Global Warming: Scientists' Best Predictions May Be Wrong

No one knows exactly how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study suggests scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

First Remote, Underwater Detection Of Harmful Algae, Toxins

Scientists have successfully conducted the first remote detection of a harmful algal species and its toxin below the ocean's surface.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

'Copernicium' Proposed As Name For Newly Discovered Element 112

In honor of scientist and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), the discovering team have suggested the name "copernicium" with the element symbol "Cp" for the new element 112.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

Was SIDS The Cause Of Infant Deaths Even 150 Years Ago?

Nineteenth century infant deaths attributed to smothering and overlaying, by either a co-sleeper or bedding, were in all likelihood crib deaths, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). These deaths would have been mislabeled by lawmakers as neglect and even infanticide, because SIDS had not yet been identified, according to new research.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

Childhood Cancer Risk Rises With Mother's Age

Research indicates that a baby born to an older mother may have a slightly increased risk for many of the cancers that occur during childhood.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

New Culprit Behind Obesity's Ill Metabolic Consequences

Obesity very often leads to insulin resistance, and now researchers have uncovered another factor behind that ill consequence. The newly discovered culprit is a protein, called PEDF for short, that is secreted by fat cells. They also report evidence to suggest that specifically blocking PEDF action may reverse some of the health complications that come with obesity.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

New Advance In Revolutionary 'Bullet Fingerprinting' Technique

Chemistry researchers have developed a simple but effective way of lifting fingerprints. The technique involves studying the chemical and physical interactions occurring between the metal and the fingerprint sweat deposit. Using advanced surface imaging techniques, such as an atomic force microscope, nanoscale observations of fingerprinted brass samples can identify optimum conditions to promote the natural enhancement of the fingerprint.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

New Map Hints At Venus's Wet, Volcanic Past

Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighboring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both a plate tectonics system and an ocean of water.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Condoms Associated With Moderate Protection Against Herpes Simplex Virus 2

Condom use is associated with a reduced risk of contracting herpes simplex virus 2, according to a report based on pooled analysis of data from previous studies.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

New Doubts About Fasting Leading To Longer Lives Based On Study In Flies

Many studies indicate that caloric restriction extends life spans in fruit flies, mice and, most recently, rhesus monkeys, apparently by slowing the aging process. But virtually all these studies have been performed in sterile environments, on animals raised under relatively pathogen-free conditions. So researchers decided to see if reduced caloric intake also helps creatures cope with infection.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

CORRECTED: Southern New Zealand shaken by large quake (Reuters)

Reuters - Corrects to remove reference to Richter scale in paragraphs 2, 7 and 8
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 11:49 am

Government maps low-carbon road

Ministers are publishing plans for a low-carbon future, which they say can help the economy while tackling climate change.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jul 2009 | 11:46 am

Tsunami alert after NZ earthquake

A strong earthquake has shaken New Zealand, generating a small tsunami and briefly putting the country on alert.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jul 2009 | 11:34 am

The Nation's weather (AP)

AP - The main weather event for Wednesday is expected to be a system over the Central U.S. that is expected to advance eastward and bring widespread showers and thunderstorms from the Mississippi Valley and Central Plains to the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 11:26 am

NASA set to attempt sixth Endeavour launch (AFP)

AFP - NASA was poised yet again to try to get the Endeavour space shuttle off the ground and into orbit Wednesday, after bad weather and technical trouble blighted five previous launch attempts.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 11:12 am

US, China announce clean energy research center (AP)

AP - The United States and China, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters, announced plans for a joint clean energy research center Wednesday as the American commerce secretary appealed to Beijing to avoid imposing trade barriers on green technology.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 11:10 am

Swithin's lore?

Does rain today really mean a summer wash-out?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jul 2009 | 10:50 am

Nigerian rebels halt offensive, seek peace talks (Reuters)

Reuters - Nigeria's most prominent militant group on Wednesday declared a 60-day ceasefire in its offensive against Africa's biggest oil industry to provide a chance for peace talks with the government.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 10:29 am

Fergus On Flu

What are the chances of dying from swine flu?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jul 2009 | 9:21 am

NASA set to try 6th launch attempt of shuttle (AP)

AP - NASA is hoping the weather finally cooperates for its sixth launch attempt for space shuttle Endeavour.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 9:10 am

6 men endure Mars flight simulation experiment (AP)

