Quick colon cancer test could save thousands

A 5-minute exam could reduce deaths by about 40 percent

A five-minute colon cancer test could reduce the number of deaths from the disease by about 40 percent, a new study says.

British researchers followed more than 170,000 people for about 11 years. Of those, more than 40,000 had a "flexi-scope" test, an exam that removes polyps, small growths that could become cancerous.

The test involves having a pen-sized tube inserted into the colon so doctors can identify and remove small polyps. Researchers used the test on people in their 50s. In the U.K., government-funded colon cancer screening doesn't start until age 60.

Researchers compared those results to more than 113,000 people who were not screened. They found the flexi-scope test reduced peoples' chances of getting colon cancer by one third. It also cut their chances of dying by 43 percent. Researchers said the test needed to be done just once in a person's lifetime.

The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal, Lancet. It was paid for by Britain's Medical Research Council, National Health Service Research & Development, Cancer Research UK and KeyMed.

Experts said the findings could make some authorities reconsider how they look for colon cancer. Worldwide, the disease causes 1 million cases and 600,000 deaths every year.

In Britain, people aged 60 to 74 are tested every other year with a fecal blood test. In the U.S., colonoscopies — 20-minute scans of the entire colon that require sedation — are common, even though no trials have proved they work for cancer screening. Use of the flexi-scope test has plummeted in the U.S. because colonoscopies are perceived as being better.

To find polyps or to detect cancer early, the American Cancer Society recommends several options for people over 50: a flexi-scope test, double-contrast barium enema or virtual colonoscopy every five years or a colonoscopy every 10 years.

"It's not for me to tell governments what to do," said Dr. Wendy Atkin, a professor of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London, who led the research. "But this is a very big effect, with a very quick and a very cheap test."

Atkin said the test only needed to be done once because polyps that grow in the bowel appear before age 60 — so any potentially cancerous growths should be caught if the test is done on people in their fifties. But the test only works on the lower bowel, so other exams, like the fecal blood test, would still be necessary.

Do you have management potential?

Supervising takes specific talents that even good workers might not have

Do you have what it takes to be a boss?

Some people are natural managers. They love to lead, drive performance and contribute to the broader goals of a company. The perks also can be enticing — more money and perhaps even an office or expense account.

Yet, management isn't for everyone. It requires a unique set of skills to get the best performance out of all employees and to juggle a number of tasks all at once. Managers also put in longer hours and are held to a higher standard of accountability. 

Manager or managed?
Some workers simply evolve into managers over the course of their careers. Others are bored with their current position and see it as a way to tackle new challenges. In difficult economic times, some are promoted before they're ready, which could put them at a disadvantage.

"It's not just a raise in pay or better title," New York City counseling coach Lynn Berger said. "There's responsibilities and duties, that some people are better suited for than others."

If you're interested in pursuing a management position, you first should decide whether it would be a good fit.

Here are some questions to consider:

• What do you love about your job? Would you be disappointed if you no longer could do those tasks?
• Watch what your boss deals with every day. Are those tasks you would like to do? Could you do them better?
• Are you interested in mentoring others?
• Are you an effective communicator? Well-organized? Team-oriented? Patient?
• Are you confident and secure in your abilities and as a person?
• Can you hold people accountable? Could you discipline or fire a subordinate?

Since 1998, Dea Robinson, 47, has been managing a staff of five as practice administrator for Inpatient Medicine Service in Englewood, Colo., a Denver suburb.

She likes the variety and the challenge of her work, from mentoring to trying to coax a difficult employee to succeed.

"The bottom line is if you're in management, you have to figure out how to talk to people, get along with people," Robinson said.

You're not trying to be their friend, but you have to figure out what motivates someone in order to draw the best out of them, she added.

Pros and cons
Becoming a manager gives a worker a tremendous opportunity to grow professionally. Managers gain a broader perspective by being exposed to different aspects of a company's operations. They're forced to take a big-picture view.

