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Limb-sparing Surgery May Not Provide Better Quality Of Life Than Amputation For Bone Cancer PatientsLimb-sparing surgery, which has been taking the place of amputation for bone and soft tissue sarcomas of the lower limb in recent years, may not provide much or even any additional benefit to patients according to a new review.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 9:00 pm New Study Sheds Light On The Growing U.S. Wind Power MarketFor the fourth consecutive year, the United States was home to the fastest-growing wind power market in the world in 2008, according to a new report. Specifically, US wind power capacity additions increased by 60 percent in 2008, representing a $16 billion investment in new wind projects.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 9:00 pm Growth In Number Of Americans Citing No Religion May Be Slower Than Previously ReportedAmericans continue to pull away from organized religion, but the rate of departure previously reported may not have been as abrupt as originally thought, according to new research.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 9:00 pm Archaeologists Find Cache Of Tablets In 2,700-year Old Turkish TempleArchaeological excavations at the site of a recently discovered temple in southeastern Turkey have uncovered a cache of cuneiform tablets dating back to the Iron Age period between 1200 and 600 BCE. Found in the temple's cella, or "holy of holies," the tablets are part of a possible archive that may provide insights into Assyrian imperial aspirations.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 9:00 pm Gene Therapy Trial Succeeds In Boosting Protective Protein In Patients With Hereditary Lung DiseaseGene therapy researchers have safely given new, functional genes to patients with a hereditary defect that can lead to fatal lung and liver diseases, according to clinical trial findings. Three patients, apparently for the first time in their lives, produced trace amounts of the protective form of a protein called alpha-1 antitrypsin for up to one year, a potential step toward a gene therapy for about 100,000 Americans with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 9:00 pm Car Horns Warn Against Natural DisastersIn the past, sirens howled to warn the population against floods, large fires or chemical accidents. Today, however, there is no extensive warning system in Germany, as most sirens were dismantled after the Cold War.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 9:00 pm Engineers Provide Insights To Decades-old DNA SquabbleA group of nanoengineers, biologists and physicists have used innovative approaches to deduce the internal structure of chromatin, a key player in DNA regulation, to reconcile a longstanding controversy in this field. This new finding could unlock the mystery behind the origin of many diseases such as cancer.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 6:00 pm Genetic Circuit That Regulates Behavior Of Stem Cells DiscoveredThis circuit explains the fact that stem cells are always prepared to change into any type of cell. The discovery will greatly increase the ability of researchers to maintain embryonic stem cells in a pluripotent state in vitro and induce their transformation into cellular tissues of all types.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 6:00 pm First Black Holes Born StarvingThe first black holes in the universe had dramatic effects on their surroundings, according to new supercomputer simulations carried out by physicists. Several popular theories posit that the first black holes gorged themselves on gas clouds and dust, growing into the supersized black holes that lurk in the centers of galaxies today. However, the new results point to a much more complex role for the first black holes.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 6:00 pm Taking The Needle's Sting Out Of Diabetes: First Tablet-based Treatment?A new anti-Ras compound may lead to the first tablet-based treatment for children and adults with Type 1 diabetes.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 6:00 pm Enhanced vision'Augmented reality' blends the virtual and real worldSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Aug 2009 | 4:20 am Meteorite mineral made in the labScientists make a mineral found in meteorites and the deep layers of Earth, revealing clues about the early Solar System.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Aug 2009 | 3:55 am Flying cleanHow biofuels can help aviation clean up its carbonSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 11 Aug 2009 | 3:42 am Rescuers search Taiwan village destroyed by mudslide (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 3:21 am Atlantic Salmon returns to Seine (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 3:21 am The Nation's Weather (AP)AP - Another round of unsettling weather was expected to develop across the eastern half of the nation Tuesday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 2:45 am First Wi-Fi pacemaker in U.S. gives patient freedomNEW YORK (Reuters) - After relying on a pacemaker for 20 years, Carol Kasyjanski has become the first American recipient of a wireless pacemaker that allows her doctor to monitor her health from afar -- over the Internet.Source: Reuters: Science News | 11 Aug 2009 | 12:45 am Strong quake rattles Tokyo, disrupts transport (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 11:47 pm NASA to Spend $50 Million to Spur Commercial Spacecraft (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - NASA plans to spend up to $50 million in federal stimulus money to help foster development of commercial spacecraft for launching astronauts and cargo into space.