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Physical activity associated with healthier aging: Links between exercise and cognitive function, bone density and overall healthPhysical activity appears to be associated with a reduced risk or slower progression of several age-related conditions as well as improvements in overall health in older age, according to several new studies.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm Spongiform brain diseases are caused by aberrant protein, new research showsScientists have determined how a normal protein can be converted into a prion, an infectious agent that causes fatal brain diseases in humans and mammals. The finding, in mice, is expected to advance the understanding of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs, a family of neurodegenerative diseases that include Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, kuru and fatal familial insomnia in humans, scrapie in sheep, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle, also known as "mad cow disease."Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm Levitating magnet may yield new approach to clean energyA new experiment that reproduces the magnetic fields of the Earth and other planets has yielded its first significant results. The findings confirm that its unique approach has some potential to be developed as a new way of creating a power-producing plant based on nuclear fusion -- the process that generates the sun's prodigious output of energy.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm Upper atmosphere influences weather near Earth's surfaceTo what extent does what's happening in the stratosphere, tens of kilometers above Earth, influence the weather in the troposphere, the layer of atmosphere that touches Earth? Researchers performed a series of forecast experiments using a general circulation model to study the role of the stratosphere in influencing tropospheric weather following sudden stratospheric warming events.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm Doctors cut back hours when risk of malpractice suit rises, study showsA new study shows doctors work 1.7 hours less per week when medical liability risk increases by 10 percent. Such a decline in hours is the equivalent of one of every 35 physicians retiring without a replacement. Doctors age 55 and older and those with their own practice are more influenced by liability risk.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm NASA's Mars Rover Spirit Starts a New ChapterAfter six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm Bill and Melinda Gates Pledge $10 Billion in Call for Decade of VaccinesBill and Melinda Gates announced that their foundation will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world's poorest countries. The Gateses said that increased investment in vaccines by governments and the private sector could help developing countries dramatically reduce child mortality by the end of the decade, and they called for others to help fill critical financing gaps in both research funding and childhood immunization programs.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Black hole hunters set new distance recordAstronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope have detected, in another galaxy, a stellar-mass black hole much farther away than any other previously known. With a mass above fifteen times that of the Sun, this is also the second most massive stellar-mass black hole ever found. It is entwined with a star that will soon become a black hole itself.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Making Old Stem Cells Act Young AgainIn virtually every part of the body, stem cells stand ready to replenish mature cells lost to wounds, disease, and everyday wear and tear. But like other cells, stem cells eventually lose their normal functions as they age, leaving the body less able to repair itself.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Doctors develop life-saving, low-cost ventilators for emergency, rural and military useAnesthetists have designed three prototype low-cost ventilators that could provide vital support during major health care emergencies involving large numbers of patients, such as pandemics, and where resources are limited, such as in developing countries, remote locations or by the military. The team says it is possible to make simple ventilators that could be mass-produced for crises where there is an overwhelming demand for mechanical ventilation and a limited oxygen supply.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am The nation's weather (AP)AP - A strong storm continued to move through the Southeast on Saturday as it was expected to gradually make its way off the Eastern Seaboard and into the Atlantic Ocean.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 2:24 am Gov't officials, bankers meet in Davos (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 1:34 am Bin Laden blasts US for climate change (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 30 Jan 2010 | 12:24 am Astronauts Ready for Shuttle Launch Amid NASA Uncertainty (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - WASHINGTON – Six NASA astronauts are ready to rocket into space on the shuttle Endeavour in just over a week as questions swirl over the impact of the space agency’s upcoming budget request.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jan 2010 | 10:46 pm Brown Dwarf Hunt Hits Record LowBrown dwarfs are curious objects. Although they can weigh up to 80 Jupiter masses, they are too small to be called stars yet too big to be called planets. Until the late 1980's they were purely theoretical objects. However, as ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 9:51 pm Scientists Decode Brain Cancer Cell Line (HealthDay)HealthDay - FRIDAY, Jan. 29 (HealthDay News) -- The first complete genomic sequencing of a brain cancer cell line has been performed by U.S. scientists.