 

Older workers taking jobs from young adults

1 in 4 unemployed Americans is under the age of 25

WASHINGTON - Young adults in the United States are being squeezed out of the labor force as older workers either delay retirement or seek jobs to rebuild nest eggs destroyed by the recession, a study showed on Wednesday.

The size of the labor force fell 6.3 percent for young workers, but increased 8.5 percent for workers 55 years and older between December 2007 and January 2010, according to the study by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

"This is a troubling development; young adults are less prepared to deal with unemployment than other age groups. Without significant prior full-time work experience, many may not qualify for unemployment insurance, or the social safety net," the EPI said.

The housing-led recession, which struck in December 2007, has had devastating effects on the labor market. With home values and retirement savings destroyed, older workers have been forced to either continue working or seek employment.

The study noted that even if young workers were employed, they were most likely to be in jobs below their skills level.

"With such little financial security, young workers have less freedom to wait out a downturn and so they frequently take whatever job is available, even if it pays less than a job that matches their skill level," it said.

"This is a serious drain on labor market potential — lower earnings, lower output, lower productivity, and the displacement of less-educated workers. Low wages also jeopardize the return to higher education."

While young workers accounted for only 13.5 percent of the total labor force, one in every four unemployed people in the United States was under the age of 25, according to the study.

On the other hand, workers 55 years and older, who comprised 19.1 percent of the labor force, only had a 13.4 percent unemployment rate, it said.

The study also found that younger workers were also experiencing longer periods of unemployment and on average it took slightly less than six months to get a job in December.

Although the economy has started growing again and the labor market is on a recovery path, the pace is probably too slow for any meaningful change in the young workers' fortunes.

"It is not enough for the economy to recover. Young adults need robust growth in the labor market to minimize the effects of the current recession," said the EPI.

 

Table by table, gaining ground

Restaurants see business is coming back slowly

CHICAGO - It took more than a year, but American diners are coming out of hiding, starting to splurge on everything from tea to tacos and tacking on some dessert.

The meals aren't fancy — and business is far what it was before the recession sent the nation spiraling — but restaurateurs big and small say they're breathing a tentative sigh of relief as tables fill up.

At Deleece, a restaurant on Chicago's north side, crowds are bigger than they've been in months. It's noisier, too.

"People are out and they're spending a little more and maybe they're buying that extra appetizer they didn't before," said Brandon Canfield, the restaurant's chef.

In the depths of the recession, Deleece's customers might order a glass of wine, a salad and an entree. Now, they're more likely to get a bottle of wine, a hot appetizer and an entree. They'll also split a dessert, which adds up to bigger bills and full tables.

The shift, which Jefferies restaurant analyst Jeff Farmer calls a "slow grind," began in late January and is gaining steam.

"They're not necessarily seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but there's a realization that things aren't going to get any worse than they are right now," Farmer said.

Still, it wasn't until March that the change became downright impressive, sending revenue in restaurant locations open at least a year up at scores of fast-food and casual dining chains. There the measure has stagnated for nearly two years, experts said.

Few restaurant chains release sales by month, but data from market research firm NPD Group showed the measure rose climbed for five of the past eight weeks at nearly four dozen fast-food and family-style restaurant chains.

At McDonald's Corp. it climbed 5 percent in March and at Brinker International Inc.'s Maggiano's Little Italy it was up 5.2 percent. There was a double-digit increase in the figure at Panera, which along with strong sales in January and February prompted the company to boost its profit forecast.

A number of factors could be behind the March upswing: An influx in cash from tax refunds; warm weather that drew people from their homes; or increasing confidence that the economic recovery isn't a mirage.

"A year ago at this time, all we talked about was the recession and whether we were going to become cavemen because the economy was collapsing," said Panera Bread Co. Chairman and CEO Ron Shaich. "I think we've returned to a time of business as usual, in the sense that we will survive."

