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Is Organic Overrated?Just a few short years ago, if you wanted to buy organic food, you had to make a special trip to an out-of-the-way grocery store. Today, organic products are, well, cropping up all over the place. Are they really worth the higher price or is it just another marketing maneuver?Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 9:00 pm Turmeric Extract Suppresses Fat Tissue Growth In Rodent ModelsCurcumin, the major polyphenol found in turmeric, appears to reduce weight gain in mice and suppress the growth of fat tissue in mice and cell models. Researchers studied mice fed high fat diets supplemented with curcumin and cell cultures incubated with curcumin.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 9:00 pm Triglycerides Implicated In Diabetes Nerve LossA common blood test for triglycerides may for the first time allow doctors to predict which patients with diabetes are more likely to develop the serious, common complication of neuropathy. A new study suggests that diabetes patients with neuropathy should control lipid counts as rigorously as they do glucose levels.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 9:00 pm Quick Test For Prostate CancerA new three-minute test could help in diagnosing prostate cancer, the most common cancer in men in the UK, according to scientists.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 9:00 pm Money Worries Make Women Spend MoreAt times of crisis women are more inclined to spend themselves out of misery than at stable times, a new survey suggests. Psychologists say that the recession could force more women to overspend or increase their risk of mental illness.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 9:00 pm Pea-sized Seahorse, Bacteria That Life In Hairspray, Caffeine-free Coffee Among Top 10 New Species Of 2008Biologists have announced the top 10 new species described in 2008. The list includes: pea-sized seahorse, caffeine-free coffee, bacteria that live in hairspray, tiny snake, very long insect, fossilized specimen of live-bearing vertebrate, snail whose shell twists around four axes, palm that flowers itself to death, ghost slug and deep blue damselfish.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 9:00 pm Alzheimer's Discovery Could Bring Early Diagnosis, Treatment CloserA discovery offers new hope for the early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Scientists report that the addition of a single phosphate to an amino acid in a key brain protein is a principal cause of Alzheimer's.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 3:00 pm Is Poisonous Pollen Enough To Put Bees Off Their Dinner?Chemical weapons against uninvited dinner guests: Scientists test whether the pollen of certain flowers contains toxins that give bees an upset stomach and protects the plant from the diligent pollen gatherers.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 3:00 pm New Contraceptive Device Is Designed To Prevent Sexual Transmission Of HIVResearchers have published results showing that a new contraceptive device may also effectively block the transmission of the HIV virus. Findings show that the device prevents infection by the HIV virus in laboratory testing.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 3:00 pm Surgery, Oral Devices Associated With Improvement In Sleep Breathing DisorderTreatment with surgery or an oral appliance that adjusts the jaw is associated with improvements in obstructive sleep apnea, a condition caused by blocked upper airways in which patients periodically stop breathing during sleep, according to two new reports.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 May 2009 | 3:00 pm GOP: Alternative energy alone won't meet US needs (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2009 | 12:08 pm Atlantis shuttle return to Earth delayed - again (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2009 | 12:01 pm Poor weather over Florida delays Atlantis landingCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Poor weather over Florida was delaying the landing of the space shuttle Atlantis on Saturday after its 12-day servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.Source: Reuters: Science News | 23 May 2009 | 11:59 am Storms prevent shuttle from landing in Fla. (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2009 | 11:39 am Japan pledges $528m climate aid to Pacific Islands (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2009 | 10:56 am The Nation's Weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2009 | 8:49 am Atlantis Astronauts Hope to Land Saturday (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Atlantis astronauts are waiting for the weather to clear over Florida so they can try to land on Saturday after thunderstorms forced them to stay in space an extra day.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 May 2009 | 12:50 am Tiny seahorse among new speciesA pea-sized seahorse, caffeine-free coffee plant, and bacteria that live in hairspray were among the top 10 new species of 2008 announced by scientiststoday. All were unknown to science until experts described them for the first time last year. Other oddities on the list include a tiny snake measuring just four inches, a 22in-long stick insect from Malaysia, and a snail whose shell twists in four directions. A palm that flowers itself to death, a deep blue damselfish, and a 380m-year old fossil fish believe to be the oldest known live-bearing vertebrate complete the list. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 May 2009 | 11:05 pm Let's go ... star-trekkingIsland PlanetariumIsle of Wight National Space CentreLeicester The Royal Observatory, GreenwichLondon In-tech Science Centre & PlanetariumWinchester guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 May 2009 | 11:01 pm US moving closer to swine flu vaccine (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 May 2009 | 10:15 pm The murky world of fossil collectingThis week, a 47m-year-old primate hailed as a missing link was unveiled, but it took an astonishing fee to bring it to light Rumour had it there was something special in the hands of a private fossil collector who lived in the countryside on the outskirts of Frankfurt. Jonathan Blair, a photographer working for National Geographic magazine, got in a car with his contact and drove out to take a look. Once inside, they were ushered into the living room. There on the wall was a beautifully preserved, nearly complete fossil of an ancient lemur-like primate. It was almost certainly the same fossil that was unveiled to the world this week as Ida, a supposed "missing link" in the evolutionary tree. It is 10 years since Blair saw the fossil and was told not to take pictures of it. The remarkable specimen came to light only after the collector enlisted the help of a private dealer, Thomas Perner. He brokered a $1m (£629,000) deal for the 47m-year-old primate with a paleontologist from Oslo's Natural History Museum in a vodka bar in Hamburg. The identity of the collector remains a well-guarded secret. "I tried to photograph it, but the guy, a dentist I think, said no. It would have been a real headliner. We were trying to get the scoop, but we didn't manage it. It was all off the record," Blair told the Guardian from his office in New York. Scientists have yet to reach a consensus on the importance of Ida to our evolutionary history, but she has already shed light on the murky world of fossil dealing. This is an international business, where middlemen, who often work with unnamed buyers and sellers, negotiate staggering sums of money for fossils that are sometimes of uncertain provenance and legality. While academics spend years unearthing and characterising fossils to further our knowledge of life's history, there are private fossil hunters driving around with picks and shovels, intent on grabbing what they can to sell to the highest bidder. In most countries, if you find a fossil on your own land it is yours to keep, but any others belong to the state. The law works, but only up to a point. Private fossil hunters have been known to offer landowners derisory sums for fossils, before selling them on at vast profit. Prime specimens, like Ida, can be kept secret and go unstudied for decades. Often, fossils split in two during excavation and each part is sold to a different collector. And when it comes to policing government land, there is simply too much of it to keep an eye on. "There are people who get caught collecting on federal land, but elsewhere it is worse. In China, a lot of specimens are collected and basically smuggled out of the country to be sold," said John "Jack" Horner, a world-renowned paleontologist at the Museum of the Rockies in Montana. It's not just private hunters who fall foul of the law. Earlier this year, a leading palaeontologist, Nate Murphy, pleaded guilty to stealing a raptor fossil worth up to $400,000 from federal land in the US. In academia, there are mixed feelings about private collectors. Some argue that they stifle scientific research, because journals won't publish details of fossils held in private collections. But others concede that many collectors are legitimate and passionate about their fossils. Without them, some specimens would undoubtedly still be lodged in the ground. "It is certainly a problem and some very shady deals go on. Commercial collectors sell fossils to anyone, and if private collectors buy them, then no one else knows about them," says Horner. "There are probably some fantastic specimens in private hands, and the owners themselves won't even know it. I would be willing to bet there are archaeoptryx in private collections somewhere out there." Archaeopteryx is one of the most striking fossils on record. The creature lived about 150m years ago and is regarded as a true missing link between dinosaurs and modern birds. Among fossil collectors, the specimens from the Messel pit near Darmstadt where Ida was unearthed are particularly desirable. Many are extraordinarily well-preserved thanks to the unique conditions of the oil shale in the pit. Blair speaks of the specimens as objects of the rarest beauty. "The Messel stuff is gorgeous. In some cases, you can almost feel the animal crawling up a tree or running along the ground," he says. The pit has proved an ancient treasure trove of exquisite pygmy horses, anteaters, tapirs, birds and bats. Some have price tags of more than $200,000. To enthusiasts, this is