TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[EileenDavid]

Don't know about the speed but dangerous to health I would think. Eileen

[Stanley]

Madness Eileen apart from the danger!
Interesting news this morning on Farming Today (R4) of attempts to transfer nitrogen fixing capability from plans like peas, beans and clover, to wheat to enable it to fix its own nitrogen and do away with applying inorganic fertilizers. This is funded by charity and one of the conditions is that farmers using any resulting seed would not be locked into commercial companies by not being able to use the harvested grain as seed corn fro the next crop. Sounds like ethical GM to me and as one of the scientists said when asked whether it was 'unnatural', it was more natural than using chemical fertilizer with all it's downsides in energy use and the effects on the environment. A plausible argument.

[Tizer]

"This week six scientists and one government official were sentenced to six years in prison for manslaughter, for making "falsely reassuring" comments before the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. But was this fair?" That's the beginning of an interesting article on the BBC News web site, worth reading because it highlights the difficulties faced by scientists in communicating with the public, through the lens of the media.
The full article is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20097554

[Stanley]

I saw that report when they were sentenced and it struck me that someone somewhere was trying to shift blame.

Report this morning of an interesting combination of ultra-sound scanning and 3D printing. A firm in Rio de Janeiro are printing 3d models of the foetus in the womb so blind parents can 'see' the new baby.....

[Stanley]

This LINK is worth reading. I shall be watching the Panorama programme tonight. A Canadian man who has been in a coma for 12 years has been trained to communicate by thinking about tennis. This shows up on an MRI scan and so he can communicate.

[Bodger]

Not sure f this is energy or science, but it should be interesting !
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/busin ... d=all&_r=0

[Stanley]

News this morning that transplanting nerve cells from the olfactory system to the spine of paralysed dogs has resulted in some remarkable cures. They are looking into the same technique for humans....

[Stanley]

See this LINK for the current outbreak of whooping cough. Funny how the diseases of my childhood seem to be rearing their ugly heads again.

[Stanley]

Interesting report on R4 this morning of a project to grow cucumbers in a greenhouse in the desert in Qatar. It gets more interesting when you realise that the water they are using is sea water! The water is dribbled over the honeycomb walls of a tunnel through which air is blown into the greenhouses. This cools the air and also charges it with evaporated water from the walls and this is sufficient to support the cucumbers. All the energy for the project is solar, generated on site. It sounds too good to be true doesn't it but this is a commercial enterprise and they are looking to expand. So, you can grow cucumbers in the desrt without fresh water or energy input. It sounds like a technology that could be very useful!

[Bodger]

Get rid of your flourescents !
Researchers at Wake Forest University in North Carolina have developed a light source based on layers of light-emitting polymers.

Professor David Carroll, who works at the university’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials, has created a light source constructed of layers of luminescent plastic doped with nanomaterials.

Carroll said the light, called Fipel for field-induced polymer electroluminescent technology, provides a whiter, softer light than fluorescent tubes and it can also be made in bespoke shapes.

"People often complain that fluorescent lights bother their eyes and the hum from the fluorescent tubes irritates anyone sitting at a desk underneath them," said Carroll. "The new lights we have created can cure both of those problems and more."

“Our devices contain no mercury, they contain no caustic chemicals and they don’t break as they are not made of glass,” Carroll explained, adding that he has a corporate partner which expects to begin manufacturing Fipel sometime in 2013.

[Stanley]

I heard that report and thought it sounded promising. As for the hum from the tubes, the high frequency ones I have in the kitchen are a big improvement on the old fluorescent ones, faster starting, no visible flicker and a good light.
Not strictly on piste but I heard a report this morning about Ash die-back and they said that the number of cases has doubled. It would have been better if they had said the number of cases found by DEFRA. In truth they have recognised that it;s too late, the damage has been done.

[Tizer]

Not strictly on piste but I heard a report this morning about Ash die-back and they said that the number of cases has doubled. It would have been better if they had said the number of cases found by DEFRA.

That's exactly what struck me - abuse, or confusion, of numbers again. There might be no more trees infected but the numbers identified as infected by DEFRA may have doubled.

[Stanley]

Quite. But it makes a better sound bite for the media doesn't it..... A rapidly developing situation, exactly what they feed on. It's just a natural occurence and will slowly spread leaving only those trees with some form of resistance. Nowhere near as exciting.

[Stanley]

Interesting item on Today this morning. They had the man on who is in charge of forensic IT for the Met. Evidently there is a background electronic hum behind every wireless transmission and it varies all the time in frequency and intensity as traffic varies. They have been recording this hum 24x7 and now have a database they can use if they want to identify time and date of a suspect transmission. They use a clever algorithm to extract the hum from the message and once they have a sample they can compare it with the database and identify the time and date of the transmission exactly. Clever stuff eh?

[Tizer]

More evidence for the health benefits of eating green vegetables such as broccoli, spinach and Brussels sprouts....
Vitamin K may strengthen bones
A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the little-understood protein osteocalcin may play a significant role in bone strength. Funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the study details how fractures in healthy bones begin with the creation of incredibly tiny holes, each measuring only about 500 atoms in diameter, within the bone’s mineral structure. In the case of a slip, trip, or fall, the force of the impact on a bone physically deforms a pair of joined proteins, osteopontin and osteocalcin, and results in the formation of nanoscale holes. These holes, called dilatational bands, function as a natural defense mechanism, and help to prevent further damage to the surrounding bone. However, if the force of the impact is too great—or if the bone is lacking osteopontin, osteocalcin, or both—the bone will crack and fracture.

