Are you a victim of Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or passive smoke, involuntary smoking or passive smoking? I am.

• Death caused by heart disease of non-smokers who live with smokers - 35,000
• Death caused by lung cancer in non-smoking adults - 3,400
• Coughing, mucus, chest discomfort, and reduced lung function
• Lung infections 150,000 to 300,000, 7,500 to 15,000 children younger than 18 months of age are hospitalized
• Asthma attacks - 200,000 to 1 million children have asthma
• Middle ear infections in children - 750,000

And where are the problems of secondhand smoking? Working place, public places, and at home. I am only safe at home.

According to the National Cancer Institute there is no safe level of secondhand smoking and it can be equally harmful at any stage of its “development”.

But according to the advertising slogans of cigarettes hardly one can predict that they are under the threat of death, cancer, asthma...

Let’s have funny analyses of the cigarette slogans:

Pall Mall. Wherever particular people congregate.
Result: Particular people with less particular diseases

L&M. Just what the doctor ordered.
Result: Doctor and patient on the same way to death

Winston tastes good like a cigarette should
Result: Bad knowledge of language.
Good taste not always leads to bad death

You're never alone with a Strand
Result: You are always surrounded by doctors

If you smoke, please smoke Carlton
If not enjoy the life ;-)

References:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_2X_Secondhand_Smoke-Clean_Indoor_Air.asp
http://www.onlinecheapcigarettes.net/pages/37.php?action=news&name=Cigarettes_tobacco_slogans____&news=31

Before you go on another diet conquer emotional eating. For decades Americans, in their obsession to lose weight, have ignored emotional eating. They go on diets and use techniques such as calorie counting in hopes of losing weight. “Eating emotional feelings is the largest contributing cause to being overweight. The true way to success is to conquer emotional eating,” - says Richard Kuhns, author of The Scale Conspiracy E-book.

In his book he points out that decades of approaching the weight problem with diets has most overeaters hypnotized into believing that they really have an eating problem. Yes, while those who are overweight definitely would agree that they have an eating problem or a food problem, the truth is that overeating is only a symptom.

What do you often do when you feel: Frustrated? Bored? Happy? Excited? Upset? Depressed? Unhappy? Angry? Like rewarding yourself?

If your answer is "eat" in response to one or more of these questions, you are an emotional eater.

The book points out that the truth is that overeaters use food to dilute various emotions. You're bored and there's nothing to do so you eat. You got a lot accomplished so you eat to reward yourself. You're happy being with your friends so you eat to celebrate a good time. You're angry or upset about something so you eat to sooth yourself. You are stressed and under pressure so you eat to relieve the stress and pressure.

The book also covers other emotions such as confusion, depression... food is also used to dilute those emotions and feelings. It doesn't matter whether the emotions are good or bad feelings.

Yet, most of us have no idea how to take the emotions straight and leave food out of the process. But may be we have to try it?

Reference:

http://www.dstressdoc.com/BingeEatingEbook.htm

My unscientific research shows that women like chocolate more than men. Futher, on average, women eat more chocolate than men do. Do you know a woman who would eat chocolate every day for a whole year? Honestly, I can't recall of anyone around me to be such a masochistic chocolate eater but our dear Juliet. So, let's devote this post to her.

You see, scientists in the UK are seeking 150 women to eat chocolate every day for a year in the cause of medical research. The scientists doing this trial would like to find out whether a natural compound found in cocoa, the main ingredient of chocolate, could cut the risk of heart disease among women with diabetes.

Participants must be postmenopausal women under the age of 70 and will have their risk of heart disease tested on five occasions during the year to see whether change occurs.

Well, if the scientists prove their hypothesis, then based on the amount of the chocolate that Juliet eats daily, she will please you with her posts for the next 100 years!

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/04/28/chocolate.trial/
Photo source: Corbis

A 35 years Indonesian fisherman named Dede Koswara got a simple cut on his knee as a teenager and after that began growing tree-like welts all over his body. The welts soon became into mossy, branching growths. Dede was sacked from his job. His wife left him and he has been raising his two children. He was made into the village freak. To make ends meet he even joined a local "freak show", parading in front of a paying audience alongside victims of other peculiar diseases. Local doctors had no cure for his condition.

But now an American dermatology expert who flew out to Dede's home village south of the capital Jakarta claims to have identified his condition, and proposed a treatment that could transform his life. After testing samples of the lesions and Dede's blood, Dr Anthony Gaspari concluded that his affliction is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus, a fairly common infection that usually causes small warts to develop on sufferers.

