General Chat

Ratty walks again Rats with severe spinal cord injuries regained 70% of their walking abilities after a revolutionary treatment. Medics at the University of Miami transplanted cells to create a bridge across damaged areas of the spinal chord. The success of the study raises hopes for the future treatment of human spinal injuries www*med*miami*edu (change asterisks to dots) len

Well-bred eagle. A golden eagle chick has been bred from frozen sperm for the first time. Biologists from the University of Abertay in Dundee developed the technique to safeguard endangered birds of prey. Conventional breeding of rare birds in captivity is fraught with problems because of the difficulty of matching individual birds from scattered locations around the word. www*abertay*ac*uk (change asterisks for dots) len

Who believes in giants? An ape about 10ft tall and weighing up to 1200lb roamed south-east Asia nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago, according to a recent study. Using a high-precision dating method, Dr J. Rink of McMaster University, Hamilton, determined that Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate ever, existed with early humans during a time of major evolutionary change. Research began in 1935 when a Dutch Palaeontologist discovered a molar, nearly an inch across, for sale in a Hong Kong pharmacy. If this animal was contemporary with early man, possibly that is the source of the giant mythology ? Len

Thanks Len, great reading (especially pleased 'bout being able to eat loads a dark choccies)! Will catch up with the rest after lunch Cheers Kaz

Ant it surprising Deep in th Amazon rain forest, legend has it that spirits cultivate 'devil's gardens' comprising entirely of a single species of tree. Scientist have long been puzzled by how these gardens of a single plant, duroia hirsuta, thrive for hundreds of years when most tropical rain-forests are densely populated with an immense diversity of trees, shrubs vines and flowers. One suggestion was that the trees exuded toxic secretions to kill competing plants, a process known as alleopathy. But researchers from Stanford University have published evidence in the journal Nature establishing that an ant, myrmelachista schumanni, which nests in d.hirsuta stems, is a fervent gardener which uses poison as a weed killer. By killing other, unwanted plants, the insects create a space for their favoured d.hirsuta saplings to grow, thereby allowing the ant colony to expand as it occupies new nesting sites. The leader of the team of scientists says that this is probably the most dramatic known example of landscape gardening by ants. Len

Its a dog's life Dogs have earned a new claim to the title of mans best friend after the discovery by scientists that they can sniff out cancer and even detect unconfirmed cases. A study using cocker spaniels, labrador. papillon and mongrel dogs found their ability to detect a sample from a patient with bladder cancer well above chance. The dogs correctly selected the sample of bladder cancer urine on 22 out of 54 occasions, including one sample from a patient who the doctors had cleared as healthy. That is a success rate of 41% compared to a computer calculation of 14% based on chance. The research led by Dr Caroline Willis of the Department of Dermatology, Amersham Hospital, Bucks grew from anecdotal evidence that dogs could sniff out melanoma, skin cancer. Dr Willis, writing in the British Medical Journal says the dogs seem to have the ability to pick up a 'chemical profile' of the cancer, probably made up of several volatile chemicals. She added that there was great value in the findings and they forsaw that trained dogs could help develop a medical screening instrument that would help with diagnosis.screening. The dogs were trained over 9 months to lie down when they detected cancer in a sample. Each dog was tested 9 times. Len

