NEW YORK- Ever wondered how the
buzzing houseflies are so incredibly good at zipping off to avoid even our best
attempts to swat them? Well, scientists have finally solved the mystery- the
insect’s brain “senses” threat.

A team in the United States has
found that the fly’s ability to dodge being hit is due to its fast-acting brain
and an ability to plan ahead — in fact, it can work out where a threat is
coming from and prepare an escape route.

And, according to them, the
best way of swatting a fly is to creep up slowly and aim ahead of its location.

“It is best to aim a bit forward of the fly’s starting position, to
anticipate where it’s going to jump when it first sees your swatter,” lead
researcher Dr Michael Dickinson was quoted by the

Current Biology

journal as saying.

In their study, Dr Dickinson and colleagues at the California
Institute of Technology filmed an experiment with some fruit flies and a looming
swatter, using high-resolution and high-speed imaging technology.

The
researchers found that when the flies saw an object hurtling towards them, they
were able to plan and carry out an emergency take-off in just under 200
milliseconds-or a fifth of a second.

And, a fraction of a second
before the flies sprung into the air, they managed to alter their body’s
position so that they’re properly prepared to jump in the right direction.

When the blow came from behind, the flies moved their middle legs
forward a little and leaned back so that they were ideally positioned to jump
forwards into the air and away from the threat.

For a threat from
the front, the insects moved their legs backward and leaped that way. For
sideways threats, they kept their legs still and leaned to the other side to be
ready for a lateral escape, the researchers found.

In fact, the
entire process of calculating the direction of the threat and preparing the body
took a fly one tenth of a second and it flew away in two tenths of a second.

“We were surprised to find that long- in fly time- before a fly
takes off in response to a predator or swatter, it plans the direction of the
jump by making a rather complex series of postural movements.

“These
movements are made very rapidly, within about 200 milliseconds, but within that
time the animal determines where the threat is coming from and activates an
appropriate set of movements to position its legs and wings.

“This
shows how rapidly the fly’s brain processes sensory information into an
appropriate motor response. We’ve also found that when the fly makes planning
movements prior to take-off, it takes into account its body position at the time
it first sees the threat.

“Our experiments showed that the fly
somehow ‘knows’ whether it needs to make large or small postural changes to
reach the correct pre-flight posture,” Dickinson said.

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About one in five Ayurvedic remedies used in traditional Indian medicine contained toxic lead, mercury or arsenic, say researchers who bought the products online.

Ayurvedic medicine originated in India more than 2,000 years ago. Herbal products are a main focus of the practice, which also includes meditation, exercise and dietary principles.

When researchers from Boston University School of Medicine randomly chose to buy and test 193 Ayurvedic medicines online in 2005, they found the prevalence of metal-containing products was 20.7 per cent for those manufactured in the U.S., compared with 19.5 per cent in Indian products.

At least half exceeded established guidelines for acceptable daily intake of toxic metals, the team reported in Wednesday’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Our first priority must be the safety of the public,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Robert Saper, director of integrative medicine at the university’s family medicine department.

“Herbs and supplements with high levels of lead, mercury, and arsenic should not be available for sale on the internet or elsewhere.”

Regulators in Canada and the U.S. rely on manufacturers to report ingredients in dietary supplements and traditional medicines. Any complaints are then investigated.

“We suggest strictly enforced, government-mandated daily dose limits for toxic metals in all dietary supplements and requirements that all manufacturers demonstrate compliance through independent third-party testing,” the study’s authors wrote.

The researchers don’t advocate banning the products. Studies show some herbs may help lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels or treat diabetes.

But medicines that are supposed to cure sickness should not promote another illness because of the presence of lead or other metals, said co-author Venkatesh Thuppil, director of the National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India.

In one type of Ayurvedic medicine, called rasa shastra, herbs are deliberately mixed with metals such as mercury, minerals like mica, or gems such as pearls. Practitioners maintain these medicines are safe and therapeutic when properly prepared and administered.

“Several Indian-manufactured rasa shastra medicines could result in lead and/or mercury ingestions 100 to 10,000 times greater than acceptable limits,” the researchers wrote.

High amounts of lead can harm the nervous system, kidneys and other major organs. Anemia, a decline in red blood cells, can occur, as well as damage to the nervous system that may impair mental function. At worst, lead poisoning can cause seizures or death.

Last year, more than 18 million Mattel toys, which were manufactured in China, were pulled for high lead levels and magnet safety problems.

