PALIN MITENK BLOG

By Jenny Hope

Baby girls make a beeline for dolls as soon as they can crawl - and boys will head for the toy cars, a study has shown

Baby girls make a beeline for dolls as soon as they can crawl - and boys will head for the toy cars, a study has shown.

With no prompting, they will choose the stereotypical toys for their gender.

The findings - the first to show consistent differences in very young babies - suggest there is a biological basis to their preferences.

This indicates that 'politically correct' efforts to steer children towards things they wouldn't normally play with are doomed to failure.

Psychologists Dr Brenda Todd and Sara Amalie O'Toole Thommessen from City University London carried out an experiment involving 90 infants aged nine months to 36 months.

The babies were allowed to choose from seven toys. Some were stereotypically boys' toys - a car, a digger, a ball and a blue teddy.

The rest were stereotypically girl toys: a pink teddy, a doll and a cooking set.


The infants were placed a metre away from the toys, and could pick which ever they pleased.


Their choice, and the amount of time they spent playing with each toy was recorded.

Of the youngest children (nine to 14 months), girls spent significantly longer playing with the doll than boys, and boys spent much more time with the car and ball than the girls did.

Among the two and three-year-olds, girls spent 50 per cent of the time playing with the doll while only two boys briefly touched it.

The boys spent almost 90 per cent of their time playing with cars, which the girls barely touched.

There was no link between the parents' views on which toys were more appropriate for boys or girls, and the children's choices.

The researchers presented their study yesterday at the British Psychological Society's annual conference in Stratford on Avon

Dr Brenda Todd said: 'Children of this age are already subject to a great deal of socialisation. Boys may be given "toys that go" while girls get toys they can nurture which may help shape their preferences.

But these findings are consistent with the idea of an intrinsic bias in children to show interest in particular kinds of toys.

'There could be a biological basis for their choices. Males through evolution have been adapted to prefer moving objects, probably through hunting instincts, while girls prefer warmer colours such as pink, the colour of a newborn baby.'


source :dailymail

By Daily Mail Reporter

Lucia Wagstaff 8, with a Blue Morpho, found in South America. Their entire life-cycle only takes 137 days.


Young explorers were all of a flutter today, as they came up close to a host of magnificent butterflies at the National History Museum.

Hundreds of the colourful insects from bright Blue Morphos to Owl butterflies were unveiled to school children at a preview of the museum's new 'Butterfly Explorers' exhibition.


Gabriel Wagstaff (left) and Parker Canning study butterflies feeding on oranges at the Natural History Museum's 'Butterfly Explorers.' Adult butterflies can drink but cannot eat


Visitors will see all stages of the butterfly life-cycle in the special enclosure.

They will experience the wildly varied environments in which butterflies live in North America, Africa and Asia as well as the heart of the Amazon rainforest in South America, where there are more butterfly species than anywhere else on Earth


A butterfly emerges from a chrysalis at the exhibition which opens to the public on April 8


Butterflies develop from an egg to a caterpillar before cocooning themselves inside a pupa. They finally emerge as winged adults and set about reproducing.

However, butterflies don't survive for long as they cannot eat and can only drink through a straw-like mouth.

While this entire cycle only takes 137 days for some species like Blue Morphos, arctic butterflies are believed to have a two-year life cycle.

The exhibition includes two hatchery windows where butterflies will emerge from the pupae, as well as feeding tables.

Visitors will also learn strange facts about different species, such as the Glasswing that drinks poisonous sap from heliptrope leaves, to make themselves taste unpleasant to predators.

It will also include information on why some species are under threat and how to encourage butterflies into your own garden.

It comes as conservationists warn that a third of Europe's butterflies are in decline.

The large blue butterfly, which was successfully reintroduced to the UK after dying out here, is endangered throughout Europe, according to the European Red List assessment of species at risk.

And the Duke of Burgundy and Lulworth skipper, which both suffered their worst year in the UK last year, are in decline in many countries across the continent.


Butterfly house manager Luke Brown releases a fresh consignment of butterflies at the Natural History Museum's exhibition


The release of the European Red List, commissioned by the European Commission, also revealed 14 per cent of dragonflies and 11 per cent of a group of beetles which rely on decaying wood were at risk of extinction.

Conservationists said a loss of habitats, including traditionally-farmed grasslands, woodlands and wetlands, was the major factor affecting insect species.

Butterfly Explorers will run from April 8 until 26 September, 2010. For more information visit www.nhm.ac.uk


source: dailymail

By Daily Mail Reporter

Technicians install electric cables at the heart of the ATLAS detector, part of the Large Hadron Collider, which was restarted last night


Scientists have restarted the world largest atom smasher over-night, in a fresh bid to uncover the secrets of the universe.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, sent low energy beams of protons in both directions around the 17-mile particle accelerator under the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

After a cautious trial period, CERN plans to ramp up the energy of the beams to unprecedented levels and start record-setting collisions of protons by late March, spokeswoman Christine Sutton said.

The restart follows a 10-weeks winter shutdown during which scientists made improvements and checked out the smasher's ability to collide protons at energies three times greater than has ever been achieved before.

The Large Hadron Collider was built to examine suspected phenomena such as dark matter, antimatter and ultimately the creation of the universe billions of years ago, which many believe occurred in an explosion known as the Big Bang.

It was originally launched amid great fanfare and controversy on September 10, 2008. Some critics led by scientist Otto Rossler, claimed the machine would spawn a shower of mini-black holes.

Within four years, they said one of these 'celestial vacuums' could have swollen to such a size that it is capable of sucking the Earth inside-out - a claim vehemently denied by CERN.

In the event, the machine was shut down just nine days after launch, when a badly soldered electrical splice overheated and set off a chain of damage to the magnets and other parts of the collider.


The LHC will blast particles both ways around a 17-mile circulur tunnel


CERN had to undertake a £26million program of repairs and improvements over 14 months before it was ready to retry the machine at the end of November. Then the the collider performed almost flawlessly, giving scientists valuable data in the four-week run before Christmas.

