This is high-tech stuff that involves not just drip irrigation and condensation-trapping greenhouses, but remote sensing by satellites which provide ET readings for areas of 30 by 30 metres.

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Mr Gunn, who receives zoledronic acid via intravenous drip, said it was wrong it was not generally prescribed to terminal prostate cancer patients.

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For example, if a patient's kidneys were not functioning or fluid was collecting in their lungs then to continue a saline drip might cause a more unpleasant death.

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While in labour his mother, Portia Kupahurasa, was given a drip containing Syntocrin, a drug used to induce and aid labour, but it was not needed.

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His lawyer confirmed the drip contained Neoton, a drug used in cardiac surgery to protect the heart, and was not on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances.

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"Not everyone can keep up with oral hydration so it is pretty routine to go to hospital and have a drip and wait for the thing to pass and keep yourself hydrated, " said Dr. Christopher Hawkey of the University of Nottingham's faculty of medicine and health sciences.

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