The change is visible even in areas of the nation hit hardest by the housing crisis that fueled the recession.

At BJ's Restaurants Inc., sales during the quarter rose 8 percent in Arizona and climbed "in the low double digits" in Florida.

Meanwhile, The Cheesecake Factory Inc. said the important performance measure shot up in every area of the country during the first quarter — "even in California, which was a softer market for us through the recession," Chairman and CEO David Overton told investors Thursday.

The number of diners at Cheesecake's restaurants nationwide rose 1.7 percent. And they ordered more desserts. The chain's signature indulgences accounted for 15.2 percent of revenue, up from 14.7 percent the previous quarter.

Starbucks also managed to snag an increase in tea and coffee customers — its first in 13 quarters.

Mary Smith is among those who finds herself in restaurants more frequently.

The 47-year-old from Tigard, Ore., rarely dined out when she was unemployed. But since she began work as a legal assistant in January, she treats herself to lunch out once a week.

"I do it now for convenience," she said.

Early forecasts seem to show the first quarter's momentum is trickling into April. "It seems like people are out just spending more money." Jack Hartung, chief financial officer at Chipotle Mexican Grill, said on a conference call last week.

A further rebound might hinge on the recovery putting a dent in the nation's 9.7 percent unemployment rate.

"I don't believe that the spending levels are going to get back to pre-recession levels until people have some confidence that they're going to have a place to go to work and can put food on the table at home or away from home," McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner told investors Wednesday.

 

Robots and gaming on the timetable at hi-tech school

The moment you walk into San Diego's High Tech High you realise this is a school unlike most others.

Teenagers are writing video games, filming sketches, using heavy duty power tools to build a boat - and then there are the robots.

In pride of place is Daisy May, a waist-high machine that scuttles around, scooping balls off the ground and projecting them into a bin.

"The way she skids replicates the way she would move in the semi-weightless conditions on the moon," said one of her designers and senior year student, RJ Sheperd.

High Tech High video link to Plumstead Manor pupils for BBC School Report

The high level of motivation and professionalism among many of the students is striking. "Let me introduce you to our Public Relations Director", said RJ proudly, as though this was a major corporation's high-flying spin doctor.

Robot runner-up

In fact, she is also a senior year student, but with a similar air of authority.

They were among a group of pupils that entered Daisy May into the First Robotics Competition for students around the world. The robot reached the semi-finals.

Both students were working on their latest entry in the annual championship: a robot that played soccer around an obstacle course.

This was "intersession" week, when teachers set up specialist projects that reflect their own personal interests.

But even during more routine times, life at High Tech High is a break from the norm.

The school runs on a system of instructors and mentors, plucked from relevant industries.

Students investigated methods of projecting a football for a soccer robot

An example is Cris Fitch, who comes to High Tech High Media Arts campus twice a week to help students develop robotic engineering skills. In a former life he was the chief technical officer for web translation site Babel Fish.

Computerised chopper

He helped students design a helicopter flown entirely by computer. It has no remote control for humans to operate.

Instead, the teen-aged inventors wrote computer code to regulate its complex flight and balance mechanism.

One, Jake Neighbors, explained how its programming enabled it to train itself to balance over a series of flight trials.

"We use calculus to make the helicopter hover," he said. "We were not taught calculus in class... so we had to completely learn it by ourselves without the teacher."

Classmate Eric Harmatz said: "We were discovering the tools of calculus; having the goals of why we needed it. So that's why project-based learning works so well for us."

Air-RESCUE is a helicopter that 'teaches' itself how to balance

The commitment shown by students may give the appearance that only the smartest need apply. In fact, local education policy requires the school to take children of all abilities.

Funding comes from local government and benefactors, including the Bill Gates Foundation.

Alternative schooling

The aim is for project-based courses to foster a self-starting ethos among those who study there.

