Month: March 2018

Packing on pounds seems to dull people’s sense of taste, and puzzled researchers turned to mice to figure out why: Obesity, they found, can rob the tongue of taste buds. If Tuesday’s findings pan out, “this could be a whole new kind of target in treating obesity,” said Cornell University food scientist Robin Dando, whose lab led the research. “People don’t really look at the taste bud, but it’s so fundamental.” Diet, exercise and genetics are among many factors that play a role in obesity. But taste preferences influence dietary choices, and some earlier studies have suggested that obese people often taste flavors with less intensity than lean people. The theory, still unproven, is that people might make up for weakened taste by turning to higher-calorie foods or generally eating more. Dando’s team took a closer look at taste buds, those clusters of cells on the tongue that help perceive the five tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. They turned to lab mice, feeding them a high-fat diet that caused rapid weight gain — and then counting the taste buds in a spot on the tongue that’s normally packed with them. The obese mice wound up with 25 percent fewer taste buds than lean mice that were fed a normal diet, the researchers reported in the journal PLOS Biology. Taste buds constantly regenerate as the 50 to 100 cells inside them mature, die off and are replaced by new ones. Taste bud cells have an average lifespan of about …

Parched cities should do more to get wetter and cooler, according to a report published on Tuesday by Arup, a design and engineering consultancy. Just over a third of the world’s land surface is classified as arid, meaning it has a natural lack of fresh water or rain. But this area is set to increase, the report said, as climate change causes more variable weather, such as droughts and extreme heat, along with greater migration to cities. As the global population expands and the planet  warms, demand for water is rising, while the quality and reliability of our water supply is declining, the 2018 edition of the U.N.World Water Development Report warned on Monday. “Most [cities] are still being planned and designed based on a global city-making paradigm from the 1950s. Cities need to adapt strategies,” said Hrvoje Cindric, Middle East urbanism leader at Arup, in a statement. Rather than relying on air-conditioning and traditional urban planning methods, cities should take innovative steps to cool down, such as changing building orientations or planting more greenery, it said. Here are five ways for dry, arid cities to cool down: Green roofs and walls: This involves selecting plants that maximize shade and shelter, reduce noise and glare, and limit dust and air pollution. The plants can be woven into roof or wall designs in arid climates. The Brewbooks Cactus Garden Roof in Los Angeles is a good example, the report found. Fog and dew harvesting: New technology allows nets to catch and …

Venezuela’s health system is sinking into further disarray, a survey led by the opposition-dominated Congress showed on Monday, with most hospitals plagued by water outages, unable to feed patients and lacking even basic devices like catheters. In the midst of a crushing economic crisis that has caused medicine shortages and emigration of doctors, President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government has stopped issuing weekly bulletins on health. To fill the gap, Venezuela’s Congress and a health group have for five years asked doctors and hospital workers to report the situation in their institutions. Those in government-run hospitals have usually been ordered to keep quiet, and so communicate surreptitiously with the pollsters. “The government has decided not to inform, to hide the truth. The truth is that every day Venezuelans are dying due to lack of supplies and medicines,” said opposition lawmaker and oncologist Jose Manuel Olivares as he presented the findings on Monday. All indicators worsened in 2018 and the private sector is increasingly hit, the survey said. Some 94 percent of x-ray units are out of service or only partially functional. Around 79 percent of hospitals have poor or in existent water service. Only 7 percent of emergency services are fully operative. “Behind each number you see here, there is a story. There is a father, a mother, a son … there is a Venezuelan suffering,” said Olivares. “We hope the government reflects on this. Political differences can never supersede the problems of the people.” The Information Ministry did not respond …

Our first known interstellar visitor likely came from a two-star system.   That’s the latest from astronomers who were amazed by the mysterious cigar-shaped object, detected as it passed through our inner solar system last fall.   The University of Toronto’s Alan Jackson reported Monday that the asteroid — the first confirmed object in our solar system originating elsewhere — is probably from a binary star system. That’s where two stars orbit a common center. According to Jackson and his team, the asteroid was likely ejected from its system as planets formed.   “It has been wandering interstellar space for a long time since,” the scientists wrote in the Royal Astronomical Society’s journal, Monthly Notices. Discovered in October by a telescope in Hawaii millions of miles away, the asteroid is called Oumuamua, Hawaiian for messenger from afar arriving first, or scout. The red-tinged rock is estimated to be possibly 1,300 feet (400 meters) long and zooming away from the Earth and sun at more than 16 miles (26 kilometers) per second.   Last month, a science team led by Wesley Fraser of Queen’s University Belfast reported that Oumuamua is actually tumbling through space, likely the result of a collision with another asteroid or other object that kicked it out of its home solar system. He expects it to continue tumbling for billions of more years.   Scientists originally thought it might be an icy comet, but now agree it is an asteroid.   “The same way we use comets to …

