Scientists discover ancient popcorn in Peru, possibly 6,700 years old

Scientists discover ancient popcorn in Peru, possibly 6,700 years old - It’s been known for some time that some people have been eating popcorn for a long time–about 5,000 years ago, to be exact–but it turns out the ancient popcorn-eating goes back quite a bit further than originally thought.

A team of scientists from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Washington’s Natural History Museum have uncovered evidence that people in what is now Peru have been eating popcorn and other corn-based foods 6,700 years ago, if not longer.

An assortment of ancient fossilized corncobs, husks, tassels and stalks were discovered by the teams in Paredones and Huaca Prieta, in Peru’s northern region. Additionally, the team found corn microfossils with starch grains, suggesting that not only did the ancient residents snack on popcorn, but they may have used corn for flour as well.

“Corn was first domesticated in Mexico nearly 9,000 years ago from a wild grass called teosinte,” said Dolores Piperno, co-author of the paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Our results show that only a few thousand years later corn arrived in South America where its evolution into different varieties that are now common in the Andean region began. This evidence further indicates that in many areas corn arrived before pots did and that early experimentation with corn as a food was not dependent on the presence of pottery.” (inquisitr.com )

“Our results show that only a few thousand years later corn arrived in South America where its evolution into different varieties that are now common in the Andean region began. This evidence further indicates that in many areas corn arrived before pots did and that early experimentation with corn as a food was not dependent on the presence of pottery.” (inquisitr.com )

READ MORE - Scientists discover ancient popcorn in Peru, possibly 6,700 years old

Why breast milk could hold the key to beating Alzheimer's

Why breast milk could hold the key to beating Alzheimer's - Embryonic stem cells could revolutionise treatment of cancer, blindness, diabetes, Parkinson’s and paralysis - Breast milk cells can turn into cells of the bone, cartilage, fat, brain, liver and pancreas

Repair kit: Research shows breast milk is rich in stem cells with the chameleon-like properties normally found in those taken from embryos

Breast milk contains stem cells that could potentially beat diseases from Alzheimer’s to cancer, according to scientists.

The milk, intended by Mother Nature to give babies the best start in life, is rich in stem cells, which have the chameleon-like properties found in those taken from embryos.

The milk could provide a ready and ethical source of stem cells, which are widely seen as a ‘repair kit’ due to their potential to turn into any cell type in the body. Cancer, blindness, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and paralysis could all potentially be healed by the power of ‘master cells’.

The use of embryonic stem cells is mired in controversy because harvesting them from an embryo leads to its death. But the New Scientist reported that breast milk stem cells can turn into bone cells, cartilage, fat, brain, liver and pancreas, a breastfeeding conference will hear next year.

Researcher Foteini Hassiotou, of the University of Western Australia, said: ‘Breast milk offers a new exciting opportunity for stem cell therapies.’

Chris Mason, professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, said more proof is needed that the cells are as versatile as billed, but added: ‘If they are truly embryonic, this will be another way of getting stem cells that would not raise ethical concerns.’

Even if they do not turn out to be as versatile as hoped, said Newcastle University stem cell scientist Lyle Armstrong, a woman could still bank stem cells from her milk and use them to help in the treatment of a disease such as diabetes later in life.

Insurance: A woman could bank the stem cells from her milk and use them to treat illnesses she might contract later in life

For instance, a woman could bank the stem cells from her milk and then use them to help in the treatment of a disease such as diabetes later in life.

Embryonic stem cell research suffered a major set-back earlier this week when the first company to test them in people withdrew from the field.

Californian biotech company Geron hoped the revolutionary therapy would help the paralysed walk again.

The trial on men and women with spinal cord injuries caused by car crashes and sporting accidents was hailed as 'the beginning of a new chapter in medical therapeutics'.

But after treating just four patients, Geron shelved the work, blaming the high costs and red tape of stem cell research as well as 'uncertain economic conditions'.

However, others questioned whether it would have given up on the treatment if it really was going to produce the miracles promised.

Geron, which now intends to focus on cancer drugs, has not released any information about how well the treatment worked.

Europe's first embryonic stem cell trial is due to start later this year when a jab to cure blindness is tested at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Why breast milk could hold the key to beating Alzheimer's

First press one button. Then press another

How Do You Turn Off a Particle Accelerator? - First press one button. Then press another- After 28 years of operation, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Tevatron—a 4-mile-long ring of superconducting magnets and vacuum tubes buried in the suburban soil just outside Chicago—will be turned off Friday afternoon.

Until the construction of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in 2009, the Tevatron was the most powerful particle collider in the world, generating subatomic bits of matter not seen since the Big Bang. How would you turn off such a device—is it as easy as pulling the plug?

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill. Photo courtesy Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

Sort of. Engineers shut down the Tevatron via a two-step process that involves little more than entering a couple of commands into a computer terminal in the main control room. The first clears the accelerator tunnel of high-energy particles, after new protons and anti-protons have stopped being injected into the machine.

By typing a few instructions (including "KILL_BEAM") into a device called a sequencer, a set of magnets are activated so as to kick the particle beam into an auxiliary tunnel and toward a thick metal target where it will be absorbed. The second command orders the magnets to “ramp down,” dumping their 5,000-amp current into resistors and gradually lowering the energy of the system to nothing. It’s not a particularly unusual or dramatic process—engineers do it on a regular basis for machine maintenance.

The control room of Tevatron Photo courtesy Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

For the purposes of the closing ceremony on Friday, the engineers have created two special buttons to execute the commands, a red one labeled “BEAM” and a blue one labeled “RAMP.” Once the buttons have been pressed, there’s not much left to do but some housekeeping. Over the coming week, engineers will gradually bring the magnets up to room temperature from their operating state a few degrees north of absolute zero, and break the vacuum seal on the tunnel. Finally, the cooling gases and fluids will be drained. ( slate.com )

Fermilab officials expect to open a section of the Tevatron to visitors sometime next year.

READ MORE - First press one button. Then press another

Obese Ohio Man Found Fused to Chair He Sat in for 2 Years

Obese Ohio Man Found Fused to Chair He Sat in for 2 Years - A morbidly obese Ohio man was in the hospital Tuesday after police found him fused to a chair he had not moved from in two years and were forced to cut a hole in the wall of his house just to get him out, WTRF-TV reported.

The unnamed man lived with two able-bodied roommates -- including his girlfriend, who officials said fed him since he never got up -- in a home in Bellaire, Ohio. The roommates called police upon finding the man unresponsive on Sunday.

Officers who responded to the scene said that the man's skin was fused to the fabric of chair and that he was sitting in his own feces and urine with maggots visible.

One officer said it was the worst thing he had ever responded to. Another told the local TV station he had to throw away his uniform after helping remove the man from the chair.

"The living room where the man lived in his chair was very filthy, very deplorable. It's unbelievable that somebody lives in conditions like that," Jim Chase, a local city code enforcer, told WTRF.

"I instructed the landlord this [Monday] morning and the two people, the tenants at the house, they had to get it cleaned, there's no way they can live in something like that, and so they are working on it," he added.