In December 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans to beef up product safety laws to empower the federal government to order mandatory recalls of products if companies fail to act on legitimate safety concerns. Importers and manufacturers will also be required to ensure the safety of products, reporting on all defects.

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LONDON:
Scientists have developed what they claim is a “virtual reality” treadmill which
can trick people into believing that they are moving more slowly than they
actually are.

According to
them, the technology could be of great help to stroke sufferers across the world
by encouraging them to move faster on the treadmill, which in turn will speed up
their recovery.

“The virtual
system encourages patients to walk more quickly and for longer, almost without
them realising it. It is not just that they are distracted from the pain; by
moving faster than they realise, their body actually feels it less. We’re
effectively fooling the brain and cheating the
body.

“It’s a lot more fun than
traditional rehab and it can actually facilitate a much faster recovery. Our
test subjects are usually surprised when I tell them they’ve improved by up to
20%,” lead scientist Wendy Powell was quoted by the Independent as
saying.

In fact, moving images
on a giant screen respond to patients’ efforts on an adapted treadmill. And
using a variety of different settings, including urban and rural landscapes, the
device creates a virtual world for the patient to “walk” through on the
treadmill.

This immersion also
acts as a distraction, and early research has already shown patients using it
have a decreased perception of pain, according to the researchers at Portsmouth
University.

It may be mentioned
that clinical trials on patients are currently taking place in collaboration
with Canada-based McGill University and early results are also said to be very
encouraging. Sixty-one-year-old stroke sufferer Andy Long, who has been using
the technology as part of his rehab, hails it as
“magic”.

“The vast majority of
stroke survivors cannot use a normal treadmill because they are not in control.

Many can only hold on with one
hand, making it almost impossible. Walking is the best possible exercise for
their bodies, and this system means it could all become available to them,” he
said.

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Japanese scientists say they have created human stem cells from tissue taken from the discarded wisdom teeth of a 10-year-old girl.

The researchers say their work suggests that wisdom teeth could be a suitable alternative to human embryos as a source for therapeutic stem cells.

Research involving stem cells is seen as having the potential to treat many life-threatening diseases.

But some people believe using human embryos is ethically controversial.

The researchers, based at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), say it will be at least five years before their findings result in practical medical applications.

Dual benefit

Stem cells have the ability to develop into other kinds of human cells, and experts believe they may eventually lead to treatments for some of the most intractable conditions, such as cancer and diabetes.

The AIST researchers said they had identified a form of stem cell in the wisdom teeth which had the capability to develop and be grown successfully into other forms of cell outside the body.

The cells they harvested continued to grow in the laboratory for just over a month, they added.

The leader of the team, Hajime Ogushi, said the research was significant in two ways.

“One is that we can avoid the ethical issues of stem cells because wisdom teeth are destined to be thrown away anyway,” he told the AFP news agency.

“Also, we used teeth that had been extracted three years ago and had been preserved in a freezer. That means that it’s easy for us to stock this source of stem cells.”

In the US, dentists are starting to offer to store stem cells taken from wisdom teeth and from baby teeth, another potential source, for therapeutic purposes in the future.

Last year, a team of US and Japanese scientists announced they had managed to produce stem cells from skin.

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Drinking low levels of arsenic from ground water may increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, U.S. researchers say.

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element that is colourless, odourless and tasteless. Long-term exposure to high levels of arsenic is a cancer risk for humans.

In Wednesday’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, Dr. Ana Navas-Acien and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore report a link between low levels of arsenic in urine and Type 2 diabetes in nearly 800 American adults.

While previous studies have linked high levels of arsenic in drinking water with diabetes, the new study adds to the concerns about long-term exposure to low and medium levels of inorganic arsenic, the researchers said.

“The good news is, this is preventable,” Navas-Acien said.

Overall, 7.7 per cent of study participants had Type 2 diabetes.

Total levels of arsenic in urine were 26 per cent higher in people with Type 2 diabetes than those without the disease, after adjusting for diabetes risk factors and intake of seafood, a source of organic arsenic compounds that are not considered toxic.

Those in the top one-fifth for arsenic levels (16.5 micrograms per litre) had 3.6 times the odds of having Type 2 diabetes as those with the lowest levels (3.0 micrograms per litre), the researchers said.

Scientists do not know how arsenic may contribute to the risk of diabetes. Studies on pancreas cells suggest the poison may impair insulin secretion. Our bodies need insulin to convert blood sugar into energy.

