Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Raman spectoscopy- laser beams to replace Xrays
Portable devices with painless laser beams could soon replace X-rays as a non-invasive way to diagnose disease. Researchers say that the technique could become widely available in about five years.The method, called Raman spectroscopy, could help spot the early signs of breast cancer, tooth decay and osteoporosis.Scientists believe that the technology would make the diagnosis of illnesses faster, cheaper and more accurate.
Raman spectroscopy is the measurement of the intensity and wavelength of scattered light from molecules. It is already being used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. For instance, Raman lasers are used to measure flame characteristics. By studying how fuels burn, pollution from the products of combustion can be minimised.Michael Morris, a chemistry professor at the University of Michigan, US, has been using Raman for the past few years to study human bones.So far, he has been working on cadavers, but he says that Raman could prove effective in living patients.
"You can replace a lot of procedures, a lot of diagnostics that are out there right now. The big advantage is that it's non-invasive, pretty fast - much faster than classical procedures - and more accurate," he told BBC News.When a person is sick, or about to become sick, the chemical mix in the tissue is quite different from that in healthy tissue, scientists say. So the Raman spectrum changes depending on the tissue it analyses, Professor Morris explained. "Raman gives you a molecular fingerprint, a composition of whatever it is you're measuring," he said. "In diseased states, the chemical composition is either slightly abnormal or very markedly abnormal, depending upon the diseases."
Non-invasive
The diagnoses could be carried out in a matter of minutes and without need for an X-ray."A patient simply puts his or her wrist on a table and then we have the optical fibres delivering laser light... connected to a holder, a sort of a bracelet made out of silicon, that is strapped to the patient's wrist," explained Professor Morris."We turn on the laser and after we've collected enough signal in a few minutes, we turn it off. In principle, it will take a couple of seconds to interpret the results." Raman spectrometry is used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Besides bone diseases, the tool could prove effective in detecting early tooth decay, say researchers.
And drawing blood might become unnecessary in some cases. For instance, to determine the levels of cholesterol, one would simply have to point the laser "where you would be looking to draw a blood sample at the crook of the arm, where the blood vessels are very close to the skin," said Morris.
New applications
Another application could be using Raman as a non-invasive alternative to a typical mammography - a process that uses low-dose X-rays to screen patients for signs of breast cancer.The laser would "look" into the tissue and generate different spectra - a distribution of colours reflecting differences in the properties of the tissue. This could reveal benign or malignant tumours, depending on characteristic changes in the protein structure and in the relative amounts of protein, lipids and nucleic acids in the tissue.
British researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot and at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital have been using Raman to analyse calcifications in breast tissue that might be early signs of cancer. Some believe Raman spectrometry could eventually be an alternative to the current technique of mammography "We could target those calcifications and make a decision about whether they're benign or malignant," Nicholas Stone, head of the biophotonics research unit at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital told the magazine Chemical and Engineering News."If they're malignant, or look like they are, you would come back for a biopsy. If they're benign, which is 80 to 90% of the cases, you would not come back for a biopsy." "In the UK alone, that would save about 80,000 patients from having secondary procedures."
Raman spectroscopy is the measurement of the intensity and wavelength of scattered light from molecules. It is already being used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. For instance, Raman lasers are used to measure flame characteristics. By studying how fuels burn, pollution from the products of combustion can be minimised.Michael Morris, a chemistry professor at the University of Michigan, US, has been using Raman for the past few years to study human bones.So far, he has been working on cadavers, but he says that Raman could prove effective in living patients.
"You can replace a lot of procedures, a lot of diagnostics that are out there right now. The big advantage is that it's non-invasive, pretty fast - much faster than classical procedures - and more accurate," he told BBC News.When a person is sick, or about to become sick, the chemical mix in the tissue is quite different from that in healthy tissue, scientists say. So the Raman spectrum changes depending on the tissue it analyses, Professor Morris explained. "Raman gives you a molecular fingerprint, a composition of whatever it is you're measuring," he said. "In diseased states, the chemical composition is either slightly abnormal or very markedly abnormal, depending upon the diseases."
Non-invasive
The diagnoses could be carried out in a matter of minutes and without need for an X-ray."A patient simply puts his or her wrist on a table and then we have the optical fibres delivering laser light... connected to a holder, a sort of a bracelet made out of silicon, that is strapped to the patient's wrist," explained Professor Morris."We turn on the laser and after we've collected enough signal in a few minutes, we turn it off. In principle, it will take a couple of seconds to interpret the results." Raman spectrometry is used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Besides bone diseases, the tool could prove effective in detecting early tooth decay, say researchers.
And drawing blood might become unnecessary in some cases. For instance, to determine the levels of cholesterol, one would simply have to point the laser "where you would be looking to draw a blood sample at the crook of the arm, where the blood vessels are very close to the skin," said Morris.
New applications
Another application could be using Raman as a non-invasive alternative to a typical mammography - a process that uses low-dose X-rays to screen patients for signs of breast cancer.The laser would "look" into the tissue and generate different spectra - a distribution of colours reflecting differences in the properties of the tissue. This could reveal benign or malignant tumours, depending on characteristic changes in the protein structure and in the relative amounts of protein, lipids and nucleic acids in the tissue.
British researchers at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot and at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital have been using Raman to analyse calcifications in breast tissue that might be early signs of cancer. Some believe Raman spectrometry could eventually be an alternative to the current technique of mammography "We could target those calcifications and make a decision about whether they're benign or malignant," Nicholas Stone, head of the biophotonics research unit at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital told the magazine Chemical and Engineering News."If they're malignant, or look like they are, you would come back for a biopsy. If they're benign, which is 80 to 90% of the cases, you would not come back for a biopsy." "In the UK alone, that would save about 80,000 patients from having secondary procedures."
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Carbon eating algae to power cars, feed cattle
Green Energy Actwww.PowerAuthority.on.ca
Scientists are testing an algae that could potentially "eat" carbon dioxide and feed cattle. An algae that eats carbon dioxide and provides bio-fuel and cattle feed as by-products will start a revolutionary commercial trial in Queensland this year. Scientists believe the diesel fuel will be commercially viable within three years and the trial on 1.8 hectares of land next to the Tarong Power Station, 180km north-west of Brisbane, will be the first step in getting the futuristic project to market. If it works, an 80 hectare site could be developed at Tarong.
The project's chief scientist, Townsville's James Cook University associate professor Kirsten Heimann, said the $2.5 million trials would start mid-year. "All the research and development has been done up here at James Cook," Professor Heimann said. "And our industry partner MBD Energy has set up a commercial agreement with Tarong Power Station which we hope to start in mid-year, though it might be a bit later," she said."It's one hectare initially, but if it all goes well we will be looking at much larger modules."
When the project was first announced by the State Government, it was thought the algae could "eat" 50 per cent of the carbon dioxide produced by power stations.Professor Heimann said the team was hoping for these results at Tarong Power Station. "It is highly likely because for the algae to live they need carbon dioxide," she said. "They can take the emissions straight from Tarong Power Station."
The algae needs to absorb 1.82 tonnes of carbon dioxide to produce one tonne of biomass, which in turn produces bio-diesel and the cattle ''cake'', or feed. The project will aim to capture 700 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Townsville-based State MP Craig Wallace said the Tarong trials were very important.
"Currently at James Cook University they have a small pilot plant," he said.
"This will be the first commercial site that it has gone to and if it all goes well, the world could be their oyster." Ms Bligh launched a pilot project in Townsville late last year and said it could become a viable carbon-capture plant."This technology has the potential to revolutionise carbon capture in Queensland and around the world," Ms Bligh said. "Essentially, the algae eats the CO2 and excretes biofuel and stockfeed, so the CO2 is captured and turned into something we can use." Late last year, MBD Energy Limited chairman Jerry Ellis predicted the technology would emerge as a viable CO2 abatement technology option for coal and gas-fired power stations, smelters and refineries around the world. "Our fully enclosed and continuous cycle system has been designed to mimic the fundamental processes of the Earth's natural carbon cycle but do the job in a matter of hours rather than millions of years," Mr Ellis said. "Best of all, the valuable commodities produced more than pays for the comparatively modest infrastructure investment required." The CSIRO said the technology was still in its infancy, but a trial near a power plant would be the best way of testing its commercial success.
"We do believe that biodiesel from algae can be part of the solution," CSIRO energy expert Peter Campbell said. "All of the studies we've done so far say [that] to have a chance of producing biodiesel from algae economically requires a very high level of carbon dioxide input," he said. "You basically need to put your algae farm next to a power station or refinery or ammonia plant."
Scientists are testing an algae that could potentially "eat" carbon dioxide and feed cattle. An algae that eats carbon dioxide and provides bio-fuel and cattle feed as by-products will start a revolutionary commercial trial in Queensland this year. Scientists believe the diesel fuel will be commercially viable within three years and the trial on 1.8 hectares of land next to the Tarong Power Station, 180km north-west of Brisbane, will be the first step in getting the futuristic project to market. If it works, an 80 hectare site could be developed at Tarong.
The project's chief scientist, Townsville's James Cook University associate professor Kirsten Heimann, said the $2.5 million trials would start mid-year. "All the research and development has been done up here at James Cook," Professor Heimann said. "And our industry partner MBD Energy has set up a commercial agreement with Tarong Power Station which we hope to start in mid-year, though it might be a bit later," she said."It's one hectare initially, but if it all goes well we will be looking at much larger modules."
When the project was first announced by the State Government, it was thought the algae could "eat" 50 per cent of the carbon dioxide produced by power stations.Professor Heimann said the team was hoping for these results at Tarong Power Station. "It is highly likely because for the algae to live they need carbon dioxide," she said. "They can take the emissions straight from Tarong Power Station."
The algae needs to absorb 1.82 tonnes of carbon dioxide to produce one tonne of biomass, which in turn produces bio-diesel and the cattle ''cake'', or feed. The project will aim to capture 700 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Townsville-based State MP Craig Wallace said the Tarong trials were very important.
"Currently at James Cook University they have a small pilot plant," he said.
"This will be the first commercial site that it has gone to and if it all goes well, the world could be their oyster." Ms Bligh launched a pilot project in Townsville late last year and said it could become a viable carbon-capture plant."This technology has the potential to revolutionise carbon capture in Queensland and around the world," Ms Bligh said. "Essentially, the algae eats the CO2 and excretes biofuel and stockfeed, so the CO2 is captured and turned into something we can use." Late last year, MBD Energy Limited chairman Jerry Ellis predicted the technology would emerge as a viable CO2 abatement technology option for coal and gas-fired power stations, smelters and refineries around the world. "Our fully enclosed and continuous cycle system has been designed to mimic the fundamental processes of the Earth's natural carbon cycle but do the job in a matter of hours rather than millions of years," Mr Ellis said. "Best of all, the valuable commodities produced more than pays for the comparatively modest infrastructure investment required." The CSIRO said the technology was still in its infancy, but a trial near a power plant would be the best way of testing its commercial success.
"We do believe that biodiesel from algae can be part of the solution," CSIRO energy expert Peter Campbell said. "All of the studies we've done so far say [that] to have a chance of producing biodiesel from algae economically requires a very high level of carbon dioxide input," he said. "You basically need to put your algae farm next to a power station or refinery or ammonia plant."
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Touching own injury 'cuts pain'
Touching is an important way of sending a picture of our body to our brain There may be a very good reason why people clutch a painful area of their body after receiving an injury, according to a study. Touching the affected area allows a picture of the body to form in the brain, says a study in Current Biology. Researchers at University College London (UCL) found that the way the body is represented in the brain is key to reducing perceptions of acute pain. But it does not work if someone else touches the injury, they say.
Scientists from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL studied the effects of self-touch in people who were made to feel pain using an experimental model called the Thermal Grill Illusion (TGI).
Healthy volunteers were asked to put their index and ring fingers in warm water and their middle finger in cold water. This generates a feeling that the middle finger is painfully hot, explains the study.