AP - Russian engineers broke a red wax seal and six men emerged from a metal hatch after 105 days of isolation in a mock spacecraft, still smiling after testing the stresses that space travelers may face on the journey to Mars.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 8:58 am

Gibbon sings 'door-slamming' tune

A female gibbon is seen enhancing her territorial song with a percussive door-slamming routine.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jul 2009 | 8:57 am

U.S. CPI seen up in June by most since July 2008 (Reuters)

Reuters - Higher costs for oil and gasoline likely pushed U.S. consumer prices up in June by the most for any single month since oil prices peaked last summer, according to a poll of economists.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 7:46 am

Heavy rain eases Mumbai's water woes (AFP)

AFP - Heavy monsoon rains have brought relief to India's financial and entertainment capital Mumbai, helping to ease a water shortage but causing flooding in many parts of the city and travel chaos.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 7:18 am

'Medical myth'

Psychiatric drugs 'don't change brain chemistry'
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Jul 2009 | 4:30 am

Is Compulsion to Amputate Healthy Limbs Mind or Matter?

One day, after years of agony, an Australian man took a large quantity of dry ice and intentionally damaged his left leg, so that a surgeon would have to amputate it.

The action was intentional and the man, Robert Vickers, described the feeling of waking up in the hospital without his leg as “absolute ecstasy.” He’s one of a small number of people who have what psychiatrists have come to call body integrity identity disorder in which patients report the desire to have one or more of their limbs amputated because the extremities don’t feel like they “belong” to their bodies.

The disorder is the subject of a debate between psychiatrists and neuroscientists about whether the brain physiology causes the psychiatric condition or whether the causality runs in the other direction. New research by both sides has yielded fresh ammunition for both interpretations, highlighting how difficult it is separate biological from psychological phenomenon.

Columbia University psychiatrist Michael First helped pioneer the identification of the disorder and his latest research suggests it’s just a subset of a larger psychiatric condition in which people become fixated on being disabled.

On the other hand, Paul McGeoch’s recent work at the University of California, San Diego seems to explain the disorder as a purely neurological disease resulting from a malfunctioning right parietal lobule, which appears to maintain the mind’s body map. His lab used fMRI to determine that four self-reported BIID patients’ right parietal lobules didn’t light up when their unwanted limbs were touched. Normal people’s did.

“Oh this is certainly a breakthrough. We were stunned by the results,” David Brang, a graduate student who coauthored a paper on the study with McGeoch, said recently on the Australian television show on which Vickers told his amazing story. “It’s very clear that this is a neurological phenomenon when it always been thought of as a psychological issue.”

First, though, disagrees. He’s in the midst of a new study about a small group of people who don’t want their limbs amputated, but do want to be disabled in some other way. Some of the 47 people First has interviewed want to be paraplegic, for example, and feel that their healthy bodies are mismatched with their internal representations of themselves.

The study is a follow-up to an similar set of psychiatric evaluations First did on people who wanted their limbs amputated. The new group turns out to have a lot of the same feelings and desires as people with BIID.

“The vast majority of people that I interviewed are very similar to the BIID group,” First said.

Both groups express a life-long desire to be disabled. They pretend to be disabled. They occasionally injure themselves in an attempt to reach that state, although First said only one person reported an attempt to make themselves paraplegic by injecting alcohol into the spine.

His findings could indicate there is a deeper psychiatric disorder underlying the neurophysiological observations from UCSD.

“It suggests that the common factor has to do with the desire to be disabled,” First said. “As children, we see disabled people all the time and for whatever reason. For certain children, they see people who are disabled and decide they want to be that way. The nature of the disability is variable, but the desire is common.”

First doesn’t rule out the importance of the fMRI study, but he disputes that they are the cause of the illness.

“You are seeing a brain manifestation of a psychiatric illness,” he said. “I find their work exciting, but I’m dismayed at how they came to their conclusion.”

One area where the neurological results could be helpful is to change the treatment regimen for BIID patients who want amputations to include remediation exercises to retrain the brain into readopting a limb as its own. How such a treatment could be accomplished for people who want to be paraplegic is unclear.

Via Mind Hacks.