“This study is important because it implicates, for the first time, the role of osteocalcin in giving bone the ability to resist fracture,” said Deepak Vashishth, Head of the Dept. of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Since osteocalcin is always the point of fracture, we believe that strengthening it could lead to a strengthening of the overall bone.”

Now that osteocalcin is known to participate in bone fracture, new strategies for strengthening the bond between osteocalin and osteopontin can be investigated, Vashishth said. Augmenting the body’s natural supply of osteocalcin, for example, could be one possible strategy for treating osteoporosis and other conditions leading to increased fracture risk. Osteocalin must be in its carboxylated form to get absorbed into bone, and the protein is carboxylated by vitamin K. Vashishth said future studies could investigate the relation between vitamin K intake, osteocalcin, and bone strength.

“Currently, all of the advice for treating osteoporosis is related to calcium. We believe there’s more to the story than just calcium, and the results of this new study raise an important question about vitamin K. Leafy green vegetables are the best source of vitamin K—wouldn’t it be great if eating spinach and broccoli was not only healthy, but also good for your bones? We plan to investigate this link in future,” said Vashisth.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Tiz. All these studies reinforce what you and I are always saying about natural foods and by extension the micro levels of trace elements they contain. I see this morning that 20% of the UK population are Vitamin 'D' deficient. It all reinforces my contention that in the grand scale of things the biggest problem is over-processing of food and artificial growing environments. My mind goes back to the man who pointed out that BSE occurred mainly in areas where manganese was deficient in soil samples.

[Tizer]

You will have noticed like I did that the news on Vitamin D was that the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health say we should take vitamin D supplements and foods should be fortified with the vitamin. I'd be interested to hear what the top nutritionists would say because I know some of them have been stressing that we should get our nutrients and vitamins from food and not rely on supplements. Vitamins and antioxidants are better ingested in the complex food systems and not as pure compounds. The RCPCH's Professor Blair is quoted as saying:
"Vitamin D can be found in some foods such as oily fish, eggs and mushrooms - but only 10% of a person's recommended daily amount is found naturally in food. Put bluntly, eating more fish and getting out in the sun a bit more won't make much of a difference to your vitamin D levels."
In that case, how did we get our vitamin D in the past? Probably by getting out in the sun a *lot* more and by eating plenty of dairy foods like full-fat milk, butter and cheese - and plenty of kippers! So I can't agree with Prof Blair. Look at today's kids - sitting indoors with an Xbox and never eating eggs, oily fish and full-fat dairy foods - no wonder they're D-deficient.
Full BBC news report here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20710028

[Stanley]

Dead right Tiz. As I have often said about cholesterol, if it's so bad why did God put it in Mother's Milk? Even though I avoid vegetable fats I know that modification of growing environments has altered the natural micro-nutrient content of food. Potatoes are a good example, the vitamin C content in them has dropped like a stone over the last forty years. That's why I took notice of Susan Allport and started taking Cod Liver Oil regularly at twice the level recommended. Big problem there of course is that there isn't enough long chain Omega-3 to give everyone enough to achieve the right balance of it to other fats. This is exacerbated of course by the use of modified vegetable oils as a substitute for saturated fats in the pursuit of longer shelf life. If butter had a longer shelf life than modified fats the food processors would be promoting it!

[Sue]

Just don't overdo the fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin A. Tiz, am I right that vitamin A can become toxic in the liver if too much is eaten. i seem to recall pregnant women are advised not to take vitamin A tablets. The excess fat soluble vitamins from our diet are stored in the body, unlike the water soluble ones. Any excess of these we excrete in the urine

[Stanley]

I think you are right Sue. That's why I only take an occasional vitamin pill if the fancy takes me. Hedging my bets! I get plenty of Vitamin 'A' from my diet and the Cod Liver Oil!

[Tizer]

Sorry to be late replying Sue. Yes, excessive amounts of vitamin A are toxic because the liver can only store so much and then the vitamin ends up in other tissues. Cases of vitamin A toxicity usually result from either taking too much of the vitamin supplement or through eating the liver of polar bears or seals (which is very rich in the vitamin). As well as dietary sources such as liver we get vitamin A from beta-carotene in food such as carrots but the carotene itself can't cause toxicity, so keep eating the carrots!

[Sue]

That's what I thought but it is almost ten years since I taught diet and nutrition and I tend to forget the details.

[Stanley]

Trust your memory Sue, it seems to be working well!

I mentioned earlier in another topic that Margaret was in the process of having a cochlear implant for her hearing. She says I can post this pic. The first stage is successful, a clean implant and the stitches are out.



In a few weeks this will be the terminal for a very sophisticated hearing aid... Marvellous!

[Stanley]

Just been listening to a young lady on IPM who has recovered from anorexia, she got down to 4 stone. I can't imagine anyone being so thin!

[Tizer]

On the BBC TV Science Club programme recently they discussed supplements that are claimed to increase brain function and whether or not they are helpful. The young presenter said he would take them but I was pleased to hear brain scientist Professor Uta Frith countering this and saying we can do more for our brain function by eating a good diet, getting plenty of sleep and exercising frequently. Don't boost the profits of the brain supplement (snake oil) sellers!