Microsoft and Resveratrol 

March 24, 2004

Microsoft
    There is an article today in the Economist entitled, "Can Microsoft Be Tamed?" The article suggests that the ruling by the European Commission today fining Microsoft $612 million dollars and requiring change in its behavior will have little effect. The article continues,
    "Microsoft will apply for an immediate injunction against the commission’s decision and will appeal. This process could take five years, a lifetime in the fast-moving world of computer software. And, in the meantime, Microsoft has its sights set on the Google search engine, just as in the past it has targeted Lotus’s spreadsheet, Netscape’s browser, Sun Microsystems’ servers and RealNetworks’ media player."
    It mentions the U. S. antitrust suit, filed by the Justice Department in 1997, that "led to a groundbreaking judgment, in 2000, that the only solution was a break-up of Microsoft into two companies: one making the Windows operating software, and one making the applications that run on it. That way, there would be no reason for the maker of Windows to favour products like Microsoft Office or the firm’s Internet Explorer browser at the expense of rivals’ products."
    This judgment was reversed in 2001by the Bush administration that cancelled the breakup. "And with the appeal process set to last for years, it is hard to see Microsoft being swayed from its usual strategy: bundle now, litigate later."
    Microsoft is said to have $52 billion in cash. What, in your opinion, could $52 billion do politically?

The Resveratrol Wars
    A few months ago, I reported here on "Longevinex", which claims to be the only company in the world that makes and sells resveratrol in a stable, biologically active form. On its website, Longevinex presents the results of tests performed on 12 companies' resveratrol products, of which only Longevinex' own sample is biologically active. Two other brands, RESX and OPCGSE, show minute, visible indications of activity, but they're miniscule compared to Longevinex'. I wondered what kind of response the other companies would make to Longevinex' chart.
    In the meantime, the Life Extension Foundation has announced that, after working for two years with a European company, it had developed, and was offering its members a resveratrol capsule. I wondered how that related to Longevinex' chart, since I didn't see comparable statements about sealing resveratrol under nitrogen in an air-impermeable capsule. I planned to write to the Life Extension Foundation and ask them about the situation, but I din't get around to it, and now, it's been overtaken by events.
The battle is joined
    Today, in my e-mail in-basket, I received an e-mail from Longevinex stating that someone by the name of "Mark Miller" had chosen to create a website called http://www.what-if-you-were-told-that-your-resveratrol-was-worthless.com/. This website is no longer available to the public, but I saved a copy of it before it was removed from public view. Longevinex provided an item-by-item rebuttal of the "Mark Miller" claims and asked if anyone knew his identity.
    Simultaneous with this came a second e-mail from Longevinex identifying "Mark Miller" as a representative of the Life Extension Foundation.
    A search on Google has revealed that there are scientific claims on both sides of this bioactivity debate. Dr. Leroy Creasy, Professor Emeritus in the department of horticulture at Cornell, began working with resveratrol in 1976.

"Resveratrol is available in pill form, but it is reported to be unstable because the resveratrol molecule is destroyed by contact with air. However, Creasy's tests show that resveratrol is preserved even in open wine, with only a 3 percent reduction after 17 days sitting open on a counter at about 70 degrees or refrigerated at about 35 degrees. He believes that resveratrol lasts longer in wine than in pill form because of the anti-oxidant properties in wine. However, wine will lose its resveratrol if it is exposed to light, so keep an opened bottle away from a window."

    On the Longevinex side of the argument, researchers have found that resveratrol is labile in the presence of oxygen.
A Resveratrol warning
    David Sinclair also warns of the dangers of too much resveratrol. There's still more to be learned about it. 
    Bill Sardi (Longevinex) observes that resveratrol clears the body within about an hour. I've wondered if, perhaps, a time-released version of resveratrol is necessary to realize its full beneficial effects. That's what would happen if you were nursing a bottle of wine over the course of several gemüchtlichkeit hours. Maybe so. Maybe not.
Perhaps this will clear the air.
    It's too bad that there has to be a clash like this, but the stability of resveratrol is a quantitative, scientific question and maybe the debate that will ensue from this will clear the air.