All posts containing "milk"
- February 5, 2010
- 12:18 AM
- 30 views
Friday Weird Science: Preserving the Species
by Evil Monkey in Neurotopia
As I'm sure most of you are aware, the human species isn't really in immediate danger from dying out due to lack of mating partners (other reasons, I leave up to you). And after all, if all else fails, a trip to a sperm bank can often be arranged. But what about those rare animals growing steadily rarer from the encroachment of humans on their habitat? Well this is when you need to lend a hand. It's time to preserve some...eland semen.
Nel-Themaat et al. "Isolation, culture and characteri........ Read more »
Nel-Themaat, L., Gómez, M., Damiani, P., Wirtu, G., Dresser, B., Bondioli, K., Lyons, L., Pope, C., & Godke, R. (2007) Isolation, culture and characterisation of somatic cells derived from semen and milk of endangered sheep and eland antelope. Reproduction, Fertility and Development, 19(4), 576. DOI: 10.1071/RD06153
- January 19, 2010
- 11:01 AM
- 90 views
Dark Materials
by Brian Koberlein in Upon Reflection
Figure 1: A plot of the speed of stars in the Milky Way vs their distance from the galactic center. The top line represents the actual speed distribution of stars, while the bottom line represents what the motion should be...... Read more »
Law, D., Majewski, S., & Johnston, K. (2009) EVIDENCE FOR A TRIAXIAL MILKY WAY DARK MATTER HALO FROM THE SAGITTARIUS STELLAR TIDAL STREAM. The Astrophysical Journal, 703(1). DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/703/1/L67
- January 18, 2010
- 12:40 PM
- 134 views
Mirror Neurons: Resonant Circuitry in Brain?
by AmiyaSarkar in Physiology physics woven fine
Back in the time of the “black and white” motion picture days, when “talkies” weren’t even born, we still could make out the essence of what Charlie Chaplin had to “say”. We understood his unspoken words, courtesy a system of neuronal networking, called the mirror neuron system. Another example: you observe a man kissing ‘his’ girlfriend, ‘your’ neuronal network that would otherwise activate when you ‘actually’ kissed her, would fire! Mirror neurons are at work. Seems t........ Read more »
Iacoboni M, Molnar-Szakacs I, Gallese V, Buccino G, Mazziotta JC, & Rizzolatti G. (2005) Grasping the intentions of others with one's own mirror neuron system. PLoS biology, 3(3). PMID: 15736981
- January 3, 2010
- 08:27 AM
- 103 views
In the News this month: stellar canibalism in globular clusters
contain some of the oldest known stars.; Formed billions of years ago in the halos of what eventually become the galaxies we see today, globular clusters are roughly spherical collections of stars bound together by their own gravity. Our own Milky Way contains many such clusters, several of which were catalogued by in the 18th Century.While most of the stars in globular clusters have ages of 12 to 13 billion years, some of them appear to be much younger. Most stars in globular clusters are red........ Read more »
Ferraro, F., Beccari, G., Dalessandro, E., Lanzoni, B., Sills, A., Rood, R., Pecci, F., Karakas, A., Miocchi, P., & Bovinelli, S. (2009) Two distinct sequences of blue straggler stars in the globular cluster M 30. Nature, 462(7276), 1028-1031. DOI: 10.1038/nature08607
Mathieu, R., & Geller, A. (2009) A binary star fraction of 76 per cent and unusual orbit parameters for the blue stragglers of NGC 188. Nature, 462(7276), 1032-1035. DOI: 10.1038/nature08568
- December 2, 2009
- 08:20 AM
- 140 views
In the News this month: mystery at the centre of Cas A
When massive stars explode as supernovae, they leave behind a dense, compact object: either a neutron star or a black hole depending on the mass of the original star. They also produce an expanding shell of debris known as a supernova remnant. Many of these shells are known in the Milky Way, but compact objects are not detected in all of them. One object in particular, the remnant known as has been expanding since its progenitor star exploded about 330 years ago, but for a long time no compact ........ Read more »
Ho, W., & Heinke, C. (2009) A neutron star with a carbon atmosphere in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. Nature, 462(7269), 71-73. DOI: 10.1038/nature08525
- November 30, 2009
- 10:19 AM
- 545 views
Huxley and the Pacifier Problem
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
The question of pacifiers (and for that matter bottles) arises when there is a new baby. In the case of Huxley, he will be breast milk fed if possible, but that involves bottle feeding at some point. Also, since our society does not practice cross nursing all Western babies go through a risk period when they begin to starve while the mother's milk is not yet in. Sometimes that is a couple of days, sometimes longer.