Worried about catching a cold or the flu on an airplane? Get a window seat, and don’t leave it until the flight is over. That’s what some experts have been saying for years, and it’s perhaps the best advice coming out of a new attempt to determine the risks of catching germs on an airplane. It turns out there’s been little research on the risks of catching a cold or flu during air travel. Some experts believed that sitting in a window seat would keep a passenger away from infectious people who may be on the aisle or moving around. The new study, published Monday, came to the same conclusion. For somebody who doesn’t want to get sick, “get in that window seat and don’t move,” the study’s lead researcher, Vicki Stover Hertzberg of Emory University in Atlanta. The study was ambitious: Squads of researchers jetted around the U.S. to test cabin surfaces and air for viruses and to observe how people came into contact with each other. But it also had shortcomings. In a total of 10 flights, they observed only one person coughing. And though the experiment was done during a flu season five years ago, they didn’t find even one of 18 cold and flu viruses they tested for. It’s possible that the researchers were unlucky, in that they were on planes that happened to not have sick people on them, Hertzberg said.  The new study was initiated and funded by Boeing Co. The Chicago-based jet manufacturer …

A new report by the World Bank shows that the effects of climate change could force 140 million people to move within their countries by 2050. The report looked at three developing regions of the world — sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America — and found that unless urgent action is taken, the regions will likely have to deal with tens of millions of so-called climate migrants. Climate migrants are people who are forced to move within their country because of water scarcity, crop failure, rising sea levels and storm surges due to climate change.  The report shows that with strong global efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and good development planning in each country, the number of climate migrants could be reduced dramatically — from a projected 140 million people to 40 million people by 2050. “We have a small window now, before the effects of climate change deepen, to prepare the ground for this new reality,” World Bank chief executive officer Kristalina Georgieva said about the new research. She said it is “important to help people make good decisions about whether to stay where they are or move to new locations where they are less vulnerable.” The report noted that the effects of climate change will often force people to move from rural areas suffering from droughts or crop failures to cities where there are different opportunities. However, it noted that cities must take the time to plan for the possibility for greater influxes of people. “Without the right planning and support, …

India is the most vulnerable country to climate change, followed by Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh, a ranking by HSBC showed on Monday. The bank assessed 67 developed, emerging and frontier markets on vulnerability to the physical impacts of climate change, sensitivity to extreme weather events, exposure to energy transition risks and ability to respond to climate change. The 67 nations represent almost a third of the world’s nation states, 80 percent of the global population and 94 percent of global gross domestic product. HSBC averaged the scores in each area for the countries in order to reach the overall ranking. Some countries were highly vulnerable in some areas but less so in others. Of the four nations assessed by HSBC to be most vulnerable, India has said climate change could cut agricultural incomes, particularly unirrigated areas that would be hit hardest by rising temperatures and declines in rainfall. Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines are susceptible to extreme weather events, such as storms and flooding. Pakistan was ranked by HSBC among nations least well-equipped to respond to climate risks. South and southeast Asian countries accounted for half of the 10 most vulnerable countries. Oman, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Mexico, Kenya and South Africa are also in this group. The five countries least vulnerable to climate change risk are Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and New Zealand. In its last ranking in 2016, HSBC only assessed G20 countries for vulnerability to climate risk. …

Population growth, changing consumption patterns and development are taking their toll on the world’s water supplies, and governments need to rely more on ‘green’ water management to ensure a healthy planet and meet the needs of the fast-growing global population.  That’s one of the messages in a new study by the U.N.’s cultural and scientific organization, UNESCO, presented today at a world water conference in Brazil. Water demand is increasing by about 1 percent a year, even as climate change, pollution and erosion threaten its quality and availability. But until now, most countries have relied on traditional, man-made water management systems such as reservoirs, irrigation canals and water treatment plants. The study considers the many benefits of natural water “infrastructure” — like wetlands, urban gardens and sustainable farming practices — and finds that very little investment has gone into these greener water management options.  Stefan Uhlenbrook, coordinator of UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Program, which authored the study, notes, “Green solutions can meet several water management solutions at the same time — improving water management, while also reducing floods or droughts. Improving access to water.” He also points to multiple benefits outside the water sector, to “help store carbon, create jobs — particularly in rural environments. They can also help increase biodiversity, which is also very essential.” Striking a balance The goal, UNESCO says, is not to scrap traditional water management options like dikes, but instead to strike the right balance between man-made systems and those relying more on Mother Nature.  …

