Wiki World

Testing of all Pregnant Women for Vitamin D Is a Burden on the Government

It seems odd than in a country with the brightest sunlight of just about any nation on earth that women could possibly lack vitamin D. But "experts" are squabbling over screening for vitamin D deficiency. The government is saying that the cost is far too high and the value of doing this has questionable benefits.

At present obstetricians have to decide whether to test pregnant women who appear to suffer from a shortage of vitamin D. Australia's health system is already "cracking at the edges". Funding is a serious problem. With the Endocrine Society of Australia and the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group Assuming the government will take the advice and test all pregnant women, GPs are confused.

The number of women tested for vitamin D has gone up by an incredible 5,000 per cent over the last decade. Idle claims that diabetes and heart disease are "caused" by not enough vitamin D in the body are not proven. Many health professionals still question the lack of vitamin D's causal relationship with osteoporosis. Pathologists have a cash cow with the burgeoning testing. Surely, women can protect themselves by buying vitamin D tablets at health stores, chemists and even at supermarkets.

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Health

Dinner Dogs

"When will dinner be served?"

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Funny Animal Photos

Curious Dog

"What you doin' down there?"

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Funny Animal Photos

Money Wasted On New GM Grape Vine

Although GM foods have spread quietly throughout the world slipping under lax labelling systems, people are still suspicious of them. Because of the strict ban on their distribution in Europe if something disastrous happen to those who unknowingly consume them, Europeans will have the last laugh.

It seems scientists are obsessed with DNA modification of anything they can get their hands on. Wine has been made for centuries from grapes that are perfect for the job. Just why one would want to mess around with the DNA of the humble grape vine is a mystery. For ten years scientists in Adelaide have been trying to modify grapes to make them resistant to mildew. This disease can easily by prevented by spraying with fungicide.

There has been limited success in the laboratory. Tests in the field will follow. There is a problem, however, a Significant proportion of Australian wine is sold in Europe, where as mentioned above there is a ban on the sale of genetically modified food. What a waste of time and money having people and resources tied up in something that is basically unwanted.

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Food

Guilty Dog

"What makes you think it was me?"

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Funny Animal Photos

Yoghurt Prevents Heart Disease

While some doctors are not in favor of yoghurt saying it is just milk gone sour, others are now claiming it assists in the prevention of heart disease. Apparently, it slows the build up of plaque in the arteries.

Daily consumption of yoghurt in moderate amounts reduces the thickness of artery walls. Consuming cheese and milk had no effect. Tests were only done on elderly women, but the effects are believed to be the same for men.

Not much research has been done into the effects of dairy products in regard to disease prevention. The positive result of yoghurt has increased interest in dairy food and more tests will be done.

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Food

Cycad no Longer a Living Fossil

scientists have been wrong in the past and in some cases are still wrong today. Things that have been taught as fact for centuries are now found not to be true. Cycads have been called living fossils for a very long time. However, the species that survive today were not around when dinosaurs roamed the planet.

Will they find coelacanth fish, horseshoe crabs and gingko trees to also be recent branches on their family trees? Many scientists are still fighting for Pluto to be reinstated as a planet. Now cycads will be struck off the living fossil list.

When a new find of an ancient individual related to humans is announced, along with the excitement is the claim that it is the missing link between Man and lesser apes. Common sense would tell us that the missing link will probably never be found. Be prepared for "truths" held for centuries to fall by the wayside.

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Evolution

Baby Bear View

"What can you see son? I can see forever mum."

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Funny Animal Photos

Labels: baby , bears , cold , forever , ice , mum , see , snow , son , young

Australian Researcher Discovers a New Chlorophyll

A new form of chlorophyll has been identified in Shark Bay stromatolites by Min Chen of the University of Sydney. She has been awarded the Science Minister's Prize for Life Scientist of the Year.

Chlorophyll had previously been found in four forms. It is a plant pigment that makes sugar giving energy to plants. The new type called chlorophyll f operates in the upper red end of the visible spectrum. Future uses include solar cells and new kinds of food crops.

The new type of chlorophyll was found by studying cyanobacteria within stromatolites. It was an accidental discovery. The intention was to understand more about chlorophyll d. Both types of chlorophyll are similar, but have different bonding structures.

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Science

Brainy Cat

"What about that then. It really is a fact."

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Funny Animal Photos

Hendra Virus Similar to Nipah Disease in Asia

The Hendra virus was first identified in 1994. It killed horses and several veterinary scientists. Oddly, this deadly disease has only appeared in Australia. This is very unusual. Diseases tend to spread across national borders.

Outbreaks are spasmodic. Horses in Queensland and New South Wales have died recently in the latest outbreak. Scientists are intensively examining all aspects of the Hendra virus. A dog was found to be a carrier. Though unaffected and quite healthy the dog had to be put down.

Promising results have been obtained by using human antibody m102.4 on monkeys who were intentionally infected. The animals remained well for three days before needing treatment. All of the subjects survived. A control group of monkeys who were not given the antibody died.