A question that immediately springs to mind is: what is missed off the curriculum to make way for inventing high speed drag cars or creating a surreal film noir love story?

Robotics and engineering instructor David Berggren scoffed at any suggestion that the courses leave students with an incomplete education.

"Certainly they learn a lot designing robots... it's using technology to really hook kids in."

Basketball robot Daisy May scoops up balls and projects them into a bucket

On soem cases this also extends to their proposed career choices.

RJ is positive that he wants to continue his electronic engineering work in one of California's many technology firms.

Others are more circumspect.

Allie Sandoval helped build the Betabot, a swimming "mechanoid" thatshows its emotions when prodded or shaken.

Despite learning programming skills, she sees this as an interesting project, but not something she will devote her life to.

"I enjoy it so I will probably just do it as a hobby," she said.

Video gaming

Some of the video game writing students share similar views.

The room was a hive of silent activity.

In hushed tones, instructor Neil McCurdy described how he locked the door at lunchtime and the end of the day to ensure pupils ate and drank, rather than stay glued to their seats.

Student Thaddeus Lewis developed a 3D version of Pac-Man

Some students used software that Mr McCurdy had adapted from the Java programming language.

Others wrote their own games with Star Logo TNG, a free game development tool.

One of his pupils, Thaddeus Lewis, adapted the 80's game Pac-Man into a 3D version.

Despite his obvious skills, he does not see this as a future career.

Gaming, he insists, is just something to fall back on. Instead, he aims to be a dentist.

An accidental history of science

Scientific discoveries have shaped the development of society and civilisation throughout history, yet many of those with the greatest impact were accidental.

NASA recently announced the discovery of five new exo-planets, planets that lie outside our solar system.

They were found using NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets orbiting sun-like stars. If there is alien life out there, it will probably be living on an exo-planet.

I was particularly pleased to read about NASA's discovery because the man that telescope is named after - Johannes Kepler - is one of those wonderful characters who has contributed so much to our understanding of the universe, yet is something of an unsung hero.

Son of a mercenary, Kepler was a 17th Century German astrologer and mathematician whose mother was tried as a witch.

It was Kepler, and not Nicholas Copernicus, who first proved that the sun is the centre of the solar system and that the planets (including our own) travel round it in giant ellipses.

It was Kepler's findings that helped lead to Newton's discovery of the laws of universal gravity, which changed our world.

Paranormal

Michael Mosley presents The Story of Sciene

Yet like many of those who feature in my new series, The Story of Science, Kepler's discovery was an unexpected one, even to him.

Having spent the last year looking into the history of science, one of the things that really stands out is its glorious unpredictability.

History shows that you can never know where a particular bit of research will take you or the questions it will raise. Researchers who start off looking for one thing often end up discovering something quite unexpected.

Like William Crookes, a 19th century British scientist with a passion for the paranormal.

He claimed to have seen acts of levitation, an accordion playing by itself and strange phantom figures, some of which he photographed.

He could be dismissed as a gullible fool, but the fact was that even in his own laboratory he was coming across things which were very hard to explain.

His most startling discoveries were made using fairly basic equipment: a partially evacuated glass tube, a couple of electrodes and a fluorescent screen.

Crookes found that by passing a high voltage across the electrodes he could produce a green ray inside the tube. This ray could be bent with a magnet, suggesting it was in some way electrical.

He then put a little paddle wheel into the tube and found that the green ray made it spin. Crookes called this "radiant matter" and thought it was a fourth state of matter, one that was perhaps linked to the spirit world.

The physicist, Joseph John Thomson, came up with an equally outrageous, but ultimately more accurate, claim - that the green ray making the paddle wheel spin consisted of a stream of tiny charged particles, particles far smaller than atoms - the first sub-atomic particle to be discovered, later called electrons.

First X-ray image

And that was by no means all. In 1895, while experimenting with a Crookes tube, German physicist, Wilhelm Röntgen, discovered that as well as producing a green ray inside the tube, his equipment was also producing a mysterious ray that could be detected right across the room.