The landlord told WTRF that the man used to be an active person and said she had no idea how bad his condition was since he covered himself with a blanket every time she came to visit. ( foxnews.com )

READ MORE - Obese Ohio Man Found Fused to Chair He Sat in for 2 Years

‘Rua Bineda’: a painter’s struggle

‘Rua Bineda’: a painter’s struggle - I had reservations when I received the invitation to the book launching for Rua Bineda in Bali: Counterfeit Justice in the Trial of Nyoman Gunarsa.

Different strokes: Another work by Nyoman Gunarsa, 3 Girls (above) and a forged representation. Courtesy Nyoman Gunarsa

I enjoyed the first part of the title, Rua Bineda. It promised the esoteric Hindu-Balinese sentiment I am fond of. But the second part of title puzzled me so much that I almost did not attend the ceremony. What did counterfeit justice have to do with the Rua Bineda? Was the book about the famous case of Nyoman Gunarsa’s counterfeited paintings?

Then I noticed the author’s name, Roy Jenkins, a respected professor of theater at Wesleyan University. I was puzzled by what theater had to do with counterfeiting.

I expected the launch to be boring because the invitation was sent by Bali Corruption Watch. I expected they were going to talk about the well-known state of the law in Indonesia.

I hesitated, but finally decided to attend: Nyoman Gunarsa is, after all, a friend.

I made up my mind to attend the event, doze through the speeches, pretend to hear the arguments; and go back home to rest.

But I was surprised and impressed when I was presented with a beautiful art book, containing fine works by Nyoman Gunarsa, a few examples of counterfeits, and a very interesting “book concept”.

The more I go through the book, the more I am convinced that Jenkins and Gunarsa have produced a fascinating “collaborative” work.

When scholars write about Bali, they usually address their own peers rather than the people they write about. They climb their “ivory tower”, dreaming of a future “professorship” carved in jargon.

In his own defense: Nyoman Gunarsa shows the new book that details his legal struggle against the individuals who counterfeited his paintings. On his right is Bali Corruption Watch chairman Putu Wirata Dwikora. Courtesy Nyoman Wija

No so for Jenkins. It may be because he is a man of theater. Instead of spreading Western perspectives, which are as esoteric to the Balinese as the Rua Bineda is to Westerners, Jenkins decided to share the interpretation of Nyoman Gunarsa’s works with Nyoman himself, puppet master I Wayan Nardanaya, better known in Bali as the dalang ”CenkBlonk”, and high Balinese priest Pedanda Ketut Sidemen.

The writings flowed with theater-like testimonies from Nyoman Gunarsa and his wife describing the famous counterfeiting case in which they have now been enmeshed for almost 10 years.

Even though this case is indeed important to those personally involved — namely Gunarsa and his wife — on the whole the “process of justice” in the eyes of the Balinese is the true topic of the book.

In this we must congratulate Nyoman Gunarsa for having allowed Roy Jenkins and his Balinese writing partners to go beyond the issue of counterfeiting, and focusing the discussion on the notions of process and justice in Balinese society. Thus the subtitle of the book belies its true content.

Art and artless: An authentic work, Oleg, by Nyoman Gunarsa (above), and a fake work done in the renowned Balinese painter’s style. Even a quick glance shows the inferiority of the imitation.

The Gunarsa case provides the backdrop for exploring the concept of justice discussed and evaluated by the Balinese. The main title, Rua Bineda, provides the interpretative framework.

“It is a principle of spiritual dialectics that envisions the co-existence of opposites in a state of dynamic equilibrium. Darkness and light. The true and the false. Good and evil. Gods and demons.

“The Balinese believe that all these contradictory forces exist in opposition to one another and that the continuing tension between them is necessary for the balanced functioning of the world,” Jenkins says.

The book follows the Rua Bhinneda theme. Jenkins’ text, beginning with a presentation of Balinese concepts such as Dharma/Adharma, or Good/Evil, and Sekala/Niskala, Tangible/Intangible worlds, provides explanations on how those concepts operate within the symbolic world of Balinese puppet theater.

As for justice proper, it obeys the logic of Karma Pala, the consequences one has to bear for one’s actions.

As said above, the surprise, however, is not with Jenkins’ text, but with the text of his Balinese partners, dalang CenkBlong and the high priest.

Through the Gunarsa case, they present us with the way narrative symbolization (that of theater and literature) plays its own role of conceptualization in the West and modern societies.

This symbolization is, or should I say was, considering the pace of today’s changes, an extraordinary means of learning and acculturation, that is able to “integrate” people in their culture.

Most interestingly, the book is multilingual. Jenkins and Nyoman Gunarsa are telling us that gone
are the days when knowledge on Indonesia and Bali is the preserve of English speakers. Not only is Indonesian put on a par with English, but also Balinese.

The wayang story, the False Anggada, based on a Ramayana episode, is not only transliterated, which is a rare enough occurrence, but this transliteration is translated both in English and Indonesian.

As for the story of Ida Pedanda Ketut Sidemen, the Heron and the Crab not only is in Balinese language, translated of course, but it is written in Balinese script.

Last but not least, a few words must be said of the illustrations. Forty years ago Nyoman Gunarsa “invented” Balinese modern art.

His works translate in color the swiftness of Balinese dance and theater to the still world of bi-dimensional painting.

Beautiful, interesting, truly multi-cultural, original in its approach, Rua Bineda in Bali: Counterfeit Justice in the Trial of Nyoman Gunarsa is definitely not your ordinary coffee table book. ( thejakartapost.com )

READ MORE - ‘Rua Bineda’: a painter’s struggle

Doomsday Midwest Quake Predictions Overblown

Doomsday Midwest Quake Predictions Overblown, Scientists Say - Fears of the next big earthquake in America's heartland are just a bunch of hype.

That's according to a new book that explains how there's little scientific evidence to back up the apocalyptic predictions that a set of faults in the Midwest that set off huge quakes a couple centuries ago, known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, could rupture violently again soon.

In "Disaster Deferred: How New Science Is Changing Our View of Earthquake Hazards in the Midwest"(Columbia University Press, October 2010), author and geologist Seth Stein tries to reassure folks living near the infamous New Madrid faults by explaining the science behind earthquakes in the middle of the continent.

Stein, of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., said there's little scientific evidence for the fear of "the next big one" in the New Madrid seismic zone - the site of some of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the continental United States, nearly 200 years ago.

Scare tactics

In 1990, a widely touted prediction said a big quake would hit the area, and a media circus ensued. The prediction proved false but highlighted the fear and hype surrounding the idea of a big Midwestern earthquake, Stein says.

As the 200th anniversary of the earthquakes that occurred in the area of New Madrid, Mo., approaches, talk of catastrophe is rising again.

"It's said that the 1811 and 1812 earthquakes were the biggest in U.S. history, which isn't true," Stein said. "Or that they rang church bells in Boston, which isn't true. And that another huge earthquake is on the way, which there's no reason to believe."

