02.12.06

Babies and Wine

Posted in health at 8:11 pm by site admin

This article at NPR states that cells left behind from a newborn baby might help the mother. They state that the baby’s cells may linger in the mom’s body for decades and may help repair damage when she gets sick. However, they have not reached any decivise evidence if the baby’s cells help, hurt, or do nothing for the mother.

Also, this article at Scientific American states that a compound in grapes prolongs the life of fish. By lacing the fishes food with resveratrol, their longevitity was extended by more than 50%. The compound is concentrated in red wines, such as pinot noir.

Maintaining the brain and mind control

Posted in health at 7:55 pm by site admin

Heres a short article on the Dalai Lama’s recent talk at a meeting for the Society for Neuroscience, in Washington D.C. Most of the article covers aspects of his visit, but it did have a couple insightful tidbits. Repetitive use of specific neural functions strengthens the cortex in the relevant area. So this means if you play music throughtout life, the related areas in your brain will be stronger as you age. Meditation does the same thing. I wonder what the long term effects of this are. Of course you can get in the zone faster, but does this mean you will have a more peaceful continence or a brighter outlook on life- simply b/c of the way your neural networks have remained developed?

On the other end of the spectrum, we have
Mind Control by Parasites.

Half of the world’s human population is infected with Toxoplasma, parasites in the body—and the brain. Remember that.

Its a parasite found in mice that “alters” the mice’s brain so that it has no fear of cat urine (and may actually hang around it). Consequently, the rat is more easily discovered and eaten. The other crazy bit in the article was the striking parallels between Toxoplasma infection and Schizophrenia.

02.04.06

Viruses make People fat.

Posted in Evolution, health at 2:04 pm by site admin

An article at Scientific American titled: Study Strengthens Link between Virus and Weight Gain. The article states that certain strains of human and avian adenoviruses make individuals build up more fat cells. Adenoviruses cause a wide range of ailments including chest colds, fevers, pink eye. Researches have yet to determine the exact link between the virus and obesity.

Now the real question is what long-term effects have viruses, or for that matter bacteria, mold, or other organisms, played during human evolution. Aside from the obvious massive deaths causes by outbreaks like the bubonic plague, how do viruses, bacteria, mold, etgc, alter their hosts to ensure their long term survival? There was the article at SciAm titled Gene Swapping Helps Bacteria Adapt which stated that E coli bacteria are able to steal genes (horizontal gene transfer, aka bacteria sex) from other, more well-adapted bacteria. As you might recall, E coli bacteria cause more than food poisioning and other ailments- we have a symbiotic relationship with billions of E coli in our stomach and use them to help digest our food.

Smarter but more inept

Posted in Education, internet at 1:27 pm by site admin

I found an article in Times Online titled: Failing to teach them how to handle real life. New research has shown that today’s children are less “intelligent” than their counterparts 30 years ago. These new findings help us understand the effects of the current education trend focusing on standardized test scores as the primary marker for intellectual achievement (and imply that education today provides less congnitive stimulation for children).

In the easiest question, children are asked to watch as water is poured up to the brim of a tall, thin container. From there the water is tipped into a small fat glass. The tall vessel is refilled. Do both beakers now hold the same amount of water? “It’s frightening how many children now get this simple question wrong,” says scientist Denise Ginsburg, Shayer’s wife and another of the research team.