Dust to Dust
2010-12-29
Did you clean up for holiday guests? Some of that dust may have traveled a LONG distance to get to your house. And the amount of dust in your house or apartment is a good predictor of climate change.
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Was the Garden of Eden Real?
2010-12-29
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Human beings are twice as old as scientists used to think we are AND we may have originated in Israel, rather than Africa. Meanwhile, new species of humans are still being discovered: A 4,000 year old finger bone has been found in Siberia that may belong to an unknown type of human being that may have emerged from interbreeding with Neanderthals. The bone was found in a cave in Siberia that seems to have been a home to these unique beings.
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A Cold Cure That Doesn’t Work
2010-12-28
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Winter weather brings on colds and flu. We already have a cure for the common cold (problem: the drug companies won’t manufacture it), so many people visit the health food store for remedies. If you’re one of them, here are some things you should know: the popular over-the-counter herbal treatment echinacea only relieves symptoms for 10 hours (which is not considered a significant decrease and may even be a placebo effect).
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Don’t Exercise, Tweak Your Genes
2010-12-28
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In the future, you may be able to forgo exercise and still stay healthy, by having your genes tweaked instead. By tweaking a single gene, scientists have mimicked in sedentary mice the heart-strengthening effects of two weeks of endurance training.
The genetic manipulation spurred the animals’ heart muscle cells to proliferate and grow larger by an amount comparable to normal mice that swam for up to three hours a day. Alas, this type of gene manipulation can’t be done in humans, but these findings may suggest a future strategy for repairing injured hearts through muscle regeneration.
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