See Also:

• Chem Lab: The Downside of Getting High on Nitrous Oxide
• How the Smell of Rotten Eggs Could Lead to a New Viagra
• Amputee Sprinter Denied Olympic Entry
• Measuring the Athletic (Dis)advantages of Artificial Limbs

Image: flickr/wackelijimrooster

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 | 15 Jul 2009 | 4:00 am

New Heavy Element Likely to Be Named for Copernicus (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - The newest - and heaviest - element on the periodic table could get tagged with the name "copernicium" in honor of the late astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Jul 2009 | 3:02 am

40 Years After Moon Landing: Why Can't We Cure Cancer?

Cancer is the top killer worldwide. But strides have been made.
Source: Livescience.com | 15 Jul 2009 | 2:29 am

Pot-Bellied Dinosaur Skeleton Found in Utah

Remains of a pot-bellied dinosaur shed light on evolution of paleo veggie diets.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jul 2009 | 11:59 pm

Giant Clawed Dinosaur Unearthed in Utah Desert

The giant new dinosaur offers fresh insights into the evolution of dinosaurs' eating habits.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Jul 2009 | 11:01 pm

Tagging technology to track trash

Thousands of pieces of rubbish are to be tracked using sophisticated mobile tags to help reduce household waste.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Jul 2009 | 10:42 pm

UK Public Health Program Encourages Masturbation

The British government has thought up a new way to stem that country's high teen pregnancy rate.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jul 2009 | 9:46 pm

Farmers 'key' to badger TB trial

The government lays out details of a badger vaccine trial for cattle TB, and says the attitude of farmers will be crucial.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Jul 2009 | 9:29 pm

Indian tiger park 'has no tigers'

One of India's main tiger parks admits it no longer has any tigers.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Jul 2009 | 8:42 pm

Anti-viral medicines: short-term solution, but no cure for swine flu

Can swine flu be treated?

Swine flu can be treated with the antiviral medicines oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). They need to be given within two days of the onset of symptoms to be most effective.

Can antiviral drugs cure swine flu?

No. Antivirals can reduce the virus spreading in the body, help the patient recover more quickly and reduce the risk of complications. They also reduce shedding of the virus by infected people so that its spread may be delayed. But they do not offer longer-term protection.

Will relatives or those in close contact with people diagnosed with swine flu be given antivirals to help them avoid the disease?

No. On 2 July, the government said that the disease could no longer be contained in the UK and that people in contact with those suffering from flu would not be given antiviral drugs. But it was recommended that people with swine flu should still stay at home while they had the symptoms.

Is it possible to eliminate the virus using antivirals?

Once the virus is widespread within the community the value of antivirals in terms of slowing the spread of the disease or of offering some individual protection is greatly reduced. This is because people are likely to be repeatedly exposed to the disease and extensive use of the drugs would no longer be appropriate as it would mean people having to take repeated courses of medicine. It is not possible to eliminate the virus using antivirals.

Who has access to antivirals?

Everyone, at the discretion of GPs. There is a view that the government should restrict antivirals to people most at risk of developing serious complications, and let the disease run its course for others. The Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies believes there is still doubt over the risk of the virus; there are reports of young, healthy, adults in Argentina becoming extremely ill from swine flu. The government has, therefore, decided to continue offering antivirals to everyone with swine flu, at doctors' discretion.

Who is most at risk?

Those most at risk of developing complications include people with lung, heart, kidney and liver disease, those with chronic neurological disease, with immunosuppression, those over 65, those pregnant, and children under five.

Can children take antivirals?

Tamiflu can be used for children on the advice of a GP. Relenza can only be used for children over five years old.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Jul 2009 | 8:07 pm

A Fertility First: Human Egg Cells Grow Up in Lab

For the first time, scientists have managed to grow mature human eggs from immature cells in the lab, a technique that may eventually help save the fertility of female cancer patients who aren’t eligible for traditional egg harvest.

Researchers from Northwestern University took immature egg cells, encased in a protective sac called a follicle, from 14 women who wanted to preserve their fertility before undergoing chemotherapy. By placing the cells in a unique three-dimensional growing environment for 30 days, the scientists coaxed the cells into becoming what appear to be healthy, functional human eggs.

“It is a major first,” said infertility expert Sherman Silber of St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Louis, who was not involved in the research. “No one has yet tested the eggs by in-vitro fertilization and pregnancy, but they look quite normal and we are all excited about it.”

The traditional way to preserve a female cancer patient’s fertility is to surgically remove fully mature eggs from her ovary, fertilize the eggs immediately in the lab, and freeze the resulting embryos. But since only one follicle matures each month for ovulation, that method requires two to six weeks of hormone therapy to generate enough mature eggs for harvest.

