Category: Science News

{People who use especially potent pot show signs of damage in a key part of their brain. The results, reported online November 27 in Psychological Medicine, are limited, though: The small brain scanning study doesn’t show that marijuana caused the brain abnormality — only that the two go hand-in-hand. But the findings suggest that potency matters, says study coauthor Tiago Reis Marques, a psychiatrist at King’s College London.}

“We are no longer talking about smoking cannabis or not smoking cannabis,” Reis Marques says. Just as vodka packs more of a punch than beer, a high-potency toke delivers much more of the psychoactive substance tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. A bigger dose of THC may have stronger effects on the brain, Reis Marques says.

That’s important because as marijuana plant breeders perfect their products, THC levels have soared. Samples sold in Colorado, for instance, now have about three times as much THC as plants grown 30 years ago, a recent survey found (SN Online: 3/24/15).

Reis Marques and his colleagues scanned the brains of 43 healthy people, about half of whom use cannabis. The researchers used a method called diffusion tensor imaging to study the structure of the brain’s white matter, neural highways that carry messages between brain areas. Participants gave a detailed history of their past drug use, including information about how potent their marijuana was.

People who reported using high-potency marijuana showed signs of damage in the corpus callosum, the major white matter tract that connects the left side of the brain to the right. Water molecules diffused more easily along tracts of the corpus callosum, a sign that the tissue is weaker.

While the results show a link between smoking high-potency cannabis and white matter damage, they can’t prove that cannabis caused the trouble. “These people could have had deviant brain structures prior to use — they weren’t randomly assigned,” says psychologist Mitch Earleywine of the University at Albany in New York. The results could be explained by other drug use, too, he says. Cocaine, for instance, has been tied to corpus callosum abnormalities, says Earleywine, who serves on the advisory board of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Because the experiment focused only on brain anatomy, it’s unclear whether these changes would affect abilities like memory, impulsivity or depression. It’s also unknown whether white matter tracts elsewhere in the brain are affected by THC content, says neuroscientist and psychiatrist Hans Breiter of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. “This study leaves out what is occurring with the rest of the white matter,” he says. It will be important to look at other tracts, particularly those involved with memory and other behaviors that marijuana might influence, he says.

With the growing availability of supercharged marijuana, understanding exactly what it does to the brain is more important than ever, Reis Marques says, particularly for young people who may not realize the marijuana they are using is much more powerful than earlier versions. “We are in a stage where there is missing information, or the information is changing fast,” he says.

SOURCE:SCIENCE NEWS:[High-potency pot smokers show brain-fiber damage->https://www.sciencenews.org/article/high-potency-pot-smokers-show-brain-fiber-damage]

{Brazil sees sharp rise in babies born with abnormally small heads. }

A mosquito-borne virus may cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads. Zika virus, which first appeared in Brazil in May, causes fever, rash, vomiting, red eyes and, in some cases, death. Brazilian health officials believe that a Zika infection during pregnancy harms growing fetuses. Pregnant women hit by the virus may be more likely to give birth to babies with the rare birth defect microcephaly, a congenital condition marked by a small head and abnormal brain development.

Over recent months, Brazilian health officials have noted an unusually high number of babies born with microcephaly. From 2010 to 2014, on average, 156 Brazilian babies were born with the birth defect each year. This year, health officials have already recorded 1,248 suspected cases of microcephaly. On November 28, government health officials reported that Zika virus had been found in tissue from a baby born with microcephaly, a find that links the birth defect to the virus.

Zika virus also has been documented in Africa, Southeast Asia and islands in the Pacific including the Cook Islands, French Polynesia and the Federated States of Micronesia. Because the Aedes mosquitoes that carry the virus live around the world, the virus will probably spread to previously unaffected areas, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns.

SOUECE:SCINCE NEWS:[Virus spread by mosquitoes linked to rare birth defect->https://www.sciencenews.org/article/virus-spread-mosquitoes-linked-rare-birth-defect]

{Type 2 diabetes is traditionally seen as a chronic condition but weight loss reverses the disease, scientists have shown.}

Millions of people suffering from Type 2 diabetes could be cured of the disease if they just lost weight, a new study suggests.

