NightBlogger

LATimes
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Threats to shut down a U.S. Navy medical research lab here may undermine the hunt for mutating viruses that could set off the next flu pandemic, Western scientists warn. Indonesia suspended negotiations with the United States over the fate of Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 last month after senior politicians said it didn’t benefit Indonesia and could be a cover for spying. The biomedical research lab opened in Jakarta in 1970 and is used to study tropical diseases, including malaria, dengue fever and avian flu, according to an embassy fact sheet. It has a staff of about 175 scientists, doctors, veterinarians and technologists; only 19 are Americans and the rest are Indonesians. The Navy also has research labs in Egypt, Kenya, Peru and Thailand. More

MARK COLVIN: A worrying new research paper has been published in the United States. It proves that H5N1 bird flu, which has so far only killed people in its pure form is capable of combining with conventional human flu viruses. A mutated virus combining human flu and bird flu is the nightmare strain which scientists fear could create a worldwide pandemic. The research was conducted in a laboratory by the US Centers for Disease Control.

JEFF WATERS: The great bird flu pandemic of 1918 was caused by an avian influenza virus which spread from birds and then directly from human to human. And it’s a pure bird flu strain called H5N1 which has caused hundreds of deaths recently around the world.

But there were also pandemics in 1957 and ‘68 which were caused when a bird flu combined with a human form of influenza and then spread globally. Now scientists at the Centers for Disease Control in the United States have proven that the very deadly H5N1 virus can also mix with human flu. It’s only happened in the laboratory but it’s causing concern. Dr David Smith is a director if microbiology and infectious diseases at PathWest laboratories in Perth. More
Go here for more on H5N1 Bird Flu

CNN
Opponents of controversial plans to use hybrid human-animal embryos for research spoke out Tuesday, calling the practice unnecessary, unnatural, and reprehensible a day after British lawmakers voted to allow it.

The British parliament debated the issue Monday as part of its discussion of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill, which will update legislation on reproduction and embryos.

“Crossing the species barrier in this way is deeply, deeply reprehensible, undesirable,” said Josephine Quintavalle, a bioethicist who founded Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE).

The research involves emptying an animal egg and filling it with human cells. The resulting embryo is allowed to develop for 14 days — during which time scientists harvest the stem cells — before being destroyed. Read more

Photo Robert Brook

I’m still struggling with dangling participles in one launguage.

Times Of India
A fascinating study has suggested that children who speak more than one language may protect the brain against the effects of aging.

The study published in the journal Psychology and Aging found that kids who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage over monolingual later in life. Knowing and speaking many languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging, suggested the research at the Tel Aviv University.

The research, which surveyed people between the ages of 75 and 95 and compared bilingual speakers to tri-and multilingual speakers, found that the more languages a person spoke, the better his or her cognitive state was, the ScienceDaily online reported. Read more

More than half of U.S. adults with diabetes also have arthritis, raising a serious obstacle for diabetic patients urged to exercise, according to a government study. The survey of nearly 800,000 people is the first extensive look at the overlap between the two conditions, said Dr. John Klippel, president of the Arthritis Foundation. And its findings highlight a significant challenge: Most diabetics are told exercise is important to their health, but experts say many of them don’t do it. Read more

Photo TenThirtyNine

Scientists have unravelled how a horse tranquilizer and hallucinogenic night club drug known as “Special K” can ease depression. Ketamine, which can also cause feelings of detachment, could pave the way for new treatments for people suffering from depression. Previous research revealed ketamine improved symptoms in depressed people after just 24 hours — far faster than the month it can take for Prozac to kick in — but until now they did not know exactly how.
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Photo David Paul Ohmer

Lake Michigan’s water level has dropped nearly four feet since 1997, and Lake Superior dipped to a record low last year according to federal data. The low lake level has widened beaches but created safety hazards for recreational boaters and caused freighters to run aground in Muskegon, Grand Haven and other ports around the lake. The plunging water levels have some Great Lakes scientists and residents wondering whether factors other than weather conditions are causing lake levels to drop.
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Photo is a prop and courtesy of Eric

Human Nurses could be delegating tasks to robotic colleagues by 2020, according to researchers who unveiled two prototypes at a Midland university. The devices…can collect prescriptions and clean spillages, enabling nurses to spend more time with patients. “We hope to develop it further so they can respond to spoken commands and physical gestures,” says Professor Vinesh Raja, leading the research at Warwick University, “but results of the first hospital trial in Spain have been very good. I do think that by 2020 we will see teams of robots working alongside human staff in British hospitals….”
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Photo courtesy of ausiegall

It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the human foot. But we’re wrecking it with every step we take.

Adam Sternberg

Last year, researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, published a study titled “Shod Versus Unshod: The Emergence of Forefoot Pathology in Modern Humans?” in the podiatry journal The Foot. The study examined 180 modern humans from three different population groups (Sotho, Zulu, and European), comparing their feet to one another’s, as well as to the feet of 2,000-year-old skeletons. The researchers concluded that, prior to the invention of shoes, people had healthier feet.
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Pic courtesy of CarbonNYC

The world risks losing new medical treatments for osteoporosis, cancer and other human ailments if it does not act quickly to conserve the planet’s biodiversity, a senior United Nations environmental official said Wednesday. Earth’s organisms offer a variety of naturally made chemical compounds with which scientists could develop new medicines, but are under threat of extinction, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program.
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Photo courtesy of lofaesofa
Researchers say endocrine-disrupting chemicals can permanently harm the developing organism and may even promote obesity. But the chemical industry doesn’t want you to believe them.

“For over 40 years, (bisphenol A) labored in relative obscurity as the feedstock for a wide range of commercial plastics and synthetic resins. Growing demand for polycarbonates—for products ranging from baby bottles to compact discs—drives the rapidly expanding multibillion-dollar market for (bisphenol A), one of the highest-volume chemicals in commercial production…scientific interest in the chemical has recently increased along with evidence of its effects. And as the media increasingly cover these findings, the chemical industry has stepped up its attacks on those studying endocrine disruption.”
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Photo Mista Kingsaur

Men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer through regular masturbation, researchers suggest. They say cancer-causing chemicals could build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly. And they say sexual intercourse may not have the same protective effect because of the possibility of contracting a sexually transmitted infection, which could increase men’s cancer risk. Read on

I’ll be back later.