MRSA A new weapon against the drug-resistant “superbug” MRSA was unveiled at the American Chemical Society meeting in Washington DC at the end of August 2005. The drug gets inside the bacteria by mimicking a component of their cell walls and then deactivates an enzyme that usually protects the microbes, triggering a deadly chain of events. Mad cow disease. Misshapen prion proteins, which cause degenerative brain diseases such as BSE in cows and CJD in humans can now be detected in the blood. The technique could allow contaminated blood donations to be intercepted and enable diagnosis in cattle before they develop symptoms. (Nature Medicine. DOI: 10.1038/nm12860 Creutzfeldt-Jabob disease in humans is acquired through eating infected beef. BSE in cattle occurred through contaminated cattle feed. A constituent of cattle feed was bonemeal and that imported from India was thought to contain human remains scavenged from rivers. It is a part of Hindu and other cultures to dispose of corpses in the rivers, after or without cremation, and low-caste scavengers of bones for the manufacture of bonemeal were not fastidious. Meditation. College students who volunteered for a study were randomly assigned to one of three groups, regardless of their spiritual beliefs. The 25 students who were in the spiritual meditation group were told to concentrate on a phrase such as “God is Love” or “God is Great” or “God is Peace” during meditation sessions. Those in the secular meditation group were told to use a phrase such as “I am at peace” or “I am joyful” whilst those in the third group were simply told to relax. Subjects were asked to practice their techniques for 20 minutes each day for two weeks at the beginning and end of which the researchers used psychological profiling to assess their mood. They also tested pain tolerance as measured by the length of time the volunteers could keep their hands in water at 2°C. Those practising spiritual meditation showed greater reductions in anxiety than the other two groups and were able to keep their hands in cold water at the end for nearly double the time - on average 92 seconds as against 49 for the relaxation group. The head of researchers says that spiritual meditation brings more than just deeper relaxation. It is also likely that there is something unique inherent in the practice of spiritual meditation that cannot be completely conveyed through secular mediation and relaxation.(Journal of Behavioural Medicine, DOI; 10.10071/s10865-005-9008-5) len

Nana Anna My daughter has an old walnut tree in her garden. Being a bit portly. her hubby brings the crop down by thrashing the branches with a long stick. It does the trick and seems not to damage the tree, perhaps stimulates it as would a mild pruning? len

Len, what is that saying all about that goes 'A man, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat 'em the better they be'! I can understand the idea for a man and a dog but what good can it do for the tree? Anna

The walnut has been part of human life for millennia and is one of the most useful living things around, often found near homes, churches or pubs – a sure sign of close relationship with people. Folk plant them partly because of the shade their large canopies offer, partly because of their delicious fruit and partly because they seem to repel flies, probably due to a toxic (to insects) vapour emitted by the leaves. Its much more than a natural insecticide as the chemical responsible, juglone (5-hydroxy-1,4=napththoquinone) is also toxic to a number of plant species and to aquatic life. The tree embarks on a kind of chemical warfare to keep intruders off its patch. Juglone is produced mainly by the roots, from where it leaches into the soil and interferes with the respiration of nearby plants which turn yellow, wilt and eventually die. The chemical is used as a natural herbicide. Juglone is not harmful to humans although there have been reported cases of toxicity in horses, there have been none in people. It seems that juglone may even have medicinal properties: Chinese herbalists have long used it to get rid of intestinal parasites. The edible fruit is certainly beneficial to health, rich in anti-oxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. Eating a handful of walnuts a day could reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. A study published in July 2005 shows that they can be especially beneficial to people with type 2 diabetes. The outer husks of the nuts can be processed to make dyes – furniture stain, hair dye and ink. The wood is used for quality furniture, gun stocks and the dashboards of Jaguar cars. Crushed walnut shells, which are particularly hard, are used in industrial abrasives to clean runway lights at airports: they also work well in cosmetic face masks. NASA has even used pulverised walnut shell as thermal insulation in its rocket nose cones. Then there’s walnut oil , in which ancient civilisations preserved their dead. Len

Chimpanzees appear to be capable of communicating, using sounds that refer to specific objects, according to a study of sounds made in response to different foods. It is the first time this ability has been demonstrated in chimps. Primatologists of the University of St Andrews recorded the grunts made by chimps at nearby Edinburgh Zoo as they collected food at two feeders. One dispensed bread, considered a high quality treat and the other doled out apples, a much less sought-after snack. Researchers then played back the recordings and watched the reactions of a six-year-old male named Liberius. The results were striking. After hearing bread grunts, Liberius spent far more time searching around the bread feeder, while an apple grunt would send him to the apple feeder. Liberius was able to take cues from apple and bread grunts made by at least 3 different chimps. This is the first convincing evidence of 'referential communication' in chimps. Earlier research with a close cousin of the chimp, a male pygmy chimpanzee or bonobo, named kenzi, showed that he made specific sounds for four different things: bananas, grapes, juice and yes. Len Perhaps a common-sense (or even logical) approach might have suggested to the researchers that if vocalisation had no use or meaning it would not be present. It seems to be a common attitude amongst scientists that if a thing is not proven it does not exist. Len