Specialists have checked out and improved electrical connections and other parts of the machine since the shutdown, but still want to take further steps to make sure the Large Hadron Collider is ready to operate at higher energy.

'There's a long way to go between getting the first bunches of protons to go around and actually getting the machine to its top working levels,' Ms Sutton said.

'It's a lot like having designed a Formula One racing car. The first time you send it out, the guy doesn't go round the circuit as fast as he can. You have to learn about the controls, how the car handles.'

The long-term goal will be to run the proton beams at 7 TeV in each direction, but CERN has decided that it will continue its cautious approach and run at 3.5 TeV for 18 to 24 months.

Then a long shutdown will allow for further improvements for operation at the full design energy.


source: dailymail

Socialite Paris Hilton loves small dogs and is frequently seen out and about with her female Chihuahua named Tinkerbell

All small dogs could originate from packs of wolves who roamed the plains in the Middle East, more than 12,000 years ago.

A new genetic study, traced a gene called IGF1, that determines small size in dogs, back to the first domesticated grey wolves, which lived in this area.

Melissa Gray and Robert Wayne, from the University of California, led a team of researchers who surveyed a large sample of gray wolf populations.

She said, 'The mutation for small body size post-dates the domestication of dogs.

'However, because all small dogs possess this variant of IGF1, it probably arose early in their history.

'Our results show that the version of the IGF1 gene found in small dogs is closely related to that found in Middle Eastern wolves and is consistent with an ancient origin in this region of small domestic dogs'.

Their results were published in the open-source journal BMC Biology.

Previous archeological work in the Middle East has unearthed the remains of small domestic dogs dating to 12,000 years ago.

Sites in Belgium, Germany and Western Russia contain older remains, 13,000 to 31,000 years ago, but these are of larger dogs.

These findings support the hypothesis put forward by Miss Gray and her colleagues that small body size evolved in the Middle East.

Reduction in body size is a common feature of domestication and has been seen in other domesticated animals including cattle, pigs and goats.

According to Miss Gray, 'Small size could have been more desirable in more densely packed agricultural societies, in which dogs may have lived partly indoors or in confined outdoor spaces'.


source: dailymail

Jem Stansfield climbs the wall using two vacuum cleaners


Human fly Jem Stansfield didn't need superhero powers to scale the walls like Spiderman - just a couple of vacuum cleaners.

The scientist, a presenter on BBC One's Bang Goes The Theory, amazed onlookers by climbing up the side of a wall in a school.

His modified Tesco vacuum cleaners worked like giant suckerpads and allowed him to climb the wall with ease.


Easy does it: Jem takes his first tentative steps up the wall


Mr Stansfield, who was taking part in the Brighton Science Festival Programme, said: 'I came across the idea for the vacuum cleaners when I was doing a challenge to make superhuman powers out of junk. I worked out the vacuum cleaners could support my weight.

'I attached pads roughly the size of tea trays to the nozzle and realised they pressed tightly against the wall and could hold me.'

He first performed the stunt on the side of BBC building in White City for the TV show Bang Goes The Theory in July 2009.

Festival organiser Richard Robinson was amazed as he watched Mr Stansfield whizz up the wall like the human fly.


Triumphant: Wall-climber Jem with his vacuum pads


Up the school wall: Jem shows off outside the school


Back pack: Jem climb was powered by these twin vacuums


He said: 'Everyone else, myself included, laughed at him. We didn't think it would ever work, then we turn around and he was climbing a wall.'

Jem hopes his wacky creations will inspire future scientists to think outside the box.

He said: 'I hope activities like this teach children that if you understand the world around you, you can make it work for you.

'Normal boring day-to-day objects can do exciting things for you.'

Jem has a degree in aeronautics and will be putting his brain to good use for his next stunt - when he drives a car powered only by coffee beans from London to Manchester.

source: dailymail

By Claire Bates

This picture was taken in January 2010, of Sakurajima volcano near Kagoshima town in south Japan. The volcano ejected lava bombs and created forks of lightning - possibly due to electrically charged ash

Most people would think themselves unlucky if they passed a volcano as it erupted, but this counts as a good day at the office for one photographer.

Martin Rietze is part of a select group of volcano-chasers who seek out the exploding phenomena, and braves huge electric storms and boiling lava to get the perfect shots.

The 45-year-old travels around the world's volcano hotspots, from Costa Rica to Italy, in his pursuit of Earth's greatest fiery spectacle.


This photo from December 2009, shows a glowing lava pond inside the summit crater of the Villarica volcano in Southern Chile. The full moon can be seen behind in the early morning dawn
But Mr Rietze is undaunted by the challenges of his profession likening it to an extreme sport. In fact he says he has had had fewer mishaps chasing eruptions than when mountain climbing.

Mr Rietze relishes the dramatic encounters despite the danger.

He told the Mail Online: 'I will never ever forget those moments surrounded by poisonous gas, feeling the heat of the flowing and bubbling lava and hearing noises louder than a plane taking off.

'Sometimes your body can feel the shockwaves and the ground is shaking.'

However, he said: 'There is a big difference between a tourist and a long-term experienced observer.

'One has to know when it is safe to come near and when it is a matter of survival to stay away, sometimes many miles away.'


'Nature's fireworks': Stromboli volcano in Italy, Sicily erupts in May 2009. This volcano erupts more or less constantly


Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia in June 2008. This volcano has a extremely acid crater lake and possibly the strongest sulfur vent in the world. It is so hot that the sulfur ignites leading to burning rivers


Mr Rietze used his vast pool of experience to capture a dramatic shot of volcanic lightning at Sakurajima volcano in Japan last month.

Scientists are still uncertain as to why lightning occurs during some eruptions. One theory is that it is caused by charge-inducing collisions in volcanic dust.

A great deal of planning goes into Mr Rietze's expeditions. He tries to catch volcanoes when they are their highest levels of activity, but calculating the ups and downs of the eruptions can take days to complete.

'For long distance destinations I have to invest a fortnight to give myself a good chance of getting some decent shots,' he said.