Lead researcher Dr Marjolein Kammers said: "The brain doesn't know this is an illusion of pain but it does allow scientists to investigate the experience of pain without causing injury to anyone."
The pain experienced by the middle finger reduced most - by 64% - when TGI was induced in an individual's two hands and then all three fingers on one hand touched the same fingers on the other hand.
The same level of pain relief was not evident when only one or two fingers were pressed against each other or when someone else's hand was pressed against the affected hand. Professor Patrick Haggard, also from UCL, explained: "We showed that levels of acute pain depend not just on the signals sent to the brain, but also on how the brain integrates these signals into a coherent representation of the body as a whole.
"Self-touch provides strong evidence to the brain about the correlation of sensory information coming from different parts of the body. "This helps to give us the experience of our body as a coherent whole," he said.
Dr Kammers is currently researching whether the pain-relieving effect of touching fingers and hands together can be replicated in other parts of the body. Previous studies of chronic pain, following the amputation of a limb for example, have shown the importance of the way the body is represented in the brain when pain is experienced. Thanks to this study, researchers say they now have an experimental model to study how the brain's sense of the body influences acute pain.
Scientists from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL studied the effects of self-touch in people who were made to feel pain using an experimental model called the Thermal Grill Illusion (TGI).
Healthy volunteers were asked to put their index and ring fingers in warm water and their middle finger in cold water. This generates a feeling that the middle finger is painfully hot, explains the study.
Lead researcher Dr Marjolein Kammers said: "The brain doesn't know this is an illusion of pain but it does allow scientists to investigate the experience of pain without causing injury to anyone."
The pain experienced by the middle finger reduced most - by 64% - when TGI was induced in an individual's two hands and then all three fingers on one hand touched the same fingers on the other hand.
The same level of pain relief was not evident when only one or two fingers were pressed against each other or when someone else's hand was pressed against the affected hand. Professor Patrick Haggard, also from UCL, explained: "We showed that levels of acute pain depend not just on the signals sent to the brain, but also on how the brain integrates these signals into a coherent representation of the body as a whole.
"Self-touch provides strong evidence to the brain about the correlation of sensory information coming from different parts of the body. "This helps to give us the experience of our body as a coherent whole," he said.
Dr Kammers is currently researching whether the pain-relieving effect of touching fingers and hands together can be replicated in other parts of the body. Previous studies of chronic pain, following the amputation of a limb for example, have shown the importance of the way the body is represented in the brain when pain is experienced. Thanks to this study, researchers say they now have an experimental model to study how the brain's sense of the body influences acute pain.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Ground water
Global groundwater levels dwindling: study 'You will have hunger and social unrest,' researcher warns
A global survey of groundwater levels appears to show underground supplies are dwindling.The research, examining groundwater reserves by measuring rainfall and other water sources against evaporation and removal for agriculture and other uses, finds that the rate of depletion more than doubled between 1960 and 2000, to 283 cubic kilometres annually from 126 cubic kilometres per year.
Depletion hotspots include northwest India, northeastern China, northeast Pakistan, California's Central Valley and the midwestern U.S., according to the report. Groundwater represents roughly 30 per cent of all fresh water in the world. Its depletion is leading to an increase in sea levels, as people remove groundwater, leaving it then to evaporate and fall as rain. The researchers predict current practices will lead to a crisis, as so much of the world's agriculture relies on groundwater.
"If you let the population grow by extending the irrigated areas using groundwater that is not being recharged, then you will run into a wall at a certain point in time, and you will have hunger and social unrest to go with it," said Marc Bierkens of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the lead author of the study. "That is something that you can see coming for miles."
The research is to be published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/09/24/groundwater-study-depletion.html#ixzz10U1XbnP3
A global survey of groundwater levels appears to show underground supplies are dwindling.The research, examining groundwater reserves by measuring rainfall and other water sources against evaporation and removal for agriculture and other uses, finds that the rate of depletion more than doubled between 1960 and 2000, to 283 cubic kilometres annually from 126 cubic kilometres per year.
Depletion hotspots include northwest India, northeastern China, northeast Pakistan, California's Central Valley and the midwestern U.S., according to the report. Groundwater represents roughly 30 per cent of all fresh water in the world. Its depletion is leading to an increase in sea levels, as people remove groundwater, leaving it then to evaporate and fall as rain. The researchers predict current practices will lead to a crisis, as so much of the world's agriculture relies on groundwater.
"If you let the population grow by extending the irrigated areas using groundwater that is not being recharged, then you will run into a wall at a certain point in time, and you will have hunger and social unrest to go with it," said Marc Bierkens of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the lead author of the study. "That is something that you can see coming for miles."
The research is to be published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/09/24/groundwater-study-depletion.html#ixzz10U1XbnP3
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Dementia costs rise to $620B: global report
Dementia costs rise to $620B: global report
'The single most significant health and social crisis'
Caring for people with dementia is expected to cost $620 billion this year worldwide, according to a new report. As populations age, conditions such as Alzheimer's disease are becoming more prevalent, Tuesday's report by European researchers said. After age 65, the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, doubles every five years.
At age 85, people have about a 50 per cent chance of developing the disease. Globally, more than 36 million people have dementia, a figure that is likely to almost double, to nearly 66 million, by 2030 and go to 115 million by 2050, the group Alzheimer's Disease International said. About 70 per cent of the costs of caring for people with Alzheimer's occur in Western Europe and North America, including direct medical costs and community care, as well as unpaid, informal care provided by relatives and others. Caring for people with dementia is not just a health issue, but a "a massive social issue," said Martin Prince, one of the co-authors and a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London.
The report's authors urges governments to:
• Start planning now for how to care for people with dementia.
• Fund more research into treatments — a 15-fold increase in dementia funding would put the ailment on par with heart disease.
• Develop cost-effective packages of medical and social care for people with dementia and their caregivers.
"If dementia care were a country, it would be the world's 18th-largest economy," the report said.
"If it were a company, it would be the world's largest by annual revenue, exceeding Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil."
More effective care is also needed to help people with dementia live longer and fuller lives, said Steve Crab, director of Britain's Alzheimer Society.The Alzheimer's Society of Canada said there are roughly 500,000 Canadians with dementia. The cost of caring for them is about $15 billion a year, the group said.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/09/21/dementia-global-impact.html#ixzz10BfELD3L
More than 35 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, according to the most in-depth attempt yet to assess the brain-destroying illness.The report, released in September 2009 by Alzheimer's Disease International, says the updated count is about 10 per cent higher than predicted just a few years ago, because earlier research underestimated Alzheimer's growing impact in developing countries.
Barring a medical breakthrough, dementia will nearly double every 20 years. By 2050, it will affect 115.4 million people, the report suggests.Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia and affects one in 20 Canadians over 65 — about 290,000 people. The number rises to one in four in those over 85.
Close to 75 per cent of Canadians with Alzheimer's are women.
According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, by 2050 the number of cases around the world will quadruple to around 106 million people.'71,000 Canadians under the age of 65 are living with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. Approximately 50,000 are 59 or younger.'— Alzheimer Society of Canada The biggest jump is projected for Asia, where 12.6 million people currently have Alzheimer's. That's almost half the cases in the world. By 2050, that number is expected to balloon to 62.8 million.The researchers say a greying population worldwide will be behind the looming dementia epidemic.
But Alzheimer's is not just a disease of the elderly. A study released by the Alzheimer Society of Canada on Jan. 5, 2009, found that 71,000 Canadians under the age of 65 are living with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. Approximately 50,000 are 59 or younger.The society predicts that within 25 years, the number of Canadians with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia will more than double, ranging between 1 and 1.3 million people.The disease slowly leads to memory impairment, behavioural changes and dementia, affecting how people understand, think, remember and communicate.
There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's, but researchers say they've made progress in finding out more about the disease. They believe Alzheimer's begins to attack the brain years before the symptoms appear, so determining what causes the disease and who's susceptible to it are critical to researchers in the field.
"We definitively know that genes are involved - familial transmission of defective genes, and also some less obvious but very interesting findings recently suggest that what we traditionally viewed as risk factors for heart disease also happen to be risk factors for Alzheimer's," said Dr. Judes Poirier, director of the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging, in an interview with CBC-TV in September 2006.
In January 2007, a Canadian-led research team reported finding a gene that may increase the risk of the disease. In the journal Nature Genetics, the researchers said preliminary data suggest that people with Alzheimer's disease tend to have lower levels of SORL1 in their blood cells.In laboratory studies, the researchers found that when they suppressed the activity of SORL1, cells made greater amounts of amyloid beta peptide, a substance that is thought to play a key role in causing Alzheimer's.SORL1 controls the distribution of amyloid precursor protein (APP) inside nerve cells of the brain. When working normally, SORL1 prevents APP from being degraded into A-beta, which also fosters the formation of plaques. Researchers believe that as the amyloid accumulates, brain cells begin to die, leading to disorientation and progressive memory loss.
Possible Alzheimer's 'fingerprint'?
In December 2006, researchers at New York's Weill Cornell Medical College discovered what they described as a "fingerprint" of Alzheimer's disease. They identified a pattern of 23 proteins floating in spinal fluid that, in preliminary testing, seems to indicate Alzheimer's with some accuracy. Currently the only definitive way to diagnose Alzheimer's is through autopsy. But the finding could pave the way for a test to determine whether a person may develop Alzheimer's later in life. Using a technology called proteomics, the researchers examined 2,000 proteins found in the spinal fluid of 34 people who died with autopsy-proven Alzheimer's, comparing it with the spinal fluid of 34 non-demented people. What emerged as a difference were 23 proteins, many that by themselves had never been linked to Alzheimer's, but that together formed a fingerprint of the disease.
The researchers then looked for the same protein pattern in 28 more people. Some had symptoms of Alzheimer's or other dementia. Others were healthy. The test indicated Alzheimer's in nine out of 10 patients that doctors suspect have it. But it also incorrectly pointed to Alzheimer's in three people who were healthy.
In another study — published in an Aug. 12, 2007 article in the journal Nature Medicine — scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y., reported that using a protein as a "sponge" to absorb the toxic plaque that builds up in Alzheimer's patients can halt symptoms and improve brain function.
The protein is called soluble LRP or soluble low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein. In healthy people, it binds to and neutralizes up to 90 per cent of the amyloid beta (the toxic plaque) that is circulating in the body.The researchers found that when they injected mice with extra LRP, the body soaked up more of the plaque and the brain also responded by reducing levels of it. The results were more dramatic in mice with symptoms of Alzheimer's. They experienced improved learning and memory compared to mice that did not receive the extra protein. Blood flow to the brain was also improved.
The researchers are working to create a form of LRP that can be tested in people.
Caffeine a help?
At the University of South Florida's Alzheimer Disease Research Center, scientists say their research suggests that caffeine may significantly decrease abnormal levels of amyloid, both in the brains and in the blood of mice exhibiting symptoms of the disease.The study included 55 mice genetically altered to develop memory problems mimicking Alzheimer’s disease as they aged. The researchers gave half the mice 500 milligrams caffeine in their drinking water — the equivalent of five 250 ml cups of coffee a day, 14 cups of tea or 20 soft drinks. The other half were given plain water.At the end of the two-month study, the mice that received the doses of caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills. Their memories improved so much that they were about the same as normal-aged mice without dementia. But the Alzheimer’s mice that received plain drinking plain water showed no improvement. They continued to perform poorly on the tests.The researchers called their findings "some of the most promising Alzheimer’s mouse experiments ever done." They're hoping to get the funding for large clinical studies on people.
Diet and Alzheimer's
Drinking fruit and vegetable juice frequently may help delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, a finding that reinforces the importance of a healthy diet. Research released in August 2006 in the U.S suggests something as simple as a glass of freshly squeezed juice three or more times a week seemed to dramatically reduce the developing signs of Alzheimer's.As in diabetes, the disease makes the body produce more nasty oxygen radicals — damaging chemicals produced during metabolism. Recently, researchers in California concluded Alzheimer's is a disease of aging because part of the brain's cleanup crew that clears away the toxic buildup of free radicals becomes less efficient, increasing susceptibility to the disease. Our bodies use anti-oxidants in foods to neutralize the damage
Delaying onset
To look at the effect of diet on the risk of developing Alzheimer's, researchers in the U.S. followed almost 2,000 dementia-free people for up to 10 years, collecting information on their diet and assessing their cognitive function every two years.