Though unproven, the ailment is believed to be carried and spread by bats. A similar bat borne disease is widespread in India, Bangladesh and Malaysia. The Asian Nipah ailment identified in 1998 is of interest to scientists because aspects of it are much the same as the Hendra virus.

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Medicine

Contented Pets

"We do alright here. How did you know?"

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Funny Animal Photos

Trash into Fashion Called "Trashion" - The New Fad

Rubbish is being recycled. Thrown away plastic is being turned into articles that sell in Asia and the West. In Southeast Asia people are scouring rubbish tips for plastic which is turned into fashion products called "trashion".

The business in burgeoning in the West with designers using clothing, jewelry and even things for the home made of discarded plastic. Soft drink bottles, toothpaste tubes and detergent containers are sought after material.

A non-profit organization has been set up by Ann Wizer to buy trash from pickers and train people to make the "rubbish" into useful products. It generates employment and some of the income goes toward health and scholarships.

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Fashion

Muscles Created for Nanobots

Can nanobots have muscles? Researchers have made very strong, flexible muscles that could be used by nanobots to travel around the body diagnosing and treating medical conditions.

As flexible limbs much like octopus tentacles, artificial muscles can move objects a thousand times heavier. Thinner than a human hair, the "yarns" are cheap to make. They could potentially be used for pumps, valves, stirrers and flagella for drug discovery.

They were created by applying an electrochemical charge to spun carbon nanotubes making them twist into helical yarns. They are ideal to attach to bots as a tiny tail, a flagella, to propel the bot forward.

This was a truly international breakthrough. Participants in the work were the University of Wollongong, Australia, the University of Texas and Hanyang University of Korea.

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Science

Thirsty Animal

"Water, give me water."

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Funny Animal Photos

Gambling Dogs

"Someone don't belong at this table!"

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Funny Animal Photos

Professors Win Prize for Work on Polymers

The Australian Prime Minister has awarded Professor Ezio Rizzardo and Professor David Solomon a prize for developing completely new molecules. These link together in chains forming polymers. The making of polymers, polemerization, used to be a crude process. Now it can be done more precisely, tailor-made so to speak.

The end of a polymer was stopped from growing by coating it with nitroxide. This enabled knowledge to be gained after three links of growth. Importantly, the polymer could be triggered to start growing again. Different chemicals were applied to the growing polymers to see the effects. By applying what was learned, custom-made polymers were created.

Over 60 companies want to make the new material. As well as traditional uses such as tyres and car parts, delivering drugs and products that stop evaporation are also planned. Technology is moving at a rapid pace. Even for the specialist it is becoming difficult to keep up with new things.

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Technology

Candy Cat

"Us cats don't eat candy."

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Funny Animal Photos

Remote Sensing Reduces Farm Costs

Telemetry and remote sensing significantly cuts labor costs on agricultural properties. Water supplies for stock are being monitored remotely with water levels being relayed via radio signals back to the homestead.

Besides water levels at bores, animal weight can also be remotely monitored, but more work is needed on this. Water level, however, is by far the most important part of work on cattle stations. At Napperby station near Alice Springs the bore runs for 500km. This used to be checked three times a week. Now a physical check is done only once a week. The Fuel cost for motor vehicles is significantly reduced.

Cattle are more easily monitored because they congregate as a group at water bores. Remote drafting and weighing of cattle is being perfected and this will contribute greatly to cutting labor costs.

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Agriculture

Togetherness Cat and Dog

"Togetherness, togetherness, we are together...ness."

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Funny Animal Photos

Slimy Mold the Ideal Evolutionary Subject

Predictions on what alien life could look like are limited: movie aliens are typically humanoid with various outer "textures". An understanding of the evolution of life forms on other planets can be gained by examining slimy mold in forests.

Amoebas living in slime for the most part are single-celled creatures, but they do collect together forming complex bodies that crawl. Other groups pulsate. New work has identified signals that make the little creatures congregate together.

Researchers put Phusarum polycephalum (many-headed slime mold) in a maze, then placed two pieces of food further inside the twisting corridors. The "thing" tested the paths with tendrils, backing away when it reached a dead end. Four hours later it located and devoured the food.

A map of Spain was laid out and food was placed on large cities with slime mold being released to do its work. A network of tentacles spread out over the map almost exactly the same as the highway system of Spain.

Slime mould species have been around for a billion years. They "arrived" well before plants and animals. Apparently food is easier to find in a group situation. Particular amoebas have different functions within the group. Some will sacrifice themselves for the good of the group. They will devour infectious bacteria then fall away to die. Only relatives unite together. They know who the strangers are.

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Biology

Sloth no Photo

"Sloth day off - no photos please."

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Funny Animal Photos

Culling Could Destroy the Tasmanian Devil

Tasmanian devils are still under threat despite culling programs. Far too many devils must be killed to eradicate the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), so many in fact that it could decimate the Animal itself. During the incubation period of the disease, devils have no facial deformity and these animals slip through the cull net.