Given the widespread exposure to inorganic arsenic in drinking water worldwide, learning more about how arsenic contributes to the diabetes epidemic is a public health research priority, the study’s authors wrote.

“It is prudent to minimize arsenic exposure while its effect on metabolic diseases continues to be researched,” agreed Dr. Molly Kile of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, in a journal editorial.

But since it’s not possible to trace whether the arsenic in urine comes from air, water or food, it is difficult to use the results of the latest study to update drinking water standards, Kile said.

In 2006, the Canadian cut-off for arsenic in drinking water was reduced to 0.010 mg/litre, which is the international standard.

With files from Associated Press

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Long-term back pain can be relieved through encouraging sufferers to adopt good posture through the Alexander technique, say UK researchers.

The technique teaches patients how to sit, stand and walk in a way that relieves pain by focusing on their coordination and posture.

Until now there had been little evidence of the therapy’s long term effectiveness.

The latest work is published in the British Medical Journal.

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Diana Maclellan gives Jane Hill a lesson in posture

About half the UK population suffers from back pain during a year with up to 15% going on to have chronic problems.

It is the second biggest cause of sick leave, accounting for five million lost working days a year.

The trial was funded by the Medical Research Council and the NHS Research and Development fund.

Longer-term relief

Researchers from Bristol and Southampton universities used a combination of normal GP care, massage and Alexander technique lessons on 463 patients over the course of a year.

They found that by the end, the Alexander patients suffered just three days back pain a month.

This compared to 21 days for those receiving GP care, which tended to include regular consultations, pain killers and exercise regimes for some, and 14 for those who had massages.

The Alexander patients were split into two - one group received 24 lessons and one six.

Those who had 24 lessons were suffering just three days pain, compared to 11 for the other group.

Lead researcher Professor Debbie Sharp said using the Alexander technique should provide help to most people with back pain.

She added: “Lessons in the Alexander technique offer an individualised approach to develop skills that help people recognise, understand, and avoid poor habits affecting postural tone and neuromuscular coordination.

“It can potentially reduce back pain by limiting muscle spasm, strengthening postural muscles, improving coordination and flexibility, and decompressing the spine.”

Dries Hettinga, researcher manager for Back Care, a charity which offers support and advice to people with back pain, said: “There is little evidence available about the effectiveness of the Alexander technique so this research is welcome.

“The Alexander technique is something we do recommend and the feedback we have got is good.

“But I would say that it may not be effective for everyone. Back pain is different for each person and you often need a combination of things to help relieve it.”

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WASHINGTON ? Nearly a century after history’s most lethal flu faded away, survivors’ bloodstreams still carry super-potent protection against the 1918 virus, demonstrating the remarkable durability of the human immune system.

Scientists tested the blood of 32 people aged 92 to 102 who were exposed to the 1918 pandemic flu and found antibodies that still roam the body looking to strangle the old flu strain. Researchers manipulated those antibodies into a vaccine and found that it kept alive all the mice they had injected with the killer flu, according to a study published online Sunday in the journal Nature.

, a town improbably gets infected with the 1918 flu and the doctors treat everyone with the reluctantly donated blood of an old butler who survived the original pandemic, he said.

That prompted Altschuler, a professor of rehabilitation medicine who doesn’t normally study flu, to look into the idea of testing people more than 90 years old for antibodies. The National Institutes of Health, which paid for much of the study, connected Altschuler with experts in the field and he found the elderly antibody donors.

The findings make sense, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, who wasn’t involved with the study. Recent studies have estimated that the human immune system should last many decades, but this gives real proof, he said.

“This is the mother of all immunological memory here,” Fauci said.

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BOSTON ? A comprehensive study of self-destructive thinking among college students found more than half of the 26,000 surveyed had suicidal thoughts at some point during their lifespan.

The web-based survey conducted in

Avastin treatments cost around $35,000 a year per patient role. (CBC)

The Nova Scotia government has started paid for a costly do drugs used in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer.

The government proclaimed in April that Avastin would be publicly funded but exclusively released details Friday, saying it required time to determine how the program would work.

Avastin extends the lives of some patients in the late stages of colorectal cancer by stopping the blood issue to cancerous tumours. A year-long circle of treatment costs around $35,000 per patient.

Starting this week, the province is salaried the

WASHINGTON: A woman world Health Organization has never
shown symptoms of infection with the AIDS computer virus may hold the unavowed to defeating
the computer virus, US researchers said.

Infected at least 10 days ago by her
hubby, the