TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Stanley]

Yes I know Tiz, I was just venting frustration.....
The fossils, I listened to that report and the lady palaeontologist was definitely enthused! Nice to hear such enthusiasm.

[Stanley]

Measles on the increase as parents still believe quack doctors who warn that MMR is dangerous.

[PanBiker]

Aye, fuelled by social media posts. Health service is leaning on social media companies to remove the damaging and disinformation content. Measles was almost eradicated before that quack opened his mouth 20 years ago. It's a travesty actually and we will probably have to have a few dead or severely disabled kids to wake folk up to the dangers again. I had measles as a child and it wasn't pleasant, thankfully I survived.

[Stanley]

I can remember the days of 'German Measles Parties' for young girls. The theory was it was better to catch it and then you were protected against it for the rest of your life. It can be serious if you get it while you're pregnant.

[PanBiker]

Dr Robertson noticed in Sally's notes when she was first pregnant with our Carla that she had never had German Measles. He had her in straight away for a series of serum injections. He was very concerned as he had experienced the worst cases of what the disease can do to the unborn child. All was well thanks to his attention to care.

Reports on the news today of a serious outbreak of Measles over in the USA, I think over 300 cases. All brought about by rejection of the MMR vaccine through misinformation. Children have been banned from open spaces and attending school.

[plaques]

Prior to the quack theories on MMR vaccine there was always a small number of people who relied on hiding in the herd to argue against taking the vaccine. The logic being if there were enough people who were vaccinated and therefore preventing the disease from taking hold then the overall chance of catching it was minimal. As soon as large numbers stop being vaccinated this logic falls down and we are back to square one. How stupid can people get?

[Stanley]

P, the overwhelming evidence is that there is no limit to how stupid people can be, as I have always said, never underestimate it. True, there are occasional glitches in the system of health care but on the whole the evidence for trusting vaccinations and immunisations can't be disputed. Perhaps a rule saying that unprotected children can't attend school? But I suppose that would cause uproar in the chattering classes.....
Show me a preventative injection and I will go for it!

[Tizer]

What such people don't understand is that, collectively, they're sealing their own death warrant because they''ll be whittled away by the disease itself.

[Stanley]

Darwin would have had an interesting take on it..... You are right Tiz, evolution will sort them eventually, survival of the immunised rules, OK?

[Stanley]

See THIS for an explanation of what an Ionophore is. I had never heard of them until I heard a news item this morning that they are widely used as a feed supplement for poultry and the trade body has admitted that in essence they are an antibiotic and therefore could be contributing to microbial resistance. Decisions are being taken about regulating its use.
I wonder how many other similar substances have slipped under the radar?

[Tizer]

I smell a rat. Some of the most well-known antibiotics are ionophores and it sounds suspiciously like the people selling them to the poultry industry (or the poultry industry itself) are using the term to try and hide the fact that they are misusing antibiotics. There is nothing new about ionophore antibiotics, they've been in use since the 1960s. Their names often tell you they are antibiotics - valinomycin for example. The -mycin suffix has become accepted for naming antibiotics and comes, of course, from the fact that such compounds were first isolated from fungal mycelium.

[Stanley]

That wouldn't surprise me at all Tiz. On a similar note I remember being puzzled enough about Canola Oil to start digging and found that it was a renaming of Rape Seed Oil because of the spurious connection with the crime of rape. I found the name derives from the Latin for turnip, rappa. Sales of the 'new' vegetable oil recovered......
I also discovered that Rape is in the same family group as mustards. Not many people know that .

[Tizer]

Rapeseed and its oil were not safe for human consumption and not even good for animal feed until the 20th Century when scientists managed to breed out the erucic acid, which causes heart disease in humans, and the glucosinolates, which were toxic in farm animals. The new, safe, varieties were described as `double zero' rape.

[Stanley]

I didn't know that Tiz. Yet another example of the wide range of expertise we have on the site. Thank you.
Not strictly science news but I noted the reappearance of the Cadbury's Easter Egg advertisement on TV last night. Given the state of our knowledge about sugars and links to obesity, how can such ads be ethical? Or is it just another example of not allowing good science to interfere with profit.....

[Stanley]

Harking back to our comments on vaccination, see THIS BBC report on the beneficial effects on cervical cancer rates in Scotland where giving the vaccination to girls (and boys too as I understand it) has been routine for 10 years. It has led to an astounding drop of 90% in pre-cancerous cells. Do you think that there will be people refusing the vaccination and relying on 'herd protection' as rates drop in society?

[PanBiker]

Scotland are looking at introducing the vaccine for boys as soon as is practicable, it is currently only given to girls. Other countries do already employ a gender neutral approach though.

[Stanley]

Like many other matters, this looks like a no-brainer. Could we be wrong about this?

[Stanley]

Two things struck me, first was the report that measles is on the rise world-wide including developed countries due to fake news about immunisation on social media....
Second was THIS discouraging news about statins. It appears they may not be the universal panacea that has been pushed by the big pharma companies.

[PanBiker]

On the statins, it's the lack of proper monitoring that's the problem. The docs stick you on them and assume it's a fix. Very few are followed up with monitoring to test the effectiveness. I sorted mine with change of diet, Sally is on a statin as she cant alter it by food as she is already eats a perfect diet in that regard.

[Tizer]

The statin researchers have said they think that the main cause of the negative results is people not taking the pills properly or not at all. So there's an obvious follow up study needs doing.

It's not only measles that is rising but mumps too, as shown by present outbreaks at universities in Nottingham and in Utah, USA.

This is interesting news about the ancestors of the people who built Stonehenge and their origins in Turkey (don't tell the Brexiteers!) and migration through generations across the Mediterranean and to Iberia and then Britain.
`Stonehenge: DNA reveals origin of builders' LINK
I was especially struck by this:
`From Iberia, or somewhere close, the Mediterranean farmers travelled north through France. They might have entered Britain from the west, through Wales or south-west England. Indeed, radiocarbon dates suggest that Neolithic people arrived marginally earlier in the west, but this remains a topic for future work.'
Could this explain why the bluestones (a dolerite rock) of the Preseli Mountains in Wales were used in the building of Stonehenge? If the people settled in west Wales first and then their descendants gradually spread east they perhaps took their favourite stone with them. It's extremely hard, looks interesting with its greenish colour and white spots, and some of its natural outcrops look like standing stones. Perhaps they worshipped the natural standing stones and then found they could raise their own and even transport it elsewhere. Perhaps it was `trending' at the time!

[Stanley]

Something that has often been forgotten Tiz is the extremely close relationship between Brittany and the West country, even a common language. It was actually easier to do an estuarine water crossing than a long boggy hike over Doggerland. We forget that the sea and water crossings were the preferred method of long distance transport in those times.
Later.... Just when you thought it was safe to go out.... Have a look at THIS BBC report of a study that in effect says that you should cut back seriously on the things you enjoy most. Is anything good for you?

[Tizer]

When the Anglo-Saxons were moving into Britain the then Cornish started moving to Brittany.

[Stanley]

Did you see THIS research on dead pig's brains? Did you also note that before they attempted the procedure they made sure they had a way of instantly anaesthetising the brains if there was any evidence of coherent activity, I.E. a state of consciousness?

[Tizer]

Our first detection of an `earthquake' on a planet other than Earth (although we were able to detect them on the Moon decades ago). This means we can now listen to Mars as well as look at it...
`Nasa's InSight lander 'detects first Marsquake'' LINK

[Stanley]

Did you see the report yesterday on the research that takes information from an implant in the brain and translates it into artificial speech? Early stages but it's working and there is hope for people who have lost the ability to speak because of disease.... (LINK)