'In principle a volcano can erupt at any time, day and night. This means you have to wait as long as you can for something spectacular, including whole nights.
'So if the weather is good I must be patient and wait for it to erupt, whether it is lunchtime or two in the morning.'


The Soufriere Hills Lava Dome on Monserrat Island in the Caribbean violently erupts in February 2010. The southern cross star constellation can be seen behind

The photographer, from Germany, said each volcano requires a different approach.

He gives active stratovolcanos a wider berth as they can throw out lava bombs that travel several miles and create pyroclastic flows.


source: dailymail

An image of a UFO like cloud from Shane Kirk's book Storms of the Midwest, taken during an early morning storm near Cameron, Missouri. He was out snapping photos for eight hours before his wife called him at 3.30am to remind him he had work at 8am.

While most of us head for shelter when we hear a huge storm coming, one daredevil photographer has made it his job to get as close as he can.

These awe-inspiring shots of lightning are the work of American lightning chaser, Shane Kirk.

The 40-year-old from Kansas has been chasing storms across the midwest of the U.S. since 2006.

Living in America's 'tornado alley' - where more tornados take place than anywhere in the world - Shane gathers the majority of his material during the spring and summer months, with activity peaking in April and May.

His breathtaking images have been made into his first photography book, 'Storms of the Midwest', which has images of storms from Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.

Mr Kirk is dedicated to his hobby, often travelling up to 500 miles a day to capture storms on film.


This stunning strike of lightning was captured on April 18th, 2009 near Braman, Oklahom


Unsurprisingly it does have risks and he had a very close shave in an electrical storm in Kansas in June 2008.

'While getting a number of great, very close shots, I felt a lot of static electricity which is not good,' he said.

'Before I could make the decision to move, lighting hit a tree so close to me that I felt a good jolt go up my right leg.

'It scared me so bad, I left the camera and tripod in the rain and jumped in my vehicle until I had calmed down.'


A huge bolt of lightning lights up the sky above Lenexa, Kansas on August 16, 2009


Storm clouds gather on June 20, 2009 between Lebo and Williamsburg, Kansas. This storm had several funnel clouds and a brief tornado


Despite this he is determined to continue with what has been a lifetime passion.

In fact he is so obsessed with capturing the perfect picture he admits his understanding wife often has to ring him in the early hours of the morning to remind him he has work the next day.

'Severe weather has fascinated me for as long as I can remember,' he wrote on his website.

'Even at a young age when storms were near, I would be out watching the sky. I'll drive 300 miles on a week night to shoot lightning and arrive back home just in time to go to work.'

Mr Kirk's work can be seen in detail at www.lightning-chaser.com
His book 'Storms of the midwest', £34, is available from www.blurb.com


source: dailymail

How the new Cupola will look like on the International Space Station. It comes just weeks after astronauts got internet access on board


It may not be a five-star space hotel, but life has never been so good off planet.

Just two weeks after the arrival of the Internet, the International Space Station is getting an Italian-made observation deck that will offer panoramic views of Earth.

Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver the seven-windowed dome to the International Space Station next week, along with more living space in an chamber called Tranquility.

Endeavour is due to launch with six astronauts on board at 0939 GMT. It comes just days after President Barack Obama's big space station plug in his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year.

While the White House scrapped NASA's moonward-ho Constellation program, the space station got an extension until at least 2020, with the promise of more relevant research.

Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden said the goal is to make full use of the space station as 'the national lab it was envisioned to be.'

'There's so much we need to know before we can venture safely out of low-earth orbit for the long term,' Mr Bolden, a former shuttle commander, said.

The dome going up on Endeavour - like a big bay window - should greatly improve the quality of life aboard the space station.


The Cupola module was built in Italy for the United States segment of the International Space Station. It will offer panoramic views

When astronauts exercise in the Tranquility, for instance, they will be able to gaze out the nearby dome windows whenever the shutters are open. And when the day's work is done, they will be able to pop their heads and shoulders into the 5-foot tall cupola, beholding the universe.

The lookout also will provide 360-degree views of the space station, allowing the crew to see directly outside during robotic work. Until now, they've had to rely on TV cameras when they use the robot arm to move or install big-ticket items.

'Looking out on the Earth is just inspiring,' said space station resident Timothy "TJ" Creamer.

In fact, it's the crew's No. 1 pastime in the off hours - at least it was before the Internet came aboard.

Now, 'we can actually surf the Internet and find diversions,' Mr Creamer told schoolchildren in a TV hookup this week.


Awaiting lift-off: A brown pelican flies past Space Shuttle Endeavour at Cape Canaveral. It is due to launch early on Sunday morning

The five space station residents - two Americans, two Russians and one Japanese - finally got internet access late last month, nearly a decade after the first bunch of guys moved in.

'First thing I did on internet? Order my wife some flowers,' commander Jeffrey Williams wrote in his online Twitter account.

'It was a hit. Commerce from space!'

The dome - nearly 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter - will ride up in the shuttle attached to Tranquility, but in the wrong place. It will be moved to its proper location once Tranquility is connected to the space station.

During the third and final spacewalk of the mission, two of the astronauts will be outside looking in, while the nine others will be crowded inside, gazing out. They will pop their heads and shoulders into the dome, with their legs floating down into Tranquility.

With weightlessness, shuttle commander George Zamka said, it should be much easier and comfortable than the old how-many-can-fit-into-a-phone booth gag.

The main circular window - 31-inches across - is the biggest window ever bound for space. The six windows on the perimeter are trapezoid-shaped.

For now, Nasa wants to keep them shuttered most of the time to protect the fused silica glass from orbital debris. The glass is 1 inch (2.5 centimeter) to 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) thick and has four panes.

The name for Tranquility - a 23-foot (7-meter) long chamber - pays homage to the Apollo 11 moon landing. The dusty Sea of Tranquility is where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969.

Actually, the new space station room should have been named Colbert. TV comedian Stephen Colbert campaigned and won an online vote to have the chamber named after him, but NASA much preferred the historic moniker. Colbert made due with his name on a treadmill that flew up last summer.