Rontgen's picture of his wife's hand was one of the first X-ray images

Not knowing what these rays were he called them "X-rays". One of the first pictures he took using these mysterious rays was of his wife's hand. When she saw it she apparently exclaimed "I have seen my death!"

Hearing about Röntgen's work encouraged Frechman Henri Becquerel to investigate some unusual rocks he had in his collection, which glowed in the dark. His curiosity led to the discovery of radioactivity.

An equally unlikely sequence of world changing discoveries came from attempts made in 1856 by an 18-year-old called William Perkin to find a treatment for one of the world's greatest killers, malaria.

In his parents' converted attic in the East End of London, he set to work. But instead of a malaria cure he accidentally created an intense purple dye, which he called mauveine.

It became all the rage and led to the discovery of other new colours, and an industry to produce them. Soon artificial dyes were being used not just to brighten clothes, but food and hair.

In time they were used to stain cells, leading to the discovery of chromosomes and ultimately DNA.

Dyes were the first chemicals to be made on a truly industrial scale and others, including fertilisers, soap and dynamite, quickly followed.

Faraday demonstrates the invisible force of electro-magnetism

The dye manufacturing process also produced large amounts of toxic chlorine gas, a gas which would later be used to terrifying effect in the First World War.

The true value of blue-sky research is almost impossible to predict, which sometimes makes it hard to justify on purely commercial grounds.

The story goes that Michael Faraday, the 19th century physicist who discovered the principles behind the electric generator and the electric motor, was asked by Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, about the practical value of his discoveries.

To which Faraday is said to have replied, "one day, sir, you may tax it".

New British moth found in Hembury Woods is world first

A moth new to science and found nowhere else in the world has been formally recognised as living in the UK.

The 3mm-long micro moth, which lives in Hembury Woods in Devon, was recognised as a new species this year.

This week, the biologist who discovered it is presenting the Natural History Museum of London with one of the first known specimens.

The receipt of this "type" specimen will mark the official acceptance of the moth's existence in the country.

The tiny micro moth, which has a wingspan of just 6mm, was first spotted in 2004.

Hembury Woods: home to the moth

At that time, amateur naturalist Bob Heckford sighted the unusual bright green caterpillars of this tiny leaf-mining moth on oak saplings within Hembury Woods, a site managed by the National Trust.

In January this year, the moth was officially recognised in the journal Zookeys as a new species, named Ectoedemia heckfordi after its discoverer.

It is not known to live outside of the UK.

Official presentation

Now Mr Heckford is presenting the Natural History Museum with the original specimen.

That is important, because it marks the official acknowledgement by the scientific world of the specimen as the "type" for that species, against which any future finds will be compared and determined.

MOTH MAYHEM

"We hear so much about the losses to the natural world, and less about the gains; which makes this find, however small, so important," says Matthew Oates, an adviser on nature conservation at the National Trust.

"Amateur naturalists have a wonderful window on the wildlife world and nature continues to amaze us and throw up surprises even in the UK."

There are well over 2,000 species of micro moth in the UK.

They come in various shapes and sizes, but many are extremely pretty, though only appreciated under magnification.

A few are actually larger than some larger, so-called macro moths.

Dark mines made by the caterpillar of the species

Their biology varies.

Most are plant feeders, with larvae often mining galleries in leaves, between the leaf surfaces.

A few mine stems.

Some, though, breed in fungi and a few have aquatic larvae.

Most are nocturnal but quite a few also fly by day.

Caterpillars of the new species are found mostly on oak saplings and low growth of oak in the shade.

The mines they make are quite dark and the caterpillars are bright green which is quite unusual for micro moths.

The adults lay their eggs on the underside of the leaf.

Pick the right veg' for health

Obvious choices of fruit and vegetables are not necessarily the healthiest, say researchers.

