would be uneconomic to ship it back to earth. So (rhetorically) why is the main interest focused Geology? You don't have to answer that – we know.

Biologists and everybody else take it as read, that there is 'geology' on Mars, as it is a planet – so nothing new there. It is a surefire bet that NASA will get masses of geological data. However, some of the biggest leaps in human understanding come from exploring 'what if' hypothesis. Chines scientists being scientists understand this too. It is easy to imagine that in an age of international collaboration NASA and ESA (and Russia) could get left behind if we don't became first members of an international effort to find physical, hard evidence, of 'current' extraterrestrial life. How we reach out to the rest of the World-wide scientific community to create a new 'space race' I am not sure. Yet, I think it requires us to get Chinese biologists/astrobiologists working together with us focused on the same goal. You are a journalist and communicator and I am a Wikipedia editor. Perhaps together we could create a Wikipedia article: 'How to discover life on Mars' could be the first step. The article could point out that the current NASA/ESA plans are just play lip service to the needs of the astrobiology community. On Wikipedia we have to be careful not to allow it to be a soapbox to promote anything but it can present the facts as they are. Wikipedia, being international, the message may filter through to Chinese scientists that we need international support. Wikipedia gets widely read by scientists of all nationalities. It may serve as a small seed to start the next space race.

There. That is my two cents worth in a nutshell.