Two vaccination workers were killed and two were seriously wounded, officials said  Militants ambushed a polio vaccination team in a remote tribal region in Pakistan, killing two of the medical workers and seriously wounding another two, officials said Sunday. The gunmen also attacked tribal police and the paramilitary Frontier Corps when they responded to the attack late Saturday, killing one paramilitary and wounding another. Polio workers have come under attack on several occasions since it was revealed that the CIA used a polio vaccination campaign as a ruse to get information on Osama bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. commandos in Pakistan in 2011.Those revelations fed into claims by Islamic extremists that the vaccinations are part of a Western plot against Muslims. Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where polio is still endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.   An official in Pakistan’s restive Mohmand Agency, Younus Khan, said two workers from the seven-member polio vaccination team went missing after the attack but later returned unharmed. He says security forces are still searching for the attackers.   Jamaatul Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed the attack.   Khan said the bodies of the polio workers were handed over to relatives and their funeral will take place later in the day.   Provincial Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra condemned the attack, calling the polio workers heroes. …

Visiting the doctor to get your blood pressure checked might be stressful and time consuming, but what if you could get a check-up at your regular barbershop instead? That’s the idea behind a recent study in Los Angeles, where pharmacists are working with 52 barbershops to try to help African-American men, who have higher rates of high blood pressure than other ethnic groups. Faiza Elmasry has the story, narrated by Faith Lapidus. …

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports a major breakthrough in efforts to contain South Africa’s longest and largest recorded listeria outbreak. The current outbreak of listeriosis in South Africa began more than one year ago in January 2017. As of March 12, the WHO has recorded 978 lab-confirmed cases of this foodborne disease, including 183 deaths. WHO food safety expert Peter Ben Embarek says it is very difficult to investigate outbreaks of listeriosis because the disease has a very long incubation period. He says it can take several weeks before people show any symptoms, get sick and are hospitalized. “Two weeks ago, food was identified as the primary source of this large outbreak. It is a meat, ready-to-eat meat product, a type of sausage very commonly consumed in South Africa and in the region – Polony product. Since then, recall of the incriminated product has been initiated both in South Africa, but also in 15 countries that have imported this product from South Africa,” he said. Embarek said the WHO is facilitating the exchange of information between South Africa and countries who have imported this contaminated product. He says it is important to recall the sausage and remove it from the shelves to prevent further cases from occurring.   Now that the source of this foodborne disease has been identified, he told VOA he expects the number of new cases to quickly drop. “With regard to the case fatality rate in this outbreak, among the cases where they have been …

A prehistoric tooth from one of the largest sharks ever known has gone missing from a secret location in a remote World Heritage area in Western Australia.  Police are investigating the theft of the rare Megalodon tooth discovered in the Cape Range National Park. The location of the rare tooth was thought to have been highly secret.  The well-preserved fossil was stolen from the spot where it was discovered just as wildlife rangers were looking to protect it from theft with a bulletproof glass cover or a wire cage. The disappearance of the Megalodon tooth, which could be worth thousands of dollars to collectors, is now being investigated by police in Western Australia.  Investigators believe the fossil could have been taken by an amateur collector or by someone who wants to sell it on the black market.   It is just one of a small number of Megalodon specimens in the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area of Western Australia. Arvid Hogstrom from Parks and Wildlife in Western Australia says the tooth’s whereabouts remain a mystery. “The sharks have known to be extinct for 1.6 million years, so it [is] at least that old.  It has been floating around on the seafloor for quite some time and been pushed up in the ranges and sitting there undisturbed for however long, and someone has come along with a bit of a chisel and taken it away. We are not sure where it has gone,” said Hogstrom. The ancient shark grew to more …

Taking a data-driven approach to disaster preparedness can help cities at risk bounce back after earthquakes. Faith Lapidus explains. …