The findings detailed in "Disaster Deferred" come from more than 20 years of research regarding the New Madrid seismic zone. The book describes Stein's scientific adventures that ultimately found no sign that large earthquakes will hit the New Madrid area within the next several hundred - or even thousands - of years.

"We, of course, can't say there will never be another New Madrid earthquake like the ones in 1811 and 1812, but there's no sign of one coming. The next could be thousands of years or tens of thousands of years in the future," Stein said.

Remaining Risk

The seismic zone today generates about 200 tiny quakes annually, but it also let loose a magnitude 4.1 quake in February 2005 and a magnitude 4.0 quake in June 2005. An estimate from the 1980s asserted a 9-in-10 chance of a magnitude 6 or 7 temblor occurring in this area within the next 50 years. Later estimates have reduced this probability somewhat, although there is no consensus among researchers.

The Mississippi River is somewhat to blame for the 1811 and 1812 quakes, according to a study released earlier this year. Sediment erosion from the river released a great weight off the fault, allowing the Earth to buckle and the faults to rupture. That study also suggests that an earthquake is unlikely to hit anytime soon on the same faults in New Madrid.

Some seismic risk remains, however. A 2007 study discovered that an ancient, giant slab of Earth called the Farallon slab that started its descent under the West Coast 70 million years ago is causing mayhem and deep mantle flow 360 miles (579 kilometers) beneath the Mississippi Valley where it effectively pulls the crust down nearly half a mile (1 km).

The Farallon plate will continue to descend into the deep mantle and thus cause mantle downwelling in the New Madrid region for a long time, suggesting there will be seismic risk in the New Madrid region that will not fade with time, the authors of that study said. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Doomsday Midwest Quake Predictions Overblown

Glowing jellyfish are one source of the raw ingredients for a new solar cell

Glowing jellyfish are one source of the raw ingredients for a new solar cell -- Putting thousands of jellyfish in a blender to make a smoothie sounds like the start of bad joke. In fact, it's one way to source ingredients for a new generation of solar power solutions that could aid medical science and offer cheap energy.

The biological fuels may be a means to independently power nanotechnology embedded in a living organism
--Zackary Chiragwandi, Chalmers University of Technology

Scientists say by liquidizing the humble Aequorea victoria -- a glow-in-the-dark jellyfish commonly found off the western coast of North America -- they can use the green fluorescent protein (GFP) it contains to create miniature fuel cells.

These, say their creators, could be used to power microscopic "nanodevices" that could operate independently inside the human body, helping reverse blindness or fight tumors.

Nanotechnology -- the manipulation of matter at an atomic scale (one nanometer is equivalent to one billionth of a meter) -- is seen by many as the future of medicine, but the science of powering nano-machinery is still in its infancy.

Which is where the jellyfish come in.

Zackary Chiragwandi at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden told CNN he has developed a method of generating power at a nano-level by administration a droplet of jellyfish-type GFP onto aluminum electrodes and exposing it to ultraviolet light.

The technique, he says, is more foolproof than existing light-powered cells, doing away with the need for expensive and tricky titanium elements found in "Gratzel cells" -- acclaimed solar-power fuel cells that mimic plant photosynthesis.

Chiragwandi says his cell can even utilize enzymes from fireflies and Renilla reniformis sea pansies to create its own light source, making it completely self-contained.

In Chiragwandi's "biophotovoltaic nanodevice," electrons flow through a circuit when light hits the green fluorescent protein. He says this generates a current measuring "tens of nano amperes."

The amount may seem negligible, but if scaled up would appear to offer a more efficient power supply than existing solar cells.

"The output characteristics of the biophotovoltaic nanodevice are comparable with those of earlier reported high efficiency solar cells," says Chiragwandi, adding that the power cells could be deployed within one or two years.

"The biological fuels may be a means to independently power nanotechnology embedded in a living organism, such as diagnostic, medical or even communication devices residing within a living organism without need for an external electrical power source," he says.

Meanwhile at the UK's University of Cambridge, scientists say they have worked out a way to turn living algae into what is effectively a floating biological solar cell that could be used to generate power from almost any non-freezing body of fresh or salt water.

Paolo Bombelli, who is part of the team developing the method, says it is possible to hack into the energy released by photosynthesizing organisms using specially-designed transparent electrodes.

By tapping into this process -- which sees water broken into oxygen, protons and electrons -- they have so far managed to generate enough electricity to run a digital clock.

"As we stand, we are not talking about a large amount of electricity," he told CNN, adding that the team were "quite far from a real application; definitely a long-term plan."

Although they have demonstrated that they could operate the technique on seawater in a broad temperature range -- thus opening up most of the world's oceans to potential use -- Bombelli says they have yet to exceed sunlight-to-electricity efficiency levels of 0.1 percent.

A major problem, he says, is working out "how we can push the system further without killing the organisms."

Although the algae might currently be at risk, for the jellyfish there is good news. Thanks to modern breakthroughs allowing scientists to grow their own green fluorescent protein using bacteria -- the unsuspecting sea creatures are no longer on the milkshake menu. ( cnn.com )

READ MORE - Glowing jellyfish are one source of the raw ingredients for a new solar cell

'Love-dart' slug, lungless frog among new species on Borneo

'Love-dart' slug, lungless frog among new species on Borneo – Wildlife researchers said Thursday they have discovered around 120 new species on Borneo island, including a lungless frog, the world's longest insect and a slug that fires "love darts" at its mate.

AFP/HO/File – This WWF Malaysia photo shows a seven-centimetre flat-headed frog, known as the "Barbourula kalimantanensis", …

Conservation group WWF listed the new finds in a report on a remote area of dense, tropical rainforest that borders Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei on Borneo.

The three governments in 2007 designated the 220,000-square-kilometre (88,000-square-mile) area as the "Heart of Borneo" in a bid to conserve the rainforest.

"We have been finding on average three new species a month and about 123 over the last three years, with at least 600 new species found in the last 15 years," Adam Tomasek, head of WWF's Heart of Borneo initiative told AFP from Brunei.

"The new discoveries just show the wealth of biodiversity on Borneo island and the promise of many more future discoveries that could eventually help cure illnesses like cancer and AIDS and contribute to our daily lives," he said.

The "Heart of Borneo" region is home to 10 species of primate, more than 350 birds, 150 reptiles and amphibians and about 10,000 plants that are not found anywhere else in the world, the report said.

Among the finds are a seven-centimetre (three-inch) flat-headed frog, known as "Barbourula kalimantanensis", discovered in 2008, which breathes entirely through its skin instead of lungs.

Researchers in the same year also discovered "Phobaeticus chani", the world's longest stick insect, with a body 36 centimetres long. Only three specimens of the creature have ever been found.

Another interesting find was a long-tailed slug that uses "love darts" made of calcium carbonate to pierce and inject a hormone into a mate to increase the chances of reproduction.

The WWF urged governments act sensitively when developing the area's economic potential.

"We know that it is impossible for the three governments not to have development in mining, oil palm plantations and logging in the area," Tomasek said.

"What we want to have is a balance so that we have a foundation of conservation and sustainable development in order to protect this unique site for future generations," he added.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's two largest exporters of palm oil, account for 85 percent of global production.