According to US experts, making simple swaps like eating sweet potatoes instead of carrots and papaya rather than oranges could make a difference.

Foods, like raspberries, watercress and kale, are richer in phytonutrients which may help prevent disease, they told a US meeting.

UK nutritionists said a balanced diet is essential to good health.

The British Nutrition Foundation warned that relying on eating a few select food types to boost health was ill-advised and said there was no such thing as a "superfood".

Experts recommend five portions a day of fruit and veg in a healthy diet.

Plant foods are known to contain "phytonutrient" chemicals that can protect the heart and arteries and prevent cancers.

But the most popular varieties may not be the best, according to US researchers.

They analysed data from US health surveys of people's dietary habits to look at the most common sources of phytonutrients.

They found that for 10 of the 14 phytonutrients studied, a single food type accounted for two-thirds or more of an individual's consumption, regardless of how much fruit and veg they ate overall.

Carrots were the most common source of beta-carotene, oranges and orange juice the most common source of beta-cryptoxanthin, spinach the most common source of lutein/zeaxanthin, strawberries the most common source of ellagic acid and mustard the biggest provider of isothiocyanates.

However, for each of these phytonutrients there was a richer food source available.

Richer foods

Switching from carrots to sweet potatoes would nearly double beta-carotene intake, say the researchers.

Similarly papaya contains 15 times more beta-cryptoxanthin than oranges, while kale has three times more lutein/zeaxanthin than spinach.

Raspberries have three times more ellagic acid than strawberries and one cup of watercress contains as much isothiocyanate as four teaspoonfuls of mustard.

Study leader Keith Randolph, who is a technology strategist for the supplement company Nutrilite, said: "These data highlight the importance of not only the quantity but also the significant impact the quality and variety of the fruits and vegetables you eat can have on your health."

Dr Emma Williams of the British Nutrition Foundation said: "They are right that some foods are richer sources of phytonutrients.

"But at the end of the day, to be healthy you need to make sure you have a varied and balanced diet.

"No one food can give you everything you need."

The findings were presented at the 2010 Experimental Biology conference in Anaheim, California.

Private zoo discovered at Kyrgyz ex-leader's home

Two snow leopards were found among the private collection of exotic animals

A pair of snow leopards and two bear cubs were among the exotic animals found in the private zoo of ousted Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

A golden eagle, two falcons, four African peacocks and Indian ducks were also found in the zoo at the family home in the southern Jalalabad region.

Investigators found the collection when they raided the estate after Mr Bakiyev fled the country. He is now in Belarus.

He has been charged in absentia with organising mass killings.

Mr Bakiyev was ousted in protests on 7 April in which more than 80 people died.

The interim government says his administration ordered troops to open fire on protesters. It plans to seek Mr Bakiyev's extradition from Belarus to face trial.

The former president also kept an African ostrich and Austrian white and black swans in his private menagerie, investigators said.

"The prosecutors are considering measures to evacuate those animals for their protection," the prosecutor general's office said.

Deep Antarctic ocean current found

SINGAPORE - Scientists have discovered a fast-moving deep ocean current with the volume of 40 Amazon Rivers near Antarctica that will help researchers monitor the impacts of climate change on the world's oceans.

A team of Australian and Japanese scientists, in a study published in Sunday's issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, found that the current is a key part of a global ocean circulation pattern that helps control the planet's climate.

Scientists had previously detected evidence of the current but had no data on it.

"We didn't know if it was a significant part of the circulation or not and this shows clearly that it is," one of the authors, Steve Rintoul, told Reuters.

Rintoul, of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center in Hobart, said it proved to be the fastest deep ocean current yet found, with an average speed of 20 cm (7.9 inches) a second. It was also found to carry more than 12 million cubic meters a second of very cold, salty water from Antarctica.

"At these depths, below three kilometers (two miles) from the surface, these are the strongest recorded speeds we've seen so far, which was really a surprise to us."