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jan 2010 | 9:49 pm California lists moon junk as historical resourceLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Seeking to preserve the site where humans first set foot on the moon, a California state panel on Friday registered a collection of 106 objects left by the Apollo 11 mission as an historical resource.Source: Reuters: Science News | 29 Jan 2010 | 7:50 pm This column will change your life: WIth friends like these…Ever wondered why your friends seem so much more popular than you are? There's a reason for that This is going to be awkward, but someone has to tell you, so it may as well be me: you're kind of a loser. You know that feeling you sometimes have that your friends have more friends than you? You're right. They do. And you know how almost everyone at the gym seems in better shape than you, and how everyone at your book club seems better read? Well, they are. If you're single, it's probably a while since you dated – what with you being such a loser – but when you did, do you recall thinking the other person was more romantically experienced than you? I'm afraid it was probably true. The only consolation in all this is that it's nothing personal: it's a bizarre statistical fact that almost all of us have fewer friends than our friends, more flab than our fellow gym-goers, and so on. In other words, you're a loser, but it's not your fault: it's just maths. (I mean, it's probably just maths. You might be a catastrophic failure as a human being, for all I know. But let's focus on the maths.) To anyone not steeped in statistics, this seems crazy. Friendship is a two-way street, so you'd assume things would average out: any given person would be as likely to be more popular than their friends as less. But as the sociologist Scott Feld showed, in a 1991 paper bluntly entitled Why Your Friends Have More Friends Than You Do, this isn't true. If you list all your friends, and then ask them all how many friends they have, their average is very likely to be higher than your friend count. The reason is bewilderingly simple: "You are more likely to be friends with someone who has more friends than with someone who has fewer friends," as the psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa puts it. You're more likely to know more popular people, and less likely to know less popular ones. Some people may be completely friendless, but you're not friends with any of them. The implications of this seeming paradox cascade through daily life. People at your gym tend to be fitter than you because you tend not to encounter the ones who rarely go; any given romantic partner is likely to have had more partners than you because you're more likely to be part of a larger group than a small one. ("If your lover only had one lover," Kanazawa writes, "you are probably not him.") This is also why people think of certain beaches or museums or airports as usually busier than they actually are: by definition, most people aren't there when they're less crowded. This takes some mental gymnastics to appreciate, but it's deeply reassuring. We're often told that comparing yourself with others is a fast track to misery – "The grass is always greener" – but the usual explanation is that we choose to compare ourselves with the wrong people: we pick the happiest, wealthiest, most talented people, and ignore how much better off we are than most. Feld's work, though, suggests that this is only half of the problem. When it comes to those people we know well, the field from which we're choosing our comparisons is statistically skewed against us to begin with. So next time you catch yourself feeling self-pityingly inferior to almost everyone you know, take heart: you're right, but then, it's the same for them, too. oliver.burkeman@guardian.co.uk guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jan 2010 | 5:10 pm Experience: I discovered pharaoh's gold'We were scraping away in a corner of the burial chamber when we noticed something glinting in the lamplight' In 1972, when I was six, my aunt took me to see the Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum. I've been hooked on Egypt and archaeology ever since – I spent most of my childhood looking for tombs in our garden in Watford. Although I make my living as a writer and hold no formal archaeological qualification, I have worked on digs whenever I can and learned on the job. The one I'll always remember took place more than 10 years ago, working as a field archaeologist and diarist with a team digging in the Valley of the Kings. I was part of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project and we spent four years excavating in the valley, around the tombs of Tutankhamun and Ramesses VI. As well as digging new ground, we were given permission to re-excavate a small existing tomb, KV56. I was in charge of this re-excavation. Discovered in 1908 by English archaeologist Edward Ayrton, KV56 had yielded one of the most spectacular arrays of jewellery found in the valley, hence its nickname: the Gold Tomb. Early each morning two Egyptian workers and I would clamber down a ladder into the tomb and spend the day there, coughing and sweating, painstakingly trowelling our way through the 100 years' worth of dust and rubbish with which the chamber had become clogged. I have never been as happy in my life, although getting stung by a scorpion wasn't much fun. Our first season of excavating didn't produce much: a dog carcass and one of Ayrton's old cigarette packets were probably the most exciting finds. It was the second one when things started to get interesting. One morning one of the workers and I were scraping away in a corner of the burial chamber when we noticed something glinting in the lamplight. It was a small plaque, or rectangle of beaten gold, beautifully worked and stamped with the cartouche of the pharaoh Seti II. Ayrton had found 13 identical plaques, part of a chain that would have hung around the pharaoh's neck. This was one he'd missed. On one level it was simply a pretty, if extremely rare, trinket, adding nothing to our knowledge of ancient Egyptian history. On another, it was a truly remarkable find – an object that no one had seen or touched for three millennia and that had once been worn by a man considered to be a living god. I felt wonder, of course, and excitement, a breathless racing of the pulse as all those childhood fantasies of discovering buried treasure suddenly became a reality. Also, a strange fleeting sense of dislocation, as if for the briefest of instants I'd been allowed a glimpse into