Palm oil -- used extensively across the globe for biofuel, processed food and toiletries -- has been vilified by environmental campaigners for causing deforestation and threatening the survival of near-extinct species.

Tomasek said the "Heart of Borneo" initiative is also important for protecting the habitat of endangered species such as the pygmy elephant, orangutan, rhinoceros and clouded leopard.

"In many ways this is the last stronghold for the long-term survival of these species," he said.

The Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the world's most endangered species, with only about 200 remaining in the wild, up to 180 in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.

The Bornean sub-species is the rarest of all rhinos, with just 30 left in the wild on Borneo island.

Conservationists also warned the world has less than 20 years left to save about 50,000 to 60,000 of the charismatic red-haired orangutans left in the wild. (AFP)

READ MORE - 'Love-dart' slug, lungless frog among new species on Borneo

How stress can ruin your skin

How stress can ruin your skin. Is stress ruining your skin?. Most of us suffer from stress at some time in our lives. But while its effect on our health are well known, feeling stressed can also cause problems for our skin.

According to Peter Goodwin, chairman of the Association Of Stress Management, 80 per cent of patients who visit the doctor's surgery are suffering from stress and related illnesses.

Most of us are aware of how stress can affect our health - from an increased risk of heart disease, depression and insomnia to loss of sex drive, phobias and even the possibility of triggering breast cancer - but few of us realise how it can affect our skin.

Dr Nicholas Lowe, consultant dermatologist at the Cranley Clinic in London, explains: 'If you have a genetic tendency to suffer from skin conditions such as acne, psoriasis and eczema, stress will definitely make them worse.

'It's important to recognise the part stress plays, and to be aware of the benefits of relaxation and psychotherapy, especially in problems like adult eczema.'

Dr Lowe often refers patients with skin conditions that are being exacerbated by stress for psychotherapy. This involves a clinical psychologist evaluating what is triggering the stress, and working out how the patient can cope more readily.

'These types of complementary treatments can actually help conventional medicine,' says Dr Lowe. 'In fact, in the United States there is a new sub-speciality division in dermatology called psycho-dermatology, where dermatologists focus on the role that stress, worry and anxiety can have on skin disorders.' ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - How stress can ruin your skin

Whatever Happened to Acid Rain?

Whatever Happened to Acid Rain?. Why do we never hear about acid rain anymore? Did it just go away?. Back in the 1980s, when the Lantern herself was just a little penlight, acid rain was the environmental scourge of the day.

Canada's environmental minister proclaimed it an "insidious malaria of the biosphere"; it menaced the Transformers; it turned Kimberly's hair bright green in an episode of Diff'rent Strokes. Toxic precipitation fell off the radar in 1990, when Congress passed an amendment to the Clean Air Act calling for major reductions in the types of emissions that lead to acid rain. Emissions have dropped significantly since then, but the problem is far from gone.

Acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides—gases released by the burning of fossil fuel—form acidic compounds in the atmosphere. These fall back to earth in rain, snow, or sleet or as dry particles or gases. (At high altitudes and along coastlines, bits of acid suspended in clouds or fog pose an additional threat.)

Back in acid rain's heyday as a public menace, scientists focused on how it wrecked lakes and streams, making the water toxic to fish and other organisms and threatening sensitive tree populations like the red spruce in the Northeast mountains. In later years, they began to understand how acidification can also cause imbalances in soil chemistry, exacerbating problems for watersheds and plant life.

To prevent all this, the Clean Air Act amendments required that power plants make significant cuts on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions, which they did by installing "scrubbers" in their smokestacks and switching to low-sulfur coal. Cap-and-trade programs—like the ones that we may soon institute for carbon—came online in 1995 for sulfur dioxide and 2003 for nitrogen oxides. Vehicles, which emit large amounts of nitrogen oxides, were also becoming cleaner thanks to the introduction of catalytic convertors in the mid-1970s.

The results of these efforts were dramatic: According to the National Emissions Inventory, sulfur dioxide emissions from all sources fell from nearly 26 million tons in 1980 to 11.4 million tons in 2008. Nitrogen oxides decreased from 27 million tons to 16.3 million tons in the same time frame.

Problem solved, right? Not so fast. Rain in the eastern United States is still relatively acidic. As you can see on this map from 2007, most rainwater in the region has a pH level between 4.3 and 4.8. (In the late 1970s and early 1980s, annual averages in the East were closer to 4.0.) According to Gary Lovett of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the natural pH level for rainwater in the region would be around 5.2. That might not seem like a big difference, but remember that pH is a logarithmic scale, not a linear one, so something with a pH level of 4 is 10 times more acidic than something with a pH level of 5. In short, much of the rainwater in the East is between 2.5 and eight times more acidic than it should be.

Meanwhile, surface waters are showing slow signs of recovery, but not in all areas. In the Adirondacks and Northern Appalachians, one-third of the bodies of water deemed acidic in the early 1990s can now be taken off that list, according to a 2004 EPA-funded report (PDF). There are now 70 percent fewer acidic lakes and streams in Wisconsin and Michigan than there were 1984. However, the report found no changes in New England or the Valley and Ridge and Blue Ridge provinces of Virginia, two other areas with a history of acid-rain damage.

Decades of industrial pollution have also compromised the soil in some areas—which might under other circumstances buffer local trees, lakes, and streams from the harmful effects of acid rain. (Healthy soil provides alkaline components, primarily calcium, that neutralize the acid.)

Interest in acid rain seems to be experiencing an uptick in the last few years. The EPA issued the Clean Air Interstate Rule in 2005, which set even lower emissions caps for power plants in the eastern United States. (The rule was tossed out by a federal appeals court last summer but has been temporarily reinstated until the EPA can draft a replacement.) The EPA is also currently reviewing its secondary air-quality standards for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides—i.e., those that address "public welfare," including ecological damage, as opposed the ones pertaining directly to human health. And in Congress, Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., have teamed up to present a bill that would call for even further reductions of SO₂ and NOx—as well as mercury—from coal-fired power plants.

A recent joint report (PDF) from the Nature Conservancy and the Cary Institute also stressed the importance of setting and implementing critical loads for SO₂ and NOx, as well as establishing more comprehensive, integrated air pollution monitoring systems.

Still, efforts to reduce emissions of acid rain precursors in the United States don't do much to solve the problem in countries on the other side of the globe. In 2005, China was the biggest emitter of sulfur dioxide in the world, sending up about 25.5 million tons. Beijing did recently announce that, by next year, the country would reduce SO₂ emissions by 10 percent from those 2005 levels. Two-and-a-half million tons is more than an acid raindrop in the bucket, so at least that's a step in the right direction. ( slate.com )

READ MORE - Whatever Happened to Acid Rain?

The people profiting from food allergies

Nuts to That. The people profiting from food allergies. In a recent Wall Street Journal article titled "Save the Children (and Make Money)," fund manager James Altucher suggests investing in an "autoimmune index," a mix of stocks that have "good, lower multiples and that will supply the arms in our ongoing war against autoimmune diseases." I thought the article was a joke—until Altucher recommended buying stock in Novartis AG because its allergy drug Xolair was going into Phase II trials to see whether it could be useful in suppressing peanut allergies.