Scientists at Newcastle University have shown the disease is caused by fat accumulating in the pancreas and losing less than one gram from the organ can reverse the life-limiting illness and restore insulin production.

Type 2 diabetes affects 3.3 million people in England and Wales and, until now, was thought to be chronic. It can lead to blindness, stroke, kidney failure and limb amputation.

But now researchers at Newcastle have shown that the disease can be reversed, even in obese people who have had the condition for a long time.

18 obese people with Type 2 diabetes who were given gastric band surgery and put on a restricted diet for eight weeks were cured of their condition. During the trial the patients, aged between 25 and 65, lost an average of 2.2 stone, which was around 13 per cent of their body weight. Crucially they also lost 0.6 grams of fat from their pancreas, allowing the organ to secrete normal levels of insulin.

The team is now planning a larger two year study involving 200 people with Glasgow University to check that the findings can be replicated and weight loss can be sustained for two years.

“For people with Type 2 diabetes, losing weight allows them to drain excess fat out of the pancreas and allows function to return to normal,” said Professor Roy Taylor, of Newcastle University who also works within the Newcastle Hospitals.

“So if you ask how much weight you need to lose to make your diabetes go away, the answer is one gram. But that gram needs to be fat from the pancreas. At present the only way we have to achieve this is by calorie restriction by any means, whether by diet or an operation.

“What is interesting is that regardless of your present body weight and how you lose weight, the critical factor in reversing your Type 2 diabetes is losing that one gram of fat from the pancreas.”

Diabetes is a growing health crisis in Britain which currently costs the NHS £869m a year – 10 per cent of the total NHS drugs bill.

Type 2 accounts for about 90 per cent of all diabetes cases in Britain and the numbers of sufferers have risen by 59.8 per cent in the past decade, equating to an additional 1.2 million adults compared to ten years ago. Diabetes UK predicts that if current trends continue, five million people will have diabetes by 2025, a legacy of poor diets and lack of exercise.

The illness used to be called ‘mature onset’ diabetes because it was associated with the middle-aged and elderly, but in the past 15 years it has been seen in children and in September a three year old girl was diagnosed with the condition, the youngest patient ever seen.

Traditionally, Type 2 diabetes is seen as a progressive condition which is controlled by diet initially then tablets, but which may eventually require insulin injections.

The new study is the first to suggest that keeping weight down can cure patients.

Researchers were able to spot the link between fat in the pancreas and diabetes because of a new MRI scanning technique which allowed them to accurately test levels of fatty deposits in the organ. It showed that fat levels decreased by 1.2 per cent over eight weeks in diabetic patients. During the eight weeks the patients were asked to limit the calorie intake to 1200 kcal a day, around half of recommended levels.

A control group of non-diabetic obese patients saw no change in the level of fat in their pancreas demonstrating that the increase in fat in the pancreas is specific to people who develop Type 2 diabetes.

Naveed Sattar, professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow said: “This is a big deal because it shows that weight gain is triggering diabetes and that people who lose enough weight can be diabetes free and come off insulin.

“What we need to do now is make sure that this weight loss is sustainable in the long term, which is why we are doing a much bigger trial to see if people can keep the weight off. Obviously some people will struggle to do that and it won’t be for everyone.

“But this is good news as we can now tell people that if they lose weight they will get better. Being lighter also helps people become more phsically active, which should also help keep the weight off.”

Charities said the study highlighted the important link between diet and diabetes.

Dr Alasdair Rankin, Diabetes UK Director of Research, said: “This study suggests an important link between the amount of fat in the pancreas and Type 2 diabetes.

“It highlights once again the importance of being a healthy weight to reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes, as well as the potential for weight loss – ideally through diet but also, where that fails, through surgery – to reverse Type 2 diabetes.

“But while a gram of fat doesn’t sound like much, you would need to lose a lot of body weight just to lose this small amount of fat in your pancreas. While some research has shown the potential of low calorie diets to reverse Type 2 diabetes, we do not recommend them yet and anyone thinking about this should speak to their GP.”