a long-lost world. Mainly I was just anxious to get the object photographed, recorded and put away safely. I have a reputation, sadly deserved, for spectacular acts of clumsiness, and didn't want this find to become my latest victim. Over the ensuing weeks and months we excavated a succession of ornaments that had slipped under Ayrton's radar – the first, and so far as I am aware only, items of pharaonic jewellery to have been found in the valley since Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun in 1922. They are currently in secure storage in Luxor – in, appropriately, an annexe of Carter's old dig house – but I hope that one day they will be reunited with the Gold Tomb's other treasures in the Jewellery Room of the Cairo Museum. I'm proud that, in a very minor way, my name will always be linked with one of the world's great archaeological sites. At the same time, when I think back to the years our team worked in the valley, it's not the gold that gives me the most pleasure. It is the day-to-day objects we unearthed: a collection of copper chisel heads; an ostracon – a small flake of limestone – bearing a cartoon of a man masturbating; a pair of beer-jar stoppers; the leftovers of someone's fish supper. These are the remains not of living gods, but of the men who dug and decorated the tombs – people who went to work, sniggered at rude jokes, had a beer and a takeaway at the end of the day. People pretty much like you or me. That's why I love archaeology: because it doesn't just show us how different things were, but also how similar. • Do you have an experience to share? Email experience@guardian.co.uk guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm UK travel news round upIlluminate Hadrian's Wall, go hunter-gathering with a chef in Sussex, and get more out of Manchester's attractions Line of fireThe Fourth Plinth? So last year. The must-participate event for 2010 takes place on 13 March, with the illumination of all 84 miles of Hadrian's Wall. Five hundred volunteer illuminators will be at 250m intervals along the route to light up the wall. Starting at dusk, lights will be lit sequentially, with the process taking about an hour. Illuminators will each receive a commemorative scroll, while for those content to watch there will be a public event at Segedunum Roman Fort at Wallsend (the starting point of the trail) and a Welcoming the Light parade in Carlisle. Cook up a treat in RyeA Hunting & Cooking Course may sound intimidating, but don't worry: there are no foxes involved. Instead, the "hunting" on offer at Webbe's Cookery School in Rye, Sussex, is of the culinary kind and takes place in markets, fishmongers and butchers, accompanied by chef Paul Webbe. Having learned to spot and select the best produce, students return to the kitchen to transform their spoils into a gourmet lunch. Each day of the course will concentrate on a different ingredient – from game on Monday, to poultry on Friday – and you can attend single days or stay the whole week. All abilities are catered for, and accommodation is at the 16th-century boutique Jeake's House in Rye. Manchester unitedManchester's creativetourist.com, a website produced by a consortium of nine city galleries and museums, launches its free, downloadable Classic Weekender Guide on 15 February. It takes in the best of both historical and contemporary attractions. Forthcoming highlights include Shaped by War: Photographs by Don McCullin (6 Feb-13 June, Imperial War Museum North) and The Walls are Talking (6 Feb-3 May, Whitworth Art Gallery), an exhibition dedicated to the art of wallpaper design, with contributions from 30 international artists. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jan 2010 | 5:05 pm Mars rover Spirit (2003–10)NASA commits robot explorer to her final resting place.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/PCWlCkUvH1k" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 29 Jan 2010 | 4:36 pm Bolivia declares national emergency after heavy rains (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jan 2010 | 4:24 pm Friday News Feedbag Info for January 29th, 2010If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag...we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation, which stems from our weekly science news podcast that you can subscribe to here on iTunes and chat ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 3:32 pm Climate Change On Obama's Back Burner (OneWorld.net)OneWorld.net - WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Media Consortium) - In his first State of the Union address, President Barack Obama touched on climate issues only briefly. He called on the Senate to pass a climate bill, but did not give Congress a deadline or promise to veto weak legislation. Nor did he mention the Copenhagen climate conference, where international negotiators struggled to produce an agreement on limiting global carbon emissions.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jan 2010 | 3:14 pm Chemistry Creates Self-Stirring Liquids
In a tail wagging the dog reversal, researchers have found that simple chemical reactions can mix a solution. Usually, chemicals are stirred to enhance a reaction, but a new study finds that the reverse is also true: Simple chemical reactions can trigger fluid flows, reports a paper in the January 29 Physical Review Letters.
De Wit and her colleagues wondered what would happen to fluid flows if the reacting liquids were left alone and not stirred. The researchers watched a very simple reaction — the neutralization that occurs between hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide, a common chemical base — in the absence of stirring. The researchers carefully injected the denser sodium hydroxide into a container and then added the hydrochloric acid. The sodium hydroxide stayed on the bottom and the hydrochloric acid sat on top. Where the two reactive chemicals met, the reaction’s products — table salt and water — began to form. As the salty solution formed, it crept upward and hit the lower-density acid, creating tendrils that started to mix the solution. But the same didn’t happen below the reaction line. This difference in how the reaction product interacted with each of its chemical parents drove the mixing the team observed.