Altucher is on to something: Anybody who comes up with a new food allergy drug stands to make a boatload of money. The annual cost of allergies is estimated at $7 billion, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, and the School Nutrition Association reports that about 35 percent of schools have some kind of allergy-related food ban in place. Every time I read something about Xolair or food allergies, I am reminded that our fear of children's food allergies is so very disproportionate to the likelihood of serious harm. Many more children die in car accidents on the way to school than from food allergies in the lunchroom; lightning strikes kill more people every year than do food allergies. It raises the question: Are we so afraid of food allergies because they represent a clear and present danger, or have our fears been exaggerated by the vast amounts of money we've thrown at the issue?

Most of what we know about food allergy danger, from the medical literature and in the popular press, comes from a single source: the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, a nonprofit located in Fairfax, Va. It was started in 1991 by Anne Munoz-Furlong, the parent of a formerly food-allergic child and a onetime researcher at Time-Life Books. FAAN has a substantially pedigreed medical advisory board, including Hugh Sampson and Scott Sicherer, both of whom are highly regarded allergists at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai hospital in New York.

Sampson and Sicherer are excellent clinicians and biomedical researchers, and Munoz-Furlong is undoubtedly one of the most influential parent-advocates of the last 20 years. Their statistical work, however, is problematic. Sampson and Sicherer (who are medical doctors, not statisticians or epidemiologists) co-authored a 2004 paper in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology with Munoz-Furlong (who is not a statistician, an epidemiologist, or a medical doctor) on their attempt to determine how many people in the United States are allergic to seafood. They concluded that "physician-diagnosed and/or convincing seafood allergy is reported by 2.3% of the general population, or approximately 6.6 million Americans. … [S]eafood allergy represents a significant health concern."

Consistent with the journal's policy to disclose conflicts of interest, the statement attached to the paper read, "Funding sources paid for administrative costs and use of the company that performed the actual survey. The same funding sources have ties to the authors in other ways, but the authors do not perceive a conflict of interest on these accounts, and the relationships are public knowledge."

The authors may not have perceived a conflict of interest, but a close look suggests that a problem may, in fact, exist.

The funding sources for the paper include FAAN, the organization run until recently by Munoz-Furlong and her husband, and the Food Allergy Initiative, a private foundation that finances Sampson and Sicherer's research and clinical practice. Like many social causes, the food allergy movement depends on the assistance of a few wealthy patrons. Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe, who made their fortune with the Dress Barn women's clothing stores, became concerned about their granddaughter's food allergies in the late 1980s. That concern was magnified by an article that Sampson—himself the anxious parent of a food-allergic child—published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1992. The article sent ripples of alarm through the food allergy community. The Jaffes have helped a wide variety of social causes over the years, so they directed their considerable philanthropic resources toward what they saw as a worthy effort. There wasn't a nationally renowned research center for food allergies, so they established the Elliot & Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai. The family also put $500,000 into the Food Allergy Initiative to help fund the research center at Mount Sinai. Sampson was drafted from Johns Hopkins to run the new Jaffe Food Allergy Institute.

FAI has given millions of dollars to Mount Sinai in the years since. In 2004, the year of the seafood allergy paper, FAI donated $1.6 million, specifically earmarked for salaries and clinical efforts at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute—basically, to pay the salaries of Sampson, Sicherer, and/or their staff. Munoz-Furlong has also received substantial contributions from FAI for her organization's projects. Sampson currently heads the FAI medical research board, a position for which he receives a $10,000 honorarium. (Under Mount Sinai's institutional guidelines on conflicts of interest, any amount over $10,000 constitutes a "significant" conflict of interest: $10,000 is not reportable, but $10,000.01 is.) He also has financial interests in two allergy drug development firms and holds several peanut-allergy-related patents, including one for a Chinese herbal treatment that, as an "herbal supplement," is not subject to conventional FDA regulations.

Asking Sicherer, Sampson, and Munoz-Furlong to perform an objective study about national rates of seafood allergies is like asking a cigarette company to determine national rates of lung cancer.

If you want to influence the answers in a survey, how you ask a question matters as much as what you ask. In the seafood study, pollsters dialed random numbers and asked whether any household members were allergic to seafood. This kind of phrasing yields a far greater number of "yes" responses than the question "has a medical professional diagnosed you with a seafood allergy?" Criteria for "convincing self-report" in the study were highly subjective, bumping up the numbers a bit more.

Sicherer and Sampson are both on the editorial board of the journal that published the paper. Also, the journal's editor, Donald Leung, serves with Sampson on the FAI medical advisory board and has been rewarded as much as $10,000 a year for his service. The peer review process breaks down in this kind of situation because of a cognitive error called confirmation bias, where erroneous information goes unnoticed because it seems to validate what the reviewer thinks he already knows. Or, as Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert pointed out in the New York Times several years ago, "doctors, judges, consultants and vice presidents strive for truth more often than we realize, and miss that mark more often than they realize. Because the brain cannot see itself fooling itself, the only reliable method for avoiding bias is to avoid the situations that produce it."

The seafood study wasn't just used to legitimize food allergies inside the medical community. It also became a handy political weapon. In 2004, FAI hired a consulting firm to devise a plan to include specific ingredient information on food labels. Tax forms show that those expenses "included mailings to the public to help support the proposed legislation." Food allergy legislation was soon proposed by Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and passed into law. We experience it now as the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, the law that requires cream cheese to bear the label "contains milk."

That same year, thousands of producers and journalists received a press release FAAN sent out about the new seafood study, announcing, "Seafood allergies are much more prevalent than once thought. … [F]requent, severe reactions are reported by sufferers. … In all, about 11 million people—roughly 1-in-25 Americans—are now believed to be affected by one or more food allergies, a disease triggered by the ingestion of certain foods that may cause life-threatening reactions, or anaphylaxis."

Had the authors' financial ties been known, these dramatic results may have met with more skepticism. But the media found the story irresistible, in part because of the tantalizing way FAAN packaged the story. The press release was written in a way that practically guarantees a story will get picked up by the media: It required the journalist to do very little work. The release included the news hook, quotes from the authors of the survey, useful statistics, and a link to an unaffiliated group's prior estimate about the prevalence of seafood allergies. The facts and quotes were reproduced (almost verbatim) in an L.A. Times piece (subscription required), which was then syndicated and reproduced in other papers like the Houston Chronicle and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The stats formed the backbone of a terrifying—yet factually wrong—2005 piece in Consumer Reports suggesting that fatal seafood allergies could strike anyone, anytime, without any prior warning.

The final piece stacking the deck in favor of food allergy paranoia came from FAAN's biggest media coup of 2004: a video news release FAAN produced with Dey Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the Epi-Pen. It's common for corporations to send out prepackaged releases that shill for products under the guise of news. The TV station is not required to state where it got the material it runs. FAAN used fake news "reported" by video news release voice-over actor Danielle Addair to promote its commissioned research. FAAN's annual report states that the video news release was extremely successful: "In total, the VNRs aired more than 300 times in approximately 207 US markets. Overall, we reached more than 30 million viewers—the most successful VNR outreach in FAAN history."