In any event, the question comes up, do you let a baby anywhere near a nippl........ Read more »
Cynthia R. Howard, Fred M. HowardDagger, Bruce Lanphearp, Elisabeth A. deBlieck, Shirley Eberly, & Ruth A. Lawrence*. (1999) The Effects of Early Pacifier Use on Breastfeeding Duration . Pediatrics, 103(3). info:other/
- November 23, 2009
- 09:05 AM
- 163 views
Aphid-tending ants cull the sick from the herd
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim and Tweed
Just released online at Biology Letters: aphid-tending ants have been observed to selectively remove sick members of their "herd" [$-a].
Most aphid species produce some sort of sweet honeydew as waste while feeding on their host plants; ant-attended aphid species use this honeydew to attract ants. In many cases, the ants "milk" the aphids by stroking them to prompt release of the honeydew. While exploiting a colony of aphids, ants defend it as a food resource, protecting the aphids from predato........ Read more »
Nielsen, C., Agrawal, A., & Hajek, A. (2009) Ants defend aphids against lethal disease. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0743
Way, M. (1963) Mutualism between ants and honeydew-producing Homoptera. Ann. Rev. Entomology, 8(1), 307-44. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.en.08.010163.001515
- November 23, 2009
- 08:23 AM
- 228 views
Using Chocolate to Exterminate Coyotes
by Martin Robbins in The Lay Scientist
Chocolate, like many of the things we eat regularly, is a potentially fatal poison, and so it should come as no surprise that a study by the unimaginatively-named John Johnston (at the USDA National Wildlife Research Center) shows that our favourite sweet could prove to be an effective pesticide, for use against coyotes [1].
Chocolate, or rather the theobromine and caffiene it contains, is potentially fatal to many creatures, but of course "the poison is the dose." Humans are particularly ef........ Read more »
Johnston, J. (2005) Evaluation of Cocoa- and Coffee-Derived Methylxanthines as Toxicants for the Control of Pest Coyotes. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 53(10), 4069-4075. DOI: 10.1021/jf050166p
- November 11, 2009
- 04:43 PM
- 162 views
Does Progesterone Treatment Prevent Preterm Birth? A Case of “Skim Milk Masquerades as Cream”
by Henci Goer in Science & Sensibility
This is off my usual beat, but a relative asked me to investigate progesterone treatment to prevent preterm birth. In her first pregnancy, membranes ruptured at 31 weeks and the baby was born a week later. (The baby was fine thanks to her mother taking good care of herself in pregnancy, steroids to mature her [...]... Read more »
Dodd JM, Flenady V, Cincotta R, & Crowther CA. (2006) Prenatal administration of progesterone for preventing preterm birth. Cochrane database of systematic reviews (Online). PMID: 16437505
- November 10, 2009
- 05:30 AM
- 201 views
Big Milk farms out PhDs to do their dirty work.
by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters
Big Milk's onslaught of advertisements designed to look like newspaper articles continued last week with this full page feature in Canwest papers.I'm sure the Dairy Farmers of Canada were thrilled with Dr. Brian Roy, director of the Centre for Muscle Metabolism and Biophysics at Brock University, who happily perpetuated a dairy myth - that it magically helps with weight loss. Dr. Roy was quoted as saying, "While it may seem surprising, milk can even help people lose weight. Studies report calci........ Read more »
Barr SI. (2003) Increased dairy product or calcium intake: is body weight or composition affected in humans?. The Journal of nutrition, 133(1). PMID: 12514301
Snijder, M., van Dam, R., Stehouwer, C., Hiddink, G., Heine, R., & Dekker, J. (2008) A Prospective Study of Dairy Consumption in Relation to Changes in Metabolic Risk Factors: The Hoorn Study. Obesity, 16(3), 706-709. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2007.93
- October 31, 2009
- 04:51 AM
- 201 views
In the news this month... shaping the heliosphere
Solar physicists thought they knew the shape of the Sun's heliosphere, but new results from the have revealed a huge ribbon of intense emission that was completely unexpected. The space between stars is not empty, but filled with a very tenuous gas known as the interstellar medium. As the Sun moves through this gas it emits a fast moving plasma know as the solar wind. These charged particles spread out spherically creating the , a cavity in the interstellar medium swept out by the solar wind.La........ Read more »
McComas, D., Allegrini, F., Bochsler, P., Bzowski, M., Christian, E., Crew, G., DeMajistre, R., Fahr, H., Fichtner, H., Frisch, P.... (2009) Global Observations of the Interstellar Interaction from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1180906
Funsten, H., Allegrini, F., Crew, G., DeMajistre, R., Frisch, P., Fuselier, S., Gruntman, M., Janzen, P., McComas, D., Mobius, E.... (2009) Structures and Spectral Variations of the Outer Heliosphere in IBEX Energetic Neutral Atom Maps. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1180927
Mobius, E., Bochsler, P., Bzowski, M., Crew, G., Funsten, H., Fuselier, S., Ghielmetti, A., Heirtzler, D., Izmodenov, V., Kubiak, M.... (2009) Direct Observations of Interstellar H, He, and O by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1180971