Current estimates give the Tasmanian devil only 25 years for survival in the wild. Work is in progress to find a vaccine. An "insurance population" is being established on the Australian mainland. And devils in north-western Tasmania have a natural genetic resistance; the spread there is slowing.

Just why the disease developed is unknown. It began in 1996. Because devils bite each other during normal interaction, DFTD spreads rapidly. The devil population has fallen by 60 per cent due to the dangerous facial tumour disease.

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Biology

Right on Dog

Right on, man."

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Funny Animal Photos

A Stonehenge Is Found in Australia

The truth is out - Aboriginals studied the stars thousands of years before ancient Europeans. Stonehenge is not the oldest stone construction that marked the summer and winter solstice. The Wadda Wurrung Aboriginals Built an egg-shaped structure of standing basalt stones that marks the solstices and the equinox (when the day has equal hours of night and day).

The design of the Aboriginal "stonehenge" is completely different from the stonehenge in England. tops of stones mark the sun's movement in Australia whereas gaps in stones mark the solstices in England. This indicates that Aboriginals who were the first people to leave Africa were much more advanced and knowledgeable than other groups in the world. This knowledge was passed on to the next generation verbally.

Europeans when they first arrived branded the Aboriginals as stupid people who could only count up to six - how wrong they were! Though the traditions of the Wadda Wurrung Aboriginals has been lost, songs and stories of other tribes show that they had a clear understanding of sun, moon and star movements. Furthermore, collection of emu eggs begins when a dark patch in the Milky Way appears in the sky. The shape of the dark patch is recorded in a rock-carving in Sydney's Kuring-Gai National Park.

The Walpiri Aboriginals tell a story of a sun-woman chasing a moon-man. When she catches him they are wed. This is the time of a solar eclipse. The moon moving in front of the sun was only "discovered" in 16th century Europe.

Many rock creations are spread across the Australian continent which are yet to be classified. The Australian stonehenge will be tested for age. It could be 20,000 years old.

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Anthropology

Exercise Dog

"One and two and...."

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Funny Animal Photos

Study on Bony Fish, Sharks and Lungfish Clarifies Evolutionary Development

A study on lungfish, bony fish and cartilaginous fish has a great deal to offer in understanding development of legs for life on land. Lungfish are ancient ancestors of tetrapods - four legged animals. Walking on their fins and breathing air, lungfish bravely moved onto the land.

Research has relied on bones preserved as fossils, but muscles cannot be "saved" in this way. A fetus shows ancient stages in a creatures development. This is why a human fetus seems to be reptile-like in its early stages. Examining muscle development of modern lungfish is very informative. Tests were also done on cartilaginous fish such as sharks and ordinary fish.

Embryos of cartilaginous and bony fish were genetically altered to promote growth of precursor pelvic fins that in lungfish became legs. Engineered cells were made to emit red and green light. The study on muscles highlighted the fact that bony fish evolved legs while cartilaginous fish did not. Pelvic muscles of bony fish are a transitory stage between cartilaginous fish and land animals.

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Biology

Meerkat Male

"No, there's nothing there George."

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Funny Animal Photos

Green Tree Frogs Survive by Getting Water Through Condensation

Australian green tree frogs live in the dry desert without dehydrating. This has been a mystery - until now. They move from a cool night into warm burrows. Then they "mist-up". They sit in the cold air for hours until they can hardly move. There is a good reason for this.

It has been discovered that their skin "takes-on" water. Inside the burrows water is in the air due to the warmth. Droplets form on their cold skin by condensation. A group of tree frogs frequented a hollow tree in the dry outback. Researchers caught some frogs, cooled them in the cold night air, lowered them into the log in a cage for a quarter of an hour, Then tested them. The frogs gained 0.4 grams in weight, their bodies glistening with water droplets.

It is now believed that lizards and spiders also use this technique to get water. Earlier work in the laboratory indicates this. Just a little water is enough to survive.

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Science

No Post Squirrel

"No mail today."

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Funny Animal Photos

Male Jewel Beetles Mate With Stubby Beer Bottles

Australian jewel beetles are sexually attracted to stubby beer bottles. These are small bottles, brown in color, that fit comfortably in the hand. Darryl Gwynne wrote about the phenomenon in a post-doctoral paper. He had noticed the behavior 23 years ago. Ultimately, the opportunity arrived to inform the world. He was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize.

Male beetles were observed mounting discarded stubbies. The bottles are the same tone of brown as female jewel beetles. Moreover, they glint in the sun like the wings of females.

Mounting the bottles is dangerous. It usually ends in death for male beetles. They are either eaten by ants or are cooked in the hot sun. It is feared that the behavior will lead to a decline in beetle numbers. However, the beetles are still present in high numbers two and half decades after the behavior was first observed.

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Science

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