10 warning signs of Alzheimer's
1. Memory loss that affects day-to-day function, especially things that have happened more recently.
2. Difficulty performing familiar tasks such as preparing a meal.
3. May forget simple words or substitute words, making sentences difficult to understand.
4. Disorientation of time and place such as forgetting how to get home.
5. Poor or decreased judgment such as not recognizing a medical problem that needs attention or wearing heavy clothing on a hot day.
6. Problems with abstract thinking such as not recognizing what the numbers in a chequebook mean.
7. Putting things in inappropriate places such as an iron in the freezer or a wristwatch in the sugar bowl.
8. Having varied mood swings — from calm, to tears, to anger — for no apparent reason.
9. Becoming uncharacteristically confused, suspicious or withdrawn. Changes may also include apathy, fearfulness or acting out of character.
10. May become very passive, and require cues and prompting to become involved.
Source: Alzheimer Society of Canada
They found the risk of developing signs of Alzheimer's was 76 per cent lower among people who drank three or more servings of juice per week compared with those who drank it less than once per week. "Fruit and vegetable juices may play an important role in delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Qi Dai of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., wrote in the September 2006 issue of the American Journal of Medicine.The researchers originally suspected anti-oxidants such as vitamin C in the juice might be protective, but clinical studies did not support the idea."What this new study showed is in these juices, it isn't the vitamins that's protective, it's these polyphenols, and that's the surprising thing," Dr. Jack Diamond, scientific director of the Alzheimer's Society of Canada, told CBC News.
Animal and cell culture studies suggest polyphenols in juice pressed from whole, fresh fruits and vegetables show a stronger neuroprotective effect than the vitamins, the team noted. Protective polyphenols are mostly found in the skin or rind of fruits and vegetables. They tend to disintegrate when heated, Diamond said. On this side of the border, researchers have found that being bilingual all your life may reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer's. The researchers looked at the hospital records of people who had visited the memory clinic at Baycrest Hospital in Toronto. Two-thirds had Alzheimer's and the rest had other kinds of dementia. Half were bilingual, speaking at least two languages every day for 50 years or more.The researchers found that for the people who spoke one language, dementia symptoms started showing up at the age of 71, on average. For bilingual people, the average age of onset of dementia symptoms was 75.
But becoming bilingual doesn't appear to be enough to make a difference. There was little difference in the age of onset of symptoms for people who picked up a second language later in life.
Population differences
Dai's study was part of a larger research project comparing Alzheimer's disease and dementia in older Japanese populations living in Japan, where incidence of Alzheimer's is low, to Japanese people living in Hawaii and Seattle, Wash. The difference in incidence rates suggests environmental factors including diet and lifestyle may be important.Even when different populations consumed the same vitamin content, it was the people who drank more fruit and vegetable juice that gained the greatest protection.The protective effect won't necessarily stop Alzheimer's, but it reduced the chances, after controlling for other factors such as smoking, education, physical activity and fat intake that could also play a role.
The benefit was enhanced in people who carried a genetic marker called apolipoprotein E that is linked to late-onset Alzheimer's, as well as those who were not physically active.
Although the large number of people studied across populations over a long time are assets of the study, Dai cautioned it's important for people not to jump the gun on the potential protective value of juice, and they can't say what type of juice might help or how long it needs to be consumed.
Previously, clinical trials, a more rigorous form of research, did not pan out for using antioxidant vitamins or hormone replacement therapy to prevent or slow Alzheimer's, Dai said.
While some dieters may be told to avoid the excess calories in juice, the research adds to evidence on how fruits and vegetables improve health. The foods help blood pressure and keep blood vessels healthy. Canadian researchers are also looking at non-dietary strategies for curbing the nerve damage of Alzheimer's.Researchers at the Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Toronto discovered a protein blocks the creation of nerve toxins in Alzheimer's.If scientists can understand how the protein prevents the toxic build-up, it could lead to more specific treatments with fewer side-effects, according to Dr. Georges Levesque, chair of the biomedical review panel at the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/01/05/f-alzheimer.html#ixzz10BgGyWRR
'The single most significant health and social crisis'
Caring for people with dementia is expected to cost $620 billion this year worldwide, according to a new report. As populations age, conditions such as Alzheimer's disease are becoming more prevalent, Tuesday's report by European researchers said. After age 65, the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, doubles every five years.
At age 85, people have about a 50 per cent chance of developing the disease. Globally, more than 36 million people have dementia, a figure that is likely to almost double, to nearly 66 million, by 2030 and go to 115 million by 2050, the group Alzheimer's Disease International said. About 70 per cent of the costs of caring for people with Alzheimer's occur in Western Europe and North America, including direct medical costs and community care, as well as unpaid, informal care provided by relatives and others. Caring for people with dementia is not just a health issue, but a "a massive social issue," said Martin Prince, one of the co-authors and a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London.
The report's authors urges governments to:
• Start planning now for how to care for people with dementia.
• Fund more research into treatments — a 15-fold increase in dementia funding would put the ailment on par with heart disease.
• Develop cost-effective packages of medical and social care for people with dementia and their caregivers.
"If dementia care were a country, it would be the world's 18th-largest economy," the report said.
"If it were a company, it would be the world's largest by annual revenue, exceeding Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil."
More effective care is also needed to help people with dementia live longer and fuller lives, said Steve Crab, director of Britain's Alzheimer Society.The Alzheimer's Society of Canada said there are roughly 500,000 Canadians with dementia. The cost of caring for them is about $15 billion a year, the group said.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/09/21/dementia-global-impact.html#ixzz10BfELD3L
More than 35 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, according to the most in-depth attempt yet to assess the brain-destroying illness.The report, released in September 2009 by Alzheimer's Disease International, says the updated count is about 10 per cent higher than predicted just a few years ago, because earlier research underestimated Alzheimer's growing impact in developing countries.
Barring a medical breakthrough, dementia will nearly double every 20 years. By 2050, it will affect 115.4 million people, the report suggests.Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia and affects one in 20 Canadians over 65 — about 290,000 people. The number rises to one in four in those over 85.
Close to 75 per cent of Canadians with Alzheimer's are women.
According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, by 2050 the number of cases around the world will quadruple to around 106 million people.'71,000 Canadians under the age of 65 are living with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. Approximately 50,000 are 59 or younger.'— Alzheimer Society of Canada The biggest jump is projected for Asia, where 12.6 million people currently have Alzheimer's. That's almost half the cases in the world. By 2050, that number is expected to balloon to 62.8 million.The researchers say a greying population worldwide will be behind the looming dementia epidemic.
But Alzheimer's is not just a disease of the elderly. A study released by the Alzheimer Society of Canada on Jan. 5, 2009, found that 71,000 Canadians under the age of 65 are living with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia. Approximately 50,000 are 59 or younger.The society predicts that within 25 years, the number of Canadians with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia will more than double, ranging between 1 and 1.3 million people.The disease slowly leads to memory impairment, behavioural changes and dementia, affecting how people understand, think, remember and communicate.
There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's, but researchers say they've made progress in finding out more about the disease. They believe Alzheimer's begins to attack the brain years before the symptoms appear, so determining what causes the disease and who's susceptible to it are critical to researchers in the field.
"We definitively know that genes are involved - familial transmission of defective genes, and also some less obvious but very interesting findings recently suggest that what we traditionally viewed as risk factors for heart disease also happen to be risk factors for Alzheimer's," said Dr. Judes Poirier, director of the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging, in an interview with CBC-TV in September 2006.
In January 2007, a Canadian-led research team reported finding a gene that may increase the risk of the disease. In the journal Nature Genetics, the researchers said preliminary data suggest that people with Alzheimer's disease tend to have lower levels of SORL1 in their blood cells.In laboratory studies, the researchers found that when they suppressed the activity of SORL1, cells made greater amounts of amyloid beta peptide, a substance that is thought to play a key role in causing Alzheimer's.SORL1 controls the distribution of amyloid precursor protein (APP) inside nerve cells of the brain. When working normally, SORL1 prevents APP from being degraded into A-beta, which also fosters the formation of plaques. Researchers believe that as the amyloid accumulates, brain cells begin to die, leading to disorientation and progressive memory loss.
Possible Alzheimer's 'fingerprint'?
In December 2006, researchers at New York's Weill Cornell Medical College discovered what they described as a "fingerprint" of Alzheimer's disease. They identified a pattern of 23 proteins floating in spinal fluid that, in preliminary testing, seems to indicate Alzheimer's with some accuracy. Currently the only definitive way to diagnose Alzheimer's is through autopsy. But the finding could pave the way for a test to determine whether a person may develop Alzheimer's later in life. Using a technology called proteomics, the researchers examined 2,000 proteins found in the spinal fluid of 34 people who died with autopsy-proven Alzheimer's, comparing it with the spinal fluid of 34 non-demented people. What emerged as a difference were 23 proteins, many that by themselves had never been linked to Alzheimer's, but that together formed a fingerprint of the disease.
The researchers then looked for the same protein pattern in 28 more people. Some had symptoms of Alzheimer's or other dementia. Others were healthy. The test indicated Alzheimer's in nine out of 10 patients that doctors suspect have it. But it also incorrectly pointed to Alzheimer's in three people who were healthy.
In another study — published in an Aug. 12, 2007 article in the journal Nature Medicine — scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y., reported that using a protein as a "sponge" to absorb the toxic plaque that builds up in Alzheimer's patients can halt symptoms and improve brain function.
The protein is called soluble LRP or soluble low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein. In healthy people, it binds to and neutralizes up to 90 per cent of the amyloid beta (the toxic plaque) that is circulating in the body.The researchers found that when they injected mice with extra LRP, the body soaked up more of the plaque and the brain also responded by reducing levels of it. The results were more dramatic in mice with symptoms of Alzheimer's. They experienced improved learning and memory compared to mice that did not receive the extra protein. Blood flow to the brain was also improved.
The researchers are working to create a form of LRP that can be tested in people.
Caffeine a help?
At the University of South Florida's Alzheimer Disease Research Center, scientists say their research suggests that caffeine may significantly decrease abnormal levels of amyloid, both in the brains and in the blood of mice exhibiting symptoms of the disease.The study included 55 mice genetically altered to develop memory problems mimicking Alzheimer’s disease as they aged. The researchers gave half the mice 500 milligrams caffeine in their drinking water — the equivalent of five 250 ml cups of coffee a day, 14 cups of tea or 20 soft drinks. The other half were given plain water.At the end of the two-month study, the mice that received the doses of caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills. Their memories improved so much that they were about the same as normal-aged mice without dementia. But the Alzheimer’s mice that received plain drinking plain water showed no improvement. They continued to perform poorly on the tests.The researchers called their findings "some of the most promising Alzheimer’s mouse experiments ever done." They're hoping to get the funding for large clinical studies on people.
Diet and Alzheimer's
Drinking fruit and vegetable juice frequently may help delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, a finding that reinforces the importance of a healthy diet. Research released in August 2006 in the U.S suggests something as simple as a glass of freshly squeezed juice three or more times a week seemed to dramatically reduce the developing signs of Alzheimer's.As in diabetes, the disease makes the body produce more nasty oxygen radicals — damaging chemicals produced during metabolism. Recently, researchers in California concluded Alzheimer's is a disease of aging because part of the brain's cleanup crew that clears away the toxic buildup of free radicals becomes less efficient, increasing susceptibility to the disease. Our bodies use anti-oxidants in foods to neutralize the damage
Delaying onset
To look at the effect of diet on the risk of developing Alzheimer's, researchers in the U.S. followed almost 2,000 dementia-free people for up to 10 years, collecting information on their diet and assessing their cognitive function every two years.