Astronauts on the International Space Station have spectacular views of both Earth, the Moon and outer space


The Colbert treadmill will wind up in Tranquility, along with some extraordinary rocks mounted on a plaque aboard Endeavour.

The chips of moon rock were collected by the Apollo 11 crew and carried to the top of Mount Everest last spring by a former shuttle astronaut, Scott Parazynski. Also on the plaque: a big rock gathered on the summit of Everest during that same expedition.

After Endeavour's 13-day mission, the space station will be 98 per cent complete, with only four shuttle trips remaining.

Shuttle flights are supposed to conclude by the end of September, but the White House said they can slip into 2011 if Nasa needs to take more time and care


Those on board the ISS can expect dramatic views such as this one of Hurricane Isabel in 2003


source: dailymail

By Jenny Hope

Closed world: The patient was in a permanent vegetative state (posed by model)

British scientists are hailing a world-first ' conversation' with a man diagnosed as being in a permanent vegetative state.

They say the breakthrough has enormous implications for the care and treatment of vegetative patients.

With the ability to communicate, patients could request pain relief, or even indicate if they wanted to end their life.

Dr Adrian Owen, of Cambridge University, who led the research team, said: 'They can now have some involvement in their destiny.'

To the outside world, the 29-year-old patient - who suffered a severe head injury in a road accident in 2003 - appeared unconscious and incapable of communicating.

But Dr Owen's team used a brain scanner to tap into his thoughts and monitor how he reacted to questions.

The man answered 'yes' or 'no' by conjuring up imaginary scenes that signalled a response.

Experts say the breakthrough 'changes everything' about classifying consciousness disorders.

The man was among 23 patients a control group of healthy volunteers recruited for a three-year study by Medical Research Council scientists in Cambridge and colleagues from the University of Liege in Belgium.


Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure activity in two different brain regions registering motor and spatial responses while the patients imagined specific scenes.


Magnetic fields and radio waves detected blood-flow surges in each area which 'lit up' the scans.

For the 'motor' task, patients were asked to imagine standing on a tennis court and swinging an arm to return balls from an instructor.

To activate the 'spatial' region, they had to imagine walking from room to room in their home.

In four patients, the scans detected activity in the appropriate brain region as they carried out the scientists' verbal instructions.

But the 29-year-old man, who had produced reliable responses, was singled out for an even more remarkable test, says the New England Journal of Medicine.

Told to use 'motor' or 'spatial' imagery as 'yes' and 'no' answers, he correctly answered the first five of six autobiographical questions.

He was asked 'is your father's name Alexander?' and correctly answered 'yes' by imagining the tennis scene. When he was asked 'is your father's name Thomas?' he answered 'no' by thinking about walking around the house.

When the sixth question was asked, virtually no activity was seen. Scientists believe the patient had fallen asleep or simply failed to hear the question.

Dr Owen said: 'We were astonished when we saw the results of the patient's scan.
'Not only did these scans tell us that the patient was not in a vegetative state, but, more importantly, for the first time in years it provided the patient with a way of communicating his thoughts to the outside world.'

He said fMRI scanning was an expensive tool but in future, computer devices might help patients to communicate whether they needed pain relief or would like to try new drugs.

He said: 'Just for patients to exercise some autonomy is a massive step forward.'

Dr Nicholas Schiff, a neuroscientist at the Weill Cornell College in New York, said the work 'changes everything'. He said: 'These findings have extremely broad implications for concerns about the accurate assessment of patients in custodial care situations.'

Chris Frith, Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology, University College London, said: 'It is difficult to imagine a worse experience than to be a functioning mind trapped in a body over which you have absolutely no control.

'We have the distinct possibility that, in the future, we will be able to detect cases of other patients who are conscious and what's more, we will be able to communicate with them.'

There are normally fewer than 100 patients in the UK in a permanent vegetative state (PVS) at any time. PVS is diagnosed in patients who have been in a coma for three years without being able to communicate or have any understanding of what is being said.


source: dailymail

By Claire Bates

By studying the Sun in greater detail, scientists are hoping to be able to predict and better prepare for disruptive solar activity (seen here in ultra-violet light)


TVs around the world could go on the blink during the 2012 London Olympics, solar physicists warned last night.

They were speaking ahead of the launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which will blast off on February 9.

Nasa's latest space satellite will deliver high resolution images of the Sun ten times better than the average High-Definition television.

A picture of the Sun will be snapped every 0.75seconds using ultra-violet light. In just one day the satellite will transmit the equivalent amount of data as 500,000 song downloads. Over time it will produce more science data than any mission in Nasa history.

British scientists involved in the project said the observatory could help them predict solar storms that could disrupt communications on Earth.


The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has four AIA telescopes, which are at the top. The solar arrays will collect energy from the Sun to power the spacecraft. EVE measures the tumultuous solar emissions, while the HMI will measure the magnetic field on the visible surface of the Sun


This could prove crucial as solar activity is due to hit a peak in its eleven-year cycle during the Olympics in 2012

Professor Richard Harrison from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, told the Mail Online: 'The Sun's magnetic field is all over the place and huge clouds of energy escape from time to time in coronal mass ejections.

'These can carry a billion tonnes of solar material into space at nearly a million miles per hour. Such events can disable satellites, cause power grid failures on Earth and disrupt communications.'

He added: 'Our Sun is just coming out of a deep minimum, which is a period of very little activity. Whether this means we will have an unusual maximum in 2012, we just don't know.

'What is certain is the chances of general disruption will be far higher during this period and could disrupt coverage of the Olympics.'

Professor Harrison said missions like the SDO couldn't prevent solar activity, but could help us to prepare for them.

Companies could be warned in advance to switch off vital satellite circuits and technology systems could be improved on Earth.

'It's like predicting the rain,' Professor Harrison said.
'You can't stop it but if you know it's coming you can put an umbrella up.'


UK scientists are gearing up for the launch of Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory. This will deliver high resolution images of the Sun

Engineers from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have also built the electronics systems for the six cameras on two of SDO’s instruments. These will control and read out the huge amount of data.