These asymmetrical patterns, the researchers say, distinguish mixing during a chemical reaction from what happens when two nonreactive liquids meet, which may look more like diffusion or other kinds of mixing. “These kinds of beautiful patterns can be observed with very well-known reactions,” says study coauthor Christophe Almarcha, also of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. “This is quite fascinating for someone who’s done this reaction hundreds of times.” The researchers also describe reaction-driven mixing mathematically by creating a model that predicted a pattern that looked like the real thing. The model can be tweaked to predict patterns for other chemical reactions, which would vary widely, Almarcha says. “Our little model system says ‘pay attention,’” De Wit says. “If there are reactions, then new things will happen.” For instance, if stored carbon leaches into an aquifer and starts reacting with water, “those reactions will trigger flows, which will enhance the mixture,” she says. Image and Video: C. Almarcha/Université Libre de Bruxelles See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 29 Jan 2010 | 3:09 pm Metal FoamMetal foam is lighter but much stronger than "real" metal. It's designed for use in biomedical engineering and car bumpers. Tests are now underway to use it as both body armor and vehicle armor for the military.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 2:48 pm Global Asteroid Warning System Needed to Protect Earth (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - International experts converged on Mexico City this month to discuss the best way to establish a global detection and warning network to monitor potential asteroid threats to all life on Earth.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jan 2010 | 2:30 pm Electric Car Charging Stations En RouteWith all the electric vehicles on deck, I wonder how recharging them all on the road will actually go. Fast and easy, or like searching an old airport terminal for a place to charge a laptop? New stations could settle ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 2:12 pm Are Your Passwords Safe?How to write better passwords to protect your stuff.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 1:52 pm Bee My Friend? Depends on Your FaceBees can be trained to sniff out explosives and cocaine, and here's something else they can be trained to do: tell apart one human face from another, according to a study published in the February issue of Journal of Experimental ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 1:03 pm 6 Silliest iPad Rumors (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Apple cut through all the hype and speculation about its tablet computer device this week when CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the long-and-eagerly-awaited iPad. Here are six of the silliest rumors that swirled in the months and weeks leading up to Apple's announcement. Rumor No. 1: Transparent solar panels will help the iPad stay juicedSource: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jan 2010 | 1:01 pm Termite Battles May Explain Evolution of Social InsectsA study of termites reveals how "worker" insects may have emerged.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 12:41 pm NASA Releases First Free E-Book, on History of X-15 Rocket Plane
NASA continues to stay ahead of the government pack when it comes to public outreach. In addition to its many popular Twitter streams, iPhone apps and opportunities for citizens to participate in scientific programs, the agency is jumping into the e-book space. For space geeks looking for a little e-reading this weekend, NASA recently added an e-book section to its publications list and rolled out the first free title for the Kindle and Sony Reader, a history of the x-15 hypersonic test aircraft. More titles are on the way. The agency already has plenty of technical papers, presentations, case studies and other publications on its website that could eventually land in your e-reader. NASA says it will eventually make titles available for the Nook as well. And Luddites can still order hard copies of the X-15 book, along with a CD or a PDF. No word on whether NASA will put together a version for devices like the iPad that could integrate text, photos and video into the kind of publication many are hoping will be the next generation of books. Image: X-15 aircraft./NASA See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 29 Jan 2010 | 12:34 pm Forget Gingko: Try Blueberries for Improved MemoryBlueberries contain an antioxidant that could prevent mental health decline as you age.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 12:30 pm Quakes 'decade's worst disasters'Almost 60% of the people killed by natural disasters in the past decade lost their lives in earthquakes, data shows.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jan 2010 | 11:37 am Chavez: US 'Tectonic Weapon' Caused Haiti QuakeA 'tectonic weapon' under testing by the United States caused the Haiti earthquake, according to Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 11:03 am Facebook Status and the Imperfect AlibiRodney Bradford is a lucky guy. Charged with committing a robbery in Brooklyn last November, Bradford was freed when his lawyer proved that Bradford's Facebook status updated a minute before the robbery began. The computer that sent the update was ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 11:00 am Water vapor: a warming wild cardThe global temperature record of the decade just ended -- the warmest on record -- is not really what a lot of climate scientists would have expected. What many of the experts want to know is, why wasn't it warmer? ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 10:45 am Russia tests stealth fighter jetRussia unveils its new stealth fighter, meant to rival the radar-evading US F-22, in a test flight over the country's far east.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jan 2010 | 10:37 am Coast Guard flies 2 turtles from Oregon to Calif. (AP)AP - Two rare sea turtles stranded last fall on separate beaches in the Northwest took flight Thursday on a Coast Guard airplane bound for San Diego.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 29 Jan 2010 | 10:05 am White Roofs Could Reduce Urban HeatingPainting city roofs white could reduce urban heat island effect, mitigate global warming.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 10:02 am 6 Silliest iPad RumorsHere are six of the silliest rumors that swirled in the months and weeks leading up to Apple's big announcement.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 9:45 am Afghanistan's Fragile WildlifeAfter decades of war and internal conflict, it would be easy to assume that Afghanistan's wildlife has been as decimated as its infrastructure. Since the 1979 Soviet invasion, the country's had no systematic or serious management of land. An unsettled ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 9:25 am Russian police raid Baikal groupRussian police raid the offices of an environmental group after it criticised a plan to reopen a paper mill next to Lake Baikal in Siberia.