10 warning signs of Alzheimer's
1. Memory loss that affects day-to-day function, especially things that have happened more recently.
2. Difficulty performing familiar tasks such as preparing a meal.
3. May forget simple words or substitute words, making sentences difficult to understand.
4. Disorientation of time and place such as forgetting how to get home.
5. Poor or decreased judgment such as not recognizing a medical problem that needs attention or wearing heavy clothing on a hot day.
6. Problems with abstract thinking such as not recognizing what the numbers in a chequebook mean.
7. Putting things in inappropriate places such as an iron in the freezer or a wristwatch in the sugar bowl.
8. Having varied mood swings — from calm, to tears, to anger — for no apparent reason.
9. Becoming uncharacteristically confused, suspicious or withdrawn. Changes may also include apathy, fearfulness or acting out of character.
10. May become very passive, and require cues and prompting to become involved.
Source: Alzheimer Society of Canada
They found the risk of developing signs of Alzheimer's was 76 per cent lower among people who drank three or more servings of juice per week compared with those who drank it less than once per week. "Fruit and vegetable juices may play an important role in delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Qi Dai of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., wrote in the September 2006 issue of the American Journal of Medicine.The researchers originally suspected anti-oxidants such as vitamin C in the juice might be protective, but clinical studies did not support the idea."What this new study showed is in these juices, it isn't the vitamins that's protective, it's these polyphenols, and that's the surprising thing," Dr. Jack Diamond, scientific director of the Alzheimer's Society of Canada, told CBC News.
Animal and cell culture studies suggest polyphenols in juice pressed from whole, fresh fruits and vegetables show a stronger neuroprotective effect than the vitamins, the team noted. Protective polyphenols are mostly found in the skin or rind of fruits and vegetables. They tend to disintegrate when heated, Diamond said. On this side of the border, researchers have found that being bilingual all your life may reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer's. The researchers looked at the hospital records of people who had visited the memory clinic at Baycrest Hospital in Toronto. Two-thirds had Alzheimer's and the rest had other kinds of dementia. Half were bilingual, speaking at least two languages every day for 50 years or more.The researchers found that for the people who spoke one language, dementia symptoms started showing up at the age of 71, on average. For bilingual people, the average age of onset of dementia symptoms was 75.
But becoming bilingual doesn't appear to be enough to make a difference. There was little difference in the age of onset of symptoms for people who picked up a second language later in life.
Population differences
Dai's study was part of a larger research project comparing Alzheimer's disease and dementia in older Japanese populations living in Japan, where incidence of Alzheimer's is low, to Japanese people living in Hawaii and Seattle, Wash. The difference in incidence rates suggests environmental factors including diet and lifestyle may be important.Even when different populations consumed the same vitamin content, it was the people who drank more fruit and vegetable juice that gained the greatest protection.The protective effect won't necessarily stop Alzheimer's, but it reduced the chances, after controlling for other factors such as smoking, education, physical activity and fat intake that could also play a role.
The benefit was enhanced in people who carried a genetic marker called apolipoprotein E that is linked to late-onset Alzheimer's, as well as those who were not physically active.
Although the large number of people studied across populations over a long time are assets of the study, Dai cautioned it's important for people not to jump the gun on the potential protective value of juice, and they can't say what type of juice might help or how long it needs to be consumed.
Previously, clinical trials, a more rigorous form of research, did not pan out for using antioxidant vitamins or hormone replacement therapy to prevent or slow Alzheimer's, Dai said.
While some dieters may be told to avoid the excess calories in juice, the research adds to evidence on how fruits and vegetables improve health. The foods help blood pressure and keep blood vessels healthy. Canadian researchers are also looking at non-dietary strategies for curbing the nerve damage of Alzheimer's.Researchers at the Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Toronto discovered a protein blocks the creation of nerve toxins in Alzheimer's.If scientists can understand how the protein prevents the toxic build-up, it could lead to more specific treatments with fewer side-effects, according to Dr. Georges Levesque, chair of the biomedical review panel at the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/01/05/f-alzheimer.html#ixzz10BgGyWRR
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Staving off flu lowers heart attack risk: study
Staving off flu lowers heart attack risk: study
New findings reinforce flu shot recommendations for some groups, researchers say. (CBC) Preventing the flu can lower the chances of a first heart attack in some people, according to a new study.Since heart attacks increase significantly in the winter when pneumonia and flu are common, researchers have suggested there may be a link between respiratory infections and heart attacks. The link was tested in Monday's online issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, where it was revealed that researchers from the United Kingdom looked at 78,706 patients aged 40 years or older from 379 family practices in England and Wales.
Of the total, 16,012 had had a heart attack and 8,472 of the patients had been vaccinated.
Early vaccination for flu — between September and mid-November — was associated with a 21 per cent reduction in the rate of heart attacks compared with late vaccination after mid-November, which was associated with a 12 per cent reduction."Our findings reinforce current recommendations for annual influenza vaccination of target groups, with a potential added benefit for prevention of acute myocardial infarction in those without established cardiovascular disease," wrote Dr. Niroshan Siriwardena of the University of Lincoln, with co-authors Stella Gwini and Carol Coupland.
Pneumococcal vaccination was not linked to a reduction in the rate of heart attacks, the researchers found.
The study's authors took into consideration that people with risk factors for heart attacks were more likely to be vaccinated than those with no risk factors."Flu vaccination may be linked to a reduction in risk of heart attack," Siriwardena said."As well as preventing flu and respiratory problems linked to flu, that's another reason to go ahead and have a flu vaccination," he added in an interview.If the findings are borne out by future studies, then it could lead to changes in the recommended timing and indications for flu shots, the researchers concluded. It's thought that an inflammation process related to flu starts to affect coronary blood vessels, which as a result of the flu are more likely to rupture and cause a heart attack, Siriwardena said
The study was funded by the U.K.'s National Institute for Health Research. The authors did not declare any potential conflicts of interest.
New findings reinforce flu shot recommendations for some groups, researchers say. (CBC) Preventing the flu can lower the chances of a first heart attack in some people, according to a new study.Since heart attacks increase significantly in the winter when pneumonia and flu are common, researchers have suggested there may be a link between respiratory infections and heart attacks. The link was tested in Monday's online issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, where it was revealed that researchers from the United Kingdom looked at 78,706 patients aged 40 years or older from 379 family practices in England and Wales.
Of the total, 16,012 had had a heart attack and 8,472 of the patients had been vaccinated.
Early vaccination for flu — between September and mid-November — was associated with a 21 per cent reduction in the rate of heart attacks compared with late vaccination after mid-November, which was associated with a 12 per cent reduction."Our findings reinforce current recommendations for annual influenza vaccination of target groups, with a potential added benefit for prevention of acute myocardial infarction in those without established cardiovascular disease," wrote Dr. Niroshan Siriwardena of the University of Lincoln, with co-authors Stella Gwini and Carol Coupland.
Pneumococcal vaccination was not linked to a reduction in the rate of heart attacks, the researchers found.
The study's authors took into consideration that people with risk factors for heart attacks were more likely to be vaccinated than those with no risk factors."Flu vaccination may be linked to a reduction in risk of heart attack," Siriwardena said."As well as preventing flu and respiratory problems linked to flu, that's another reason to go ahead and have a flu vaccination," he added in an interview.If the findings are borne out by future studies, then it could lead to changes in the recommended timing and indications for flu shots, the researchers concluded. It's thought that an inflammation process related to flu starts to affect coronary blood vessels, which as a result of the flu are more likely to rupture and cause a heart attack, Siriwardena said
The study was funded by the U.K.'s National Institute for Health Research. The authors did not declare any potential conflicts of interest.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Global plant inventory cuts 600,000 species records
Until now, there has not been a global list of all the plant species known to science The inventory of plants known to science worldwide has been cut by more than 600,000 species. Many plants have been named more than once, so for the past two years, scientists have been developing an accurate record of the world's plants.The ongoing study involves UK and US researchers, who expect the final number of recorded species appearing on the Plant List to be closer to 400,000. The list, to help plant conservation, will be published later this year.
"Without accurate names - authoritatively determined - understanding and communication about global plant life would descend into inefficient chaos," said Stephen Hooper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew - one of the organisations involved in the project. In partnership with the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Kew Gardens have been working on the project, which aims to provide a working list of all plants species in an effort to support plant conservation around the world.
It involves taking records from existing plant databases and producing a single, global inventory that removes duplications and errors - something that is not available at the moment. The latest developments were outlined during the fourth Global Botanic Gardens Congress, which was held in Dublin in June. The researchers involved in the Plant List are aware that is not without its own problems. "It's been a rollercoaster of a project, and the results will be far from perfect but it will be the most comprehensive list to date," said Kew's head of science policy and co-ordination, Eimear Nic Lughadha.
"It will include almost all scientific names at species level that have been published for plants." However, when the list is published, there will be no coverage of ferns, nor algae, which account for about 10,000 and 30,000 species respectively.It is hoped that the working list will be accessible via the web in the coming months.
"Without accurate names - authoritatively determined - understanding and communication about global plant life would descend into inefficient chaos," said Stephen Hooper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew - one of the organisations involved in the project. In partnership with the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Kew Gardens have been working on the project, which aims to provide a working list of all plants species in an effort to support plant conservation around the world.
It involves taking records from existing plant databases and producing a single, global inventory that removes duplications and errors - something that is not available at the moment. The latest developments were outlined during the fourth Global Botanic Gardens Congress, which was held in Dublin in June. The researchers involved in the Plant List are aware that is not without its own problems. "It's been a rollercoaster of a project, and the results will be far from perfect but it will be the most comprehensive list to date," said Kew's head of science policy and co-ordination, Eimear Nic Lughadha.
"It will include almost all scientific names at species level that have been published for plants." However, when the list is published, there will be no coverage of ferns, nor algae, which account for about 10,000 and 30,000 species respectively.It is hoped that the working list will be accessible via the web in the coming months.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Scottish warning over vitamin D levels
Sunlight on the skin helps generate vitamin D New leaflets are to be handed out urging people to make sure they get enough vitamin D. Doctors are concerned people in Scotland are not getting enough of the vitamin from sunlight and are not topping up their levels with a healthy diet. There is increasing evidence that a lack of vitamin D could be linked to cancer and multiple sclerosis. Doctors are also concerned about a rise in the bone disease rickets.
Rickets is a rare condition which causes the softening and weakening of bones in children. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are particularly at risk of vitamin D deficiency, along with children under five, the elderly, the housebound and people with darker skin. About 10 to 15 minutes a day of sunshine is considered safe.
Although the advice in these leaflets isn't new, the Scottish NHS is the only health service in Britain highlighting the dangers of vitamin D deficiency. If you live in Scotland you'll be familiar enough with the Scottish weather to know why! On th e one hand we're always being warned about the dangers of too much sunshine, now we're being told we're not getting enough. It's an easy balance to strike though - 10-15 minutes a day is safe and avoid the middle of the day when the sun's rays just burn you.
But in Scotland the sun is only strong enough to provide vitamin D between April and September. If the body's reserves of vitamin D run out during the winter, they need to be topped up from oily fish, eggs, meat or a supplement. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "We know that in Scotland the winter sun is not strong enough to provide the minimum vitamin D needed for health - especially for those with darker skin.
"A significant proportion of the UK population has low vitamin D levels. This leaflet aims to ensure that those at risk are aware of the implications of vitamin D deficiency and know what they can do to prevent it." She added: "Vitamin D is key to maintaining healthy bones. Young children have a high risk of deficiency and we are seeing an increase in reported cases of rickets in Scotland.
"These conditions are easily prevented by improving diet and taking a supplement if you are at risk. Recent research suggests that vitamin D deficiency may also contribute to a range of other medical conditions. The Scottish government are keen to continue to monitor this evidence." The health secretary is due to speak at the Shine on Scotland conference on Tuesday, which will bring together academics from across the world to consider the possible links between vitamin D deficiency and various health problems.