Andrew Whiten of the University of St Andrews in the UK has produced a study showing that when chimpanzees learn a new skill from their peers, they tend to stick with that method even if it isn't the most effective. Whiten's team taught two female chimps how to get food from a complicated feeder using a stick to move a barrier. One chimp learned to lift the barrier while the other was taught an apparently more efficient poking method. The chimp's group-mates were then allowed to watch their respective experts at work. The chimps followed the lead of their own expert chimp. The poker's group preferred to poke and the lifter's group lifted. And even when some lifters learned to poke, the majority reverted to the group's original lifting strategy. (Nature DOI;10.1038/nature04047) len

Little girls watch and learn; little boys play around. This too appears to be the case with chimps according to new research. Chimps in the wild like to snack on termites, and youngsters learn to fish for them by wetting long twigs and other such tools and poking them into the mounds where termites live. In a paper published in the Journal of Animal Behaviour, researchers in the Gombe national park found that female chimps picked up termite fishing at a mean age of 31 months, more than two years earlier than males. The females seemed to learn by watching their mothers, said the paper's author Dr E.V.Lonsdorf, director of field conservation at the Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago. Typically, when a young male and female are near a mound, 'she's really intently fishing, he's just spinning himself in circles'. The behaviour of both sexes may be familiar to to many parents. 'The sex differences we found in chimpanzees mimic some of the findings from human child development literature'. She pointed out, however, that in the case of chimps each is doing something important. since the males' play is practice for later dominance behaviour - so they're doing stuff that's really appropriate. len

Biologists have discovered two new species of lemur, an endangered group of primates that evolved before monkeys and apes, from which man may have directly evolved. Peter Kappeler of the German Primate Centre Göttingen and his colleagues analysed morphological, genetic and behavioural data from separate populations of the giant mouse lemur Mirza coquereli. They believe the two groups are distinct enough for one of them to be reclassified as a different species, now known as Mirza zaza. The second new species is a type of mouse lemur named Microcebus lehilahytsara. It was also identified by morphological and genetic studies. Robert Zingg of Zurich Zoo and his team discovered it in Andasibe, a protected area on the east of the island that is one of Madagascar's best-studied areas. 'It highlights the fact that we still have a lot to learn about patterns and causes of biodiversity, even among our closest biological cousins' says Kappeler. The findings were presented on 10th August at the congress of the European Federation for Primatology on Göttingen. len

A rift has opened within the Catholic church over the compatability of the theory of evolution with Christian faith. The Vatican's chief astonomer, The American Jesuit priest George Coyne, has rebuffed controversial comments made by Cardinal Christopher Schönborn in The New York Times on 7th July that Darwinism is incompatible with a belief in God (New Scientist 23 July). 'Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science' Schönborn wrote. He also dismissed as 'rather vague and unimportant' a 1996 statement by Pope John Paul ll that seemed to indicate the church's acceptance of evolution. Coyne has slammed these comments in an article in The Tablet, a Catholic Newspaper. He writes that 'the nagging fear' that the big bang and Darwinian evolution 'escape God's dominion is groundless'. 'We should not close off the dialogue and darken the already murky waters by fearing that that God will be abandoned if we embrace the best of modern science' he urges. Len

Einstein’s Brain Albert Einstein died at 1:15 am on April 18, 1955 at Princeton Hospital in New Jersey. Later that day, Princeton Hospital pathologist Dr. Thomas Harvey performed an autopsy on Einstein and removed Einstein's brain. Harvey cut the brain into 240 pieces. He was very protective of the brain and kept it jars at his house. Over the years, Harvey gave several pieces of the brain to different researchers including Dr. Marian Diamond (UC Berkeley), Dr. Britt Anderson (University of Alabama) and Dr. Sandra Witelson (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario). Harvey moved around the country and he always brought the brain with him. Eventually, Harvey moved back to New Jersey. In 1996, Harvey brought the remaining pieces of Einstein's brain to Dr. Elliot Krauss, chief pathologist at Princeton Hospital. (Reference: Abraham, C., Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002 len

