Showing posts with label human. Show all posts
Showing posts with label human. Show all posts

Being Overweight Causes Osteoporosis

Being overweight leads to heart disease but it can also cause osteoporosis. This is due to people cutting out vital elements in the diet in their attempts to lose weight. Dairy products are essential for strong bones. Yet milk, butter and cheese are precisely what it being disregarded in diet by 30 per cent of women. Another danger is the consumption of bread. An astounding 40 per cent of women have stopped eating this food that is calcium fortified.  It must be remembered though that bread has only been part of the human diet for 10,000 years.  It could be the cause of many humans "diseases".

Research has shown that the real cause of weight gain is carbohydrates. Yes, it's as simple as that. People who only cut out sugar lose weight very quickly and maintain a low body weight thereafter. People concentrate on eating low fat diets even though research shows this to be the wrong thing to do. Look at movies made up to WWII. Actors and actresses and especially the extras were all quite skinny then. In those days most Western nations had not developed the high sugar habit. And most workers then went to work on a large fatty fried breakfast.

Danger in the future will not be with low fat diets. Young people today just refuse to eat vegetables. Cabbage and broccoli are high in iron. Young people steer well clear of these. Hope lies with the intake of fish. The young do like fish. Note the dash for seafood at Christmas. Fish contains calcium and minerals. Processed food is high in sugar. Government needs to have a policy aimed at lowering sugar intake in our diets.
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Conservation by Ty Buchanan
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New Finds of Early Humans Do Not Change the Basic Theory

Darwin got it right. Well actually he may not have. Fossils of early humans do not alter basic scientific thought in relation to evolution, Finds do not show a linear development toward advanced Man. Evolution though does tend to predict what new discoveries show. Claims that a particular fossil find is a breakthrough are just not true.

New dinosaur fossils, however, tend to be groundbreaking with regular identification of new type of dinosaurs. Indeed, they seem to have roamed on every continent. The whole book on dinosaur evolution has not yet been written. Time will tell how clear an understanding of it we can get.  It seems evolution of dinosaurs is clearer than that of humans.

New research teams need to be formed to go to all parts of the world and seek answers to evolution of mammals and reptiles, if indeed dinosaurs were reptiles. Some specialists today even question this view.
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Conservation
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Molecular Cancer Treatment Now Possible

New cancer "curing" medications are announced to the public all the time. Unfortunately, what you are not told is when they will be available. It isn't much use if you have to wait ten years - if you have cancer you could be dead before then.

It is not so much chemicals that attack dangerous "bugs" that are coming to the fore: modified molecules are increasingly being tested. In prostate cancer testosterone attaches to androgen receptors. Activation in this manner allows cancer growth to take place. A helix-mimicking molecule attaches to the particular docking point thus preventing the ideal cancer condition occurring.

In animal and human tests protein supporting cancer growth was not produced when the molecules attached. Moreover, it was not found to be toxic to the body. This research opens up a completely new area of treatment. The future looks bright in the fight against cancer - it we can afford to pay for it.
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Health
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Dogs Are Smart, Just Like Humans

Humans aren't that special. It was once thought that people were superior to chimpanzees because humans had feelings and showed love. We all know now that chimps do have these propensities. Other animals weren't even considered in the "advanced" creature stakes. Time has shown that many animals use tools to find food.

Pets such as dogs tend to mimic their owners. They say you grow like your partner and if your companion is a dog then the dog copies you, and heaven forbid you copy the dog. So strong is this bond that dogs will actually give up food rewards to do what their owners do.

Researchers had two groups of pet dogs. Their owners went on hands and knees and opened a sliding door with their heads and closed hands. One group of dogs was rewarded for opening the door. The other group was reward with food for not doing what their owners did. All dogs opened the door after their owners - foregoing the food reward.

Clearly dogs learn like humans. They copy. Dogs in the test were of many breeds, so intelligence was not a factor. Furthermore, what does a dog do when it sees a human yawn? Think about it. It yawns of course.

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Society
Australian Blog                        

Agriculture Disrupts the Ecosystem

Human impact on native flora and fauna is real. There seems to be no way the detrimental affects can be ameliorated. Aboriginals have been in Australia for 40,000 years. apart from the unanswered question about extinction of mega fauna Aboriginals did not alter the external environment at all.

Sedentary agriculture is the major contributing factor to habitat damage. Planting mono-crops seriously changes land features. In Western Australia, for example, water points are located at 50 sq km on average. In its pre-European natural state water holes could be found 2.5 sq km apart. This is serious change with species of native birds declining.