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jan 2010 | 9:09 am Ten billion dollars pledged for 'decade of vaccines'Gates Foundation cash could save nearly nine million children.Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 29 Jan 2010 | 9:00 am Survey Says: Republicans Know More Than DemocratsOverall, Americans aren't as news-savvy as we'd like to think we are.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 8:45 am Tigers and other farmyard animalsWith China breeding more tigers than the world's entire wild population, a conservationist gives disturbing details of these "factory farms".Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jan 2010 | 8:37 am New 6-Legged Robot Walks By Taming ChaosA new six-legged robot walks like a spider.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 8:36 am In pictures: Beautiful birdsA selection of the best images from the BirdGuides Photo of the Year 2009 competition.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jan 2010 | 8:20 am NASA Former Administrator Weighs in on Obama No-Moon PlanOfficials from NASA have been namelessly warning that NASA should expect some radical changes when the president's budget is released on Monday. In a nutshell: forget the moon, get ready to help commercial companies develop spaceships to fly people to ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 8:07 am Squeaker Catfish, Young and Old, Squeak and ListenSqueaker catfish of all ages communicate with each other by, you guessed it, squeaking, according to a new study in the journal BMC Biology. Previously it was thought that young fish had under-developed hearing organs and could not perceive sounds ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 29 Jan 2010 | 7:43 am Homeopathy protesters to take 'mass overdose' outside BootsSceptics to swallow whole bottles of pills outside Boots stores to try to show remedies are ineffective Hundreds of sceptics will stage a "mass overdose" outside Boots stores around Britain tomorrow to protest against the chain's continuing sale of homeopathic remedies and to argue that such treatments have no scientific basis. The event ‑ called 10:23 ‑ will see the protesters swallowing the contents of entire bottles of homeopathic pills to illustrate their claims that such remedies "are nothing but sugar pills". It is being co-ordinated by the Merseyside Skeptics Society, a non-profit organisation dedicated to "developing and supporting the sceptical community". The "overdoses" will take place outside Boots stores in Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hampshire, Leeds, Leicester, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford and Sheffield. "Sympathy events" will also be held in Canada and Australia. Homeopathy, which is based on treating people using highly diluted substances to trigger healing, was developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann in the late 18th century. Homeopaths say that water retains a memory of the substance, which has a therapeutic effect, although most scientists claim that such treatments are no better than placebos or sugar pills. A spokesman for the event, which will begin at 10.23am, said the group had been moved to act by the evidence given to the Commons science and technology select committee last November. "Hundreds of people were following the action together on Twitter, and sharing our general disbelief at the circus that was unfolding before our eyes," he said. "To see a homeopathic doctor explaining to MPs how many times a remedy had to be tapped before it would imprint the water was just surreal. And for the spokesman of Boots to explain that they were happy to sell customers pills for which they have no evidence of effectiveness was an insult to many people." He added: "We believe it is unethical for the government and Boots (as a registered pharmacist) to continue to support what is essentially an 18th century magic ritual." Paul Bennett, professional standards director and superintendent pharmacist for Boots UK, said that homeopathy was recognised by the NHS and that all Boots pharmacists followed guidance on homeopathy issued by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. "Boots UK is committed to providing our customers with a wide range of healthcare products to suit their individual needs," said Bennett. "We know that many people believe in the benefits of complementary medicines and we aim to offer the products we know our customers want." He said that Boots supported calls for more scientific research into the efficacy of homeopathic medicines, adding: "This would help our patients and customers make informed choices about using homeopathic medicines." Paula Ross, chief executive of the Society of Homeopaths, which has more than 1,450 members across Europe, said the 10:23 event would not advance the argument on homeopathy. "This is an ill-advised publicity stunt in very poor taste, which does nothing to advance the scientific debate about how homeopathy actually works," she said. In a statement, the society said that homeopathic remedies should be taken under the guidance of a registered homeopath, while over-the-counter homeopathic treatments should only be used as directed on the label. It went on: "The society would not … expect any reaction to the proposed 'overdose' by this group unless, by chance, an individual in that group already had symptoms that matched that remedy at the time of taking it." The 10:23 spokesman said that the "mass overdose" could be the first of many such events held while the group waited for the select committee to deliver its report. "We'll be putting more pressure on homeopathic organisations and the government," he said. "Initially we chose to target Boots because we wanted this first action to be about consumers, about something that everyone can immediately relate to. One of Britain's top public health providers selling people pills that don't work is, in our view, a scandal." The name of the 10.23 campaign is a nod to Italian chemist Avogadro's number determining the amount of molecules in a given solution. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jan 2010 | 7:37 am Why Men and Women Get Jealous for Different ReasonsMen and women's feelings on infidelity are a matter of how they view relationships.