The event is taking place after schoolboy Ryan McLaughlin took a petition to the Scottish Parliament which called on ministers to produce new guidelines on vitamin D supplements for children and pregnant women, along with an awareness campaign about the issue.Ryan took up the cause after watching his mother Kirsten suffering from MS. He said: "It's amazing that I only launched Shine on Scotland early last year and so much has happened since. "The petition lodged at the Scottish Parliament got great support and I'm really grateful to the Scottish government for being prepared to look at this issue. "I hope the summit is a great success and that something positive can be done for people with MS and to prevent future generations from developing it."
Rickets is a rare condition which causes the softening and weakening of bones in children. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are particularly at risk of vitamin D deficiency, along with children under five, the elderly, the housebound and people with darker skin. About 10 to 15 minutes a day of sunshine is considered safe.
Although the advice in these leaflets isn't new, the Scottish NHS is the only health service in Britain highlighting the dangers of vitamin D deficiency. If you live in Scotland you'll be familiar enough with the Scottish weather to know why! On th e one hand we're always being warned about the dangers of too much sunshine, now we're being told we're not getting enough. It's an easy balance to strike though - 10-15 minutes a day is safe and avoid the middle of the day when the sun's rays just burn you.
But in Scotland the sun is only strong enough to provide vitamin D between April and September. If the body's reserves of vitamin D run out during the winter, they need to be topped up from oily fish, eggs, meat or a supplement. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "We know that in Scotland the winter sun is not strong enough to provide the minimum vitamin D needed for health - especially for those with darker skin.
"A significant proportion of the UK population has low vitamin D levels. This leaflet aims to ensure that those at risk are aware of the implications of vitamin D deficiency and know what they can do to prevent it." She added: "Vitamin D is key to maintaining healthy bones. Young children have a high risk of deficiency and we are seeing an increase in reported cases of rickets in Scotland.
"These conditions are easily prevented by improving diet and taking a supplement if you are at risk. Recent research suggests that vitamin D deficiency may also contribute to a range of other medical conditions. The Scottish government are keen to continue to monitor this evidence." The health secretary is due to speak at the Shine on Scotland conference on Tuesday, which will bring together academics from across the world to consider the possible links between vitamin D deficiency and various health problems.
The event is taking place after schoolboy Ryan McLaughlin took a petition to the Scottish Parliament which called on ministers to produce new guidelines on vitamin D supplements for children and pregnant women, along with an awareness campaign about the issue.Ryan took up the cause after watching his mother Kirsten suffering from MS. He said: "It's amazing that I only launched Shine on Scotland early last year and so much has happened since. "The petition lodged at the Scottish Parliament got great support and I'm really grateful to the Scottish government for being prepared to look at this issue. "I hope the summit is a great success and that something positive can be done for people with MS and to prevent future generations from developing it."
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Thinking about thinking
It's good to think - but not too much, scientists say
People who think more about their decisions have more brain cells in their frontal lobes. People who think more about whether they are right have more cells in an area of the brain known as the frontal lobes.UK scientists, writing in Science, looked at how brain size varied depending on how much people thought about decisions.
But a nationwide survey recently found that some people think too much about life. These people have poorer memories, and they may also be depressed. Stephen Fleming, a member of the University College London (UCL) team that carried out the research, said: "Imagine you're on a game show such as 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and you're uncertain of your answer. You can use that knowledge to ask the audience, ask for help."
The London group asked 32 volunteers to make difficult decisions. They had to look at two very similar black and grey pictures and say which one had a lighter spot. They then had to say just how sure they were of their answer, on a scale of one to six. Although it was hard to tell the difference, the pictures were adjusted to make sure that no-one found the task harder than anyone else. People who were more sure of their answer had more brain cells in the front-most part of the brain - known as the anterior prefrontal cortex.
This part of the brain has been linked to many brain and mental disorders, including autism. Previous studies have looked at how this area functions while people make real time decisions, but not at differences between individuals.
The study is the first to show that there are physical differences between people with regards to how big this area is. These size differences relate to how much they think about their own decisions. The researchers hope that learning more about these types of differences between people may help those with mental illness. Co-author Dr Rimona Weil, from UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said: "I think it has very important implications for patients with mental ill health who perhaps don't have as much insight into their own disease." She added that they hope they may be able to improve patients' ability to recognise that they have an illness and to remember to take their medication.
However, thinking a lot about your own thoughts may not be all good. Cognitive psychologist Dr Tracy Alloway from the University of Stirling, who was not involved in the latest study, said that some people have a tendency to brood too much and this leads to a risk of depression. More than 1,000 people took part in a nationwide study linking one type of memory - called "working memory" - to mental health. Working memory involves the ability to remember pieces of information for a short time, but also while you are remembering them, to do something with them.
For example, you might have to keep hold of information about where you saw shapes and colours - and also answer questions on what they looked like. Dr Alloway commented: "I like to describe it as your brain's Post-It note."Those with poorer working memory, the 10-15% of people who could only remember about two things, were more likely to mull over things and brood too much.
Both groups presented their findings at the British Science Festival, held this year at the University of Aston in Birmingham.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Left Brain/ Right Brain and emotion
We used to think that the left brain controlled your thinking and that the right brain controlled your heart. But neuroscientists have learned that it’s a lot more complicated. In 2007, an influential paper in the journal Behavioral and Brain Functions found that while most of us process emotions through the right hemisphere of the brain, about 35% of people — especially victims of trauma — process their hurt and anger through their left brain, where logic and language sit. That may be because they had worked so hard to explain, logically, why they were suffering. But pushing emotions through the left brain taxed it: these people performed significantly worse on memory tests.
Now a new paper — out in the September issue of The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease — further complicates the picture with a surprising finding: whether you are right-handed, left-handed or ambidextrous (which the authors call, rather delightfully, “inconsistently handed”) seems to be an important clue in understanding how you use your brain to process emotions. It’s been known for some time that lefties and the ambidextrous are more prone to negative emotions. The new study shows that they also have a greater imbalance in activity between the left and right brains when they process emotions. Of course, you can’t be sure which comes first: maybe angry people are more out of balance, or maybe the inability to find equilibrium makes you angry. As for the left-handed: maybe they’re more angry because the world is designed for the right-handed majority.
The study also used an interesting method to find that angry people are, literally, hot-headed: the authors of the paper — led by Ruth Propper, a psychology professor at Merrimack College in Massachusetts — measured brain-hemisphere activation with a relatively old method called tympanic membrane temperature, which is essentially how hot it is in your inner ear. If you get angry a lot, your head tends to be warmer.
One problem is that the study was small — just 55 undergraduates participated (they were paid $20 each for having to endure ear-temperature tests and psychological questioning). Also, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, while peer-reviewed, is one of less-respected psychology journals. Still, I like the study just because it explains that when you get hot under the collar, you are actually hot under the collar.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/15/which-is-better-being-right-brained-or-left-brained/?xid=rss-topstories-cnnpartner#ixzz0zh5aYwM3
Now a new paper — out in the September issue of The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease — further complicates the picture with a surprising finding: whether you are right-handed, left-handed or ambidextrous (which the authors call, rather delightfully, “inconsistently handed”) seems to be an important clue in understanding how you use your brain to process emotions. It’s been known for some time that lefties and the ambidextrous are more prone to negative emotions. The new study shows that they also have a greater imbalance in activity between the left and right brains when they process emotions. Of course, you can’t be sure which comes first: maybe angry people are more out of balance, or maybe the inability to find equilibrium makes you angry. As for the left-handed: maybe they’re more angry because the world is designed for the right-handed majority.
The study also used an interesting method to find that angry people are, literally, hot-headed: the authors of the paper — led by Ruth Propper, a psychology professor at Merrimack College in Massachusetts — measured brain-hemisphere activation with a relatively old method called tympanic membrane temperature, which is essentially how hot it is in your inner ear. If you get angry a lot, your head tends to be warmer.
One problem is that the study was small — just 55 undergraduates participated (they were paid $20 each for having to endure ear-temperature tests and psychological questioning). Also, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, while peer-reviewed, is one of less-respected psychology journals. Still, I like the study just because it explains that when you get hot under the collar, you are actually hot under the collar.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/15/which-is-better-being-right-brained-or-left-brained/?xid=rss-topstories-cnnpartner#ixzz0zh5aYwM3
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
One hour test to detect TB
Scientists in the UK say they have devised a new ultra-sensitive test which can diagnose the presence of the tuberculosis bacterium in one hour.The test has been developed by the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
Its developers claim the test can spot all strains of the disease and could reduce both the incidence and the consequences of the disease worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, in 2008, an estimated 1.3 million people died from TB worldwide.
Genetic signature
The standard identification test for TB involves taking mucus coughed up from the lungs and growing a bacterial culture in the laboratory. But it can take up to eight weeks to reach a diagnosis, by which time the individual might have infected many more people. Other more rapid tests exist which scan for an antigen found in many TB strains, but they may not detect all infections, say the HPA.The new test focuses on a particular DNA region within the bacterium which the researchers says is present in all strains of the disease.
Once a sample is taken, a scientific technique know as a "polymerase chain reaction" is used to amplify the volume of DNA available so that the genetic signature can be identified.Tuberculosis is an infectious disease, which usually affects the lungs. It is transmitted via droplets from the lungs of people with the active form of the disease. In healthy people, infection often causes no symptoms.
Symptoms of active TB include coughing, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats. Tuberculosis is treatable with a course of antibiotics. In the UK, around 9,000 cases of TB are reported each year, mainly in big cities like London.Source: World Health Organization/HPA
"This is a new test," says the HPA's Dr Cath Arnold, who led the study. "We're looking for a genetic marker which is present in all strains of TB we've seen so far." We're confident that it will pick up very small amounts and tests so far have show that it seems to be as sensitive as the gold standard of using culture, but there are various aspects which we need to develop further before we can offer it as an off-the-shelf product." Details of the work are being presented at the HPA's annual conference at the University of Warwick.
The HPA test comes just weeks after details of a rival project were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The rival test is called "Xpert MTB/RIF" and its developers claim it can deliver a diagnosis in under two hours. They say their automated cartridge machine can also identify resistance to drugs used to treat TB.
Difficult diagnosis
Dr Mario Raviglione, director of the World Heath Organization's Stop TB department, says these new generation tests could potentially revolutionise TB treatment. "The diagnoses of TB is extremely difficult today. If you had a test which rapidly and at the point of care could detect TB immediately you would gain weeks or months in treating that person and avoid them going around for another five to eight weeks infecting others." The WHO estimates that a third of the world's population carry TB bacteria. Only 5-10% of people who are infected become sick or infectious at some time during their life. People with HIV and who carry TB bacteria are much more likely to develop the disease. Recent years have seen a resurgence in TB infections in developed countries, and have seen the rise of strains resistant to medication. Last year in the UK, the number of cases rose by more than 5% to 9,153, according to provisional figures from the HPA. More than a third of the cases were in London.
Its developers claim the test can spot all strains of the disease and could reduce both the incidence and the consequences of the disease worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, in 2008, an estimated 1.3 million people died from TB worldwide.
Genetic signature
The standard identification test for TB involves taking mucus coughed up from the lungs and growing a bacterial culture in the laboratory. But it can take up to eight weeks to reach a diagnosis, by which time the individual might have infected many more people. Other more rapid tests exist which scan for an antigen found in many TB strains, but they may not detect all infections, say the HPA.The new test focuses on a particular DNA region within the bacterium which the researchers says is present in all strains of the disease.
Once a sample is taken, a scientific technique know as a "polymerase chain reaction" is used to amplify the volume of DNA available so that the genetic signature can be identified.Tuberculosis is an infectious disease, which usually affects the lungs. It is transmitted via droplets from the lungs of people with the active form of the disease. In healthy people, infection often causes no symptoms.