His white blood suspected doctors that he may have the Aids virus, nut tests shoved that he did not and it became clear that his immune condition was something far rarer and more mysterious.

Dede Koswara’s problem is that he has a rare genetic fault that impedes his immune system, meaning his body is unable to contain the warts.

Dr Anthony Gaspari believes that Dede's condition can be largely cleared up by daily doses of a synthetic form of Vitamin A and several surgeries, which has been shown to stop the growth of warts. The doctor is also trying to get more American support for this special patient.

Good luck, Dede!

References:

http://www.healthbolt.net/2007/11/14/the-man-who-turned-into-a-tree/

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=142852&in_page_id=2

Scientists have been able to take control of flies' brains to make females behave just like males. The team was able to get female fruit flies to produce a courtship song - behaviour usually only seen in males.The study suggests that the wiring in male and female flies' brains is similar.

Gero Miesenboeck, from Oxford University, UK, who carried out the research with J. Dylan Clyne from Yale University, US, said: "It is often the case that males have to work very hard to convince females to mate with them. Male fruit flies will vibrate one of their wings to produce a barely audible song. And if the female likes that sound, she'll surrender to his advances.”

Previous research has revealed that a group of 2,000 brain cells are necessary for this courtship behaviour in the insects; however, both male and female fruit flies appear to possess most of these neurons.

"It looks like males and females have very similar neuronal equipment, yet they behave so differently - only the male sings, and only the female responds to the song by allowing a male to copulate with her.” - says Professor Miesenboeck.

To investigate, the team placed some flies in a "mini sound studio". The insects had been genetically modified so that a pulse of light would activate this group of courtship neurons. First of all, the researchers looked at male flies and found that the light would indeed spark a song. As the light pulsed through the chamber, video footage shows the female fruit fly lifting and vibrating one of her wings to produce a song.

Nevertheless, the researchers say the study reveals that male and female brains are extremely similar in flies - even the circuits thought to be dedicated to sexual behaviours such as courtship.

References:

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2008/080417_3.html

Scientists have found the faint genetic traces left by medieval crusaders in the Middle East.

The team says it found a particular DNA signature which recently appeared in Lebanon and is probably linked to the crusades. The finding comes from the Genographic Project, a major effort to track human migrations through DNA.

The researchers detected that some Christian men in Lebanon carry a DNA signature hailing from Western Europe. The scientists also found that Lebanese Muslim men were more likely than Christians to carry a particular genetic signature. But this one is linked to expansions from the Arabian Peninsula which brought Islam to the area in the 7th and 8th Centuries. But they emphasize that the differences between the two communities are minor, and that Christians and Muslim Arabs in Lebanon overwhelmingly share a common heritage.

The study focused on the Y, or male, chromosome, a package of genetic material carried only by men that is passed down from father to son more or less unchanged, just like a surname. But over many generations, the chromosome accumulates small changes, or copying errors, in its DNA sequence. These can be used to classify male chromosomes into different groups which, to some extent, reflect a person's geographical ancestry.

The team analyzed the Y chromosomes of 926 Lebanese males and found that patterns of male genetic variation in Lebanon fell more along religious lines than along geographical lines. A genetic signature on the male chromosome called WES1, which is usually only found in west European populations, was found among the Lebanese men included in the study.

References:

https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/lebanon.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Genographic_Project

:JUNKFOOD SCIENCE is asking whether I suffer from IAD or not. Well... And seems I am under the threat to be labeled with the newest mental disorder that is called: Internet Addiction Disorder.

According to the American Journal of Psychiatry excessive Internet and computer usage may cause to the mental disease, that definitely, does not sound too lovely. What components make scientists think that it is really disorder?

The American Journal of Psychiatry figures out the following:
1) excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives,
2) withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible,
3) tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use,
4) negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue

According to Director of Addiction Medicine at Beijing Military Region Central Hospital, Tao Ran, Ph.D., reported that 13.7% , about 10 million of Chinese adolescent Internet users meet IAD. In 2007 China restricted computer game use, and allows only 3 hours game use a day.

The research results and the threats are enhanced by facts - 10 cardiopulmonary-related deaths in Internet cafés, a game-related murder.

The highest rate is fixed in Korean. High school students spend an average 23 hours a week on gaming and another 1.2 million students are at risk for addiction.

China is no exception and the rate of Internet addiction might increase. According to Dr. Block the data is incomplete for the United States as unlike in Asia where Internet cafés are prevalent, games and virtual sex in the United States are accessed from home.
The risks the disorder causes are very important to identify as far as it is resistant to the treatment.