A small group of people is manipulating the scientific perspective on food allergies, exaggerating the perception of risk, and profiting from the flood of sympathetic private and government money. It's time to re-examine the statistics and question the media spin on food allergies. This time, we need to be hyperaware of potential bias and exaggeration. Food allergies deserve respect and awareness, sure—but we make unwise decisions when we're guided by fear. We should avoid telling one another horror stories about worst-case scenarios, or devising elaborate food bans. We should stop scaring ourselves based on manufactured evidence and remind ourselves that the vast majority of food-related allergic episodes are treatable. And when we look at proposed legislation like the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act of 2009, we should look at the fine print—which allocates tens of millions of dollars to food allergy education—and wonder exactly whose pockets will be lined with that money. ( slate.com )

READ MORE - The people profiting from food allergies

Are blackboards more environmentally friendly than whiteboards?

Are blackboards more environmentally friendly than whiteboards?. Veteran teachers will debate endlessly the merits of chalk vs. dry-erase. Some insist that their preferred system has pedagogical benefits (one science teacher told the Lantern that she wrote more slowly with chalk, giving students more time to absorb difficult concepts), while others appreciate its feel or smell.

With apologies to both camps, let's assume that blackboards and whiteboards are completely interchangeable with respect to teaching, so we can figure out which is better for the planet.

The Lantern was surprised to discover that the boards themselves are going to be more or less the same whether you're writing in chalk or dry-erase ink. Until the 1960s, chalkboards were made from slate, which is extracted from the earth through quarrying. These days, though, a blackboard consists of a steel core with a porcelain overlay—just like most wall-mounted whiteboards. So the primary comparison here comes down to a face-off between chalk sticks and markers.

Chalk is a relatively simple product: Start with either calcium sulfate or calcium carbonate—the main sources of which are gypsum and limestone, respectively—mix with water and pigments, extrude into stick form, and then bake. All these steps require energy, and quarrying gypsum and limestone has the potential to cause air pollution.

Dry-erase pens, on the other hand, have a number of components—plastic barrels, caps, filaments, and ink—so they're going to have a much more complicated life cycle. As with mechanical pencils—the subject of the Lantern's last back-to-school column—the main issue here is the plastic: Plastic manufacturing requires petroleum, a nonrenewable resource. And at the end of their lives, whiteboard markers are virtually guaranteed to end up in the trash bin. Even if you felt motivated to disassemble your pens so you could dispose of them more responsibly, it wouldn't do much good—most markers don't indicate what kind of plastic they're made out of, and those that do are often polypropylene, which generally isn't recyclable.

Chalk, however, can theoretically be a very low-waste product, especially if you use a chalk holder that allows you to keep using the sticks until the bitter end. (And once you're left with nothing but nubs, you can take them home and use them for other purposes—like keeping your silver from tarnishing or removing grease spots from your clothes.) Chalk also tends to be packaged much more simply, which means less trash headed for the landfill. There is the issue of chalk dust, which can trigger allergies and aggravate asthma. Some teachers also report that chalk dust can muck up electronic equipment—that means more cleaning supplies, plus the potential need for more frequent replacements. Dry-erase pens can produce dust, too, though, and the residue left on the board often requires special cleansers.


Many chalk adherents claim that chalk is cheaper than its competitor, which would certainly boost their green cred. Money saved on writing implements, after all, can be put toward other, environmentally friendly classroom upgrades—like swapping out T-12 fluorescent bulbs for the T-8 variety, which the Department of Energy estimates can save up to 30 percent (PDF) of a school's lighting energy. It's not obvious, though, that the math works out in favor of chalk. It's true you can get a box of 12 colored chalk sticks for just 99 cents on OfficeDepot.com, while a four-pack of colored markers costs $5.39. But some veteran teachers say it is possible that a single pen would outlast 16 sticks of chalk, making it a better value overall.

To properly compare a stick of chalk with a disposable dry-erase marker, we'd need to have better data on how the manufacturing impacts stack up, since they're likely to be the biggest factor in the equation. The pen maker BIC, for example, says 90 percent of the environmental impacts of its Cristal-brand plastic ballpoints stem from the production phase. Since your school has already made the wholesale switch to whiteboards, reusable pens—like AusPens and Artline's ECO marker—are probably your best bet, provided that the ink refills and replacement nibs for these products aren't themselves overly packaged.

Of course, as an individual teacher, you might not have much say in your school's procurement policies. And having once been a high-school teacher herself, the Lantern knows how whiteboard pens have a tendency to migrate from classroom to classroom. If you have the time and the resources to buy your own pens—and then ensure that they're used properly and not chucked as soon as they run out of ink—the Lantern heartily applauds your efforts. But if that's unrealistic, there are plenty of free, easy things you can do to reduce your classroom's footprint.

For example, you can shut off all the lights if the room is going to sit empty for more than a few minutes. According to Pacific Gas and Electric, up to between 8 percent and 20 percent of a school's lighting energy can be saved this way. Keep computers, printers, televisions, and other electronics powered down when not in use. Better yet, involve your students in your monitoring efforts. If you can help them understand how small choices made in individual classrooms can add up on an institutional level—a lesson that they'll hopefully take into adulthood—you'll be doing a lot more for the planet than you would by personally choosing one type of writing utensil over another. ( slate.com )

READ MORE - Are blackboards more environmentally friendly than whiteboards?

Is fake-wood furniture bad for the environment?

The Eco-Perils of Cheap Decor. Is fake-wood furniture bad for the environment?. I just moved to a new city so I could go back to school. Now I've got to furnish a new apartment on a graduate student's budget. Tell me, just how bad for the environment is a fake-wood bureau or bookcase?

An Ikea store

One of the cardinal rules of green living is to invest in quality items that don't need to be replaced very often. But it's not always possible to buy that handcrafted, solid-oak bookcase, especially if you're living off a university stipend. So unless you're willing to let all your clothes and books sit in piles on the floor, you may as well educate yourself about the greenest options in your price range.

At the lower end of the furniture market, many pieces are constructed out of particleboard or a somewhat sturdier material called medium-density fiberboard. These do have at least one environmental edge over solid, virgin wood: They're made primarily from leftover sawdust and lumber scraps, so your new dresser won't require cutting down as many trees.

On the other hand, it takes more energy to produce particleboard and MDF than it does to process lumber boards, since the wood scraps must be broken down, dried, mixed with adhesives, and then heated and pressed into panels. Plus, some of those scraps might have otherwise been burned as fuel at the factory. (Figures from New Zealand suggest that, on a pound-for-pound basis, the production of composite-wood products is more energy-efficient [PDF] than making plastics and most metals.)

Plywood is a third kind of composite panel, made of thin sheets of wood that are stacked and glued together. The wood comes from virgin timber, though manufacturers are able to squeeze out more from each log than those making solid wood products. Plywood and MDF are roughly equivalent in terms of the energy used to produce them.