Symptoms of active TB include coughing, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats. Tuberculosis is treatable with a course of antibiotics. In the UK, around 9,000 cases of TB are reported each year, mainly in big cities like London.Source: World Health Organization/HPA
"This is a new test," says the HPA's Dr Cath Arnold, who led the study. "We're looking for a genetic marker which is present in all strains of TB we've seen so far." We're confident that it will pick up very small amounts and tests so far have show that it seems to be as sensitive as the gold standard of using culture, but there are various aspects which we need to develop further before we can offer it as an off-the-shelf product." Details of the work are being presented at the HPA's annual conference at the University of Warwick.
The HPA test comes just weeks after details of a rival project were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The rival test is called "Xpert MTB/RIF" and its developers claim it can deliver a diagnosis in under two hours. They say their automated cartridge machine can also identify resistance to drugs used to treat TB.
Difficult diagnosis
Dr Mario Raviglione, director of the World Heath Organization's Stop TB department, says these new generation tests could potentially revolutionise TB treatment. "The diagnoses of TB is extremely difficult today. If you had a test which rapidly and at the point of care could detect TB immediately you would gain weeks or months in treating that person and avoid them going around for another five to eight weeks infecting others." The WHO estimates that a third of the world's population carry TB bacteria. Only 5-10% of people who are infected become sick or infectious at some time during their life. People with HIV and who carry TB bacteria are much more likely to develop the disease. Recent years have seen a resurgence in TB infections in developed countries, and have seen the rise of strains resistant to medication. Last year in the UK, the number of cases rose by more than 5% to 9,153, according to provisional figures from the HPA. More than a third of the cases were in London.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Lord Sainsbury is to speak at the British Science Association festival.
In the past, the public has felt as if they are being forced to accept changes, says Lord Sainsbury The scientific community should have a more grown up dialogue with the public, according to former UK Science Minister Lord Sainsbury. He said that distrust of scientific ideas was not due to a failure by the public to understand the issues. Instead, it was because they felt they were being forced to accept changes they had not been consulted over and seemed to offer them no benefit.
The festival runs from the 14-19 September at Aston University in Birmingham, UK and Lord Sainsbury will talk in his capacity as president of the British Science Association. He will refute suggestions that people in Britain are anti-science. But according to Lord Sainsbury, there is concern that the pace of current scientific advance is too fast for government to keep up with through effective oversight and regulation.[The public] understands risk all too well and if there is no benefit to them then why take any risk at all, however small?”
"When I was first Minister of Science and Innovation there was an initiative called the 'public understanding of science'," he explained."This was based on the assumption that if people knew more about science they would automatically look more favourably on science. But unfortunately this is not the case." A study done a number of years ago of the then 15 European Union countries found that those nations scoring lowest on scientific understanding were in general the most unequivocally enthusiastic.
"We should not be surprised by this finding. A good education in science should lead people to ask questions about the impact of science," according to Lord Sainsbury. He also rejects the view given by some scientists that the public's distrust of new ideas and technologies is due to people not understanding risk. He said: "[The public] understands risk all too well and if there is no benefit to them then why take any risk at all, however small?"
"I remember Lord May saying at the time when the row about GM products was at its height: 'As soon as a GM product is invented, which if you take a tablespoon of it each morning, you will be slim and witty all day, this whole issue will go away'."
Honest debate
What is important, according to Lord Sainsbury, is for government to assess the risks of new technologies effectively, and to keep the public properly informed. "People become very angry if they feel that the government is not doing this job properly or is in any way hiding the facts from them."
According to Lord Sainsbury, public debate on stem cells is an instance which has been handled well.
He said that the scientific community had identified potential problems and ethical issues well in advance and had engaged the public in what he called an open and honest debate.
Conversely, with GM crops, the technology had already been foisted on the public and a debate ensued after it had been rejected."To improve the level of that debate I also think that the Government should now ask, say, the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences to review openly and publicly the current position on GM technology so that the Government and the public can make up their minds on this issue on the basis of the best scientific advice. "And if this is done I believe it will be seen that plant biotechnology is another case of a new technology which can help the world solve one of its most difficult problems."
The festival runs from the 14-19 September at Aston University in Birmingham, UK and Lord Sainsbury will talk in his capacity as president of the British Science Association. He will refute suggestions that people in Britain are anti-science. But according to Lord Sainsbury, there is concern that the pace of current scientific advance is too fast for government to keep up with through effective oversight and regulation.[The public] understands risk all too well and if there is no benefit to them then why take any risk at all, however small?”
"When I was first Minister of Science and Innovation there was an initiative called the 'public understanding of science'," he explained."This was based on the assumption that if people knew more about science they would automatically look more favourably on science. But unfortunately this is not the case." A study done a number of years ago of the then 15 European Union countries found that those nations scoring lowest on scientific understanding were in general the most unequivocally enthusiastic.
"We should not be surprised by this finding. A good education in science should lead people to ask questions about the impact of science," according to Lord Sainsbury. He also rejects the view given by some scientists that the public's distrust of new ideas and technologies is due to people not understanding risk. He said: "[The public] understands risk all too well and if there is no benefit to them then why take any risk at all, however small?"
"I remember Lord May saying at the time when the row about GM products was at its height: 'As soon as a GM product is invented, which if you take a tablespoon of it each morning, you will be slim and witty all day, this whole issue will go away'."
Honest debate
What is important, according to Lord Sainsbury, is for government to assess the risks of new technologies effectively, and to keep the public properly informed. "People become very angry if they feel that the government is not doing this job properly or is in any way hiding the facts from them."
According to Lord Sainsbury, public debate on stem cells is an instance which has been handled well.
He said that the scientific community had identified potential problems and ethical issues well in advance and had engaged the public in what he called an open and honest debate.
Conversely, with GM crops, the technology had already been foisted on the public and a debate ensued after it had been rejected."To improve the level of that debate I also think that the Government should now ask, say, the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences to review openly and publicly the current position on GM technology so that the Government and the public can make up their minds on this issue on the basis of the best scientific advice. "And if this is done I believe it will be seen that plant biotechnology is another case of a new technology which can help the world solve one of its most difficult problems."
Monday, September 13, 2010
New internet map could help save it
A geometric "atlas" of the internet has been created in an effort to preserve it in the coming decades. U.S., Spanish and Cypriot researchers say they have discovered what they call a negatively curved space hidden beneath the surface of the internet known as a "latent, hyperbolic" geometry. This discovery has enabled them to create a new way of mapping the internet, a process they believe will help it to operate in the future.
"We compare routing in the internet today to using a hypothetical road atlas, which is really just a long encoded list of road intersections and connections that would require drivers to pore through each line to plot a course to their destination …," Dmitri Krioukov, principal investigator of the project, said in a release. The problem with that is that, like a roadmap, it lacks any of the real information that typically helps people navigate through space in real life. Krioukov says current internet routing is not sustainable. "We are already seeing parts of the internet become intermittently unreachable, sinking into so-called black holes, which is a clear sign of instability." The authors believe the newly discovered internet space could be navigated more precisely by routers sure of network paths and their hyberbolic co-ordinates, improving the internet's efficiency.
The study is published in this week's issue of Nature Communications.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/09/10/internet-mapping-research.html#ixzz0zPiJs096
"We compare routing in the internet today to using a hypothetical road atlas, which is really just a long encoded list of road intersections and connections that would require drivers to pore through each line to plot a course to their destination …," Dmitri Krioukov, principal investigator of the project, said in a release. The problem with that is that, like a roadmap, it lacks any of the real information that typically helps people navigate through space in real life. Krioukov says current internet routing is not sustainable. "We are already seeing parts of the internet become intermittently unreachable, sinking into so-called black holes, which is a clear sign of instability." The authors believe the newly discovered internet space could be navigated more precisely by routers sure of network paths and their hyberbolic co-ordinates, improving the internet's efficiency.
The study is published in this week's issue of Nature Communications.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/09/10/internet-mapping-research.html#ixzz0zPiJs096
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
MRIs can track children's brain development
Children's mental development could be recorded in much the same way we chart height and weight, say scientists.They have devised a way of mapping development using an MRI machine and a mathematics programme.The tool can be used to place children on a "maturation curve" just like we do with height and weight.
The scientists claim the technique might one day be used to spot early signs of disorders such as schizophrenia or autism.
Brain score
Last year, the team from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis published a study on how brain function develops with age. They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to trace blood and neuron flows within the brain.That study suggested that in young children, connections within the brain appeared to be largely localised in particular regions. As we grow, we lose those short-range connections and develop longer-range connections.
These signals are fewer but sharper in the adult brain, the researchers believe.
What the same team has now done is to map this neurological development in 238 individuals aged seven to 30.
The individuals' brains were scanned using an MRI machine and then the mass of data was put through a complex algorithmic computer program to produce a single "score" representing brain maturity."From a five-minute scan we get 13,000 measurements of functional brain connections," says Dr Nico Dosenbach, who led the study.
"Then we can take the whole pattern for a given individual and boil it down essentially to a single measure which tells us something about an individual and in our case we were interested in how functionally mature an individual's brain is." These single measures can then be placed on a maturation curve, where the researchers can plot the relationship between age and this development of longer-range brain connections. What the data gives you is an indicator of how quickly or slowly relative to a median, a child's brain is developing.Details of the new study are reported in the journal Science.
Spotting specifics
Dr Dosenbach is convinced the same technique could be used to spot specific conditions such as schizophrenia or autism, although comparative data for these conditions would first need to be collected and new mathematical programs built. He also claims that his team's focus on brain function - and brain communication - can reveal more than the analyses of brain structure. "One day I could see this being used in clinical diagnostics especially in neurological and psychiatric disorders," he says. "In young adult with schizophrenia, if you look at the anatomy of the brain, it looks totally normal whereas a clinician will clearly know this person is very ill and their brain doesn't function normally."
"Similarly with kids with autism, taking one look at the brain it's not obvious to a radiologist what's wrong, you have to do more advanced analysis like we're working on now to classify individuals as having autism or being at risk of having autism." Last month, scientists in Britain said they had developed a brain scan which could detect autism in adults using MRI analysis of brain structure. The team at King's College London tested the method on 40 individuals, 20 of whom had Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The research team is now looking at whether the test would be effective on children.
Dr Gina Gómez de la Cuesta, of the UK's National Autistic Society, welcomed the Washington study, but warned much work remained ahead. "There is still a lot we need to learn about brain function and development so we welcome research such as the Washington study, which has the potential to give further insight into the neurological basis of conditions like autism."Previous research has shown differences in connectivity in the brain in autism. It may be valuable to repeat the Washington study to look longitudinally at the development of these connections in autism. "Eventually, the researchers hope that brain scans might also be a useful diagnostic tool, however this goal is still a long way off and further research is required."
The scientists claim the technique might one day be used to spot early signs of disorders such as schizophrenia or autism.
Brain score
Last year, the team from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis published a study on how brain function develops with age. They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to trace blood and neuron flows within the brain.That study suggested that in young children, connections within the brain appeared to be largely localised in particular regions. As we grow, we lose those short-range connections and develop longer-range connections.
These signals are fewer but sharper in the adult brain, the researchers believe.
What the same team has now done is to map this neurological development in 238 individuals aged seven to 30.
The individuals' brains were scanned using an MRI machine and then the mass of data was put through a complex algorithmic computer program to produce a single "score" representing brain maturity."From a five-minute scan we get 13,000 measurements of functional brain connections," says Dr Nico Dosenbach, who led the study.
"Then we can take the whole pattern for a given individual and boil it down essentially to a single measure which tells us something about an individual and in our case we were interested in how functionally mature an individual's brain is." These single measures can then be placed on a maturation curve, where the researchers can plot the relationship between age and this development of longer-range brain connections. What the data gives you is an indicator of how quickly or slowly relative to a median, a child's brain is developing.Details of the new study are reported in the journal Science.
Spotting specifics
Dr Dosenbach is convinced the same technique could be used to spot specific conditions such as schizophrenia or autism, although comparative data for these conditions would first need to be collected and new mathematical programs built. He also claims that his team's focus on brain function - and brain communication - can reveal more than the analyses of brain structure. "One day I could see this being used in clinical diagnostics especially in neurological and psychiatric disorders," he says. "In young adult with schizophrenia, if you look at the anatomy of the brain, it looks totally normal whereas a clinician will clearly know this person is very ill and their brain doesn't function normally."