References:
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/03/blogging-disease.html
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/165/3/306
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2008032464948

According to the MarketResearchAnalyst.com information the top five ethanol producers in 2006 were the United States (4.855 billion US gallons per year (bgy), Brazil (4.491 bgy), China (1.017 bgy), India (0.502 bgy) and France (0.251 bgy). Brazil and the United States accounted for 90 percent of all ethanol production. Also, it should be noted that the United States, now producing at a rate of about 4.6 billion US gallons per year, is widely considered the world’s largest ethanol producer. Strong incentives, coupled with other industry development initiatives, are giving rise to fledgling ethanol industries in countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Malawi. Nevertheless, ethanol has yet to make a dent in world oil consumption.

Major findings:

* World’s ethanol production will pass 20 Bln in 2012.

* Ethanol production is expected to grow in 2008 - 2012 with CAGR about 5%.

* U.S. and Brazil are leading the world in production of ethanol.

* Emergence of new ethanol producers in Asia and Latin America.

* Cuba has the capacity to manufacture as much as 3.2 billion gallons of ethanol annually from its sugar crop.

High oil prices; National energy security considerations; Ethanol tax incentives; Improved technology - lower costs of ethanol production; Climate change concerns – those all are factors driving ethanol market.

MarketResearchAnalyst.com is a panel of experts with extensive experience in custom and syndicated market research as well as strategic consulting across numerous technology-driven markets. They provide ‘best in class’ resource of featured market research papers and insightful analysis briefs to their clients worldwide by partnering them with best market research publishers.

It is to admire that in Brazil ethanol has become economically competitive with gasoline, and the country's biofuels program could serve as a world model for producing sustainable energy. South America's largest country is the world's reigning ethanol king, producing 4.4 billion gallons (16.5 billion liters) of the biofuel from sugarcane each year, on average. Biofuel is widely considered a way to reduce greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use and thereby reduce human-caused global warming.

References:

http://www.marketresearchanalyst.com/2008/01/26/world-ethanol-production-forecast-2008-2012/

Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been. A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average.

"Winter is warming greater than any other season," - said Elizabeth Burakowski, who analyzed data from dozens of stations for her master's thesis in collaboration with Cameron Wake, a professor at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. Burakowski, who graduated from UNH in December, found that the biggest snowfall decreases were in December and February. Stations in New England showed the strongest decreases in winter snowfall, about 3 inches a decade. There were wide disparities in snowfall over the eight-state region, with average totals ranging from 13.5 inches at Cape May, N.J., to 137.6 inches at Oswego, N.Y. Some stations on the Great Lakes, where lake-effect storms are common, showed an increase.

The reduction in days with at least an inch of snow on the ground was the most pronounced at stations between 42 and 44 degrees latitude - a band that includes most of Massachusetts, a thick slice of upstate New York and southern sections of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Burakowski cites two likely causes for the reduction in so-called snow-covered days: higher maximum temperatures and "snow-albedo feedback," in which less snow cover to begin with allows more sunshine warmth to be absorbed by the darker ground, making it less conducive to snow cover.

The research has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal, though meteorologists who have studied long-term climate trends said the observations appear to be in line with other research.

Richard Heim of the National Climatic Data Center looked at trends in snowfall totals nationwide from 1948 to 2006 and found that patterns varied regionally and seasonally. For the Northeast in winter, he found totals mostly decreasing along coastal areas, with an increasing trend along the Great Lakes. Art DeGaetano, of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, said regions around New York State have recorded negative trends in snowfall since 1970.

DeGaetano cautioned that snowfall totals can vary a lot from year to year. Last month, for example, snow totals were well above average for December across much of the Northeast.

Ski center operators also have noticed an incremental increase in temperatures over the decades, said Parker Riehle, president of the trade association Ski Vermont, but he echoed DeGaetano's point that snow totals have gone up and down.

"We've seen some erratic winters in recent years," - Riehle said. "The mood swings of Mother Nature, perhaps, are deeper than they used to be." But while ski slopes can fire up snow-making guns to compensate for lack of flurries, snowmobilers and cross-country skiers have complained about later starts and fewer trails covered with snow.

Cross-country skiers never even get in the right frame of mind during some winters, said Mark Booska of the Hudson Valley Ski Club. "They look out their window and they're not thinking skiing," - he said.