Project manager Sarah Beardsley, from RAL, said: 'Space missions require extremely light and compact, power-saving equipment which has to be built to stringent design and manufacturing requirements.

'The design of the electronics boxes has been so successful that we are now under contract to design and build the camera electronics for an instrument on Nasa's forthcoming GOES-R weather satellite.'



source: dailymail

South African Zola Budd was famous for training and racing barefoot

Searching for the perfect pair of jogging shoes is a waste of time --running barefoot is better for you, a study has revealed.

Researchers found that people who run barefoot tend to land on the ball or the middle of the foot and avoid jarring their bones.

But those who run in shoes tend to land on the heels, sending painful shockwaves through the body.

The study analysed the running styles of athletes, both shoewearing and barefoot.

It found three-quarters of shoe-wearers 'heel-strike', which means that for every mile they run, their heel slams into the ground 1,000 times, creating a 'very large and sudden collision force'.

But those who go barefoot tend to land with a springy step toward the front of the foot. They point their toes more on landing and have a lighter step.

The finding helps explain why so many of the world's greatest endurance runners run so well barefoot.

'People who don't wear shoes when they run have an astonishingly different strike,' said Dr Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University who led the study.

'Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts, but actually you can run barefoot on the world's hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain.

'All you need is a few calluses to avoid roughing up the skin of the foot. Further, it might be less injurious than the way some people run in shoes.'

Barefoot running is common in parts of Africa. Nearly 50 years ago Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist Abebe Bikila won his first marathon, barefoot while in the 1980s, South African Zola Budd took to the track barefooted.

However a growing number of British runners are following suit by chucking out their shoes and going barefoot or wearing foot 'gloves'.

Barefoot runners say the risk of dog mess, broken glass or jagged paving slabs is outweighed by the freedom - and lower injury rate.

The new study - which involved scientists at Glasgow University - analysed the running styles of athletes, comparing those who had always run barefoot, those who had always worn shoes and those who converted from shoes to barefoot.

They found that three quarters of shoe-wearers 'heel-strike'. For every mile they run, their heel slams into the ground 1,000 times, creating a 'very large and sudden collision force' 1,000 times.

But those who go barefoot tend to land with a springy step toward the middle or front of the foot. They point their toes more on landing and have a springier step.

The scientists say modern running shoes get in the way of millions of years of evolution. People have evolved strong, large arches that are used as spring when running.

'Humans have engaged in endurance running for millions of years, but the modern running shoe was not invented until the 1970s,' they report in the journal Nature.

'For most of human evolutionary history, runners were either barefoot or wore minimal footwear such as sandals or moccasins with smaller heels and little cushioning.'

However, Dr Liebermann warned people tempted to throw away their runnings shoes to ease themselves into barefoot jogging.

'Running barefoot or in minimal shoes is fun but uses different muscles,' he said. 'If you've been a heel-striker all your life you have to transition slowly to build strength in your calf and foot muscles.'

Earlier this year a study of 68 runners on a treadmill found that suffered 38 per cent more twisting in their knees and ankles when wearing shoes than they did barefoot.


source: dailymail

By Paul Revoir

'Cracking contraption': Much-loved duo Wallace and Gromit are known for their weird and wonderful inventions


Wallace and Gromit are to be the BBC's new faces of science after being given their own TV series about 'cracking real-life contraptions'.

The 'claymation' duo are to front a primetime show which will showcase machines and inventions from around the world.

The programme will take a lighthearted and humorous look at inventions and form part of the BBC's 'celebration of science' in 2010.

It is being made by Aardman, the company behind the other classic Wallace and Gromit shows such as The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave and The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.

The BBC is desperate to get more of the pair on screen after their last outing, the 2008 Christmas special A Matter Of Loaf And Death, got 14.3million viewers.

Executives said the show will see Wallace 'turn his hand to TV presenting' and takes an 'eccentric look at some cracking real-life contraptions'.
Wallace will be accompanied by Gromit as they broadcast direct from his homemade basement TV studio.

The six-part BBC1 series called Wallace And Gromit: World Of Invention will be broadcast later this year and each episode will have a theme such as flying, water, communication or space.


Hit: BBC executives are keen to capitalise on the success of films including Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit


It will also feature live action segments showing real-life inventors and inventions, with animated links by Wallace and Gromit.

The series will be accompanied by a website and online campaign which will further encourage fans to 'discover their inner inventor'.

Inventors, designers and engineers will include a Chinese peasant farmer who has made a series of homemade aeroplanes.

But the corporation was forced to defend claims that it was shying away from controversial issues such as climate change.

The year of science, which was launched yesterday, did not appear to include any dedicated programming on the issue of global warming.

The BBC's governing body the BBC Trust announced earlier this month that it is conducting a wide-ranging review into the accuracy and impartiality of the BBC's science coverage including areas such as climate change.

Other new shows include Robert Winston's Top Ten Advances, which will see the acclaimed scientist identifying his top 10 scientific developments over the past 50 years, from the microchip to the contraceptive pill.

New commissions for Radio 4 include Marcus du Sautoy's 10-part series, A Brief History Of Mathematics, and a 40-part series called Saving Species, which explores the challenges facing animals and plants.


source: dailymail

Parents do not need to warn their child about their listening habits


Parents need not nag their child to turn off their music while studying, because the chances are they will do so anyway, research found today.

Researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London, have found that while teenagers may spend hours listening to mp3 players, most are willing to switch it off if it interferes with their school work.

The study surveyed 600 young people in the UK, the US, Greece and Japan, asking students in three age groups - 12 years old, 16-18 years old and 20 years old - about their listening habits.

They were asked if they played music while revising for exams, writing, memorising texts, reading, doing coursework, solving problems, thinking or learning a foreign language, as well as about the effects that music had on their studying and why they decided to listen to music or work in silence.

The researchers found that many said they played music to relax, alleviate boredom and to help concentration, while most said they turned off the music if they felt that it was interfering with their concentration.

