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Sense Of Smell ‘Can Be Improved Through Training’

November 21, 2011 by ·

The sense of smell can be improved through training, a study on rats suggests.

The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, also suggests if we do not use our sense of smell, we begin to lose it.

The New York University Langone Medical Center team says their work also raises hopes of reversing loss of smell caused by ageing or disease.

But a UK expert thought that was unlikely.

Impairment in the sense of smell is associated with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and even normal ageing. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Environment, Health · Tagged With:

Vitamin D Deficiency: A Disease of Modern Civilization

July 10, 2011 by ·

Increased urbanization and migration have changed man’s relationship to the sun. From the era of abundant unfiltered sunlight, when outdoor ways of life abounded , we have evolved to working from dawn to dusk in air conditioned offices , only to emerge and plunge into indoor gyms. During the rare sunshine exposures, either the maze of smoggy clouds or sunscreens and protective clothing, starve the body of supply.

Vitamin D has come a long way. From being merely the bone-associated , “sunshine” vitamin. Modern medicine has rechristened it a metabolic modulator almost akin to a hormone.

Since its discovery and association with rickets (pot-bellied kids with wiry limbs who were D deprived), it is common knowledge that sunlight is the most important factor responsible for the production of Vit amin D. The rays of the sun strike the skin and stimulate the formulation of cholecalciferol, the precursor molecule. The type of sunlight is important — best in the early morning or late afternoon and not in the blazing sun. [Read more...]

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Small-Scale Farmers Increasingly At Risk From ‘Global Land Grabbing’

April 16, 2011 by ·

While investment is critical for agriculture, the rush into long-term land leases is a dramatic step with many risks and substantial social and environmental costs

New research on the global rush for agricultural land shows small-scale farmers increasingly at risk as land deals ignore local tenure rights.

Fresh evidence from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union was presented last week at an international conference on “global land grabbing” convened by the Land Deal Politics Initiative and hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium at the Institute of Development Studies, where researchers revealed documentation of land deals amounting to over 80m hectares – almost twice what was previously estimated. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ecology, Environment · Tagged With:

Humans Not Always To Blame For Rarity

April 15, 2011 by ·

New research shows people may not be responsible for the rarity of a native tree species – a finding that could change how conservation is approached.

Institute of Fundamental Sciences research fellow Dr Lara Shepherd worked with Leon Perrie, a botany curator at Te Papa, on a study of the threatened fierce lancewood (Pseudopanax ferox).

This small tree, known as horoeka by Maori, is found from Northland to Southland but in many locations it is very uncommon – only three plants are known between Wellington and Auckland. [Read more...]

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Warming Antarctica Linked to Rising Pacific Temperatures

April 14, 2011 by ·

Rising temperatures in the Pacific may be directly contributing to ongoing warming in Antarctica, a new study finds.

Heat rising from warm Pacific waters near the equator causes waves of warmth in the atmosphere — a phenomenon called the Rossby wave train, researchers report today (April 10) in the journal Nature Geoscience. The wave train brings warmer temperatures to West Antarctica during the winter and spring.

The Antarctic Peninsula has been warming rapidly for at least a half-century, and continental West Antarctica has been getting steadily hotter for 30 years or more. The findings also could have implications for understanding the causes behind the thinning of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which contains about 10 percent of all the ice in Antarctica. [In Photos: Antarctic Ice] [Read more...]

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Climate Change Threatens Global Security

April 7, 2011 by ·

Medical and military leaders have come together today to warn that climate change not only spells a global health catastrophe, but also threatens global stability and security.

“Climate change poses an immediate and grave threat, driving ill-health and increasing the risk of conflict, such that each feeds upon the other,” they write in an editorial published on bmj.com today. Their views come ahead of an open meeting on these issues to be held at the British Medical Association on 20 June 2011.

The authors point to several reports, highlighting the threat that climate change poses to “collective security and global order.” [Read more...]

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Freezing Weather Leads To South China Evacuations

January 5, 2011 by ·

Freezing temperatures have forced the evacuation of more than 20,000 people from their homes in southern China, with frozen roads stopping traffic and ice collapsing roofs.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported late Tuesday that ice and sleet had collapsed the roofs of more than 200 homes and forced the evacuation of 22,800 people across the southern province of Guizhou.

Xinhua said thousands of cars were stranded and some ice-covered roads were closed.

Freezing weather has also damaged more than 160,000 acres of crops such as cabbage, and caused about US$45 million in economic losses in Guizhou, according to the report. [Read more...]

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