The ingredient list on food labels where we find out what's really in the product is often hidden under a flap of packaging material in very tiny print, just barely visible without a magnifying glass. This is But in order to understand the healthfulness of the product. Some are straightforward, like carrots. Some may seem straightforward, but are actually a way of hiding harmful ingredients the manufacturer doesn't want you to know are in the product.

A good example of this is broth. It seems like a safe ingredient unless you know that broth usually contains MSG and that this is one way that food manufacturers hide MSG in their products. Here are seven cancer-causing ingredients we might find in food:

1) BHA, is a preservative that IARC classifies as a possible carcinogen; it possibly causes cancer. It may be used to preserve foods, like cereal, that come in a box, or it may be sprayed on the packaging instead. Either way it should be avoided.

2) Potassium bromate is in brominated flour, often found in bread. It's classified as a possible carcinogen.

3) Citrus Red No.2 or FD&C Citrus Red No.2 is also a possible carcinogen. Its use is limited to coloring orange skins. If you eat the orange peel or grate it to use in any foods that you make, you will be eating a chemical that possibly causes cancer. You can avoid this cancer-causing chemical if you buy organic oranges.

4) FD&C Colors are generally derived from coal tar. Coal tar is a human carcinogen. It is known to cause cancer. While the FD&C colors are not themselves known to cause cancer, do you really want to be eating additives in your food that are made from cancer-causing chemicals?

5) Smoked foods may contain nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), both of which can cause cancer.

High-caffeine soft drinks may do more than give people a jolt of energy. They may also boost heart rates and blood pressure levels, researchers say.

The results of a small study prompted the researchers to advise people who have high blood pressure or heart disease to avoid energy drinks because they could impact their blood pressure or change the effectiveness of their medications.

The drinks generally have high levels of caffeine and taurine, an amino acid found in protein-rich foods like meat and fish that can affect heart function and blood pressure, the researchers say. They were unable to test the effect of higher levels of alcohol consumption, although drunkenness probably negates any positive effects on the brain.

"We saw increases in both blood pressure and heart rate in healthy volunteers who were just sitting in a chair watching movies. They weren't exercising. They were in a resting state," - says James Kalus of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, who led the study.

The increases did not rise to dangerous levels in the group of 15 healthy volunteers, whose average age was 26, the researchers say. But the increases potentially could be significant in people with cardiovascular disease or those taking drugs to lower heart rate or blood pressure.

The American Beverage Association industry trade group defends the findings.

"While the amount of caffeine in energy drinks or coffee may cause a slight and temporary increase in blood pressure, it would have no greater effect than walking up a flight of steps," it says in response to the study.

"So singling out energy drinks in a unique manner, particularly when compared to a more commonly consumed caffeinated beverage like coffee, does not provide a full and proper context for consumers."

Kalus declined to say which brand of energy drink was used in the study. He says the drinks generally contain similar ingredients.

"By giving the brand, it would dilute the message that all of these drinks need to be looked at," - he says.

One of the most intriguing processes in medicine is the placebo effect: the healing power of a sham therapy, when it's offered to patients with the suggestion that it will help. Neuroscientists have even observed where and how the placebo effect may work in the brain. In one recent study by University of Michigan researchers, participants who were told they would receive painkillers showed increased production of endorphins — the brain's natural pain reliever — even though they got no analgesic at all. It makes sense. Most people can attest that the mere expectation of relief can somehow prompt the body to respond. What most people don't know, however, is that doctors occasionally prescribe placebos to their patients in regular practice.

A student-and-professor team at the University of Chicago surveyed 466 faculty physicians at Chicago-area medical schools. Almost half of the 231 respondents — 45% — said they had prescribed placebos in regular clinical practice. Among the reasons the doctors gave: to calm a patient down, to respond to demands for medication that the doctor felt was unnecessary, or simply to do something after all other clinical treatment options had failed. Most prescribing doctors felt they were doing the right thing. Of all the physicians surveyed — whether or not they had prescribed placebos — 96% believed that dummy pills could have real therapeutic effects. If placebos work by manipulating a patient's expectations, then prescribing them suggests that doctors are deliberately deceiving their patients.

Doctors seem aware of this quandary. Twelve percent of survey participants said they thought placebos should be banned completely from regular clinical practice. Among the doctors who prescribed them, one in five said they outright lied to patients by claiming a placebo was medication. The American Medical Association (AMA), the largest association of U.S. doctors and medical students, tells its members that "[p]hysicians may use placebos for diagnosis or treatment only if the patient is informed of and agrees to its use."