not like having a private art collection. The fossils are more prestigious than that. Of all the ancient remains that have made it on to the open market, one had more impact on prices and fossil fakery than any other. In the 1990s, fossil dealers were pitted against academics over the stunning remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex that was dug out of a cliff in South Dakota. Named Sue after its discoverer, Susan Hendrickson, the 65m-year-old fossil sold at auction for more than $8m. "As soon as that happened, a whole bunch of people thought well, if I have a dinosaur, maybe it'll be worth millions as well," says Horner. The high prices that fossils can fetch have encouraged a booming industry in fakes, many of which have originated in China. One, known as Archaeoraptor, was covered in National Geographic in 1999 as a missing link between birds and dinosaurs. It was later confirmed to be a fake, cobbled together by gluing a dinosaur's tail on to a bird. It was duly renamed Piltdown Turkey, a reference to the most famous paleontological hoax in human history. When Blair saw the recent unveiling of Ida, he hoped the phone would ring and he would finally be on his way to photograph the fossil. "I don't know why someone would want it in the house. It's worth money, and someone is going to come and take it. The last time I saw it, it was hanging on that wall. That was long before they decided to call it Ida," he says. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 May 2009 | 9:30 pm Genes of new flu virus show it's not so newWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most complete analysis yet of the new H1N1 swine flu virus shows it must have been circulating undetected for years, most likely in pigs, researchers said on Friday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 May 2009 | 8:30 pm Genes of new flu virus show it's not so new (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 May 2009 | 8:30 pm Forestry officials on urgent mission: Beetles (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 May 2009 | 8:26 pm Race Fans Are Riskier DriversBeing a race fan makes you more likely to speed.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 8:17 pm Top 10 New SpeciesEach year the IISE announces a list of the Top 10 New Species for the preceding calendar year.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 8:03 pm Pea-Sized Seahorse Makes 'Top 10 Species' List (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - A pea-sized seahorse, caffeine-free coffee and bacteria that live in hairspray are among the "top 10" species described in 2008, a group of scientists announced today.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 May 2009 | 7:22 pm Disease Hunters Add Swine Flu Genome to Arsenal
The genetic portrait of the novel swine flu strain that’s still spreading around the globe has been completed, but some mysteries remain. A huge international team of scientists sequenced the partial or full genomes of 51 samples of the virus from the United States and Mexico. While many genetic clues about the new H1N1 strain have trickled out, a new paper assembles the best working knowledge of the flu’s origins. As reported by Wired Science, the new virus combines genes from two swine flu viruses that first emerged in 1998. It’s still unclear how the disease made the jump into humans — either directly from pigs or through an intermediate host — and the molecular basis for how it spreads. “Many of the molecular markers predicted to be associated with adaptation to a human host or to the generation of a pandemic virus, such as in 1918 H1N1 or highly pathogenic H5N1, have not been identified in the 2009 H1N1 viruses characterized here,” the researchers write in Science. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 100,000 people in the United States have now contracted swine flu. The good news is the disease is not highly virulent. It’s only caused 300 hospitalizations and fewer than 10 deaths. It also turns out that it might be easier to come up with a vaccine for swine flu, because it’s genetically homogenous, unlike the motley crew of seasonal flus. But in a press conference Friday, CDC officials warned that now that the flu is in humans, it could mutate faster than it had in swine, like standard human seasonal flu does. “We do expect that now that these viruses have been introduced into humans that they’ll evolve at the same rate that other seasonal influenza viruses mutate,” said Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza division at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. That could mean trouble later this year, if the virus re-emerges in a more virulent form during the standard winter flu season. Anne Schuchat of the Science and Public Health Program at the CDC also called for increased swine-disease surveillance and smart husbandry practices to reduce the chance that the disease will jump again into humans. “There are controls like good agricultural and good farming practices that can lead to recognition when there are ill animals and ways of taking care of the animals that reduce the chance that viruses will resist or swap around,” she said. Both statements seemed directed at large-scale pig farms, which as Bob Martin, former executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Animal Farm Production, told Wired.com “are super-incubators for viruses.” They’ve come under criticism since the emergence of swine flu for pushing pig viruses onto “an evolutionary fast track.” See Also:
Image: CDC WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal’s Twitter, Google Reader feed, and book site for The History of Our Future; Wired Science on Facebook.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 May 2009 | 7:15 pm Pea-Sized Seahorse Makes 'Top 10 Species' ListA pea-sized seahorse and bacteria that live in hairspray are among the top 10 species described in 2008, a group says.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 6:56 pm Meerkats Don’t Spoil Their Mind-Numbingly Cute Babies
Meerkat babies may be the most adorable creatures in southern Africa, but their colony mates manage to stop spoiling them after only a few months. As the wobbly little critters age, their begging loses its clout. For a meerkat pup’s first 100 days, it has the rest of the colony wrapped around its fuzzy little tail. It follows adults around throughout the day, belting out squeaky begging calls for the entire colony to hear. The adults bend to the pup’s will, sacrificing their own meals to give it meaty sustenance. But by a few months of age, meerkat pups stop begging and become nutritionally independent, acquiring their food exclusively by foraging for themselves. Zoologists at the University of Cambridge wanted to understand why a young meerkat would stop using its charm to get free food and begin working for its own food. Joah Madden and his colleagues studied groups of wild meerkats in the Kalahari Desert, and found that as the pups aged into juveniles their voices changed: Pup begging calls peaked at an average of 1231 Hz, whereas the juveniles peaked at a deeper 953 Hz. This change in pitch might make their begs less persuasive, eliciting less food and leaving the juveniles no option but to forage on their own. To explore this option, Madden followed adult meerkats around with a loudspeaker that played younger baby meerkat begs. He found the adults started offering their own food, even to older juveniles. And the juveniles — which had been past their begging prime — eagerly ran over to grab the free meals, ceasing their own foraging. The results appeared May 17 in Animal Behaviour. A meerkat’s inevitably maturing voice may be crucial for its colony’s survival. A pup may prefer to get free food rather than work, but the colony would go hungry if this continued for too long. If adults only respond to an uncheatable signal, each animal will eventually feed itself, in spite of its cuteness. Images: Flickr/TravelJunkieoz (top), Tambako the Jaguar Citation: Joah R. Madden, Hans-Joerg P. Kunc, Sinead English, Tim H. Clutton-Brock, Why do meerkat pups stop begging?, Animal Behaviour (2009), doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.03.011 See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 May 2009 | 6:41 pm Cancer expert accused over honorary professorship claimKarol Sikora, one of the UK's most-quoted cancer experts and arch-critic of NHS cancer care, is being accused of misleading the public by claiming he has an honorary professorship at a prestigious university. Imperial College London is seeking legal advice on ways to prevent Sikora from using any title suggesting he has a position or formal association with it. Complaints from the college are understood to go back five years, but matters have come to a head over his participation in a recent advert on US television which opposed President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms. The advert paints a picture of the NHS as a monolith which fails patients by denying them life-extending drugs. "I can confirm that Karol Sikora is not on the staff at Imperial and does not hold the title of honorary professor of oncology," the rector of the college, Prof Sir Roy Anderson, said. "This individual has been warned before by the college for making claims that he is employed by us, or associated with us. His views are very certainly not the views of the college." Sikora is dean of the school of medicine at the UK's only private university, Buckingham, and founder of Cancer Partners UK, an organisation offering private treatment facilities and capacity to the NHS.Although the US advert did not state a link to Imperial, at the end of piece written by Sikora on the day it was first aired, 12 May, for UnionLeader.com, he was described as professor of cancer medicine at Imperial College school of medicine, London. In the article, Sikora criticised the scrutiny of drugs in the UK by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which Obama's reforms may introduce into the US. Sikora wrote: "The real cost of this penny-pinching is premature death for thousands of patients – and higher overall health costs than if they had been treated properly." Sikora was director of cancer services at Hammersmith hospital in the early 1990s, and ran the cancer programme of the WHO from 1997 to 1998. He said his past involvement with Hammersmith hospital meant he was now running a weekly clinic there to follow up on old patients and sometimes treat new NHS referrals. He acknowledged that this was his only link with the NHS. Hammersmith hospital is now part of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust. "I'm very careful not to involve either my NHS contract with Hammersmith or Imperial in anything that's political," he said. "I'm a consultant at Hammersmith hospital, nobody would dispute that. It's true I can't call myself professor of cancer medicine at Imperial, but I can at Buckingham. The trouble is when I get quoted somewhere, they just use the old stuff." However, on 29 January, Sikora gave evidence to the Commons health select committee. Introducing himself, he said: "I am Karol Sikora, professor of oncology at Imperial College for 22 years." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 May 2009 | 5:41 pm Tasmanian Devils To Be Listed as 'Endangered'The Australian government has decided to list Tasmanian devils as endangered.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 5:34 pm Swine Flu Genes Circulated for a DecadePigs may have hosted genes included in the new swine flu for a decade or more.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 May 2009 | 5:30 pm New Cancer Tests Could Go Over the CounterNew over-the-counter cancer tests could help patients spot disease sooner.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 May 2009 | 4:40 pm SLIDE SHOW: The Week's Top StoriesBrowse through images from this week's Discovery News stories.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 May 2009 | 4:40 pm Russia 'to save its ISS modules'Russia plans to detach and fly away its parts of the space station when the time comes to scrap the rest of the outpost.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 May 2009 | 4:34 pm Gallery of Fantastic FossilsThe ancient past is revealed by the study of fossils, from bugs and fish to human ancestors.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 3:45 pm Yosemite's giant trees disappearThe oldest trees within California's Yosemite National Park are disappearing, and climate change appears to be a cause.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 May 2009 | 3:25 pm A new name for Ida?The fossilised form of a lemur-like creature was unveiled to great fanfare this week, but experts now say its Latin name is invalid If you thought media coverage of Ida, the 47m-year-old primate, was about to die down, then don't hold your breath. The scientists behind the discovery named the new species Darwinius masillae, in honour of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. But it seems they may have been too hasty. The species name is not valid thanks to a fabulous clash between the bureaucratic world of taxonomy and the newfangled phenomenon that is open source online publishing. According to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) – and let's face it, they should know – species names must be published in print before they are formally allocated. The Ida paper was published in an online journal run by the Public Library of Science (PLoS). The commission is evidently in the process of hauling its regulations into the 21st century, but for now, the old rules stand. We can't leave the poor fossilised scrap with an uncertain scientific name, so I feel obliged to come up with an interim solution until the Latin name has been confirmed. How about Maximus iocus? Or should that be Iocus maximus? STOP PRESS: The managing editor of PLoS ONE tells us that the online publisher has found an ingenious way to comply with the ICZN regulations (see his comment below). According to a note posted online by PLoS late last night:
Anyone who wishes to receive one of these historic documents should send $10 to 185 Berry Street, Suite 3100, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. Hurry while stocks last! guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 May 2009 | 3:17 pm A spider's web can actually be too sticky, a study has foundA spider's web can actually be too sticky, a study has found.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 May 2009 | 3:15 pm Study: Consumers Are Using LessConsumers are spending less and paying more attention to their environmental impactSource: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 3:04 pm Ancient Termite Spilled Its Guts in AmberThe gut of an ancient termite preserved in amber reveals the earliest evidence of animals that depend on one another for their survival.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 2:48 pm Bye-Bye Blu-ray?A DVD with gold nanoparticles could store 300 movies.