The research is being published online today in Diabetes Care and simultaneously he is presenting the findings at the World Diabetes Congress in Vancouver.

SOURCE:SCIENCE DAILY:[Type 2 diabetes can be cured through weight loss, Newcastle University finds ->http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12027265/Type-2-diabetes-can-be-cured-through-weight-loss-Newcastle-University-finds.html]

{Fresh analysis of a reptile fossil is helping scientists solve an evolutionary puzzle — how snakes lost their limbs. The findings show snakes did not lose their limbs in order to live in the sea, as was previously suggested. }

The 90 million-year-old skull is giving researchers vital clues about how snakes evolved.

Comparisons between CT scans of the fossil and modern reptiles indicate that snakes lost their legs when their ancestors evolved to live and hunt in burrows, which many snakes still do today.

The findings show snakes did not lose their limbs in order to live in the sea, as was previously suggested.

Scientists used CT scans to examine the bony inner ear of Dinilysia patagonica, a 2-metre long reptile closely linked to modern snakes. These bony canals and cavities, like those in the ears of modern burrowing snakes, controlled its hearing and balance.

They built 3D virtual models to compare the inner ears of the fossils with those of modern lizards and snakes. Researchers found a distinctive structure within the inner ear of animals that actively burrow, which may help them detect prey and predators. This shape was not present in modern snakes that live in water or above ground.

The findings help scientists fill gaps in the story of snake evolution, and confirm Dinilysia patagonica as the largest burrowing snake ever known. They also offer clues about a hypothetical ancestral species from which all modern snakes descended, which was likely a burrower.

The study, published in Science Advances, was supported by the Royal Society.

Dr Hongyu Yi, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who led the research, said: “How snakes lost their legs has long been a mystery to scientists, but it seems that this happened when their ancestors became adept at burrowing. The inner ears of fossils can reveal a remarkable amount of information, and are very useful when the exterior of fossils are too damaged or fragile to examine.”

Mark Norell, of the American Museum of Natural History, who took part in the study, said: “This discovery would not have been possible a decade ago — CT scanning has revolutionised how we can study ancient animals. We hope similar studies can shed light on the evolution of more species, including lizards, crocodiles and turtles.”

SOURCE:SCIENCE DAILY:[Mystery of how snakes lost their legs solved by reptile fossil->http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151127195113.htm]

{The mother of all snakes got its start underground.}

X-ray images of snake and lizard skulls suggest that modern snakes’ ancestors burrowed rather than swam, scientists report November 27 in Science Advances.

The study is the latest to suggest that snakes evolved from land lizards that lost their limbs while adapting to a slithery, subterranean lifestyle (SN: 8/22/15, p. 10). Another theory posits that today’s snakes descended from marine reptiles — with a svelte body and lack of legs serving as adaptations to move through a watery home.

Paleontologists Hongyu Yi of the University of Edinburgh and Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City used X-ray scans to build 3-D virtual models of the inner ears of 44 fossil and modern reptile species.

Snakes use the inner ear, a tiny structure within the skull, for balance and hearing. The inner ears of snakes living in different environments have telltale shapes, the researchers found. Burrowers’ inner ears appear more inflated than those of other reptiles — like a balloon wrapped with a piece of cord. Such a structure has been linked with low-frequency hearing, and would have helped underground snakes detect the rumbling vibrations of predators or prey.

Dinilysia patagonica, a Late Cretaceous relative of modern snakes that lived roughly 90 million years ago, also had the balloon-shaped inner ear cavity of a burrower, Yi and Norell report. And an analysis of the snake family tree suggests that modern snakes’ early ancestors did too.

SOURCE:SCIENCE NEWS:[Snakes evolved from burrowing ancestor, new data suggest->https://www.sciencenews.org/article/snakes-evolved-burrowing-ancestor-new-data-suggest]

{Intelligence Quotient also known as IQ is a score derived from one of several standardized tests designed to assess human intelligence. A score between 90 and 110, or the median plus or minus 10, indicates average intelligence. A score above 130 indicates exceptional intelligence and a score below 70 may indicate mental retardation.}

Below are 5 ways to boost your brain power and improve your IQ

{{1. Taking creatine as dietary supplement}}

A 2003 research published in Proceedings B, a learned journal published by the Royal Society and undertaken by scientists at the University of Sydney and Macquarie University in Australia discovered that taking creatine, a compound found in muscle tissue, as a dietary supplement can give a significant boost to both working memory and general intelligence. Dr. Caroline Rae who led the research explained that the level of creatine supplementation chosen was 5g per day as this is a level that has previously been shown to increase brain creatine levels. Creatine raises the energy levels available for computation in your brain.