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 7:31 pm Skygazers get ready to watch the annual Perseid meteor showerSkygazers get ready to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on the 12 August.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Aug 2009 | 5:36 pm Study: Machismo Cuts Men's Lives Short (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Tough guys who buy into ideals of masculinity are much less likely to seek preventive healthcare services, such as a prostate exam, compared with other men.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 5:33 pm 'Crisis satellite' returns imagesThe first pictures are returned from the latest UK satellite designed to image areas struck by natural disasters.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Aug 2009 | 5:30 pm Human genome sequenced for the price of a car: study (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 4:44 pm Study: Machismo Cuts Men's Lives ShortMacho men dodge the doctor's office.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 3:31 pm Two Worlds Collide in Deep Space (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - Two distant planets orbiting a young star apparently smashed into each other at high speeds thousands of years ago in a cosmic pileup of cataclysmic proportions, astronomers announced Monday.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 3:17 pm Optimistic Women Live Longer, HealthierOptimists less likely to develop heart disease, at lower risk of death than pessimists.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 2:03 pm Virtual Reality Could Keep You From Being a Surgical Guinea Pig
New pilots train on flight simulators before flying their first 757. Scientists experiment on animals before giving their new drug to patients. And fledgling surgeons perform their first few operations on… real people. Now, a small but growing group of doctors are trying to make surgical training safer by bringing virtual reality into the operating room — and taking the trial-by-error out. “You can imagine in aviation if a copilot just sat there watching what the pilot did, and then did a couple of little things here and there,” said orthopedic surgeon Dilworth Cannon of the University of California, San Francisco. “I don’t think the passengers would feel very confident when he was given his first plane to fly.” But Cannon says that’s the way most new surgeons currently learn their craft: by observing a senior doctor in the operating room, helping out with small tasks at first and then gradually taking over more and more of the surgery. No one wants to be the first patient a new doctor operates on, or even the test case for an experienced surgeon who’s trying out a new technique. At the moment, however, there’s no good alternative to the “see one, do one, teach one” system of medical training, Cannon says. Practicing on a cadaver can provide some valuable experience, but there often aren’t enough good specimens to go around. “You might be lucky to get two or three procedures out of a cadaver,” Cannon said. “With virtual reality simulators, you can keep using them over and over.”
This week, Stanford researchers report they’ve taken virtual surgery one step further, by integrating data from individual patients’ pre-op CT scans to create patient-specific models. So far, they’ve done virtual practice sessions with their prototype on several patients about to undergo sinus surgery.
The new simulator consists of a small surgical camera, called an endoscope, and a mannequin head attached to a commercially manufactured touch-feedback device. As a doctor manipulates the endoscope through the nostril of the mannequin, he watches what’s happening on a computer screen above the “patient.” A computer program calculates how much resistance should be applied to the endoscope based on its location in the sinus cavity. Because the device can simulate the anatomy of a specific patient, researchers hope it will be useful not just for new doctors, but also for senior surgeons who want to practice different approaches before a particularly challenging case. Uploading patient CT data into the computer takes about 20 seconds, and the whole set-up costs less than $10,000, said surgeon Nikolas Blevins of the Stanford University School of Medicine, who co-authored a paper about the simulator published this month in the Journal of Rhinology and Allergy. “In the past, devices were extremely expensive and extremely cumbersome,” Blevins said. “But now with the availability of commercial devices, these kinds of systems can be put on an average desktop or operating room and can be used by whoever needs it whenever they want it.” Blevins called the simulator a “reasonable representation” of what surgeons see and feel during a real operation, but he said the simulation is far from perfect. The device can sense motion in six different directions and give touch feedback in three, but that’s only enough to simulate simple surgical instruments, such as a drill, suction tube or camera. “Interactions with tissue forceps and other kinds of graspers are more complicated and will take additional refinement,” Blevins said. So far, virtual devices have been most successful at simulating closed procedures, like sinus surgery, where surgeons operate through the nose, or laparoscopic surgery, where they enter via small holes cut in the abdomen. Open surgeries are much harder to mimic using virtual reality, because movement happens in all directions and much of the procedure involves directly touching the patient. “We’re just a few million years behind the design of the human hand,” said virtual anatomy expert Don Stredney of Ohio State University. “All the subtleties that you experience with the hand, the technology is just not there yet.”