“The cancer patient usually does not have this much time to waste,” Silber said. “And to give her any kind of assurance, you would have to put her through three to six or more such cycles to get enough eggs to be comfortable. With ovary tissue freezing, we will get hundreds of thousands of eggs, and the patient can get a much greater measure of security for her future fertility.”

In addition, giving high doses of hormones is dangerous for patients with certain types of cancer, such as breast or ovarian tumors, and the traditional method won’t work for girls who haven’t gone through puberty. If physicians could take immature ovarian follicles and grow them into eggs outside the body, they could skip the hormone step altogether.

Until now, however, no one has been able to grow human ovarian follicles in the lab. Most previous attempts had involved trying to culture the cells in a two-dimensional environment, but it turns out that any kind of pressure on the egg cells inhibits their growth.

“Scientists had been putting them on a flat piece of plastic for years,” said fertility researcher Teresa Woodruff of Northwestern University, a co-author on the paper published Monday in Human Reproduction. “When you do that, the cells around the egg begin to move away, and the connection between the egg and its supporting cells is lost.”

The supporting cells are critical, Woodruff said, because they provide the hormones and nutrients that the egg needs to grow. To create the ideal growing environment for a follicle, the researchers collaborated with biomedical engineers who specialize in biomaterials.

“Our breakthrough was to use a hydrogel called alginate, which doesn’t touch or contact the follicle cells, but just supports them,” Woodruff said. It turns out that the rigidity of the gel is crucial to follicle function: If the gel is too stiff, the follicles start looking sick and making the wrong kind of hormones. “We kind of lucked out in the very beginning in that we used a very soft gel,” she said.

After incubating the follicles for 30 days in the three-dimensional matrix, the researchers discovered that they had grown to the size of mature eggs and were producing all the right hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, in the right quantities.

The true test of the lab-grown eggs will be to see if they can undergo a final stage of cell division to be ready for fertilization.

“We did it in a mouse and got it all the way to fertilization and live birth,” Woodruff said. But regulations from the National Institutes of Health won’t let scientists fertilize human eggs for research — the final step of the process must be done by physicians in an infertility clinic for a patient who’s ready to have a baby.

“The proof would be if they could fertilize the eggs in vitro and get babies out of it,” Silber said. “But that’s an extra stage, and it’s amazing they’ve got this far.”

“Ten years ago it was considered such an impossible task that we didn’t think it would happen for another 50 years,” he said. “The amazing thing is that it turned out to be much simpler than we ever dreamed.”

See Also:

• How Much for a Dozen Human Eggs?
• Hunting for Good Human Eggs
• Stem Cells Far From Fighting Infertility
• Flying in the Face of Infertility

Image: An in vitro matured human egg. Image captured on a LSM510 Zeiss Confocal by Susan Barrett.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 14 Jul 2009 | 7:37 pm

Shuttle Endeavour mission delayed again by weather

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Lightning strikes and thunderstorms near the seaside launch pad forced NASA on Monday to delay yet again the launch of shuttle Endeavour on a mission to the International Space Station.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

Mars Mission Crew Emerges from Isolation

The six member crew have spent the past three months simulating a mission to Mars.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Jul 2009 | 6:00 pm

New Heavy Element Likely to Be Named for Copernicus

The heaviest element on the periodic table is official.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jul 2009 | 5:32 pm

Childhood Poverty May Have Permanent Biological Legacy

The biological legacy of childhood poverty may linger for decades, leaving adults who grew up poor more likely to get sick.

Genome scans of 103 adults found altered patterns of stress-related gene activity in those from low-income backgrounds. The patterns persisted even when poverty was left behind.

The findings, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could explain why heart disease, cancer and other diseases of aging appear to be unusually common in adults who grew up poor, regardless of their current income or lifestyles.

Extra stress hormone production ostensibly helps poor kids deal with hardships, from unsafe neighborhoods to bad schools to at-home worries. But those hormones could produce heightened levels of inflammation, ultimately leaving their immune systems weakened and vulnerable.

Nutrition, exposure to environmental chemicals and disease could also explain these long-term biological effects. “We are unable to determine the relative importance of these exposures here, but doing so needs to be one of the top priorities for future research in this area,” write the researchers.

In another study published in PNAS in March, researchers found links between childhood poverty, physiological stress and adult memory. Taken together, the findings suggest that economic inequalities are not just economic.