Rumble in the jungle. A device used to track enemy troops during the Vietnam War may give conservationists a better understanding of elephant behaviour. Forest elephants, thought to be a different species from their kin on Africa's savannahs, have been difficult to track because dense tree cover hides them from aerial surveys. Until now the best estimates have come from counting dung balls but this is labour-intensive and error-prone. Jason Woods and his colleagues from Stanford University in California instead tried using a small seismic detector, or geophone, to track the rumble of elephant footfalls. The researchers buried a geophone near a water hole in Etosha National Park in Namibia and recorded animals as they passed. When they analysed the recordings, they found they could distinguish elephant footsteps from other large mammals by a stronger low-frequency component to the rumble. They were also able to estimate the number of animals in a group from the total energy generated by their footfalls (Joural of Applied Ecology Vol 42. p.587). Geophones cost thousands of dollars so the system will be expensive to implement but Wood hopes they will reveal unprecedented details about the timing of elephant activity over days or months and give a different insight into what the population is doing. len

At last. We now know where the penis is represented in the male brain. The genitalia's location on the 'homunculus', the brain's map of body parts, has been in dispute since the 1920s. Now Christian Kell at the University of Frankfurt in Germany has put eight men in to an MRI scanner to help settle the question. Using a soft brush, Kell stroked parts of each volunteer's body while recording brain activity. Each man's penis was represented in the same place - flanked by the areas for the toes and the abdomen - Kell told the Organisation of Human Brain Mapping at the annual meeting in Toronto. 'The only depressing thing' he says, 'is that the representation is very small. Len

Who needs relatives? Friends, not family, are one of the keys to a long life, a study of elderly Australians suggests. Previous research has shown that strong social networks help older people live longer but the work has not distinguished between friends and relatives. The latest study followed some 1500 people aged over 70. Those who at the start reported face-to-face or 'phone relationships with 5 or more friends were 22% less likely to die in the next decade than those who had reported few, distant friends. Close ties with children or other relatives had no effect (Journal of Epidemiological and Community Health, vol 59, page 538). Friends might help people cope in times of stress and difficulty, the team suggests. They might also encourage healthy behaviours, such as seeking help for medical symptoms. 'And friends are perhaps less likely to be a source of negative stress, which, for some older people, their children can be' says Lynne Giles of Flinders University in Adelaide in S. Australia, who led the work. Close friends might even have a positive psychological effect, suggest Carlos Mendes de Leon of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago in an editorial about the paper. Len

Dr Doolittle About 1 in every 500 people has autism, a condition characterised by severely impaired social and communication skills. Temple Grandin believes that such people have an especially close affinity with animals and are better placed than others to empathise with animals and to understand their behaviour. Many experts ridicule such generalisations but Grandin is utterly confident that she is right and speaks with authority: Not only is she a professor of Animal Science but she is autistic. Grandin deserves to be taken seriously since she has unequivocally demonstrated her special understanding of animals. She may well have done more for animal welfare than anyone else in recent history. In her book 'Animals in Translation' Grandin explains why she believes autistic people have so much in common with animals. The answer lies in their brains: 'Autistic people's frontal lobes almost never work as normal people's do, so our brain function ends up being somewhere between human and animal' she writes. The frontal lobes, in the front of the skull, are the parts of the brain involved in planning, organisation, speech and voluntary motor movements. Whereas most humans are good at viewing the 'big picture' of their surroundings, autistic people, Grandin believes, tend to be much more sensitive to details. This hypersensitivity led her to notice things that have evidently been traumatising animals for centuries in human-imposed environments but that other experts had missed. Her check-list of '18 tiny details that scare farm animals' include sparkling reflections in puddles, hissing and high-pitched noises, moving pieces of plastic and even a piece of clothing hanging on a fence. She has improved the lives of millions of animals by advising live-stock keepers of these irritants and having them removed. This makes the accountants very happy as the health and quality of the animal is improved. Grandin has done much of her most effective and lucrative work in slaughter houses where her employers send animals to an early death. Many humans mistreat animals through lack of understanding and empathy, rather than unkindness. Her book is sufficiently full of examples to convince that Grandin has special insights into the way animals think, feel and behave. It is a strange cross between a layperson's guide to autism and a how-to guide to animal welfare. Len