Unless we set areas aside as pristine, protected sectors only introduced pest species will remain. Even without the pest birds, the proportion of native birds is altered. Some die out while others increase in number. The ecosystem is no longer in balance.
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Conservation
Australian Blog                        

Imaging More Advanced Than MRI

The MRI was the most advanced way of diagnosing what patients were suffering from. It was cutting edge technology that gave very detailed images of the human body. Technology moves forward and advances are made.

Macquarie University with CSIC and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) have found a way of producing images even clearer than MRI. It is done by using artificial atoms and nitrogen doped diamond nanoparticles. Extremely weak magnetic fields in the human body can now be detected. MRI resolution is millimetric. The new system "sees" down to a millionth of a millimeter.

This technique is not invasive. It will provide an understanding of intracellular processes. The problem with the new diagnostic system is that very temperatures are required to make it work. Artificial atoms are encapsulated in a diamond crystal. They can be manipulated by lasers, dragging atoms above the surface for medical diagnosis.
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Health
TwitThis
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Beatboxing - Percussion Sounds of the Mouth

There must be a dearth of things to study. Scientists are now researching the odd sounds that people make. It may seem weird but its true. Those who can make odd sounds are called beatboxers.

Scientists are interested in percussion sounds. These are expressed in Celtic, Chinese, North American and Indian cultures. Hip-hop is an area of great interest. A young "practitioner" had MRI scans done on his mouth while he created percussion sounds.

The conclusion reached is that a lot of brainpower is involved in imitating percussion. It "is a small part of the larger puzzle," experts say. In my view it takes little mental concentration. Just put your tongue behind you top teeth a "tap" away.
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Society
TwitThis

The Dung Beetle Is the Strongest of Them All

Who's the strongest pound for pound? That bug upon the ground!

Scientists have worked out which creature is the strongest. It is a dung beetle, Onthophagus taurus. This tiny bug can pull 1,141 times its own body weight. For a human to equal this he/she would have to lift 80 tonnes, equivalent to six trucks.

The dung beetle has to be extremely fit and healthy to accomplish this feat. Putting them on poor diets before a test reduced the amount they could pull. Apparently, they have to be strong because of their lifestyle. A male digs a deep hole under a dung pat where he mates with a female. If another male enters the tunnel the two males will fight a furious battle by locking horns until one is pushed out. The more weight a male can pull the more likely he is to win the fight and be able to mate, thus passing on his genes for high strength.

Some male beetle don't seem to compete with the large aggressive males. They are born smaller and weaker. When they were fed more they still did not take up the fight, but their testicles became larger. This enables them to mate more often taking advantage of larger males who let their guard down.
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Entomology
TwitThis

Animal To Human Transplants Allowed in Australia

An old joke: Do you want a new heart? Then get one from a gorilla - "grunt!"

This is not a joke any longer. Australia has just given the go ahead for animal-to-human transplants. This is a turn around from the outright banning of such transplants in 2004. There are two conditions: one, a monitoring system must be in place: and two, there must be a patient register. New Zealand allowed transplants in 2005. The first "transplant" involved implanting insulin producing pig cells into volunteer diabetics.

This change has happened when direct research on animals such as chimpanzees is being reduced because tests can more effectively be done in a test tube. Results in many instances are quite different for chimpanzees, for example. This was discovered in AIDs research when chimpanzees didn't get AIDs. They became carriers of the disease. Animals are proving more useful when material at a cellular level is transplanted. Using animals as hosts is far more beneficial than just infecting them and seeing what happens. Soon, infusion of material to patients suffering from Parkinson's disease will begin.

The medical world is hoping that research done in Australia will be of a high standard and will add to knowledge about new medical techniques. Great care is needed in housing animals such as pigs in sterile environments. It is hoped that improved transplant success from animals will reduce the waiting lists for organ transplants.
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Science
TwitThis

Much to Learn About the Human Genome

It was thought that once the human genome was known "interpreting" how things work would be easy. However, this is not the case. The hereditary sequencing in our genes is not the only factor determining what we are and what we do. Only 3 per cent of human genes are actually involved in the "code". Little is known about what the rest do.

It has been discovered recently that these "dumb" genes turn the letter genes on and off. They determine whether a cell becomes a brain or kidney cell, for example. There are 3 billion base gene structures, so there is a long way to go in understanding basic functions. At any one time 80 per cent of genes are active. Some are triggered by proteins. Others change into RNA that regulate letter genes.

In regard to understanding human health, many bases just keep chromosomes quiet. A complicating factor is that genes overlap and have many end points - not singular. Over 4 million gene triggers have be found and they are not all located near their target letter gene. The next step is to find out which base changes affect susceptibility to arthritis, diabetes and so on.
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Science
TwitThis

Tree Grows Inside a Man

A man had severe pains in his chest and began coughing up blood. Doctor Vladimir Kamashev x-rayed the man's chest and had a big shock. He had to call his assistant for a second opinion. The assistant confirmed the doctor's diagnosis. The man had a fir tree growing inside him.