Then there are air-quality issues. Particleboard, MDF, and plywood all have the potential to emit formaldehyde as off-gas because of the adhesives used in manufacturing. Formaldehyde can cause short-term health effects—like watery eyes and respiratory irritation—at levels above 0.1 parts per million. According to the EPA, homes with "significant amounts of new pressed wood" can have formaldehyde levels above 0.3 parts per million.

Formaldehyde is also considered a "known human carcinogen" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a "probable human carcinogen" by the EPA. Cheap furniture is likely to emit higher levels of the gas, since low-formaldehyde replacement glues tend to be more expensive. (Plus, boards made with these glues need to be cured longer, further increasing the price of the finished product.)

Composite-wood products may soon be a safer option. California recently passed strict new emissions standards for the industry, which should eventually affect the rest of the country, given the size of the California market. In the meantime, if you're concerned, look for furniture made with low- or no-formaldehyde adhesives. (If your new bookcase smells a little off, leave it outside or in a room with an open window for a week—most off-gassing occurs in the early days of a product's life.) The greenest types of particleboard and MDF have high amounts of recycled content or use alternative fibers—like straw or sugarcane residue, known as bagasse—in place of wood.

Some retailers, like IKEA, are experimenting with lightweight panels made of a honeycomblike paper core sandwiched between two thin sheets of particleboard or MDF. These panels use less material than traditional composite panels, not to mention less energy in their manufacture and transport. The Lantern also likes the look of the modular furniture from Way Basics, which is made from post-consumer recycled-paper panels that the company claims are just as strong as particleboard.

Finally, if your new dresser contains any wood at all, you should spare a thought for how that wood was sourced. In an ideal world, you'd always be able to buy furniture that came with certification from a third-party group like the Forest Stewardship Council, but currently there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of FSC-approved stuff available in the budget price range. (There has been a stronger push toward certifying lawn furniture—but that might not be the vibe you're going for in your new place.) Regardless, you should always ask retailers where the wood comes from and what sustainability measures are in place at the point of harvest.

You may not get more than a blank stare in return, but it's important to let companies know that these issues matter to you, especially given the fact that the United States' heavy appetite for wood products—we consume about a fifth of all global exports—has been implicated in widespread illegal logging in places like Indonesia and the Russian Far East.

Of course, the best option—for both the planet and your wallet—would be to buy secondhand pieces. Not only does buying used mean avoiding manufacturing impacts—not to mention lower formaldehyde emissions—you'll probably be able to get higher-quality (i.e., longer-lasting) pieces than you would have otherwise. The Lantern, for example, is inordinately proud of a gorgeous designer couch she bought last year for about a third of the original price. If you don't have a grandmother whose attic you can raid, scour junk shops, Craigslist, and Freecycle. ( slate.com )

READ MORE - Is fake-wood furniture bad for the environment?

Sports drinks linked to tooth damage

Sports drinks linked to tooth damage. Sipping on sports drinks can damage your teeth because of the high levels of acid in them, dentists have warned.

Dental experts placed teeth in sports drinks and in water to compare the effects and found the citric acid in the sports drinks caused corrosion and could result in severe tooth damage if left untreated.

The erosion on teeth placed in sports drink were clearly visible as dozens of tiny holes appeared while there was no damage on the teeth immersed in water
Photo: GETTY

The results of the experiment were presented at the annual meeting of the International Association for Dental Research in Miami.

Researchers at the New York University College of Dentistry cut calves' teeth in half and immersed each half in either a sports drink or water and compared the results after 75 to 90 minutes.

"This is the first time that the citric acid in sports drinks has been linked to erosive tooth wear," said Dr Mark Wolff, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cariology and Comprehensive Care at the college, who led the study.

The erosion on the half placed in the sports drink was clearly visible because dozens of tiny holes had appeared while there was no damage on the half which was immersed in water.

Brushing teeth immediately after the drinks would compound the problem, Dr Wolff said, because the acid in the drink softens tooth enamel leaving it vulnerable to the the abrasive brushing with toothpaste.

In another study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scientists found cutting out one serving of sugared soft drink led to weight loss of just over one pound after six months and 1lb 4oz after 18 months. Cutting out other drinks did not have the same effect, the researchers said.

A spokesman for the British Soft Drinks Association said: "This study does not replicate real life as the teeth were studied outside of the mouth. A real-life study conducted by Ohio State University, which is the most comprehensive study to date, found that there is no relationship between the consumption of sports drinks and dental erosion. Anyone concerned about this issue should consult their dentist for advice on how to minimise the effects of dietary acids from all sources in the diet." ( telegraph.co.uk )

READ MORE - Sports drinks linked to tooth damage

Danger of children brushing teeth too much

Danger of children brushing teeth too much. Children should not brush their teeth after every meal because they could be doing more harm than good, according to experts.

More than three-quarters (79%) of dental professionals are seeing more acid erosion on children's teeth on a weekly basis than ever before, according to new research.And more than half (53 per cent) of five year olds have some form of the problem which is caused by acid in food and drink rotting away the enamel of the tooth

Careful: Dentists have warned that children should not brush their teeth after every meal as it may be doing more harm than good Photo: PHILIP HOLLIS

Professor Jimmy Steele of the School of Dental Sciences at The University of Newcastle analysed the results of the study.

He said: "Adult teeth generally start to appear when children are six years-old and need to last a lifetime, so protection from an early age is key.

"Encourage them to drink acid drinks with a straw placed towards the back of the mouth away from teeth.

"And encourage children to avoid brushing their teeth immediately after consuming acidic food or drinks as this is when the enamel is at its softest - it's best to wait as long as possible after an acidic meal or brush beforehand."

The main cause of acid erosion is drinks, not only fizzy ones but those containing fruit are high in acid.

According to the research even eating an orange and sucking out the juice from segments is bad for erosion.

The data, compiled by Sensodyne, a toothpaste producer, came from 214 dental professionals and 1,964 parents, of children aged six to 10.

The research found that more than nine in ten (93 per cent) of parents are not aware of which types of food and drink contain acid and almost six in ten parents (58 per cent) say their children smother food in sauces or dressings, most not realising this is a major cause of acid erosion.

Dr Peter Huntley, an orthodontic specialist, said: "It's a huge problem for the future, acidity in drinks is damaging the enamel, but its not well publicised and there should be a warnings issued." ( telegraph.co.uk )

READ MORE - Danger of children brushing teeth too much

Adding raisins to cereal 'does not damage teeth'

Adding raisins to cereal 'does not damage teeth'. Adding raisins to sweeten children's cereal is not bad for their teeth, research has found.

If no sugar is added to food containg the sweet dried fruit it is rapidly cleared from the surface of teeth, meaning it poses no serious risk of cavities.

Higher dental plaque acid levels contributes to cavities in children - but eating bran flakes with raisins containing no added sugar does not increase acid in dental plaque than just bran flakes alone, according to the study.