“For temporal bone surgery, you really need an integration between different senses,” Stredney said said. “You need to see what you’re doing and to feel the resistance on the drill, especially around neural tissues where you could really do some damage by heating bone near a nerve or breaking through a structure.” Surgeons also need to be able to hear and interpret the sound of the drill, he said, because the pitch changes depending on the thickness of the bone. Like the Stanford device for sinus surgery, Stredney’s simulator takes advantage of a commercially manufactured device created by a company called SensAble Technologies. Instead of modifying the device by adding an endoscope, the researchers designed a virtual drill and suction tube, complete with realistic sounds and squirting virtual blood. “Everyone gets nervous when something starts bleeding,” Stredney said. “It’s much better that residents learn how to handle those situations on a simulator than on us.” The temporal bone simulator is designed for educational purposes, Stredney said, so it doesn’t integrate imaging data from real patients like the Stanford device. “There are lots of liability issues when you start to think patient-specific,” he said, “but that’s obviously where things need to go to be really useful.” The next step for the Ohio State researchers is to test their device against traditional surgical training, to find out whether residents who practice on the virtual simulator actually perform better in the operating room than residents who don’t. Until they can prove that their device helps make better doctors, it may be hard to convince residency programs to invest in a simulator.
“We’re hoping to be able to train residents on a simulator in order to achieve a certain level of proficiency on a procedure before they ever go into the operating room,” Cannon said. To design the trial, the researchers took five senior orthopedic surgeons and measured their performance and speed on a virtual simulator. “Advanced surgeons can get in and out in 12 to 15 minutes and see everything,” said Vic Spitzer of the University of Colorado, who led construction of the knee simulator. “When people first start, it takes 4 or 5 hours to get in and get out.” Residents in the trial must practice on the device until they demonstrate at least 83 percent of the skill level of the senior surgeons and can complete the procedure in a given period of time. Then their performance in the operating room will be recorded on video and compared to a group of residents who received only the traditional instruction on arthroscopy. Six third-year UCSF residents have already finished the trial, and Cannon said it took them each about 13 to 15 hours of virtual training to reach the desired skill level. “Our hypothesis is that simulator-trained residents will outperform the other group,” Cannon said, but they won’t tally the final results until they have data from around 75 residents from institutions across the country. Meanwhile, researchers like Blevins and Stredney are trying to improve the fidelity of touch-feedback and improve the graphic interfaces on their simulators. “We’re a long, long way from having something that’s indistinguishable from real surgery,” Blevins said. “But that’s our final goal.” See Also:
Image 1: Temporal bone surgery simulator from the Ohio Supercomputer Center. Image 2: Stanford’s virtual simulator for endoscopic sinus surgery. Image 3: A screenshot from the temporal bone surgery simulator. Image 4: Arthroscopy simulator from Touch of Life Technologies, courtesy of Dil Cannon. Video: A view inside the sinus cavity using Stanford’s simulator/SensAble Technologies.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Aug 2009 | 1:52 pm Equinox to reveal Saturn secretsNasa's Cassini spacecraft is observing the equinox on Saturn to learn more about the planet and its rings.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Aug 2009 | 1:48 pm Stanford prof sequences own genome in a week (AP)AP - It might not be long until there is a gene scanner in every doctor's office, as DNA sequencing becomes faster and cheaper.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 1:27 pm Powerful Ideas: Fungus Sex Forced for FuelScientists hope to breed fungus that can help the environment.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 1:07 pm Humans Walked After Tree-Climbing Era, Study IndicatesMany scientists think early humans walked on their knuckles before evolving the ability to walk upright, but a new study suggests they may have bypassed that step.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 1:03 pm Emissions Pledges Kick Off Climate TalksU.N. negotiators aim to forge a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Aug 2009 | 1:00 pm Time 'runs short' on climate dealThe UN's top climate official warns that progress towards a new treaty is "too slow", as talks convene in Bonn.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Aug 2009 | 12:45 pm NASA wants proposals for space taxisCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA plans to use $50 million of federal economic stimulus funds to seed development of commercial passenger transportation service to space, agency officials said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 12:13 pm Bring Back NASA’s Crazy Idea Factory