See Also:

• Poverty Goes Straight to the Brain

Citation: “The biological residue of low early-life social class: Decreased glucocorticoid and increased proinflammatory signaling.” By Gregory E. Miller, Edith Chen, Alexandra K. Fok, Hope Walker, Alvin Lim, Erin F. Nicholls, Steve Cole, and Michael S. Kobor. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 106 No. 27, July 13, 2009.

Image: Jimmy Palma Gill/Flickr

Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes, Wired Science on Twitter.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 14 Jul 2009 | 5:26 pm

Prenuptial Cohabiting Can Spoil Marriage

Moving in with your partner may not be wise.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jul 2009 | 5:01 pm

Harrabin's notes

How will global shipping cope with emissions control?
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Jul 2009 | 4:59 pm

Gene entrepreneur to create algae biofuel with Exxon Mobil

• New biofuel requires no car or plane engine modification
• Carbon Trust says production will take 'many years'

Gene scientist Craig Venter has announced plans to develop next-generation biofuels from algae in a $600m (£370m) partnership with oil giant Exxon Mobil.

His company, Synthetic Genomics Incorporated (SGI), will develop fuels that can be used by cars or aeroplanes without the need for any modification of their engines. Exxon Mobil will provide $600m over five years with half going to SGI.

"Meeting the world's growing energy demands will require a multitude of technologies and energy sources," said Emil Jacobs, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil. "We believe that biofuel produced by algae could be a meaningful part of the solution in the future if our efforts result in an economically viable, low-net carbon emission transportation fuel."

Transport accounts for one-quarter of the UK's carbon emissions and is the fastest growing sector. Finding carbon-neutral fuels will be crucial to the government meeting its target to reduce overall emissions by 80% by 2050.

Algae are an attractive way to harvest solar energy because they reproduce themselves, they can live in areas not useful for producing food and they do not need clean or even fresh water. In addition, they use far less space to grow than traditional biofuel crops such as corn or palm oil.

"Algae consumes carbon dioxide and sunlight in the presence of water, to make a kind of oil that has similar molecular structures to petroleum products we produce today," said Jacobs. "That means it could be possible to convert it into gasoline and diesel in existing refineries, transport it through existing pipelines, and sell it to consumers from existing service stations."

The Carbon Trust, a government-backed agency that promotes low-carbon technologies, has forecast that algae-based biofuels could replace more than 70bn litres of fossil fuels used every year around the world in road transport and aviation by 2030, equivalent to 12% of annual global jet fuel consumption or 6% of road transport diesel. In carbon terms, this equates to an annual saving of more than 160m tonnes of CO2 globally with a market value of more than £15bn.

Ben Graziano, research and development manager at the Carbon Trust, said that alge-based biofuels offered the potential for "major carbon savings". "Exxon Mobil is estimating that algae could yield just over 20,000

litres of fuel per hectare each year, which is in line with our own forecasts. However, producing biofuel from algae on such a massive commercial scale is a major challenge, which will require many years of research and development."

Venter, who is best known for his role in sequencing the human genome, said the new partnership was the largest single investment in trying to produce biofuels from algae but said the challenge to creating a viable next-generation fuel was the ability to produce it in large volumes. "This would not happen without the oil industry stepping up and taking part," he said. "The challenges are not minor for any of us but we have the combined teams and scientific and engineering talents to give this the best chance of success."

The research programme will begin with the construction of a new test facility in San Diego, where Venter says different techniques to grow and optimise algae will be tested. These will include open ponds as well as bioreactors, where the algae are grown in sealed tubes. "We will be trying out these different approaches … using newly-discovered natural algae to test the best approaches we can come up with to go into a scale-up mode."

Venter has spent several years trawling the world's oceans in search of environmentally-friendly microbes that could be used, in one way or another, to bring down the world's carbon emissions. The organisms he has found include those that can turn CO2 into methane, which could be used to make fuels from the exhaust gases of power stations, and another that turns coal into natural gas, speeding up a natural process and reducing both the energy needed to extract the fossil fuel and the amount of pollution caused when it is burned.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Jul 2009 | 4:44 pm

Medtronic brain device for OCD approved in Europe

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Medtronic Inc said on Tuesday it received regulatory approval in Europe for an implantable brain stimulator to treat patients with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Jul 2009 | 4:30 pm

Eat up! Calorie restriction may weaken the immune system

Going hungry helps lab animals live longer, but for people like you and me living in the real world it could have the opposite effect, warns Jacob Aron

The idea that severely reducing your calorie intake will help you live longer may not be as straightforward as reports last week suggested. Eating a radically restricted diet may weaken the immune system and actually shorten life.