"Similarly with kids with autism, taking one look at the brain it's not obvious to a radiologist what's wrong, you have to do more advanced analysis like we're working on now to classify individuals as having autism or being at risk of having autism." Last month, scientists in Britain said they had developed a brain scan which could detect autism in adults using MRI analysis of brain structure. The team at King's College London tested the method on 40 individuals, 20 of whom had Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The research team is now looking at whether the test would be effective on children.
Dr Gina Gómez de la Cuesta, of the UK's National Autistic Society, welcomed the Washington study, but warned much work remained ahead. "There is still a lot we need to learn about brain function and development so we welcome research such as the Washington study, which has the potential to give further insight into the neurological basis of conditions like autism."Previous research has shown differences in connectivity in the brain in autism. It may be valuable to repeat the Washington study to look longitudinally at the development of these connections in autism. "Eventually, the researchers hope that brain scans might also be a useful diagnostic tool, however this goal is still a long way off and further research is required."
Friday, September 10, 2010
The Bio bus
In a world where reality is all around us - why do we expect kids to learn from textbooks alone? Here is one great idea!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Key to a lost language
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
Published August 27, 2010
Notes on the back of a 400-year-old letter have revealed a previously unknown language once spoken by indigenous peoples of northern Peru, an archaeologist says. Penned by an unknown Spanish author and lost for four centuries, the battered piece of paper was pulled from the ruins of an ancient Spanish colonial church in 2008.
But a team of scientists and linguists has only recently revealed the importance of the words written on the flip side of the letter. The early 17th-century author had translated Spanish numbers—uno, dos, tres—and Arabic numerals into a mysterious language never seen by modern scholars.
(Related: "'Lost' Languages to Be Resurrected by Computers"?)
"Even though [the letter] doesn't tell us a whole lot, it does tell us about a language that is very different from anything we've ever known—and it suggests that there may be a lot more out there," said project leader Jeffrey Quilter, an archaeologist at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
"Lost" Language One of Two Already Known?
The newfound native language may have borrowed from Quechua, a language still spoken by indigenous peoples of Peru, Quilter said. But it was clearly a unique tongue, and likely one of two known only by the mention of their names in contemporary texts: Quingnam and Pescadora—"language of the fishers."
Some scholars suggest the two are in fact the same tongue that had been misidentified as distinct languages by early Spanish scribes. Also, the writings include translated numbers, which means that the lost language's numerical system was a ten-based, or decimal system—like English.
While the Inca used a ten-based system, many other cultures did not: the Maya, for example, used a base of 20, according to Quilter.
Church Misfortune is Archaeologist's Gain
The letter was found during excavations of the Magdalena de Cao Viejo church at the El Brujo Archaeological Complex in northern Peru. (The National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News, has sponsored fieldwork at the site in the past.)
The church served a nearby town once inhabited by indigenous people forcibly relocated to the site by Spaniards, probably for purposes of conversion to Christianity, Quilter said.The tantalizing fragment is just one of hundreds of historic papers recovered at the site, which has been well preserved by the extremely arid climate—and also by the church's collapse, Quilter added.
"Archaeologists live on other people's misfortunes," Quilter said.
The Spanish colonialists "had the misfortune of having the church collapse—we think probably in the mid-to-late 17th century—which trapped the library or office where they kept their papers."
Language Hints at Diversity of Cultures
Finding the new language at Magdalena de Cao Viejo helps to reinforce the rich diversity of cultures found in early colonial Americas, Quilter said. "You know that Chinese curse, 'may you live in interesting times'—well that was an extremely interesting time," he said. “We often think of a confrontation of Spanish and Native Americans, but in almost every location, from Massachusetts to Peru, it was a confrontation of a much more diverse group of people."
For instance, colonialists from many parts of Europe were grouped into "the Spanish," and in the Americas there were many people who spoke different languages and had different customs, he noted.
"it really shows how rich and diverse that world was."
Discovery of the lost language is described in the September issue of the journal American Anthropologist.
for National Geographic News
Published August 27, 2010
Notes on the back of a 400-year-old letter have revealed a previously unknown language once spoken by indigenous peoples of northern Peru, an archaeologist says. Penned by an unknown Spanish author and lost for four centuries, the battered piece of paper was pulled from the ruins of an ancient Spanish colonial church in 2008.
But a team of scientists and linguists has only recently revealed the importance of the words written on the flip side of the letter. The early 17th-century author had translated Spanish numbers—uno, dos, tres—and Arabic numerals into a mysterious language never seen by modern scholars.
(Related: "'Lost' Languages to Be Resurrected by Computers"?)
"Even though [the letter] doesn't tell us a whole lot, it does tell us about a language that is very different from anything we've ever known—and it suggests that there may be a lot more out there," said project leader Jeffrey Quilter, an archaeologist at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
"Lost" Language One of Two Already Known?
The newfound native language may have borrowed from Quechua, a language still spoken by indigenous peoples of Peru, Quilter said. But it was clearly a unique tongue, and likely one of two known only by the mention of their names in contemporary texts: Quingnam and Pescadora—"language of the fishers."
Some scholars suggest the two are in fact the same tongue that had been misidentified as distinct languages by early Spanish scribes. Also, the writings include translated numbers, which means that the lost language's numerical system was a ten-based, or decimal system—like English.
While the Inca used a ten-based system, many other cultures did not: the Maya, for example, used a base of 20, according to Quilter.
Church Misfortune is Archaeologist's Gain
The letter was found during excavations of the Magdalena de Cao Viejo church at the El Brujo Archaeological Complex in northern Peru. (The National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News, has sponsored fieldwork at the site in the past.)
The church served a nearby town once inhabited by indigenous people forcibly relocated to the site by Spaniards, probably for purposes of conversion to Christianity, Quilter said.The tantalizing fragment is just one of hundreds of historic papers recovered at the site, which has been well preserved by the extremely arid climate—and also by the church's collapse, Quilter added.
"Archaeologists live on other people's misfortunes," Quilter said.
The Spanish colonialists "had the misfortune of having the church collapse—we think probably in the mid-to-late 17th century—which trapped the library or office where they kept their papers."
Language Hints at Diversity of Cultures
Finding the new language at Magdalena de Cao Viejo helps to reinforce the rich diversity of cultures found in early colonial Americas, Quilter said. "You know that Chinese curse, 'may you live in interesting times'—well that was an extremely interesting time," he said. “We often think of a confrontation of Spanish and Native Americans, but in almost every location, from Massachusetts to Peru, it was a confrontation of a much more diverse group of people."
For instance, colonialists from many parts of Europe were grouped into "the Spanish," and in the Americas there were many people who spoke different languages and had different customs, he noted.
"it really shows how rich and diverse that world was."
Discovery of the lost language is described in the September issue of the journal American Anthropologist.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Evolution caught in the Act
.Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
Published September 1, 2010
Evolution has been caught in the act, according to scientists who are decoding how a species of Australian lizard is abandoning egg-laying in favor of live birth.
Along the warm coastal lowlands of New South Wales (map), the yellow-bellied three-toed skink lays eggs to reproduce. But individuals of the same species living in the state's higher, colder mountains are almost all giving birth to live young.
Only two other modern reptiles—another skink species and a European lizard—use both types of reproduction. (Related: "Virgin Birth Expected at Christmas—By Komodo Dragon.")
Evolutionary records shows that nearly a hundred reptile lineages have independently made the transition from egg-laying to live birth in the past, and today about 20 percent of all living snakes and lizards give birth to live young only.
(See "Oldest Live-Birth Fossil Found; Fish Had Umbilical Cord.")
But modern reptiles that have live young provide only a single snapshot on a long evolutionary time line, said study co-author James Stewart, a biologist at East Tennessee State University. The dual behavior of the yellow-bellied three-toed skink therefore offers scientists a rare opportunity.
"By studying differences among populations that are in different stages of this process, you can begin to put together what looks like the transition from one [birth style] to the other."
Eggs-to-Baby Switch Creates Nutrient Problem
One of the mysteries of how reptiles switch from eggs to live babies is how the young get their nourishment before birth.
In mammals a highly specialized placenta connects the fetus to the ovary wall, allowing the baby to take up oxygen and nutrients from the mother's blood and pass back waste. (See related pictures of "extreme" animals in the womb.)
In egg-laying species, the embryo gets nourishment from the yolk, but calcium absorbed from the porous shell is also an important nutrient source.
Some fish and reptiles, meanwhile, use a mix of both birthing styles. The mother forms eggs, but then retains them inside her body until the very last stages of embryonic development. (Related: "Dinosaur Eggs Discovered Inside Mother—A First.")
The shells of these eggs thin dramatically so that the embryos can breathe, until live babies are born covered with only thin membranes—all that remains of the shells.
This adaptation presents a potential nourishment problem: A thinner shell has less calcium, which could cause deficiencies for the young reptiles.
Stewart and colleagues, who have studied skinks for years, decided to look for clues to the nutrient problem in the structure and chemistry of the yellow-bellied three-toed skink's uterus.
"Now we can see that the uterus secretes calcium that becomes incorporated into the embryo—it's basically the early stages of the evolution of a placenta in reptiles," Stewart explained.
Evolutionary Transition Surprisingly Simple
Both birthing styles come with evolutionary tradeoffs: Eggs are more vulnerable to external threats, such as extreme weather and predators, but internal fetuses can be more taxing for the mother.
(Related: "Human Sperm Gene Traced to Dawn of Animal Evolution.")
For the skinks, moms in balmier climates may opt to conserve their own bodies' resources by depositing eggs on the ground for the final week or so of development. Moms in harsh mountain climates, by contrast, might find that it's more efficient to protect their young by keeping them longer inside their bodies.
In general, the results suggest the move from egg-laying to live birth in reptiles is fairly common—at least in historic terms—because it's relatively easy to make the switch, Stewart said.
"We tend to think of this as a very complex transition," he said, "but it's looking like it might be much simpler in some cases than we thought."
The skink-evolution research was published online August 16 by the Journal of Morphology.
for National Geographic News
Published September 1, 2010
Evolution has been caught in the act, according to scientists who are decoding how a species of Australian lizard is abandoning egg-laying in favor of live birth.
Along the warm coastal lowlands of New South Wales (map), the yellow-bellied three-toed skink lays eggs to reproduce. But individuals of the same species living in the state's higher, colder mountains are almost all giving birth to live young.
Only two other modern reptiles—another skink species and a European lizard—use both types of reproduction. (Related: "Virgin Birth Expected at Christmas—By Komodo Dragon.")
Evolutionary records shows that nearly a hundred reptile lineages have independently made the transition from egg-laying to live birth in the past, and today about 20 percent of all living snakes and lizards give birth to live young only.
(See "Oldest Live-Birth Fossil Found; Fish Had Umbilical Cord.")
But modern reptiles that have live young provide only a single snapshot on a long evolutionary time line, said study co-author James Stewart, a biologist at East Tennessee State University. The dual behavior of the yellow-bellied three-toed skink therefore offers scientists a rare opportunity.
"By studying differences among populations that are in different stages of this process, you can begin to put together what looks like the transition from one [birth style] to the other."
Eggs-to-Baby Switch Creates Nutrient Problem
One of the mysteries of how reptiles switch from eggs to live babies is how the young get their nourishment before birth.
In mammals a highly specialized placenta connects the fetus to the ovary wall, allowing the baby to take up oxygen and nutrients from the mother's blood and pass back waste. (See related pictures of "extreme" animals in the womb.)
In egg-laying species, the embryo gets nourishment from the yolk, but calcium absorbed from the porous shell is also an important nutrient source.
Some fish and reptiles, meanwhile, use a mix of both birthing styles. The mother forms eggs, but then retains them inside her body until the very last stages of embryonic development. (Related: "Dinosaur Eggs Discovered Inside Mother—A First.")
The shells of these eggs thin dramatically so that the embryos can breathe, until live babies are born covered with only thin membranes—all that remains of the shells.