The study, due to be published in a forthcoming issue of Educational Studies, says: 'There are indications that, overall, students do not play music while studying extensively and that they rarely play music while revising for examinations, memorising material or learning a foreign language and most often play music when thinking or writing.

'This suggests that they are aware that their performance on some tasks will be impaired, namely those where the cognitive processes involved are shared with those involved in the processing of music.'

And it suggests parents do not need to warn their child about their listening habits.
It says: 'Across all age groups, there was disagreement that they turned music off when someone suggested that they should.

'This suggests that parents' attempts to prevent music being played while their offspring are studying are likely to be unproductive.'

By Victoria Moore

Heads or tails? Be wary if a friend offers to flip a coin to determine who buys the next round in the pub, or your husband suggests it as a way of allocating the nastiest household chores this weekend.

Because though the simple and apparently random method of tossing a coin to help make a decision has been used for centuries, scientists have now discovered that it is surprisingly easy to manipulate the odds of a coin landing the right way up.

'And it's all about practice,' says Matthew Clark, an ear, nose and throat consultant at the Royal Hospital in Gloucester. 'Because that way, it is possible to become consistent enough to predict the result.'

Clark is the joint author of a study into the art of tossing a coin that found that it is possible to control the outcome after just a few minutes' practice. The trick is not any specific technique but simply learning to toss consistently, and therefore predictably.

According to Matthew Clark: 'We gave 13 people some brief instructions, let them have a go for just five or ten minutes, then asked them to toss a coin 300 times aiming to get a heads-up, and measured the results.'

And the results were surprising. All of the participants managed to get the coin to land heads-up more than half the time, while one particularly adroit flipper achieved a heads-up 68 per cent of the time. So what are the secret tricks to always winning the toss?

CHOOSE YOUR COIN

Some coins are not perfectly shaped - and therefore, with practice, can be made to land on one side more often than the other. For example, when the Belgian euro was introduced in 2002, statisticians claimed that it had been minted asymmetrically, with the pattern heavier on one side than the other, making it more likely to land heads-up.

Also, when spun on a hard surface, it landed heads-up 56 per cent of the time.

The boss of the Royal Mint in Brussels denies that his coins are misshapen and says the findings are pure chance. But in another experiment, when a 2002 Belgian Euro was tossed 250 times it landed heads-up 139 times (or 55.6 per cent of the time) and tails-up 111 times.

PLACE IT CAREFULLY

The side of the coin that starts off in the face-up position is slightly more likely to end up that way. According to one study, there is a 51 per cent chance of getting a head if you start heads-up, or a tail if you start tails-up.

TOSS IT GENTLY

Studies have found that it is easier to control the outcome if you toss the coin gently - letting it spin only three or four times - rather than vigorously.

KNOW YOUR COIN

Some might consider it cheating, but it helps if you know the feel of each side of the coin you are flipping. Then, after you have flipped and caught the coin, and as you transfer the coin to the back of your other hand in order to reveal which way up it is, sneakily slip a finger under the coin and give it a stroke.

If you have practised beforehand, you'll be able to tell whether the raised pattern is heads or tails - and make a correct call.


A coin toss is viewed as the fairest way to decide which team kicks off in a football match. But experts have shown the result can be altered


STOP THE SPIN

Magicians sometimes use this method. If done correctly, the coin simply flutters in the air, rather than spinning around its axis, creating the illusion that it is turning without it actually doing so.

This means, of course, that when you catch it in the palm of your hand, it will always be the same way up as it was when you flipped it.

The technique is to hold the coin on your index, ring and middle fingers. Then flick your wrist and raise your index finger to launch the coin, flicking it just hard enough to get it wobbling in the air but not enough to turn it over. Simple.

BE CONSISTENT

This is the method preferred by Clark and his researchers. A coin tossed by a mechanical flipper that can replicate the same conditions - starting position, force exerted, angle at which the coin is thrown, height from it falls - every time, is entirely predictable.

'There's nothing strange about it - it's just physics,' says Clark.

And so it stands to reason that, if you try to eliminate all the variables by tossing the coin in exactly the same way each time, it will land on one side more often than it does the other.

Practising for just five to ten minutes can vastly improve your odds of making the right call, the researchers found.

ALWAYS BE BOTH THE FLIPPER AND THE CALLER

Because in order to predict which way up the coin will land you need to know which way up it started, and to be in control of the flip.

AND BEWARE. . .

Once in every six thousand tosses, a coin allowed to fall on a hard surface will land neither head nor tail up - but on its edge.


source: dailymail

(MOSCOW) — Russia's space agency chief said Wednesday a spacecraft may be dispatched to knock a large asteroid off course and reduce the chances of earth impact, even though U.S. scientists say such a scenario is unlikely.

Anatoly Perminov told Golos Rossii radio the space agency would hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis. He said his agency might eventually invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project.

When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its first flyby, in 2029, at 1-in-37.

Further studies have ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) from Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters.

NASA had put the chances that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 as 1-in-45,000. In October, after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path, the agency changed its estimate to 1-in-250,000.

NASA said another close encounter in 2068 will involve a 1-in-330,000 chance of impact.

Don Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, said better calculations of Apophis' path in several years "will almost certainly remove any possibility of an Earth collision" in 2036.

"While Apophis is almost certainly not a problem, I am encouraged that the Russian science community is willing to study the various deflection options that would be available in the event of a future Earth threatening encounter by an asteroid," Yeomans said in an e-mail Wednesday.

Without mentioning NASA's conclusions, Perminov said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032," Perminov said.

"People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people," Perminov said.

Scientists have long theorized about asteroid deflection strategies. Some have proposed sending a probe to circle around a dangerous asteroid to gradually change its trajectory. Others suggested sending a spacecraft to collide with the asteroid and alter its momentum, or hitting it with nuclear weapons.

Perminov wouldn't disclose any details of the project, saying they still need to be worked out. But he said the mission wouldn't require any nuclear explosions.

Hollywood action films "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon," have featured space missions scrambling to avoid catastrophic collisions. In both movies, space crews use nuclear bombs in an attempt to prevent collisions.