But wouldn't disclosure drain the power from a placebo? Not necessarily, according to the AMA. Once physicians have been given general permission to use placebos, the AMA's guidelines say, they don't need identify to their patients which treatments are true medical interventions and which are not: "In this way the physician respects the patient's autonomy and fosters a trusting relationship, while the patient still may benefit from the placebo effect."

AMA also reveals a fundamental change in the way modern scientists view the relationship between mind and body. In 1979, a similar survey of American doctors found that 60% of respondents believed that using placebos was a good way to deduce whether a patient had a "real" problem or was just faking it. In the current study, 80% of doctors disagreed with that statement. "That's a significant shift in doctors' thinking in a relatively short time," - says lead author Rachel Sherman, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Chicago. Today, few doctors balk when patients say they have pain but show nothing abnormal in scans. "Physicians in this survey believe the mind and the body are inherently interconnected, and that belief can challenge our approach to the healing process in new, innovative ways," - she says.

The study shows that infected rats of Toxoplasma Gondii are more attracted by cats rather than repelled. Rats’, mice’s that suffer from the parasitic protozoa are down to the smell of cat urine that makes the rodents fear the feline. The overlap causes vain “heroism” from the rodents’ side. At that time rats do not seem sick.

According to Ajai Vyas of Stanford University, who led the new study said "brain circuits for many behaviors overlap with the brain circuits responsible for fear.”

The study reveals that rats suffering from the affliction have specific brain damage that affects only their fear of cat urine but their instinctive fear of other dangers, their ability to learn to be afraid or their general anxiety remain without any change.

The human being also can be infected by Toxoplasma. Study says that around 15 to 20 per cent of Americans are infected with the parasite, according to a study by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Infection (CDC).

Infection has a mind-altering effect in people –sufferers have an increased tendency to be involved in car accidents that is caused by slow reaction times, schizophrenia to the disease.

The Earth that moves round the Sun, changing position once in several hours by replacing day by night and night by day, changes itself, too. And the disease of the Earth is called “Global Warming.” What are the changes the Earth underwent and what are the threats the inhabitants might face are analyzed in the data obtained by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

• Record-low Arctic sea ice extent, which led to first recorded opening of the Canadian Northwest Passage;
• The relatively small Antarctic Ozone Hole;
• Development of La Niña in the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific;
• Devastating floods, drought and storms in many places around the world.

Data shows that the winter and spring is ranked 4°C higher than the long-term monthly averages for January and April. In contrast to Bulgaria, the South of the United States, in August, where the highest temperature was fixed, Australia recorded its coldest ever June with the mean temperature dropping to 1.5°C below normal. South America experienced an unusually cold winter, bringing winds, blizzards and rare snowfall to various provinces with temperatures falling to -22°C/-7.6°F in Argentina and -18°C/-0.4°F in Chile in early July.

The joint press release also indicates the results and consequences about sea level. It continued to rise at rates substantially above the average for the 20th century of about 1.7 mm per year. global averaged sea level by 2007 is about 20 cm higher than the 1870 estimate. Modern satellite measurements show that since 1993 global averaged sea level has been rising at about 3 mm per year.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 4th Assessment (Synthesis) Report, 2007, “warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.”

Two posts were already covered on global warming at Blogvasion:
Green Ethernet Technology To Solve Global Problems,
Global Warming Effects and Ways of Informing Society.

The last one got two comments, that show the importance and actuality of the issue on the global arena of problems. The representative of Right Democrat: A Mainstream Populist Voice indicated in the comment that “the best way to slow global warming would be to expand nuclear power,” and asked me to visit the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsiE3Ldc8hM . I think that Video on You Tube “Dr. Patrick Moore on Nuclear Energy and Low CO2 Emissions” will be informative and productive for the Blogvasion readers, too.

A new species of spitting cobra - now the largest in the world has been named by researchers in Kenya and the United Kingdom.

The newly anointed Ashe's spitting cobra, or large brown spitting cobra (Naja ashei), can reach lengths of more than 9 feet (274 centimeters) and is believed to deliver more venom with a single bite than any other cobra on the planet.

The aggressive reptile was previously identified as a brown-colored variant of the black-necked spitting cobra, though researchers had long suspected that it merited its own species. Now blood and tissue analysis have confirmed this theory to be true.

The snake dwells in the dry lowlands of north and east Kenya, as well as in Uganda and Ethiopia. It is named after James "Jimmy" Ashe, a prominent herpetologist who founded the Bio-Ken snake farm and research center in Watamu, Kenya, where the snake is commonly found. Bio-Ken milks snakes for their venom and sends it to labs to develop antivenin.