{{2. Dual n-back game}}

A 2008 study by Professor Susanne M. Jaeggi found that young adults who practiced the Dual N-back game showed improvement in a fundamental cognitive ability known as “fluid” intelligence: the capacity to solve novel problems, to learn, to reason, to see connections and to get to the bottom of things. The implication was that playing the game literally makes people smarter. In dual n-back training, both a verbal and a visual stream of items are presented simultaneously. Her research discovered that playing 25 minutes every day will raise your IQ by an impressive 4 points.

{{3. Play action video games}}

A 2014 University of Rochester shows for the first time that playing action video games improves not just the skills taught in the game, but learning capabilities more generally. In the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Daphne Bavelier, a research professor in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester found that people who play action games are better learners and this makes them excel at many tasks. She also noted that they become better learners by playing the fast-paced action games. Professor Bavelier also explained that in order to sharpen its prediction skills, our brains constantly build models or ‘templates’ of the world. The better the template, the better the performance. And now we know playing action video game actually fosters better templates. So playing Call of Duty and other action games is good for your brain.

{{4. Scrabble}}

A 2011 University of Calgary study found that playing scrabble makes you smart. The researchers discovered that competitive Scrabble players are able to increase visual word recognition — the ability to read individual words — well into adulthood. The study author Ian Hargreaves, a graduate student from the University of Calgary explained that playing scrabble can actively improve word recognition in an adult mind. So if you want to improve your brain power, start playing scrabble today.

{{5. Exercise}}

A 2009 study published the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) discovered that Young adults who are fit have a higher IQ and are more likely to go on to university. The study involved 1.2 million Swedish men doing military service who were born between 1950 and 1976. The research group analysed the results of both physical and IQ tests when the men enrolled. The study shows a clear link between good physical fitness and better results for the IQ test. According to the researchers, being fit means that you also have good heart and lung capacity and that your brain gets plenty of oxygen.

ELCREMA

{Should I give my child a smartphone? If so, what is the appropriate age? These are two questions many parents ponder over, especially as they maintain a growing concern for their child’s safety using smartphones and other technology.
}

There are several ways to child-proof your electronics, but whether or not to give your child a smartphone or tablet of their own brings about other questions to consider: what is the purpose of giving them a smartphone? How will my child be using the phone? Do I feel my child needs access to more advanced capabilities, such as GPS tracking or access to all apps in the app store?

While there isn’t a universal age at which parents agree is the “right” age to give their kid a smartphone, there are a few things to consider that can help you decide what’s best for you and your family. Here are a few tips to help determine whether or not your child is ready for a smartphone.

If you or another family member is taking your children to school and bringing them back home every day, a smartphone may not be necessary, especially if they are too young to participate in any sports, extracurricular activities and other after-school events. However, if your children participate in a lot after school activities or walk to school by themselves every day, you may want to have a line of communication with them. This can help you coordinate pick-up times around their practices, study sessions or rehearsals and give you a heads up if their activities are canceled on a particular day. It also helps put parents’ minds at ease knowing their children have a way to contact someone in the event that they run into any trouble on their walk home from school or while they wait for their ride.

After you decide that you do want your child to have a cell phone, the next thing you need to consider is whether or not you want to give them a basic phone, with only the ability to place and receive calls or texts, or a smartphone, with more advanced capabilities including access to the Internet and communication apps like Snapchat or Instagram. This choice may largely depend on your child’s age and what you think they’re mature enough to handle, as a basic cell phone with less features may be the better option for younger children.