"Calculations show that it's possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have, which would help avoid the collision," Perminov said. "The threat of collision can be averted."

Boris Shustov, the director of the Institute of Astronomy under the Russian Academy of Sciences, hailed Perminov's statement as a signal that officials had come to recognize the danger posed by asteroids.

"Apophis is just a symbolic example, there are many other dangerous objects we know little about," he said, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

source: Time

By Tamara Cohen

GPs will be given computer software to help spot the early signs of cancer, it emerged yesterday.

Doctors will use a new programme to give patients their percentage chance of having cancer based on their including age, weight and symptoms such as bleeding or constant tiredness.

Patients calculated to be at high risk of cancer developing would be referred for urgent tests in hospital within two weeks.

The plan was unveiled by Professor Mike Richards, the Govenment's cancer czar, in a bid to prevent the 10,000 unnecessary deaths each year caused by late diagnosis.

Every GP in England could be using the software within five years, he said.

Cancer is the UK's biggest killer after heart disease and strokes and kills more than 150,000 people every year, around half of those diagnosed.

England is the first country to use the tool, as it has a lower rate of early cancer diagnosis than many European countries, Professor Richards added.

GPs spot cancer in 90 per cent of patients with screening picking up the other ten per cent.

Although some patients do not seek help in time, many cancers become fatal because they are not diagnosed by doctors at an early stage. There are more than 200 forms of cancer and the early stages can be similar to the symptoms of other conditions.

Professor Richards said computers could help doctors improve their diagnosis rate by giving them all the information they need in one place, although GPs will still make the decision to refer.

The software was devised after Government-funded research into the prevention of lung and bowel cancers by Dr Willie Hamilton, an Exeter GP and cancer expert at Bristol University.

One of the tests showed that a man aged over 40 who develops diarrhoea has less than a one per cent chance of that indicating bowel cancer, but two visits to the GP with the same symptom produce a 1.5% risk.

This rises to 3.4 per cent if there is a combination of diarrhoea and rectal bleeding and 6.8 per cent if he visits his GP twice with rectal bleeding.

Professor Richards told the Guardian: 'This is helping GPs because none of us can retain this sort of information [about cancer symptoms] and having to retain it for bowel cancer, lung cancer and ovarian cancer, as well as for heart disease, it would take a remarkable human brain to be able to do that, so why not get computers to support it?

'The benefit of this will be that GPs will know who should be investigated and who shouldn't. It will also help patients to know that whether they are being reassured, or referred, or getting a test, that is the right thing to do.'

But he added: 'The GP will always have the final say. If he wants to refer a patient to hospital, he will always have the right to do so.'

The Department of Health is recruiting GP practices for a pilot starting in Spring 2010.
A spokesman said: 'The work by Dr Willie Hamilton has not been to create a database but to develop a diagnostic risk assessment tool to assist earlier diagnosis of lung and bowel cancers for use in primary care. All GPs in the pilot will be trained in how to use the tool's use ahead of the expected pilot start date of Spring 2010.'

Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners said the software would save lives.

He said: 'The future of medicine will be that GPs will be using more and more computer-aided diagnostic tools for more and more conditions, and ultimately in years to come genetic information will be part of that. GPs will welcome this because it will make their diagnoses quicker and better. Over time this will save lives'.

Sarah Woolnough, head of policy at Cancer Research UK, said: "We welcome any initiative that encourages the earlier diagnosis of cancer.

'Late diagnosis is the reason behind thousands of avoidable cancer deaths every year so it has to be a huge priority to make every effort to diagnose cancer earlier.'

GPs have recently begun using similar software to help them assess a patient's risk of developing cardiovascular disease, which looks at blood pressure, family history, cholesterol, smoking history and current symptoms before producing an odds ratio.


source:dailymail

Here's a little test. Breast cancer screening reduces deaths by 25 per cent. If we assume that 1,000 women dutifully turn up to all their screening appointments, how many lives will be saved?


Remarkably, the answer is one. Not 250, or 100, or even 25 - the figures picked by a substantial proportion of gynaecologists who were asked this question.

As a recent study showed, if 1,000 women began screening at the age of 50, and had a mammogram every year, only one would have her life saved through early detection and treatment of cancer by the time screening stops at the age of 70.

Without screening, four women would have died from breast cancer. With it, three would have done so.

But in the same group, between two and ten women would also be treated needlessly - possibly with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

And between 100 and 500 would have a false alarm, suffer worry, and need further tests before getting the all-clear. About half would undergo an unnecessary biopsy.

Here's another example. The drug giant Pfizer claims, on the basis of a clinical trial, that its statin drug Lipitor reduces the risk of heart attacks in people with multiple risk factors - high blood pressure, high cholesterol or angina - by 36 per cent.

Assume 100 people take Lipitor for three-and-a-half years. How many heart attacks will be prevented?

The answer, once again, is one.

Without Lipitor, there would have been three heart attacks. With it, there were two

This is, indeed, close to the 36 per cent reduction claimed: Pfizer is not lying. But the bottom line is that 100 high-risk people had to take Lipitor for more than three years to prevent one of them having a heart attack. The other 99 got no benefit.

Benefits are easy to exaggerate when they are expressed in this way - and medicine is riddled with examples of inflated benefits and understated risks, misleading the unwell into unrealistic expectations and causing healthy people to worry needlessly.

The problem is called mismatched framing. Benefits are framed in one way; side-effects in another.

Expressing benefits as a relative risk - 25 per cent fewer breast cancer deaths, 36 per cent fewer heart attacks - produces a nice big number that looks impressive. But unless we know what the real underlying risk is, a percentage reduction is meaningless.

Let's suppose that the risk to women of dangerous blood clots from a contraceptive pill is one in 7,000. A new pill is introduced and the risk doubles. Letters are sent to GPs across the country saying that the risks of the new pill are 100 per cent greater, and panic ensues.

Women give up the new pill in droves, abortions rise, and so does the risk of blood clots, since pregnancy carries a greater risk of thrombosis than the new pill.