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 6:57 am Pondering the Future Makes Us Lean Forward, LiterallyThoughts of the past or future can actually move us.Source: Livescience.com | 29 Jan 2010 | 6:09 am Homeopathy: At 10:23 tomorrow we will prove there really is nothing in itHundreds of homeopathy sceptics around the UK are stocking up on pills ready to take overdoses at 10:23 tomorrow. Martin Robbins explains why he is one of them Tomorrow, I plan to travel to the centre of London where I will take a huge overdose – in public – consuming an entire bottle of pills. I will not be alone. I'll be joined by several hundred others in London and around the world who will also be overdosing. No harm will come to us because the pills will be homeopathic, and therefore contain no active ingredient – just sugar. This is the 10:23 campaign and our aim is to demonstrate to the public in the strongest way possible that these pills, sold to poorly customers by companies like Boots have, literally, nothing in them. Boots for one sells homeopathic remedies even though it admits that there is no reason to believe they are clinically effective. Some may argue that homeopathy is harmless, but that simply isn't the case. The pills themselves may be ineffective, but their impact on public health can be toxic. When the UK government ploughs more than £4m of taxpayers' money into homeopathy annually, and leading pharmacists stock their magic potions, it serves to legitimise the industry, to suggest that somehow homeopaths are on a par with real doctors. The consequences of that can be disastrous, whether it's the suicide of a patient who should be taking antidepressants, delayed treatment for a serious illness, or a traveller packing "anti-malarial" pills that don't actually work. The online "What's the harm?" project lists numerous people who have been harmed by homeopaths who were deluded enough to believe they were offering genuine medical advice. There has been a steady trickle of deaths, such as "Ms A" who died after a homeopath informed her she did not need to take her heart medicine, or the six-month-old baby who died after his parents, one of whom was a practising homeopath, refused to allow him to be given conventional medicine. Senior homeopaths claim that this sort of thing is rare, but investigations tend to show otherwise. Deluded homeopathic adventurers are setting up clinics and running research projects in places like Tanzania, claiming to be able to treat Aids and denouncing antiretroviral drugs as evil, behaviour that is estimated to have already been responsible for over a third of a million deaths in South Africa. Shockingly, these sorts of activities are sanctioned and funded by at least one British homeopathic organisation, as revealed in the 2007 accounts of the registered charity the Homeopathic Action Trust and exposed by the blogger Gimpy. Of course, senior homeopaths in Britain are happy to provide what they believe is scientific evidence for homeopathy, but when scrutinised, the evidence quickly falls apart. The British Homeopathic Association lists numerous studies in a document on its website, claiming to offer evidence in favour of homeopathy, and yet many of the studies cited simply don't. To pick a random example, the fifth citation, a Cochrane review, concludes that "Current evidence does not support a preventative effect of Oscillococcinum-like homeopathic medicines in influenza and influenza-like syndromes." And yet the BHA cites this as evidence supporting the effectiveness of homeopathy in flu. Even where trials are cited that do produce a positive result, the result is qualified. The third reference, for example, is a trial reported in the BMJ that notes that the results are not sufficient to draw clinical conclusions from, and that more research would be needed. The remainder of the document, and the BHA's written evidence to parliament, is riddled with similar anomalies. Indeed, the BHA seems to accept that the evidence is lacking. Its written submission to a Commons cross-party science committee investigation into homeopathy last year makes the point that, due to poor methodology, the papers included in its review can't be used to demonstrate clinical significance. In a press release last year, the BHA described the number of good trials in homeopathy as "minuscule". So not only have homeopaths been unable to produce good evidence that homeopathy works, but they've actually admitted to parliament that the quality of evidence they have is seriously lacking. This after 200 years of research. No wonder then that Boots found itself in hot water last year after admitting to the science committee that it sells homeopathic remedies without having any evidence that they work. Personally, I can't see how handing out treatments for which you admit you have no evidence can be compatible with being a registered pharmacist. And as campaign members buy their pills ahead of the mass overdose tomorrow, some of the stories we're hearing are downright disturbing. One man spoke to a pharmacist explaining that he was buying pills to take part in a homeopathic overdose. The pharmacist admitted to having no idea what homeopathy was, let alone whether or not it worked, but happily sold him six bottles. Homeopathy does not work beyond placebo, it is a menace to public health and a drain on the limited resource of the NHS. It is an 18th century quack medicine consisting of magical rituals practised by deluded, cargo-cult "doctors" that has no place in government thinking, and it should not be endorsed by the registered pharmacists who are at the frontline of public health in the UK. As the Commons science committee prepares to submit its report on homeopathy to the government, now is the time for everyone who believes in evidence-based medicine to stand up and make this crystal clear. Please join us at your nearest 10:23 event. Martin Robbins writes for The Lay Scientist guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jan 2010 | 5:41 am Naming the deadUsing DNA scraps to finally identify WWI soldiersSource: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jan 2010 | 5:05 am How to whip up a frothy frog nestScientists reveal how frogs perform the architectural feat of building floating foam "meringue" nests.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jan 2010 | 4:31 am Blair, Wakefield, climate change – beware of scapegoats | Michael WhiteI don't like witch-hunts even of people I mistrust, because minds are best kept open against the pressures of conformity There seems to be a lot of zeal in the atmosphere this week. Not just over Tony Blair's appearance before the Chilcot inquiry today, but Scott Roeder, that righteous born-again Christian doctor-killer in Kansas and, of course, the case of Dr Andrew Wakefield, the MMR researcher. As overnight media has been reporting, Wakefield and two colleagues were condemned by the General Medical Council's disciplinary panel in ferocious terms yesterday. Wakefield was accused of "dishonesty and irresponsibility" as well as a "callous disregard" for the suffering of children whom he tested without appropriate consents or safeguards. Yet when the verdict was announced there were cries of "bastards", "it's a set-up" and "disgusting" from the doctor's passionate supporters at the hearing, many of them parents of children with degrees of autism – "the Lancet families" – who saw Wakefield as the only doctor who "ever really listened". Powerful feelings bordering on hysteria, charges of illegitimacy levelled