Fungus can grow inside a human body but it was not believed that plants could take root and grow there. Surgeons removed a young five-centimeter fir tree from the man's chest. Needles from the plant dug into the capillaries and caused bleeding. The man consequently coughed up blood.

Obviously a small "cutting" from a fir tree was inhaled. It found sustenance inside body tissue. What is surprising is that a biopsy of the plant showed the fir needles to be green, so the tree somehow got enough sunlight to survive. Parts of the plant have been preserved for further study.
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Society

Neanderthals and Humans Could Have Fertile Offspring

The presumption that humans and Neanderthals interbred is gaining ground among scientists, despite the two lines having a different number of chromosomes (this is not yet absolutely proven to be scientific fact). Horses and donkeys interbreed to produce mules. Occasionally a few of these mules are fertile and can have offspring, so a different number of chromosomes is not an absolute barrier.

Neanderthal DNA is present in humans. However, there is no mitochondrial DNA: this is passed along the line of the mother. Visual evidence of interbreeding can be observed. Tatjana Schmidt-Derstroff noted decades ago that there are two types of Australian Aboriginals, desert living long-legged gracillis and coastal living muscular robustus. Both are dark skinned. Robustus carry a red/blond haired gene (not passed on by shipwrecked European sailors). The more muscular type is roughly similar in features to Neanderthals. For the most part these two different kinds of Aboriginal remained separate, though some interbreeding did occur.  Today, most Aboriginals have part European ancestry.

Tatjana Schmidt-Derstroff is happy with the hypothesis that humans and Neanderthals had fertile offspring, along the male line of course. This would engender a male Neanderthal mating with a female human. With male offspring passing on respective genes. Ms Schmidt-Derstroff also holds that the major leap from Neanderthal to human is about to take place again to modern space-travelling humans. Well, this change is already taking place as people move to new countries and different "races" interbreed to create a new tan colored human.
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Anthropology

Cave Art in Spain Was Made by Neanderthals

It was believed that early humans painted the cave art in Europe. Scientists are leaning toward associating this art with Neanderthals. The old theory surmised that humans created cave art soon after they moved into Europe from Africa.

New tests show the paintings are older than first thought. They are now known to go back 41,000 years. This puts them clearly in the era of Neanderthals. Art was not a sudden achievement. It developed slowly over tens of thousands of years.

The age of cave paintings was established by U-series dating. Samples of calcite that directly covered the paintings were taken. Paintings in El Castilo Spain were dated specifically to 40,800 years ago. Art in other Spanish caves were pushed back in time from 17,000 to 35,000 years. At this time humans were new to Europe but Neanderthals had been for there much longer. Early jewelry and use of ochre were part of Neanderthal culture.
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Anthropology

Felons With Guns Are Percieved as Being Larger

Though widely accepted in law courts it is well known that witness evidence is suspect.  Even victims in many cases get it wrong.  A querk in humans beings is the ability to identify members of one's own race, for the most part, but the noticable inability to recognize people of other races.  The phrase "you all look alike" is relevant here.

What people see can be distorted by a felon carrying a weapon.  Human perception is still based on how our ancestors saw danger.  An opponent carrying a weapon was more dangerous so was perceived as being big and strong.

A current study shows that a witness describing someone with a gun said the gun carrier was larger and taller than he/she actually was.  This brings into question prevailing theories on memory.  Could a person be seen as being bigger if more aggression was shown without a weapon?
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Society

Eggs of Mussels Attract Compatible Sperm by Releasing Chemicals

Mussel sperm have to find the right egg. This is not as easy as it seems. When the eggs are released they can be scattered through ocean water or river. While mussels are attached to rocks, eggs and sperm are at the mercy of the elements. The eggs have to let sperm know that the eggs are available, so they send out a chemical message to attract suitable sperm.

Many species release chemical signals. The message sent has to be differentiated to prevent fertilization by siblings. A test was done forcing sperm to fertilize chosen eggs. Only compatible matches gave healthy offspring. In a later test mussel sperm were observed to choose compatible eggs to produce health young.

This is the first time chemical attraction has been observed in mussels. It shows how important compatibility is in many species. This brings into question the theory of gene pools where there is deemed to be no barrier to gene pairing. The idea that any male and female can have offspring no longer stands. Even human eggs send out chemical signals to attract compatible sperm. Some human couples cannot have children even when tests show they are perfectly healthy. Fertilization can occur with a different partner.
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Science

Development Is Tied to the Availability of Water

Karl Marx said that Mankind developed through political and economic stages. Scientists have proved that he may have been partially correct, but the key to human progress is water.