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 2:47 pm Man flu and tales of mice of menThe NHS website is helping to dispel the health myths behind the headlines Last week the papers were filled with more quirky, prejudice-affirming, untrue science news. Here is just one. "Man flu: it really does exist, girls," said the Daily Star. "Man flu is not a myth: female hormones give women stronger immune systems," said the Daily Mail. The Daily Telegraph palmed this fantastical assertion off on to "scientists", saying: "Men succumb to man flu because women have stronger immune systems, claim scientists." "Women 'fight off disease better'," said the BBC. Now, before we get to the details, here is a question: what if the media was no longer the public's key source of information on health? The NHS Choices website gets about 6 million unique visitors a month, with no publicity. There you will find Behind the Headlines (around 200,000 visitors), a service I played a tiny role in helping set up: they take the biggest health news stories each day, find the real scientific evidence behind them, and precis it, clearly, for a lay audience. What's amazing is that there is a need for this service. Here is what they said about man flu coverage: "The research this story is based on did not look at infection with flu viruses, and cannot prove whether 'man flu' exists or not. In addition, the study was in genetically engineered mice, so the results are not necessarily applicable to humans." It gets worse, as they explain. These mice were given the active human form of a gene called caspase-12, which can reduce the body's immune response to certain bacteria (not viruses, like flu). But most people don't even have a functioning version of this gene: only people of African descent do, generally, and only 20% of them, at that. These mice were then given the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. This causes a serious form of food poisoning called listeriosis, which again has nothing to do with flu. The man flu experiment, as the media described it, has so little to do with either flu or men that to continue with the details would be to miss the point. And this story wasn't a one-off. "Smarter girls have far better sex lives," said the Sun, the Mirror, and the Mail, who went on to claim that this new research on intelligence could also "lead to new ways of counselling the 40% of women who find it difficult or impossible to enjoy sex fully". BtH then explains: these weren't women with sexual problems, the study didn't look at ways to improve sexual problems, and it didn't measure intelligence, it measured something the researchers called "emotional intelligence", which makes this much less surprising. 'Sunshine can add years to your life," said the Daily Express. "Elderly need more 'sun vitamin'," said the BBC. "Sunshine 'can help you live longer by cutting risk of heart disease and diabetes'," said the Daily Telegraph. NHS Choices describes the actual research: it's a Chinese study, and it did not assess exposure to sunlight. It simply found that people with low vitamin D blood levels in an old-ish population also had a combination of conditions that would subsequently increase their risk of diabetes and heart disease. This could have many explanations: perhaps less sunlight (which makes vitamin D); perhaps poor diet (you can eat it, too); perhaps being fat causes low vitamin D and higher risk of heart disease; perhaps something you've not thought of yet caused this correlation. People are interested in finding out about this stuff, for their own health and interest, yet they are routinely fed nonsense by the media. When you mention the web, journalists pretend it's full of bloggers making stuff up. In reality, there are medical research charities, academics, universities' press releases, NHS Choices, etc. These organisations might want to think more confidently: with figures like 6 million visitors a month, they are now credible publishers, on a subject where information matters. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Evolution, genetics, medicine, physics & astronomy news | guardian.co.uk | 22 May 2009 | 2:12 pm Tasmanian Devils Listed as EndangeredA contagious cancer has wiped out most wild Tasmanian devils.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 May 2009 | 2:12 pm Storms Keeps Shuttle in Space an Extra DayThunderstorms in Florida prevent shuttle Atlantis from attempting a landing on Friday.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 May 2009 | 2:02 pm At Least 3 Endangered Whales Found Off Tip of GreenlandUnderwater microphones locate endangered whales in region where were thought extinct.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 1:28 pm Libraries, Food Banks Benefit from Transportation ModelingInstead of helping companies improve manufacturing, Karen Smilowitz uses her experience as an industrial engineer to help non-profits be more effective.Source: Livescience.com | 22 May 2009 | 1:25 pm Sweeteners Linger in GroundwaterArtificial sugars end up unchanged in surface waters, making them ideal markers.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 May 2009 | 1:22 pm World's Meanest Dog: The English Cocker Spaniel?The doe-eyed cocker spaniel may be the world's most aggressive breed.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 May 2009 | 1:00 pm New worries on Arctic permafrost thawOSLO (Reuters) - A rise in concentrations of a powerful greenhouse gas over the Arctic after a decade of stability is stirring worries about a possible thaw of vast stores trapped in permafrost, experts said.Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 May 2009 | 12:49 pm Bad weather delays shuttle returnNasa delays the return to Earth of space shuttle Atlantis until Saturday because of bad weather at the Florida landing site.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 May 2009 | 12:13 pm
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