For just less than a decade, NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts was the staid space agency’s big-vision mashup of Willy Wonka’s factory, DARPA and your crazy uncle’s garage workshop. And now experts want to bring it back.
Instructed to pursue “revolutionary aeronautical and space concepts that could dramatically impact how NASA develops and conducts its missions,” it funded research on space elevators, antimatter harvesters and other space fiction plot devices. “The genius is in the generalities, and not the details,” explained the ‘What is Revolutionary?’ section of the Institute’s website. Despite this seeming impracticality, three of its projects — a plasma rocket, a measurement device for black holes and a giant shade that should make it easier to take pictures of exoplanets — will probably end up being used in NASA missions. But in 2007, with its $4 million budget tightly stretched and NASA more interested in immediate payoffs than long-term dreaming, the Institute was shuttered. The decision seemed short-sighted at the time, and on Friday an expert panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences recommended that NASA re-open the Institute. Their recommendation isn’t binding, but it’s promising. The panel did, however, suggest the Institute scale back its ambitions and focus on projects that could be realistically developed in a decade, not a couple generations. The party wouldn’t need to be over — but neither would it be so wild again. In a salute to the Insitute’s heritage, here are a few of their grander plans: Development of a Single-Fluid Consumable Infrastructure for Life Support, Power, Propulsion, and Thermal Control. Wouldn’t it be neat if everything in life ran on a single fuel? In a spacecraft, that could be hydrogen peroxide. Wide Bandwidth Deep Space Quantum Communications. Getting a pair of electrons to affect each other’s spin when separated by a few miles is possible but difficult. This project would do it at movie-downloading speeds, separated by a solar system. Moon & Mars Orbiting Spinning Tether Transport and Tether Transport System for LEO-MEO-GEO-Lunar Traffic: Ever play tetherball and have the rope break? Imagine that happening, but with the end of the tether in orbit, and the ball replaced by industrial payloads being thrown between Earth and the moon. Tailored Force Fields for Space-Based Construction: Just as sound waves can push solid objects, electromagnetic waves could be used to manipulate materials and build structures in space. Antimatter Driven Sail for Deep Space Missions. A bit like a hot air balloon, only running on antimatter. That this was considered a feasibly short-term project speaks volumes about the Institute. See Also:
Images: NIAC Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes, Wired Science on Twitter.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Aug 2009 | 11:46 am Psychopaths have faulty brain connections: studyLONDON (Reuters) - Psychopaths who kill and rape have faulty connections between the part of the brain dealing with emotions and that which handles impulses and decision-making, scientists have found.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 11:36 am Shark Jumps into BoatA 5.5-foot bull shark jumped into a boat off Florida over the weekend. Havoc ensued.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 11:31 am Baby Declared Dead, Found AliveA baby in a coffin was found breathing by its father.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 11:17 am WATCH: Nanotechnology Offers Big RewardsNanotechnology promises to make our lives better. Find out how.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Aug 2009 | 10:30 am Tiny deer among 350 new species found in Himalayas (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 10:20 am Hole in the EarthOne spot on earth may have been pelted by a gang of meteorites.