{{Consider the added benefits}}

Smartphones are for more than just games, social media and texting friends. There are a lot of educational apps with great learning tools that parents can download for their kids to use. If you opt for a smartphone for the educational benefits but still worry about what your child does with the device when you’re not around, there are parental control tools that allow you to monitor their activity. Net Nanny, for example, covers iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices to help parents keep tabs of what their kids are doing on their phone’s browser, messaging apps and social media accounts. Net Nanny also allows parents to set time limits on phone use and provides parents with alerts and reports of their child’s activity. Read our parental control software reviews to learn more.

An additional potential benefit to parents who opt to give their child a smartphone is the option to track the physical location of their child’s phone. Most cell phone providers give parents the ability to track their child’s smartphone using the phone’s built-in GPS features. If you choose to enable this feature with your service provider, you can see when your child gets to school, when they are on their way home or heading to their extracurricular activities and when they get home.
{{
Talk about smart and safe phone usage}}

In addition to putting restrictions on phone usage (e.g. no using it at the dinner table or after a certain time every night), parents should engage with their children as they try out new apps and explore new parts of their phone. Sit down with them, ask important questions and make sure they are aware of any potential safety concerns. Many kids, especially the younger ones, may see no harm in what they do on apps and online, but they could be unknowingly exposing sensitive information, like a phone number or home address, and putting you and your family at risk of identity theft.

When it comes to determining what age is best to give you child a cell phone, the decision ultimately boils down to parental preference. Whether you think your kid is better off without a phone or it’s imperative to get them one is a judgment call every parent must make for themselves.

MADAME NOIRE

{The pineapple, the tropical fruit enjoyed by people worldwide in slices, chunks, juice, upside-down cakes, jam, tarts, ice cream, yogurt, stir-fry dishes, piña coladas, glazed ham and even Hawaiian pizza, is finally giving up its genetic secrets.}

Scientists on Monday said they have sequenced the genome of the pineapple, learning about the genetic underpinning of the plant’s drought tolerance and special form of photosynthesis, the process plants use to convert light into chemical energy.

The genome provides a foundation for developing cultivated varieties that are improved for disease and insect resistance, quality, productivity and prolonged shelf life, University of Illinois plant biologist Ray Ming said.

Pineapples, domesticated about 6,000 years ago in what is now southwest Brazil and eastern Paraguay and currently grown in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, are big business.

They are the second most important tropical fruit crop behind bananas, and are grown in more than 80 countries, with an annual value of more than $8 billion.

“The industrial production of pineapple in Hawaii a century ago made pineapple a popular fruit worldwide because of its extraordinary flavor and aroma,” Ming said.

Pineapples are the most economically important crop that uses a type of photosynthesis called CAM, or crassulacean acid metabolism, that evolved in arid locales for high water-use efficiency. It is one of three types of photosynthesis and differs from the forms in the vast majority of plants.

Most crop plants use a type of photosynthesis known as C3.

Plants with CAM photosynthesis use 20 to 80 percent less water han typical crop plants and can grow in arid, marginal lands unsuited for most crops.

Mindful of global climate change forecasts, the researchers said understanding the pineapple genome may help to engineer drought tolerance into other crops and even engineer C3 photosynthesis crops like rice and wheat to use CAM photosynthesis.

“As such, CAM photosynthesis applications could hold major significance for the entire food industry,” added plant molecular biologist Qingyi Yu of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center at Dallas.

Some of the pineapple’s photosynthesis genes are governed by its circadian clock genes, which enable plants to distinguish between day and night and adapt their metabolism accordingly.

Ming said this makes sense because CAM photosynthesis lets plants close pores in their leaves during daytime and open them at night, helping retain moisture.

The research appears in the journal Nature Genetics.

VOICE OF AMERICA

{Taking fish oil capsules for just three months can stave off psychosis for years, a small study suggests. If confirmed in larger studies, the results suggest that the common dietary supplement may actually prevent schizophrenia.}

Such enduring benefits would be extraordinary, if correct, says psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman of Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. “I don’t want to sound like a cynic or a skeptic, but it’s almost too good to be true.” Larger studies must confirm the results, he says. “I still want to see replication before I’m ready to say we have a new standard of care.”

{{Source: Science News}}