The findings were first published earlier this year in the animal taxonomy magazine Zootaxa by researchers at the University of Wales and the Biodiversity Foundation for Africa in Buluwayo, Zimbabwe.

But they gained wider notice on Friday when the researchers announced the new species through the nonprofit conservation group WildlifeDirect.

Spitting cobras eat eggs, carrion, snakes, lizards, and birds. Their venom has two uses: to kill prey and for defense. The reptiles can spray venom several yards and usually aim for the attacker's eyes, giving the snake the best chance for escape.

A Healthy Appetite

Snake experts had long believed that the brown spitting cobra was fundamentally different from the black-necked spitting cobra. Other variants of the black-necked spitting cobra fought harder when handled and took longer to settle down in captivity. Once in their cages, they were picky eaters. But the Ashe's cobra was less resistant to handling, generally less alert, and less picky. And they were bigger. Ashe's cobras are not the only kinds of snakes that get lumped together.

Researchers suspect that many different species of snake, such as the highly venomous puff adders, have been grouped into species that need greater differentiation.

Ineffective Antivenin

The greatest significance of the new finding may be for residents along Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, who are at risk of being bitten by the new cobra. Its venom is similar to the species it was previously grouped with, but it can deliver about twice the amount of venom with a single bite.

That means that doctors previously treating bites from what turned out to be Ashe's cobras were only administering half the necessary dose of antivenin to victims. New developments in antivenin may be made from studying the chemical makeup of the new cobra's venom, researchers add.

"The fact that this is a separate species raises a question of the efficacy of existing antivenins," said David Warrell, a herpetologist at the University of Oxford, who was not among the co-authors.

"It hasn't been studied at all, so that's a complete mystery."

Rhesus macaque monkeys performed nearly as well as college students at quick mental addition, researchers reported on Monday, adding to the evidence that non-verbal math skills are not unique to humans.

The study from Duke University follows findings by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game.

Prior studies have found that non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects.

Her study pitted Boxer and Feinstein — two female rhesus macaques named after U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California — against 14 Duke University students. "We had them do math on the fly," – says Cantlon said.

The task was to perform mental addition on two sets of dots that were briefly flashed on a computer screen. The teams were asked to pick the correct answer from two choices on a different screen. The humans were not allowed to count or verbalize as they worked, and they were told to answer as quickly as possible. The monkeys and the humans all typically answered within 1 second. The college students answered correctly 94 percent of the time, while the monkeys were right 76 percent of the time. Both the monkeys' and the students' performance worsened when the two choice boxes were close in number, following a similar downward-sloping curve.

"If the correct sum was 11 and the box with the incorrect number held 12 dots, both monkeys and the college students took longer to answer and had more errors," Cantlon explained in a Duke news release. "We call this the ratio effect. What's remarkable is that both species suffered from the ratio effect at virtually the same rate."

Cantlon says that the study was not designed to show up Duke University students. "I think of this more as using non-human primates as a tool for discovering where the sophisticated human mind comes from," she said.

The researchers said the findings shed light on the shared mathematical abilities in humans and non-human primates and shows the importance of language — which allows for counting and more advanced calculations — in the evolution of math in humans.

"I don't think language is the only thing that differentiates humans from non-human primates, but in terms of math tasks, it is probably the big one," she said.
As for the teams, both were paid. Boxer and Feinstein got their favorite reward: a sip of Kool-Aid soft drink. As for the students, they got $10 each — enough for a beer or two.

Human evolution has been moving at breakneck speed in the past several thousand years, far from plodding along as some scientists had thought, researchers say. In fact, people today are genetically more different from people living 5000 years ago than those humans were different from the Neanderthals who vanished 30,000 years ago. Human evolution is the biological and cultural development and change of our hominin ancestors to modern humans.

The genetic changes have related to numerous different human characteristics, the researchers say in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Two genes involved in determining the size of the human brain have undergone substantial evolution in the last 60,000 years, researchers say, suggesting that the brain is still undergoing rapid evolution.

The scientists make their claim based on the recent evolutionary history of two genes microcephalin and abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated, which appear to regulate brain size.

Over thousands of years, both genes seem to be generating new and improved versions of themselves - beneficial mutations that are spreading rapidly among the human population to reshape and strengthen brain capacity.

Many of the recent genetic changes reflect differences in the human diet brought on by agriculture, as well as resistance to epidemic diseases that became mass killers following the growth of human civilizations, the researchers say. For example, Africans have new genes providing resistance to malaria. In Europeans, there is a gene that makes them better able to digest milk as adults. In Asians, there is a gene that makes ear wax drier.