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 9:58 am WATCH: Born Animal Presents: Collared PeccaryExplore the collared peccary, a hardy desert survivor in the American Southwest.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Aug 2009 | 9:30 am New Himalaya Species Include Flying FrogOver 350 species discovered in Himalayas are threatened by development.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Aug 2009 | 9:30 am Sewage Breeds Bigger, Faster MosquitoesLarger, faster mosquitoes created in sewage can spread dangerous diseases.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Aug 2009 | 8:45 am SLIDE SHOW: Top 10 SupernovaeWhen stars explode, we tend to take notice. Discovery Space looks at the top 10.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Aug 2009 | 8:45 am Orangutans Make Musical InstrumentOrangutans use leaves to alter call meant to ward off predators.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 8:29 am Tweet a falling star: Live Perseid meteor shower updatesArmchair stargazers will be able to watch the shooting stars live on their computer screens via the micro-blogging site If you turn your gaze heavenwards tomorrow evening you could see a spectacular display of between 80 and 100 shooting stars per hour from a good vantage point. But for anyone unable to view the Perseid meteor shower with their own eyes, astronomers the world over will be live-tweeting the event, providing photos and commentary so that you can enjoy the spectacle via your computer screen. Orchestrated by Newbury Astronomical Society as part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, the Twitter Meteorwatch will run from nightfall on Tuesday until dawn on Thursday in the UK. Buoyed by the success of their Twitter Moonwatch event earlier this year, the organisers hope that it will get plenty of people fired up about stargazing. "We realised early on that what people want are images of the night sky, so we used our array of telescopes and cameras to provide a constant stream of pictures which we uploaded straight to Twitter," said Richard Fleet, president of Newbury Astronomical Society. "We were amazed at how excited people were about our Twitter Moonwatch. We had thousands of people who had probably never looked through a telescope before asking us questions directly and viewing images." Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through a cloud of particles ejected by a comet as its orbit brings it close to the Sun. The particles disintegrate as they enter the Earth's atmosphere at high speed, resulting in streaks of light that can be seen clearly in the night sky. The Perseid meteor shower is produced by material from comet Swift-Tuttle, which last passed close to the Earth in 1992 and won't be seen again until 2126. To take part in the Twitter Meteorwatch, follow @NewburyAS and @astronomy2009uk or use the hash tag #meteorwatch. While you're in the neighbourhood, don't forget to drop in on us at @guardianscience. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Aug 2009 | 8:28 am Flu drugs little use for children, experts sayLONDON (Reuters) - Children should not routinely be treated with flu drugs like Tamiflu since there is no clear evidence they prevent complications and the medicines may do more harm than good, British researchers said on Monday.Source: Reuters: Science News | 10 Aug 2009 | 8:19 am In the Bowels of Carnivorous Plants, a Tiny Model of the World
For insight into fabulously complex ecological dynamics, Harvard University biologist Aaron Ellison peers into the cupped leaves of carnivorous pitcher plants.
At the bottom of each slippery-sided leaf is a pool of water into which unlucky insects fall and drown. The bugs sustain not only the plant, but an intricate food web of bacteria, plankton and invertebrates. Each pool is small enough to fit in a shot glass, and big enough to model the world. “Each leaf is its own individual lake, its own individual ecosystem. Suddenly, in a bog I can walk to from my office, I’ve got 50,000 lakes to do experiments on. This is an opportunity to understand how a complete, functioning natural ecosystem works,” said Ellison. Understanding how ecosystems work is an important but challenging task for scientists. Though patterns can be described — nutrient levels shift, an animal population grows, another shrinks — it can be hard to know what’s coincidental and what’s linked. If researchers can run experiments on an ecosystem, measuring exactly what goes in and out, tweaking different aspects and seeing what happens, then they can better decipher its underlying rules. That’s the idea behind artificial ecosystems, all the way up to the infamous Biosphere II.