against each other by rival camps, an atmosphere which smacks of a witch-hunt ... it all sounds a bit like the Chilcot hearings, and ought to trouble sensible people. When does a very proper quest for the truth – scientific, legal, political – tip over into a blame game, a search for scapegoats which – as scapegoats are meant to do – enable the rest of us to feel better and move on? Egged on by neocon zealots (and supported by T Blair), George Bush scapegoated Saddam Hussein, a very bad man. Plenty are now seeking to return the favour. In Wakefield's case his published 1998 findings – never replicated by other researchers – stopped short of blaming the triple measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab for later development of bowel and autism problems in small children. But at a press conference he went further, suggesting that the jabs should prudently be given separately. Thanks to generous publicity in scaremongering newspapers, rates of MMR vaccination fell from 91% to 80% by 2003 – well below the "herd immunity" rate of 95% – and 50% in some parts of London, probably the poorer parts, though you can never be sure. The take-up of cancer screening tests are lower in the capital, but almost equal among all classes, a top medic told me recently. As that admirable scourge of humbug and quackery, Ben Goldacre, points out in today's Guardian, the media has a lot to answer for by spreading the scare story rather than demanding better evidence. Tony and Cherie Blair added to the confusion by refusing to say whether their fourth child, Leo, born in 2001, had been given the MMR jab. They invoked privacy when they should have shown leadership, as the Queen did in the 50s by letting it be known that her children had been given the polio shot we all had during that fearsome epidemic. In fairness – let's be fair; that's the point – Cherie Blair combines high lawyerly intelligence with a new age daffiness in some matters. So it is always possible that she gave little Leo a few sacred crystals in his cornflakes and hoped for the best. In which case, silence was the best policy. Wakefield's prosecutors at the GMC were not passing judgment on his research, which now takes place in Texas, where he cannot practice medicine but can raise money for his autism centre – the Thoughtful House – in Austin, and does. Its condemnation – after a record hearing of 148 days, the longest in the council's 148-year history – was on process and probity. He paid children at his son's birthday party a fiver apiece to give blood, and failed to declare conflicting financial interests – including £55,000 from the legal aid board – even to the Lancet, which published his findings. The Lancet was the same magazine that published the Johns Hopkins mortality survey which reported there had been 600,000 excess deaths in Iraq between 2003-06 because of the US-UK invasion. It is a figure that has also been hard to replicate, even by the Shia-dominated Malaki government in Baghdad. This is a week where many zealous paths cross. I'm even less qualified to judge Wakefield's work than I am statistical fieldwork methodology in a war zone. There were professional whispers about him from the start, as there were about Johns Hopkins. But the Times reports today that "with a handful of honourable exceptions many vaccine experts ran the other way when the story broke in 1998". It may help explain the severity of their censure today. Sound familiar, does it? In 1998 that failure left opponents of vaccines (which have after all been around for over 200 years, when George III and Catherine the Great showed good family examples) to fill the vacuum along with media hucksters, some of them the same outlets now throwing stones at Wakefield. It's a familiar pattern: think the McCanns, think Baghdad. Such people skillfully deployed parents with damaged children – understandably eager to blame something or someone for a tragedy in the family. It's human instinct, one encouraged in our own slightly hysterical times where running hot and cold zeal is available on demand 24/7. The medical response may be better now. As a result of the MMR shambles, a Science Media Centre has been established – manned by independent press staff – to advise scientists how best to get the facts (as we know them) over to a puzzled public. My own instinct has been to mistrust Wakefield, not least because of the media company he kept. But I don't like witch-hunts, even of people I mistrust, especially when science is involved, because minds are best kept open against the pressures of conformity. This week the government's chief scientific adviser, Professor John Beddington (he has a beard to show he's a real scientist) called for such openness. He had in mind climate change scientists, who should be less hostile to sceptics. "I don't think it's right to dismiss proper scepticism. Science grows and improves in the light of criticism," Beddington told the Times in the wake of assorted problems which have beset those melting Himalayan glaciers, UEA temperature data and other global warming evidence. Quite right too. The reaction to challenge of the climate change priesthood – which is how too many sound as if they see themselves – was sneaky and defensive. Most of their critics may be charlatans, but not all are. Indeed, the history of science is full of wrong roads taken, stifling orthodoxy and petty spite among great men fighting to deny each other credit. Science is not always good at admitting its mistakes as wrong-science, not non-science. The worst of it is that – across all endeavours, scientific or not – excess zeal leads us to deny the very legitimacy of our opponents. Not just the legitimacy of their opinions, actions or their research, but their legitimacy as fellow human beings. Blair, Wakefield (both sides), Scott Roeder, the Kansas zealot who tried persuade that judge it was right to save lives by shooting dead an abortion doctor (he lost); even the BNP's more zealous opponents rush to delegitimise all their complaints as glibly as the BNP itself condemns ethnic minorities and other perceived enemies. The most conspicuous target of this process in the world today is actually Barack Obama, whose enemies accuse him not just of being an anti-American socialist (a Nazi too), but of not even being an American because he was "really" born in Kenya. That's what they say and they mean it, lots and lots of them. That's what the man's up against. Scary stuff. I wonder what Scott Roeder thinks. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 29 Jan 2010 | 4:10 am The frog that undergoes a dramatic colour changeA new species of frog found in Papua New Guinea undergoes a dramatic change in colour as it grows older, report scientists.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 29 Jan 2010 | 2:59 am Cigarettes May Cause Infections
The tobacco in cigarettes hosts a bacterial bonanza — literally hundreds of different germs, including those responsible for many human illnesses, a new study finds.