“The changes have been driven by the colossal growth in the human population, from a few million to 6.5 billion in the past 10,000 years, with people moving into new environments to which they needed to adapt. The central finding is that human evolution is happening very fast, faster than any of us thought,” - says Professor Henry Harpending, a University of Utah Anthropologist.

Most of the acceleration is in the last 10,000 years; basically corresponding to population growth after agriculture is invented.

Gene mutations

The researchers looked for the appearance of favorable gene mutations over the past 80,000 years of human history by analyzing voluminous DNA information on 270 people from different populations worldwide.

Data from this International HapMap Project, short for haplotype mapping, offered essentially a catalogue of genetic differences and similarities in people alive today. Looking at such data, scientists can ascertain how recently a given genetic change appeared in the genome and then can plot the pace of such change into the distant past. Beneficial genetic changes have appeared at a rate roughly 100 times higher in the past 5000 years than at any previous period of human evolution, the researchers determined. They add that about 7% of human genes are undergoing rapid, relatively recent evolution. Even with these changes, however, human DNA remains more than 99% identical, the researchers note.

Harpending says: “the genetic evidence shows that people worldwide have been getting less similar rather than more similar due to the relatively recent genetic changes.”

Genes have evolved relatively quickly in Africa, Asia and Europe but almost all of the changes have been unique to their corner of the world.

This is the case, because since humans dispersed from Africa to other parts of the world about 40,000 years ago, there has not been much flow of genes between the regions.

Brown, blue and green eyes are the "standard" eye colors, but we've all seen people with even different eye colors. There's also gray, "hazel", a mixed brown/green/blue, golden brown or amber, even violet. Many children are born with non-descript gray eyes and some become blue, some brown. How much do we really know about eye color?

Eye color is determined primarily by the concentration and distribution of melanin pigment on the iris fibers. The iris is located inside the eye, between the cornea and the internal crystalline lens. The hole in the middle is called the pupil and it changes size to regulate the amount of light entering the eye. If the iris contains pigment on both the front and back surface, the incident light that reflects off the iris is brown. Sometimes there is little or no pigment on the front surface.

The light interacts with the gray iris fibers and the iris stromal cells and reflects as blue. The size and spacing of the fibers and stromal cells determines the "blueness" or "greenness" of the reflected light.

People from different countries have different eye color, according to their origin:

Brown - Inhabitants indigenous to Africa, Asia and the Americas generally have brown eyes. Brown eyes are equally found in Europe and Oceania, though within some European populations they are not predominant to the same extent.

Hazel - Hazel is mostly found in some regions of the Americas and Europe. Very rarely, hazel eyes can be found in populations of The Middle East, and of people with African or Asian descent. In North America, "hazel" is often used to describe eyes that appear to change color, ranging from light brown to green and even gray, depending on current lighting in the environment.

Green - Green eyes are the product of moderate amounts of melanin. They are most often found among people of North and Eastern European descent, and to a slightly lesser extent, in Southern Europe, and parts of Central and South Asia.

Blue - Blue eyes are relatively common throughout Europe and other areas with populations of European descent, such as the Americas and Oceania. While they are most common among people of Finno-Ugric descent, there are also rare populations in Central and South Asia that have fairly uncommon natural occurrences of blue eyes. Ireland is the country with the highest proportion of blue-eyed people. Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia also have high proportions of blue-eyed people; it is also very common in other countries in Northwestern Europe, including the Netherlands, Germany and Britain.

There's a rare genetic condition called albinism in which those individuals do not have pigment on the back of the iris and their iris color appears pink. Sometimes, the pigment from the back surface “rolls” up onto the front surface right at the pupil border. This results in a brown ring around the pupil, which can look quite unusual in an otherwise “blue” eye. Although the majority of irises have similar pigment density on the back surface, some people have less and that allows for some reflection from the retina in the back of the eye. The retina reflects red from the network of blood vessels contained within its structure. This is also what causes the red reflex in the iris pupil seen in photographs taken with a flash. The red color interacts with the blues and browns to create aqua and violet iris colors.

However people often use contact-lenses to change their usual eye color. Many people refer to cosmetic contact lenses as theatrical lenses, because they are often used to add to special effects and are used only a short time by the wearer for a theater or movie production. Cosmetic contact lenses can also be worn to give a Halloween costume an extra spooky effect, and to make it stand out from the crowd. Another word for these types of lenses is non-corrective lenses. They can look like cat's eyes, aliens, animal print, solid colors, all white, all black, or even camouflage. No matter what, cosmetic contact lenses can really make a huge impact on one's appearance.