Ecologists have had some success studying islands and lakes, which are fairly self-contained, and extrapolating those findings to the rest of the natural world. But not everyone is fortunate enough to have an island or lake to study. “Islands are beloved by ecologists, because they’re simplified fractions of the whole complex world. And one way to think about pitcher plants is as a modest-scale island,” said Robert Holt, an eminent University of Florida ecologist who’s tracked the pitcher plant work. For the last fifteen years, Ellison and University of Vermont biologist Nicholas Gotelli have slogged through the bogs of New England, studying the life that exists in each pool. At the very base are bacteria, which support phytoplankton and cytoplankton, which support single-celled animals, which support fly larvae. All of it relies on nutrients delivered by drowning bugs. “You’ve got four or five trophic levels in a pitcher plant, just like you’ve got four or five trophic levels in a lake,” said Ellison. Fly larvae are the top-level predator in the pitcher, the analogues of terrestrial tigers or wolves. They’re what ecologists call a “keystone” species, who control the abundance every other species, but require a habitat of sufficient size to support those other creatures. That dynamic is a basic tenet of ecology, but when Ellison and Gotelli quantified it in a 2008 Public Library of Science Biology paper, “it was the first time anyone anyone had actually done the experiment to show the relative importance of habitat size and the presence or absence of top predators on controlling the abundance of all the organisms in a complete food web,” said Ellison. He and Gotelli have also used pitcher plants to study the effects of nutrient overloading. A high-density insect hatch can produce a nutrient surplus comparable to that caused in larger waters by fertilizer runoff or sewage overflows. In both cases, the transition from a rich, multi-level system to one that’s oxygen-starved and algae-dominated is the same. The latest frontier of the pair’s research is the dynamics of growth and decomposition, or what ecologists call the “green” and “brown” food webs. “One of the questions that’s percolating up in ecology is how you link these,” said Ellison. “It’s hard to study soil and figure out the pathways of nutrients and energy.” Their description of these processes in pitcher plants, published last year in Ecology, is “the first good example of how you link the green and brown webs, and we can do it experimentally,” said Ellison. The University of Florida’s Holt said that some ecosystem processes might be scale-dependent, emerging only at certain absolute sizes. But he thinks other pitcher plant processes — predator-prey interactions, mutually beneficial species, the effects of disturbance — are found across ecosystems. “Everything that happens in a pitcher plant happens at a larger scale,” said Holt. “There’s a tremendous amount of information in there.” See Also: Images: 1. Dendroicablog/Flickr 2. University of Karlsruhe Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes, Wired Science on Twitter.
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 10 Aug 2009 | 7:46 am Great Debate: Should Organ Donors Be Paid?The Debate Over Financial Incentives for Organ DonationSource: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 7:16 am How a Desert Rat Feasts on Poisonous PlantsGenes help rats survive on a toxic diet.Source: Livescience.com | 10 Aug 2009 | 7:11 am New Artificial Bone Made of WoodArtificial bones made of wood should allow live bones to heal more quickly.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Aug 2009 | 6:00 am In picturesStriking photos from the world of engineeringSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Aug 2009 | 5:57 am 'Don't give Tamiflu to under-12s'• Swine flu drugs may have side-effects that outweigh benefits Antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza that form the cornerstone of the government's fight against swine flu should not be given to those under the age of 12, researchers claimed today. They called on the Department of Health to immediately reassess its pandemic flu policy after finding that side-effects from medicines such as Tamiflu could outweigh any benefit. The research, by Dr Matthew Thompson, a clinical scientist and Oxford GP, and Dr Carl Heneghan, a GP and clinical lecturer at Oxford University, found that in some children Tamiflu caused vomiting, which can lead to dehydration and complications. Thompson said it was "inappropriate" for Tamiflu and Relenza to be given to most children with mild flu symptoms. "The downside of the harms outweighs the one-day reduction in symptomatic benefits," Heneghan said. The Department of Health said: "While there is doubt about how swine flu affects children, we believe a safety-first approach of offering antivirals to everyone remains a sensible and responsible way forward. However, we will keep this policy under