“But nobody talks about cigarettes as a source of those infections,” she says. Her new data now suggest that’s distinctly possible. If these germs are alive, something she has not yet confirmed, just handling cigarettes or putting an unlit one to the mouth could be enough to cause an infection.
The idea that tobacco might contain viable germs isn’t just idle conjecture. Several research teams have isolated bacteria from tobacco that they could grow out in petri dishes. Those earlier investigations tended to hunt for — and, when found, attempted to grow — only one or two species of interest, Sapkota says. What’s novel in her study: She and her colleagues probed for genetic material from any and every bacterium in a cigarette’s tobacco. Under sterile conditions, the researchers opened up cigarettes and then performed a series of tests on the leafy bits. For instance, they isolated all of the ribosomal material and then homed in on its long, species-specific stretches known as 16S regions. These genetic segments were then compared to 16S patches characteristic of known bacterial species. Sapkota’s team had 16S probes for close to 800 different bacteria and found matches to many hundreds in the four brands of cigarettes screened: Marlboro Red, Camel, Kool Filter Kings and Lucky Strike Original Red. These cigarettes are “among the most commonly smoked brands in Westernized countries and represent three major tobacco companies,” Sapkota notes. All were purchased in Lyon, France, where she was completing her postdoctoral studies. Among the large number of germs whose DNA laced these cigarettes were: Campylobacter, which can cause food poisoning and Guillain-Barre Syndrome; Clostridium, which causes food poisoning and pneumonias; Corynebacterium, also associated with pneumonias and other diseases; E. coli; Klebsiella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, all of which are associated not only with pneumonia but also with urinary tract infections; and a number of Staphylococcus species that underlie the most common and serious hospital-associated infections. Sapkota’s team lists many of these — including the most prevalent bacteria in the tobacco they studied — in a paper published early, online in Environmental Health Perspectives. Some people have criticized the idea of infectious cigarettes, arguing that as tobacco burns, it would kill any germs present. But Sapkota is not so sure that’s true. The tobacco farthest from the burning tip might be a balmy temperature, from a bacterial point of view. And here’s “a really wild idea,” she says: What if the smoke particles traveling through the still-unburned part of a cigarette pick up some germs and then ferry them deeply into the lung, where they’re unlikely to be cleared? Wouldn’t that be the prescription for disease? Of course, there’s also plenty of chances for a smoker to become exposed prior to lighting up. And, of course, the potential for highest oral exposure would come from chewing tobacco — and nasal exposures from snuff. Sapkota, an environmental health scientist, plans to follow up her preliminary data to see which types of tobacco are most likely to host viable germs, and whether those bacteria are transported into the body, either during smoking or by the insertion of unburned tobacco products (including chewing tobacco) into the mouth. Several thousand potentially toxic chemicals have been isolated from cigarettes. Sapkota says that it’s not hard to imagine that the number of germs hosted by tobacco products could rival that of the carcinogens and other poisons residing in or produced by burning tobacco. How so, when she’s only found genetic material indicting hundreds of germs? Owing to the bacterial probes available when Sapkota began her tobacco work, she was only able to screen for 700-odd species. But newer probes on the market can now screen for the bacterial 16S genetic material of 5,000 or more germs. And if she used such huge batteries of probes now, she said she fully expects she could turn up at least 1,000 hitchhiking bacterial species in tobacco products. Image: Flickr/alphadesigner See Also:
Source: Wired: Wired Science | 29 Jan 2010 | 2:38 am
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