This adaptation presents a potential nourishment problem: A thinner shell has less calcium, which could cause deficiencies for the young reptiles.
Stewart and colleagues, who have studied skinks for years, decided to look for clues to the nutrient problem in the structure and chemistry of the yellow-bellied three-toed skink's uterus.
"Now we can see that the uterus secretes calcium that becomes incorporated into the embryo—it's basically the early stages of the evolution of a placenta in reptiles," Stewart explained.
Evolutionary Transition Surprisingly Simple
Both birthing styles come with evolutionary tradeoffs: Eggs are more vulnerable to external threats, such as extreme weather and predators, but internal fetuses can be more taxing for the mother.
(Related: "Human Sperm Gene Traced to Dawn of Animal Evolution.")
For the skinks, moms in balmier climates may opt to conserve their own bodies' resources by depositing eggs on the ground for the final week or so of development. Moms in harsh mountain climates, by contrast, might find that it's more efficient to protect their young by keeping them longer inside their bodies.
In general, the results suggest the move from egg-laying to live birth in reptiles is fairly common—at least in historic terms—because it's relatively easy to make the switch, Stewart said.
"We tend to think of this as a very complex transition," he said, "but it's looking like it might be much simpler in some cases than we thought."
The skink-evolution research was published online August 16 by the Journal of Morphology.
Ascension Island- Darwin's experiment
Science reporter, BBC News
Cloud forest now forms a damp oasis on Ascension's highest peak A lonely island in the middle of the South Atlantic conceals Charles Darwin's best-kept secret.Two hundred years ago, Ascension Island was a barren volcanic edifice. Today, its peaks are covered by lush tropical "cloud forest".
What happened in the interim is the amazing story of how the architect of evolution, Kew Gardens and the Royal Navy conspired to build a fully functioning, but totally artificial ecosystem.By a bizarre twist, this great imperial experiment may hold the key to the future colonisation of Mars.The tiny tropical island of Ascension is not easy to find. It is incredibly remote, located 1,600km (1,000 miles) from the coast of Africa and 2,250km (1,400 miles) from South America.
Its existence depends entirely on what geologists call the mid-Atlantic ridge. This is a chain of underwater volcanoes formed as the ocean is wrenched apart. Ascension is one of a number of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic However, because Ascension occupies a "hot spot" on the ridge, its volcano is especially active. A million years ago, molten magma explosively burst above the waves.
A new island was born.
Back in 1836, the young Charles Darwin was coming to the end of his five-year mission to explore strange new worlds and boldly go where no naturalist had gone before.Aboard HMS Beagle, he called in at Ascension. En route from another remote volcanic island, St Helena, Darwin wasn't expecting much.
"We know we live on a rock, but the poor people of Ascension live on a cinder," the residents of St Helena had joked before his departure.But arriving on Ascension put an unexpected spring in Darwin's step.
Professor David Catling of the University of Washington, Seattle, is retracing Darwin's travels for a new book. He told the BBC: "Awaiting Darwin on Ascension was a letter from his Cambridge mentor, John Henslow."Darwin's voyage of discovery had already caused a huge sensation in London," he explained.
"Henslow assured him that on his return, he would take his place among the great men of science."
At this fantastic news, Darwin bounded forth in ecstasy, the sound of his geological hammer ringing from hill to hill. Everywhere, bright red volcanic cones and rugged black lava signalled the violent forces that had wrought the island. Yet, thinks Professor Catling, amid this wild desolation, Darwin began to hatch a plot. Out of the ashes of the volcano, he would create a green oasis - a "Little England".
Island Eden
Darwin's great buddy was Joseph Hooker, the intrepid botanist and explorer. Only a few years after Darwin's return, Hooker was off on his own adventures, an ambitious slingshot around Antarctica aboard HMS Erebus and Terror. Mirroring Darwin's voyage, Hooker called in on Ascension on the way home in 1843. Ascension was a strategic base for the Royal Navy. Originally set up to keep a watchful eye on the exiled emperor Napoleon on nearby St Helena, it was a thriving waystation at the time of Hooker's visit. However, the big problem that impeded further expansion of this imperial outpost was the supply of fresh water.
In his twenties, Charles Darwin explored the world aboard HMS Beagle Ascension was an arid island, buffeted by dry trade winds from southern Africa. Devoid of trees at the time of Darwin and Hooker's visits, the little rain that did fall quickly evaporated away.Egged on by Darwin, in 1847 Hooker advised the Royal Navy to set in motion an elaborate plan. With the help of Kew Gardens - where Hooker's father was director - shipments of trees were to be sent to Ascension. The idea was breathtakingly simple. Trees would capture more rain, reduce evaporation and create rich, loamy soils. The "cinder" would become a garden.
So, beginning in 1850 and continuing year after year, ships started to come. Each deposited a motley assortment of plants from botanical gardens in Europe, South Africa and Argentina. Soon, on the highest peak at 859m (2,817ft), great changes were afoot. By the late 1870s, eucalyptus, Norfolk Island pine, bamboo, and banana had all run riot. Back in England, Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution were busily uprooting the Garden of Eden. But on a green hill far away, a new "island Eden" was being created.
Life on Mars
Yet could Darwin's secret garden have more far-reaching consequences?Dr Dave Wilkinson is an ecologist at Liverpool John Moores University, who has written extensively about Ascension Island's strange ecosystem. He first visited Ascension in 2003. "I remember thinking, this is really weird," he told the BBC. "There were all kinds of plants that don't belong together in nature, growing side by side. I only later found out about Darwin, Hooker and everything that had happened," he said.
Darwin's artificial forest captures moisture from clouds that drift over Ascension's peaks Dr Wilkinson describes the vegetation of "Green Mountain" - as the highest peak is now known - as a "cloud forest". The trees capture sea mist, creating a damp oasis amid the aridity. However, this is a forest with a difference. It is totally artificial.
Such ecosystems normally develop over million of years through a slow process of co-evolution. By contrast, the Green Mountain cloud forest was cobbled together by the Royal Navy in a matter of decades. Dr Wilkinson exclaimed: "This is really exciting!"
"What it tells us is that we can build a fully functioning ecosystem through a series of chance accidents or trial and error."In effect, what Darwin, Hooker and the Royal Navy achieved was the world's first experiment in "terra-forming". They created a self-sustaining and self-reproducing ecosystem in order to make Ascension Island more habitable. Wilkinson thinks that the principles that emerge from that experiment could be used to transform future colonies on Mars. In other words, rather than trying to improve an environment by force, the best approach might be to work with life to help it "find its own way".
However, to date, scientists have been deaf to the parable of Ascension Island. "It's a terrible waste that no-one is studying it," remarked Wilkinson at the end of the interview. Ascension Island's secret is safe for years to come, it seems.
Cloud forest now forms a damp oasis on Ascension's highest peak A lonely island in the middle of the South Atlantic conceals Charles Darwin's best-kept secret.Two hundred years ago, Ascension Island was a barren volcanic edifice. Today, its peaks are covered by lush tropical "cloud forest".
What happened in the interim is the amazing story of how the architect of evolution, Kew Gardens and the Royal Navy conspired to build a fully functioning, but totally artificial ecosystem.By a bizarre twist, this great imperial experiment may hold the key to the future colonisation of Mars.The tiny tropical island of Ascension is not easy to find. It is incredibly remote, located 1,600km (1,000 miles) from the coast of Africa and 2,250km (1,400 miles) from South America.
Its existence depends entirely on what geologists call the mid-Atlantic ridge. This is a chain of underwater volcanoes formed as the ocean is wrenched apart. Ascension is one of a number of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic However, because Ascension occupies a "hot spot" on the ridge, its volcano is especially active. A million years ago, molten magma explosively burst above the waves.
A new island was born.
Back in 1836, the young Charles Darwin was coming to the end of his five-year mission to explore strange new worlds and boldly go where no naturalist had gone before.Aboard HMS Beagle, he called in at Ascension. En route from another remote volcanic island, St Helena, Darwin wasn't expecting much.
"We know we live on a rock, but the poor people of Ascension live on a cinder," the residents of St Helena had joked before his departure.But arriving on Ascension put an unexpected spring in Darwin's step.
Professor David Catling of the University of Washington, Seattle, is retracing Darwin's travels for a new book. He told the BBC: "Awaiting Darwin on Ascension was a letter from his Cambridge mentor, John Henslow."Darwin's voyage of discovery had already caused a huge sensation in London," he explained.
"Henslow assured him that on his return, he would take his place among the great men of science."
At this fantastic news, Darwin bounded forth in ecstasy, the sound of his geological hammer ringing from hill to hill. Everywhere, bright red volcanic cones and rugged black lava signalled the violent forces that had wrought the island. Yet, thinks Professor Catling, amid this wild desolation, Darwin began to hatch a plot. Out of the ashes of the volcano, he would create a green oasis - a "Little England".
Island Eden
Darwin's great buddy was Joseph Hooker, the intrepid botanist and explorer. Only a few years after Darwin's return, Hooker was off on his own adventures, an ambitious slingshot around Antarctica aboard HMS Erebus and Terror. Mirroring Darwin's voyage, Hooker called in on Ascension on the way home in 1843. Ascension was a strategic base for the Royal Navy. Originally set up to keep a watchful eye on the exiled emperor Napoleon on nearby St Helena, it was a thriving waystation at the time of Hooker's visit. However, the big problem that impeded further expansion of this imperial outpost was the supply of fresh water.
In his twenties, Charles Darwin explored the world aboard HMS Beagle Ascension was an arid island, buffeted by dry trade winds from southern Africa. Devoid of trees at the time of Darwin and Hooker's visits, the little rain that did fall quickly evaporated away.Egged on by Darwin, in 1847 Hooker advised the Royal Navy to set in motion an elaborate plan. With the help of Kew Gardens - where Hooker's father was director - shipments of trees were to be sent to Ascension. The idea was breathtakingly simple. Trees would capture more rain, reduce evaporation and create rich, loamy soils. The "cinder" would become a garden.
So, beginning in 1850 and continuing year after year, ships started to come. Each deposited a motley assortment of plants from botanical gardens in Europe, South Africa and Argentina. Soon, on the highest peak at 859m (2,817ft), great changes were afoot. By the late 1870s, eucalyptus, Norfolk Island pine, bamboo, and banana had all run riot. Back in England, Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution were busily uprooting the Garden of Eden. But on a green hill far away, a new "island Eden" was being created.
Life on Mars
Yet could Darwin's secret garden have more far-reaching consequences?Dr Dave Wilkinson is an ecologist at Liverpool John Moores University, who has written extensively about Ascension Island's strange ecosystem. He first visited Ascension in 2003. "I remember thinking, this is really weird," he told the BBC. "There were all kinds of plants that don't belong together in nature, growing side by side. I only later found out about Darwin, Hooker and everything that had happened," he said.
Darwin's artificial forest captures moisture from clouds that drift over Ascension's peaks Dr Wilkinson describes the vegetation of "Green Mountain" - as the highest peak is now known - as a "cloud forest". The trees capture sea mist, creating a damp oasis amid the aridity. However, this is a forest with a difference. It is totally artificial.
Such ecosystems normally develop over million of years through a slow process of co-evolution. By contrast, the Green Mountain cloud forest was cobbled together by the Royal Navy in a matter of decades. Dr Wilkinson exclaimed: "This is really exciting!"
"What it tells us is that we can build a fully functioning ecosystem through a series of chance accidents or trial and error."In effect, what Darwin, Hooker and the Royal Navy achieved was the world's first experiment in "terra-forming". They created a self-sustaining and self-reproducing ecosystem in order to make Ascension Island more habitable. Wilkinson thinks that the principles that emerge from that experiment could be used to transform future colonies on Mars. In other words, rather than trying to improve an environment by force, the best approach might be to work with life to help it "find its own way".
However, to date, scientists have been deaf to the parable of Ascension Island. "It's a terrible waste that no-one is studying it," remarked Wilkinson at the end of the interview. Ascension Island's secret is safe for years to come, it seems.
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