Some famous examples of people wearing cosmetic contact lenses are singer Marilyn Manson and several instances in Star Wars Episode I when Darth Maul would turn evil. These types of lenses can make anyone look scarier or more evil. There are even cosmetic contact lenses out now that can resemble exact replicas of certain anime character's eyes. They are all the rage in Japan and are becoming more and more popular in the United States as well.

Most people wear contact lenses to help them see more clearly and avoid having to wear eye glasses. Some people buy cosmetic contact lenses. These specially made lenses can come in a huge assortment of colors, patterns, and designs. They are specifically made for looks only, which is why they have earned the title of cosmetic contact lenses.

An interesting question about changes in adult eye color is often asked. As we have discussed previously, eye color is about reflection of ambient light from the structure of the iris. People with lightly colored irises note that their eye color changes according to the colors they wear. No mystery there, but the resultant apparent color of the eye is a combination of the color reflected from one's clothing (or even eye make up) and is not always what you might expect!

Some people have noted that when they are ill or under stress that their eye color becomes darker or lighter. Clearly there has been a change in the distribution and/or density of melanin or lipofuscin on the iris. How this actually occurs is not fully understood, but we are beginning to have some clues as to the processes. A recent medication used to treat glaucoma, latanoprost, causes such a color change. We understand, at least partially, the mechanism of action of the drug, a prostaglandin analog, which means it mimics this hormone, which is normally present in the body. It would appear, then that hormones may have effect iris pigmentation and this might explain the change in eye color sometimes seen in adults. It should be mentioned that there are certain specific systemic and eye diseases that can cause a change in iris color and any marked change of short period of time requires prompt medical attention.

People even celebrate Different Colored Eyes Day on 12th of July: it has two reasons to celebrate. First of all, it celebrates diversity of eye color. Wouldn't the world be boring, if everyone had the same color of eyes?

Secondly, it recognizes an eye condition called Heterochromia. One eye may be brown, while the other is blue. Famous people who have Heterochromia include David Bowie, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Walken.

Your eyes are an important part of your appearance. They are also important in communications. When you look into your lover's eyes, you need to like what you see. Making "eye contact" just wouldn't be the same without different colored eye. Isn't it great that we have a variety of eye colors to set us apart from one another?

Body language is one of the main sources of information one can get main messages from. The way we smile, cry, dress, eat, use gestures carry the information some people are able to read out. Different movement give different connotations


Brisk, erect walk emphasizes confidence
Arms crossed – defensiveness
Walking with hands in pockets- dejection
Touching, rubbing nose-rejection, doubt, lying
Hand to cheek-evaluation, thinking
Open palm-innocence, sincerity

These are few examples of body language but there are some hints to one’s personality that might be noticeable while sleeping.

Dr Chris Idzikowski who has been involved in sleep research and medicine for more than 20 years, recently studied sleep positions and suggested a correlation between six common sleeping positions and the personality traits of the sleepers.

The positions are:

Fetal Position (41%) Curled up on your side, holding the pillow. The most popular sleeping position, this one was favored by 51% of the women in the study. The personality of these sleepers tends to be shy and sensitive, though they may present a tough exterior to the world.

Soldier Position (8%) Flat on your back with arms at your sides. Indicates a quiet and reserved personality who sets high standards.

Starfish Position (5%) Lying on your back with arms and legs outstretched. Indicates a good listener who makes friends easily, but prefers not to be the center of attention.

Freefall Position (7%) Flat on your stomach with arms at the head or ears. Indicates a brash and gregarious exterior who may inwardly be nervous and sensitive to criticism.

Log Position (15%) On your side with legs outstretched and arms at your sides. Indicates a social, easygoing personality.

Yearner Position (13%) Similar to the log, but with arms outstretched. Said to indicate a suspicious and cynical personality.

The sleeping positions show not only personality and characteristics of individuals but at the same time it is worth mentioning that positions have different health effects. According to Dr Chris Idzikowski the freefall position seems good for digestion, while the starfish and soldier positions were more likely to lead to snoring and a bad night's sleep. The research shows that sleeping positions vary and 5% sleep in different positions every night.

People spend third of their lives sleeping. But not everybody wasted third of their lives in waste of time as Thomas Edison claimed. Napoleon, Florence Nightingale and Margaret Thatcher sleep four hours a night.

Well, if we take into consideration the fame, success and role of these people in the world history then hardly one can make him/herself sleep third of life.