While eating less has been shown to slow the ageing process in a variety of animals, these tests are normally conducted in artificial conditions with little or no exposure to potentially life-shortening diseases. Hence the apparent contradiction.

Research into slowing the ageing process through dieting began as early as 1934 when researchers at Cornell University discovered that rats given a restricted diet could live nearly twice as long as normal. Calorie restriction as a route to longer life has now been confirmed in fruit flies, roundworms, and most recently monkeys, but all of these studies kept the animals in unnaturally clean surroundings.

Scientists at Stanford University yesterday published a more realistic approach to calorie restriction in the journal PLoS Biology. Associate professor of microbiology and immunology David Schneider and graduate student Janelle Ayres worked with fruit flies, this time investigating the effects of bacterial infections on organisms with a restricted diet.

They found that eating less can either increase or shorten the lives of infected flies, depending on the disease. Flies given half their normal diet and exposed to a form of the food-poisoning bug salmonella lived almost twice as long as their full-fat brethren, who only lasted for eight days after infection. But when infected with listeria, another food-poisoning bug, the dieting flies died after just four days, compared to the six or seven managed by flies eating normally.

In their paper, the authors suggest that this mixed reaction to infections should "raise a cautionary flag" for those hoping to live longer by eating less.

Although the effects of calorie restriction in humans have yet to be proven, people may be tempted to reduce their food intake radically by the prospect of a few more years of life. The latest research suggests that this might work if you live in a sterile laboratory, but those of us out in the bacteria-ridden real world should probably eat a more hearty diet.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Jul 2009 | 3:47 pm

400 Million-Year-Old Male Sex Member ID'd

Scientists confirm the oldest penis-like structure in an ancient fish specimen.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Jul 2009 | 3:30 pm

Six end simulated Mars mission isolation

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Four Russians, a Frenchman and a German ended a simulated 105-day space trip in Moscow on Tuesday designed to test their responses in the kind of isolated surroundings they would experience in a manned mission to Mars.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Jul 2009 | 3:04 pm

Hey, Einstein! Is That You?

A hyper-realistic Einstein robot at the University of California, San Diego has learned to smile and make facial expressions through a process of self-guided learning.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jul 2009 | 3:00 pm

Automated Smile Police Monitor Employees

Smile, or else, the machine tells employees.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jul 2009 | 2:31 pm

BLOG: SpaceX's Falcon 1 Launches

SpaceX launches the company's first commercial payload into space.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Jul 2009 | 2:30 pm

Nobody Wants to Talk to a Physicist

When people find out what Michael Tuts does, they don't want to talk. Shame.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jul 2009 | 2:20 pm

Toxins May Have Doomed Ancient Forests

The same toxins released from burning coal may have snuffed out Triassic forests.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Jul 2009 | 2:00 pm

NASA Preps For Sixth Launch Attempt

NASA readies Space Shuttle Endeavour for its sixth launch attempt.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Jul 2009 | 1:57 pm

Experts unearth history of pandemic flu viruses

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Flu viruses that sparked the three worst pandemics in the last century circulated in their near-complete forms for years before the catastrophes occurred, researchers in Hong Kong and the United States have found.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Jul 2009 | 1:43 pm

Oceans on Ancient Venus, Study Suggests

New Venus Express map shows possible signature of granite, could indicate past oceans, plate tectonics.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jul 2009 | 1:25 pm

New tests may help spot early-stage Alzheimer's

CHICAGO (Reuters) - New tests assessing brain changes and body chemistry are showing promise at diagnosing Alzheimer's disease in its earliest stages, aiding the search for new drugs, researchers said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 14 Jul 2009 | 12:55 pm

Powerful Ideas: Military Develops 'Cybug' Spies

Scientists can already control the flight of real moths using implanted devices.
Source: Livescience.com | 14 Jul 2009 | 12:42 pm

Ancient Fortress City Unearthed in Egypt

Archaeologists uncover what is said to be the largest fortress in the Eastern Delta.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Jul 2009 | 12:35 pm

Secrets of the Scorpion's Sting Revealed

New analysis of scorpion venom could lead to new drug applications.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Jul 2009 | 12:13 pm