This, of course, actually happened in 1995. If women had been told not that the risk had doubled, but it had increased by one in 7,000, would the same panic have occurred? Almost certainly not. One in 7,000 is an absolute risk increase; 100 per cent is a relative risk increase.

In medical journals, it is commonplace for benefits to be expressed in relative terms, while side-effects are given in absolute terms.

One recent study of the BMJ, the Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet found that a third of papers that included both benefits and harms failed to express them in the same metric.

The Academy of Medical Sciences has postponed a report on the issue until later in 2010.

In February, misleading leaflets urging women to get screened for breast cancer were withdrawn by the NHS because they failed to mention risks - false positives, invasive tests, misleading results, unnecessary operations and anxiety - and did not express benefits straightforwardly.

Public health specialists are in a bind over this. Their job is to get as many participants as possible screened, or vaccinated against flu, or whatever the latest wheeze is. So they focus on big numbers in order to make not participating seem like a dereliction of duty.

But what matters to the individual making a decision about whether to participate is not how it affects national statistics, but what it means to him or her.

The best way to express that is as a 'number needed to treat' (NNT) - that is, how many people have to take the treatment to save one event. In the case of the statin trial, the NNT would be 100. With breast cancer screening, it is 1,000.

So the chances that an individual will personally benefit are quite small: one in 100 for statins, one in 1,000 for mammography.

Some doctors argue that any treatment with an NNT of over 50 is no better than buying a lottery ticket. If women were told this, some would decide to get screened anyway. Others may prefer to opt out.

Screening is not worthless, but nor is it quite as wonderful as women have been led to believe.

Can public health doctors afford to be honest about risks and benefits? I wouldn't bet on it. If drug companies, journals, public health campaigners and journalists are allowed to exaggerate without actually lying, who's to stop them?

Meanwhile, the public struggle to understand what's really best for them. Much greater transparency is needed, and fast.

NIGEL HAWKES is director of Straight Statistics. This article first appeared in Prospect Magazine


source: dailymail

The austere interior of Cao Cao's tomb. He ruled the Kingdom of Wei from 208 to 220 AD.

Chinese archaeologists have found what could be the tomb of Cao Cao, a skilful general and ruler in the third century who was later depicted in popular folklore as the archetypal cunning politician.

Archaeological officials say Cao's 8,000 sq ft tomb complex, with a 130ft passage leading to an underground chamber, was found in Xigaoxue, a village near the ancient capital of Anyang in central Henan province.

Historians say Cao Cao's outstanding military and political talents enabled him to build the strongest and most prosperous state in northern China during the Three Kingdoms period in 208 to 280 AD, when China had three separate rulers.


Several agate decorations (l) were found in the 1,800-year-old tomb in central Henan province (r)


Experts say the male was Cao, who died at age 65 in 220 AD, the elder woman his empress, and the younger woman her servant.


The report said among the relics found were stone paintings featuring the social life of Cao's time, stone tablets bearing inscriptions of sacrificial objects, and Cao's personal belongings.

Tablets carrying the inscription 'King Wu of Wei', Cao's posthumous title, were seized from people who had apparently stolen them from the tomb, the report said.

'The stone tablets bearing inscriptions of Cao's posthumous reference are the strongest evidence,' archaeologist Liu Qingzhu, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying.

'No one would or could have so many relics inscribed with Cao's posthumous reference in the tomb unless it was Cao's.'

He was the final chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, before going on to form his own state during the political turmoil of the Three Kingdoms period. He died in 220 AD in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han dynasty, and was posthumously named Emporer of the Wei state that he founded.

His father was the adopted son of the chief eunuch of the imperial court and Cao was a minor garrison commander before rising to prominence as a general when he suppressed a rebellion, which threatened the last years of Han rule.

Characters based on Cao are depicted as shrewd and unscrupulous villains in traditional Chinese operas and in one of China's best-loved historical novels, 'Romance Of The Three Kingdoms'. In the fictionalised account, Cao says: 'Better for me to wrong the world than for the world to wrong me.'

The common saying in Chinese 'speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives' is the equivalent of the English expression 'speak of the devil'. Cao was also a prolific poet.

From the tomb complex, the bones of three people and more than 250 relics have been unearthed in nearly one year of excavation work, Chinese archaeological officials were quoted as saying. The bones were identified as the remains of a man aged about 60 and two women, one in her 50s and the other between 20 and 25 years.


A stone with engraved-paintings that depict life in China nearly 2,000 years ago


Experts say the male was Cao, who died at age 65 in 220 AD, the elder woman his empress, and the younger woman her servant.


The report said among the relics found were stone paintings featuring the social life of Cao's time, stone tablets bearing inscriptions of sacrificial objects, and Cao's personal belongings.

Tablets carrying the inscription 'King Wu of Wei', Cao's posthumous title, were seized from people who had apparently stolen them from the tomb, the report said.

'The stone tablets bearing inscriptions of Cao's posthumous reference are the strongest evidence,' archaeologist Liu Qingzhu, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying.

'No one would or could have so many relics inscribed with Cao's posthumous reference in the tomb unless it was Cao's.'

Among the relics found were stone paintings featuring the social life of Cao's time, stone tablets, and Cao's personal belongings which had the inscription 'personal belongings frequently used by King Wu of Wei.'

Archaeologists believe it is likely there will be many burial sites in the surrounding area.

The tomb was discovered in December last year when workers at a nearby kiln were digging for mud to make bricks.

The discovery was not reported and local authorities knew of it only when they seized stone tablets carrying inscriptions from some tomb raiders.

Historians say Cao Cao's outstanding military and political talents enabled him to build the strongest and most prosperous state in northern China during the Three Kingdoms period in 208 to 280 A.D, when China had three separate rulers.

His rise to power came during the waning years of the Han Dynasty. He was also described as a talented poet.

His father was the adopted son of the chief eunuch of the imperial court. Cao was a minor garrison commander who rose to prominence as a general when he suppressed a rebellion, which threatened the last years of Han rule.


source: dailymail