Professor Terje Tvedt of Norway says "that water has played a unique and fundamental role in shaping societies throughout human history." Scientists have made a mistake by ignoring the presence and impact of natural resources on human development. All societies need water. A society cannot operate without it. You can try to control it. Yet water appears and disappears as it pleases according to the flow of nature.

Why did the industrial revolution happen in Britain and not in China or India? The reason it occurred was the capacity to move goods via canals. Furthermore, production of grains and cotton products by the power of water mills created a need for bulk transport of goods. British rivers were clear. Boats could move quickly through them. Unlike rivers elsewhere which were silted up.

There-in lies the problem of economic development. Not all countries today have developed transportation and water supply systems. A concept called the "water footprint" is being examined. The footprint is the amount of water required to make the goods and services in an area plus water polluted and evaporated per unit of time. Under this system Australia becomes the world's largest exporter of virtual water, with Europe being the greatest importer.
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Society

Tranferring Human Minds to Robots Is a Pipe Dream

Some people assume too much. This applies to the scientific sphere where people can "get ahead of themselves" and make claims about achievements that are only in the "possible" stage. Science is advancing very fast, but some things are still out of reach. People in positions of power due to wealth or public office can make the wrong decision.

A group of 100 scientists have been put together by Dmitry Itskov a Russian entrepreneur to download, or upload depending how you look at it, human minds into robots. This is fairy tale stuff. They expect to complete this within 10 years. This is probably at least 30 years away.

These human/robot "things" Itskov has called Avatars. He claims it will mean immortality for humans who agree to have their minds "implanted" into robots. This is a silly point of view. Unless consciousness is transferred as well there is no immortality. Claims that consciousness will be transferred with the mind are nonsense. Neither scientists nor theologians know what consciousness is anyway.

The idea has of course been taken from the movie Avatar. Why Itskov should depart from the script and presume consciousness can be moved with the mind but the body must die is not clear. In the movie humans return to their bodies after cohabiting alien bodies on a colonized planet.
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Science

Research Program to Determine Climate Change Impact on Man's Move Out of Africa

It is known that the climate change caused by an asteroid hitting the Earth 65 million years ago led to the extinction of dinosaurs and the rise of mammals. Other extremes in climate pushed humans to move out of Africa. The National Research Council in the US has released a report calling for funding for more research into climate change and the human movement issue.

Paleoanthropologists and geologists plan the following program: find new fossil sites with remote sensing tools to determine when new species arose: drill ancient lake beds in Africa for more information on human evolution: develop regional models on how climate differed in parts of Africa over the last 100,000 years: and educate the general community on how climate change led to Man moving across the world.

A meeting is to take place on 31st March next year to discuss the determinations of the report and how such a program can be initiated. The first priority, of course, is funding. The present economic climate does not bode well in this regard. However, scientific endeavours must more forward.
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Science

The Dingo Came To Australia Through Indonesia

It was believed that Australia's dingo dog arrived here via Southeast Asian or Chinese seafarers. Then an overland journey was proposed through Taiwan and the Philippines. Genetic evidence now shows that they originated in South China and got to Australian by way of Indonesia.

How they crossed the ocean is still a mystery. The oldest evidence for the presence of the dingo in Australia is 3,500. This is a long time after the ice age and sea levels were about the same then as they are today.

The dingo is really an ordinary dog. It "split" from the pre-modern domestic dog 5,000 years ago. This older domestic dog spread out from South China 16,000 years ago. The dingo is closely related to the New Guinea singing dog. Genetic evidence shows that these two variants moved into Southeast Asia before ordinary domestic dogs accompanied humans as far as Polynesia 3,000 years ago. Whether dingoes travelled with humans is not clear. Dingos have a different genetic mutation than domestic dogs so interbreeding did not occur.
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Biology

Ancient Britons Were Cannibals

Watch out Caribs. Your reputation could be under threat. This group of tribal people found in the West Indies when explorers first arrived were given the "badge" of real cannibals. It now seems cannibalism was practised elsewhere, in Britain as a matter of fact. Yes, in jolly old blighty.

Ancient Britons sat around the fire enjoying bloody drinks from skulls. They reached out to grab pieces of human flesh from the spit. Human remains from a dig at Glough's Cave show dismemberment of some bodies. There is evidence of butchering with bone marrow being removed. This is the most nutritious substance that can be obtained from a body. The edges of skulls were also smoothed to make them more comfortable to drink from.

While using skulls as drinking vessels is not evidence in itself that ancient Britons drank human blood from craniums - some non-meat eating people in Asia used them - prying damage of the skeletons clearly points to cannibalism occurring.
~~~~~History~~~~~
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