He said the current carries dense, oxygen-rich water that sinks near Antarctica to the deep ocean basins further north around the Kerguelen Plateau in the southern Indian Ocean and then branches out.

The current forms part of a much larger network that spans the world's oceans, acting like a giant conveyor belt to distribute heat around the globe.

Oceans are also a major store of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that is emitted naturally and by mankind, mainly from burning fossil fuels.

For example, the Gulf Stream brings warm water to the North Atlantic, giving northern Europe a relatively mild climate. Failure of the current, which has occurred in the past, would plunge parts of Europe into a deep freeze, scientists say.

"The deep current along the Kerguelen Plateau is part of a global system of ocean currents called the overturning circulation, which determines how much heat and carbon the ocean can soak up," Rintoul said.

A key part of the circulation is the creation of large volumes of the very cold, salty water in several areas along coastal Antarctica that then sinks to the bottom and flows to other ocean basins.

The team deployed measuring devices anchored to the sea floor at depths of up to 4.5 km (3 miles) and recorded current speed, temperature and salinity for a two-year period.

"The continuous measurements provided by the moorings allow us, for the first time, to determine how much water the deep current carries to the north," Rintoul said.

He said a key issue for predicting climate was whether the overturning circulation was going to stay at its present strength or whether it was sensitive to changes as climate changes.

That meant further improving measurements of the speed and volume of the cold, salty water that is created around Antarctica.

Dark matter can clump into cigar shapes

Elongated haloes may hold clues to understanding the mysterious stuff

Elusive dark matter around clusters of galaxies often clumps into cigar shapes, new observations show.

The discovery could help scientists finally understand what makes up dark matter, which is the mystifying stuff thought to exist invisibly all around us. Dark matter, which could be more than five times more abundant than visible matter, is only detectable through its gravitational pull on regular material.

According to the new observations, the dark matter around many galaxy clusters is a flattened, cigarlike shape, rather than a rounded sphere.

"There are clear theoretical predictions that we expect dark matter haloes to be flattened like this," said study co-author Graham P. Smith of the University of Birmingham in Britain. "It's a very beautiful, very clean and direct measurement of that."

Smith and the team, led by Masamune Oguri of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and Masahiro Takada at the University of Tokyo, used a quirk of gravity called gravitational lensing to observe dark matter's gravitational effects on large collections of galaxies known as galaxy clusters. Gravitational lensing occurs when mass warps space-time, causing light to travel along a curved path when it passes by. The amount of curving can tell astronomers how massive celestial objects are.

For this study, the researchers used the Prime Focus Camera on the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to observe 20 galaxy clusters. They took advantage of gravitational lensing to create maps of the distribution of mass around the clusters, thus getting a peek into the secrets of dark matter.

"What we're probing with these gravitational lensing observations is the dark matter distribution, because the dark matter dominates the mass on these large scales," Smith told Space.com.

The fact that the dark matter seems to be flattened out into oblong shapes fits in with the so-called cold dark matter theory. Computer simulations based on this theory have predicted such shapes, but they have never before been verified to such an extent with so many large clusters.

The findings could shed light on the fundamental nature of this weird stuff, which scientists cannot detect directly. The observations support the possibility that dark matter is actually made of tiny particles called WIMPS (weakly-interacting massive particles) that exert a strong gravitational force, but otherwise don't interact with normal matter.

 

Throwing your dog a bone could be deadly

FDA reminds pet owners to toss bones from meals rather than feed to pets

WASHINGTON - If they only knew, dogs from coast to coast might be howling over this advice from the government.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a reminder to consumers Wednesday to toss out bones from their meals rather than feed them to their pets.

“Some people think it’s safe to give dogs large bones, like those from a ham or a roast,” said Carmela Stamper, a veterinarian in the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the FDA. “Bones are unsafe no matter what their size.” 

The FDA spelled out 10 reasons it’s a bad idea to give doggie a real bone.