review as we learn more about the virus and its effects." The study – a peer review of seven trials published by the British Medical Journal – included analysing four studies involving children aged one to 12 taking Tamiflu or another antiviral, Relenza. The children were being treated for normal seasonal flu but the experts behind the research said their findings would extend to the current swine flu pandemic. Thompson said children with mild symptoms should be treated in the same way as if they had any other mild flu – with drinks to cool high temperatures and rest – and that there was no need for children who were otherwise healthy to be taking Tamiflu or Relenza. The Department of Health said that the review's authors had noted themselves that it was "questionable" how far research into seasonal flu could be used to extend knowledge about swine flu. "We already know that swine flu behaves differently to seasonal flu, and past pandemics have hit younger people hardest," it said. The department added: "The BMJ research is correct to say that many people with swine flu only get mild symptoms, and they may find bed rest and over-the-counter flu remedies work for them. "But for those who experience severe symptoms, the best scientific advice tells us that Tamiflu should still be taken as soon as possible – and to suggest otherwise is potentially dangerous. If people are in any doubt about whether to take Tamiflu, they should contact their GP." The research team also warned parents to be on their guard for any potential complications and signs that their child was getting worse. For children with compromised immune systems or conditions such as cystic fibrosis, parents may want to discuss the options with their GP. "I think what GPs should do is to weigh up the risks and benefits with the parent," Thompson said. The researchers likened the current health policy, which saw more than 315,000 courses of antivirals given out during the first fortnight that the national pandemic flu helpline was in operation, as akin to misguided historical health policies such as prescribing antibiotics for sore throats. "The problem is a resistance issue," said Heneghan. "Going forward we have a treatment which is ineffective because we've given it to everybody. We are calling for a more rational prescription process for these drugs." The study also found Tamiflu had little or no effect on asthma flare-ups, ear infections or the likelihood of a child needing antibiotics. It comes a little over a week after other research found that children given Tamiflu reported side-effects including nausea and nightmares. The government has repeatedly referred to its stockpile of antivirals as one reason why people should not be overly concerned about the current pandemic. Heneghan and Thompson called on the Department of Health to review its current policy. "It's possible a more conservative strategy [like] reserving these anti-viral drugs for people, for children who are more likely to have complications of the illness, might be a more sensible strategy," Heneghan said. Their study showed the effect of antivirals on reducing the length of illness or preventing complications was likely to be limited. They added that 13 people need to be treated to prevent one additional case; therefore antivirals reduce transmission by 8%. The researchers reviewed four trials on the treatment of flu in 1,766 children – 1,243 with confirmed flu, 55% to 69% with type A, the same strain as swine flu – and three trials involving the use of antivirals to limit the spread of flu. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 10 Aug 2009 | 5:52 am 'Radical rethink' needed on foodThe government launches a debate on how the UK can ensure its food supply will remain secure in the future.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Aug 2009 | 4:34 am Treasure troveHimalayan species under threat from climate changeSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 10 Aug 2009 | 3:55 am
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The idea of learning to operate on a virtual patient — the surgical equivalent of the flight simulator — has been around for decades, but only recently has virtual technology become powerful enough, and cheap enough, for surgical simulators to become a practical option. The latest devices have touch-feedback systems that let practicing surgeons not just see and hear their virtual patients, but also feel the sensation of pressing a scalpel against muscle or drilling into bone.
Stredney and colleagues at the 
In orthopedic surgery, Cannon wants to go even further and make virtual training a part of the credentialing process for new surgeons. This year, he’s leading a multi-institution research trial, sponsored by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, to compare training on a virtual reality simulator with traditional training for a procedure called arthroscopy, which involves inserting a surgical camera into the knee.