Christine Wu, professor and director of cariology research at the University of Illinois at Chicago and lead investigator of the study, said: "Some dentists believe sweet, sticky foods such as raisins cause cavities because they are difficult to clear off the tooth surfaces."

"But studies have shown that raisins are rapidly cleared from the surface of the teeth just like apples, bananas and chocolate."

In the study, published in the journal Pediatric Dentistry, children ages 7 to 11 compared four food groups - raisins, bran flakes, a commercial raisin bran cereal, and a mix of bran flakes with raisins without added sugar.

Children chewed and swallowed the test foods within two minutes. The acid produced by the plaque bacteria on the surface of their teeth was measured at intervals.

Plaque bacteria on tooth surfaces can ferment various sugars such as glucose, fructose or sucrose and produce acids that may promote decay.

But sucrose is also used by bacteria to produce sticky sugar polymers that help the bacteria remain on tooth surfaces, Wu said. Raisins themselves do not contain sucrose.

In a previous study at UIC, researchers identified several natural compounds from raisins that can inhibit the growth of some oral bacteria linked to cavities or gum disease. ( telegraph.co.uk )

READ MORE - Adding raisins to cereal 'does not damage teeth'

Big explosion reveals most massive star known

Big explosion reveals most massive star known. Supernova still visible 2 years later, and may have had mass 200 times sun’s. All supernova explosions are violent affairs, but this one takes the cake. Astronomers have spotted a new type of extremely bright cosmic explosion they think originates from an exceptionally massive star.

This breed of explosion has been long predicted, but never before seen. Like all supernovas, the blast is thought to have marked the end of a star's life. But in this case, that star may have started out with 200 times the mass of the sun.

The supernova in question, SN2007bi, was observed in 2007 in a nearby dwarf galaxy. Scientists knew at once it was something different because it was about 50 to 100 times brighter than a typical supernova.

"It was much brighter, and it was bright for a very long time," said researcher Paolo Mazzali of the Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany. "We could observe this thing almost two years after it was discovered, where you normally don't see anything anymore."

After analyzing its signature, astronomers published a paper in the Dec. 3 issue of the journal Nature confirming that it matches theoretical predictions of a so-called pair-instability supernova.

"There were some doubts that they existed," said astronomer Norbert Langer of the University of Bonn in Germany, who did not work on the project. Langer wrote an opinion essay on the finding in the same issue of Nature. "There were severe doubts that stars that massive could ever form in the universe. Now we seem to be very sure that there was a star with 200 solar masses."

In a pair-instability supernova, the star has neared the end of its life and exhausted its main supplies of hydrogen and helium, leaving it a core of mostly oxygen. In smaller stars, the core continues to burn until eventually it is all iron, then collapses in a Type II supernova, leaving behind a remnant black hole or neutron star.

But in the case of an extremely massive star, while its core is still made of oxygen, it releases photons that are so energetic, they create pairs of electrons and their anti-matter opposites, positrons. When the matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate each other. This reaction reduces the star's pressure, and it collapses, igniting the oxygen core in a runaway nuclear explosion that eats up the whole star, leaving no remnant at all.

The discovery of this rare type of supernova suggests that a few stars actually can grow into such large behemoths — which has long been a topic of debate.

"I was never a believer in very massive stars," Mazzali told SPACE.com. "Seeing something like this explode means these things exist. This is a fairly new development in the formation of stars." ( space.com )

READ MORE - Big explosion reveals most massive star known

Movie theatre popcorn salt, fat get thumbs down

Movie theatre popcorn salt, fat get thumbs down. Eating a large bag of popcorn at some Canadian movie theatres is like eating almost of a quarter kilogram of potato chips, a paper suggests.

The non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest commissioned laboratory analyses of movie theatre popcorn from the top three chains in Canada and the U.S. for the December issue of its Nutrition Action Newsletter.

There's a lot of variation in the calorie and saturated fat content of movie theatre popcorn. (Larry Crowe/Associated Press)

"You can get one kind of popcorn with three grams of saturated fat and roughly the same size at another theatre with 38 grams of saturated fat. That's just a phenomenal difference," said Bill Jeffery of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest in Ottawa. "These are things that you can't tell by tasting."

At Cineplex Entertainment — the largest chain in Canada with 1,328 screens — popcorn is now popped in non-hydrogenated canola oil, second best after air popped at home.

But the popcorn purchased by CSPI researchers weighed more than the company claims. After adjusting the serving size, a small popcorn with no topping had 480 calories.

A large untopped popcorn has 1,120 calories — half a day's worth for most people, as well as 530 milligrams of sodium.

Health Canada recommends that adults consume less than 20 grams of saturated fat, and about 1,500 mg of sodium in an entire day based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Patrons who opt for five pumps of Becel topping on a large, 20 cup portion at Cineplex add 270 calories and four grams of saturated fat. They get 320 calories and 22 grams of saturated fat with five squirts of Lactantia butter topping.

At Empire, Canada's second-largest chain with 377 screens, popcorn is also made in non-hydrogenated canola oil. A small, untopped popcorn contains 360 calories, equivalent to 60 grams of potato chips.

Even a small popcorn at Empire includes 740 milligrams of sodium — half a day's worth, the Centre said. A large carries 1,480 milligrams, without adding a seasoning packet.

Nutrition labels

At AMC Theatres, which has 184 screens in Canada, the corn snack is popped in coconut oil containing 90 per cent saturated fat. The AMC popcorn bought for the article also consistently weighed more than the company said.

A small popcorn, about six cups worth, with no topping, included 13 grams of saturated fat compared with 38 grams in a large portion containing 16 cups.

Movie theatres also offer pop to wash down the snacks. A small ranged from two cups at Cineplex to 2.5 cups at AMC. Assuming a quarter of the cup is filled with ice, the drink includes 150 to 200 calories' worth of sugar, unless the drink is water or diet pop.

The report also looked at the calories, sugar and saturated fat content of candy sold at theatres. The nutrition information printed on the package are typically for a 40- to 50-gram serving, while the theatres tend to sell candy in 100- to 200-gram sizes.

For seven years, theatres and restaurants have been exempt from rules requiring nutrition facts tables on prepackaged foods, Jeffries said.

In April, legislators in Ontario made the first moves toward a bill requiring large-chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards, as governments in California and New York City have already mandated.

Applying such labels at restaurants and movie theatres in Canada "would give people pause," Jeffery said, noting there's a public health argument towards putting warnings on foods with really high saturated fat or sodium contents, given the artery-clogging potential.

But it's not clear if consumers would opt for low-calorie popcorn.

After the U.S. Center's first report on popcorn in 1994, many cinema operators responded by offering patrons choices such as air-popped popcorn, the National Association of Theatre Owners, which includes Canadian theatres, said in a statement.

"After very little time, movie patrons in droves made their voices heard," the association, which includes Canadian members, said in a statement in response to the CSPI report.

"They wanted the traditional popcorn back."

The movie theatre industry will continue to respond to customers' preferences, the group said. ( cbc,ca )

READ MORE - Movie theatre popcorn salt, fat get thumbs down