Among them: broken teeth, mouth or tongue injuries, bones or fragments of bones getting stuck in a dog’s esophagus or even its stomach, which might require surgery. Bone fragments also can cause constipation.

Worse, it could be deadly. Giving your dog a real bone could cause a bacterial infection of the abdomen, called peritonitis, when fragments poke holes in a dog’s stomach or intestines. “Your dog needs an emergency visit to your veterinarian because peritonitis can kill your dog,” says the caution from the FDA.

The Better Business Bureau recently cautioned pet owners about feeding a popular treat, Dynamic Pet Products’ Real Ham Bone for Dogs, to pets. It says a number of consumers have complained that dogs became seriously ill or died from internal damage due to bone fragments. The company has denied any wrongdoing, according to the bureau news release.

 

Too much sugar increases heart disease risk

High cholesterol a dangerous side effect to extra sweeteners

 

CHICAGO - Eating a lot of sugar not only makes you fat. It may also increase a person's risk for heart disease, U.S. researchers said.

They said people who ate more added sugar were more likely to have higher risk factors for heart disease, such as higher triglycerides and lower levels of protective high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol.

"Just like eating a high-fat diet can increase your levels of triglycerides and high cholesterol, eating sugar can also affect those same lipids," Dr. Miriam Vos of Emory School of Medicine, who worked on the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said in a statement.

The study adds to mounting pressure on U.S. food companies to make their foods healthier as newly passed U.S. health reform legislation shifts the nation's focus on ways to prevent, rather than simply treat disease.

A report by the influential Institute of Medicine released on Tuesday recommended that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration start to regulate sodium intake in foods.

And several states, including New York and California, have weighed a tax on sweetened soft drinks to defray the cost of treating obesity-related diseases.

The addition of sweeteners to prepared foods and beverages in recent decades has sharply increased Americans' daily intake of sugar and overall calories, according to Vos and colleagues.

But no major studies have looked at the impact of too much sugar on levels of fat in the blood.

The researchers asked 6,000 adults what they ate and then grouped them by sugar intake and cholesterol levels.

On average, nearly 16 percent of people's daily calories came from added sugar.

The highest-consuming group ate an average of 46 teaspoons of added sugar per day, while the lowest-consuming group ate an average of only about 3 teaspoons daily.

"It would be important for long-term health for people to start looking at how much added sugar they're getting and finding ways to reduce that," Vos said in a statement.

Too much sugar not only contributes to obesity, but also is a key culprit in diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

 

'Hot' substance in chilli peppers key to killing pain

Studying chilli peppers is helping scientists create a new type of painkiller which could stop pain at its source.

A team at the University of Texas says a substance similar to capsaicin, which makes chilli peppers hot, is found in the human body at sites of pain.

And blocking the production of this substance can stop chronic pain, the team found.

They report their findings in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Capsaicin is the primary ingredient in hot chilli peppers which causes a burning sensation.

It does this by binding to receptors present on the cells inside the body.

Similarly, when the body is injured, it releases capsaicin-like substances - fatty acids called oxidized linoleic acid metabolites or OLAMs - and these, via receptors, cause pain, the researchers have found.

Blocking pain

Dr Kenneth Hargreaves, senior researcher at the Dental School at the University of Texas, and his team next set out to see if they could block these newly discovered pain pathways.

Lab work on mice showed that by knocking out a gene for the receptors, there was no sensitivity to capsaicin.

Armed with this knowledge they set about making drugs to do the same.

Dr Hargreaves said: "This is a major breakthrough in understanding the mechanisms of pain and how to more effectively treat it.

"We have discovered a family of endogenous capsaicin-like molecules that are naturally released during injury, and now we understand how to block these mechanisms with a new class of non-addictive therapies."

Ultimately, he hopes the drugs will be able to treat different types of chronic pain, including that associated with cancer and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and fibromyalgia.