Fuselier, S., Allegrini, F., Funsten, H., Ghielmetti, A., Heirtzler, D., Kucharek, H., Lennartsson, O., McComas, D., Mobius, E., Moore, T.... (2009) Width and Variation of the ENA Flux Ribbon Observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1180981
Schwadron, N., Bzowski, M., Crew, G., Gruntman, M., Fahr, H., Fichtner, H., Frisch, P., Funsten, H., Fuselier, S., Heerikhuisen, J.... (2009) Comparison of Interstellar Boundary Explorer Observations with 3-D Global Heliospheric Models. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1180986
Krimigis, S., Mitchell, D., Roelof, E., Hsieh, K., & McComas, D. (2009) Imaging the Interaction of the Heliosphere with the Interstellar Medium from Saturn with Cassini. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1181079
- October 26, 2009
- 02:22 AM
- 152 views
A surprisingly compact early galaxy
by Charles Daney in Science and Reason
Astronomers are beginning to learn significant details of the structure of galaxies in the early universe. And what they're learning is rather surprising: at least some early galaxies are almost as massive as otherwise similar galaxies in the present universe, yet they are much smaller in linear size, by a factor of five, thus much more compact.What time period are we talking about here? It's not actually the time that the earliest galaxies formed, which was less than a billion years after the b........ Read more »
van Dokkum, P., Kriek, M., & Franx, M. (2009) A high stellar velocity dispersion for a compact massive galaxy at redshift z . Nature, 460(7256), 717-719. DOI: 10.1038/nature08220
- October 22, 2009
- 04:52 PM
- 240 views
What does it take to get kids to eat healthy foods?
by Dave Munger in Cognitive Daily
When Jim and Nora were in elementary school, both Greta and I worked challenging jobs, so we did whatever we could to save time. Instead of bringing lunches made by their parents, the kids bought hot meals at school. The school was proud of its cafeteria. Kids had credit accounts, which meant they didn't have to carry lunch money to school (thus making them less of a target for bullies). The children were encouraged to make "healthy choices" instead of just getting a ladleful of mystery meat plo........ Read more »
HENDY, H., WILLIAMS, K., & CAMISE, T. (2005) “Kids Choice” School lunch program increases children's fruit and vegetable acceptance. Appetite, 45(3), 250-263. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2005.07.006
- October 22, 2009
- 05:30 AM
- 194 views
Overweight Canadian kids not eating enough according to Canada's Food Guide
by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters
So yesterday I detailed the results of the Ipsos Reid based milk advertisement that concluded, surprise, that Canadians should be drinking more milk, but buried in the story is the fact that the survey determined that Canadians were not eating enough of any food group according to Canada's Food Guide.Let me repeat that. According to the survey, Canadians don't eat as much food as the Food Guide recommends.But wait, aren't 65% of Canadians overweight? And they're not eating as much as the Food ........ Read more »
St John M, Durant M, Campagna PD, Rehman LA, Thompson AM, Wadsworth LA, & Murphy RJ. (2008) Overweight Nova Scotia children and youth: the roles of household income and adherence to Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating. Canadian journal of public health. Revue canadienne de sante publique, 99(4), 301-6. PMID: 18767276
- October 21, 2009
- 05:30 AM
- 195 views
Conflicts of interest in professional dietetics
by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters
According to my friends over at Fooducate, at this week's American Dietetic Association (ADA) conference there was a talk regarding whether or not we can trust industry sponsored nutrition research. The reason that's in question is because sadly right now there are no guidelines in place to help expose conflict of interest in dietetics. It was the absence of such guidelines which led Marion Nestle in 2001 to write a fascinating journal article about how food company sponsorship impacts on the ........ Read more »
Nestle, M. (2007) Food company sponsorship of nutrition research and professional activities: a conflict of interest?. Public Health Nutrition, 4(05). DOI: 10.1079/PHN2001253
- October 15, 2009
- 05:30 AM
- 190 views
Milk prevents colon cancer?
by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters
We physicians get a great many free publications.One that comes regularly is a trade journal called The Medical Post, and in it the Dairy Farmers of Canada are regular advertisers making half page buys geared to look like articles that they entitle Nutrition and the Physician. These pieces in turn are generally written or at the very least attributed to physicians, professors and dietitians highlighting some benefit of dairy consumption.For a long while the bulk of these medical advertisements w........ Read more »
Huncharek, M., Muscat, J., & Kupelnick, B. (2009) Colorectal Cancer Risk and Dietary Intake of Calcium, Vitamin D, and Dairy Products: A Meta-Analysis of 26,335 Cases From 60 Observational Studies. Nutrition and Cancer, 61(1), 47-69. DOI: 10.1080/01635580802395733
- October 13, 2009
- 05:30 AM
- 322 views
Big Milk PhD bares her bias
by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters
Meet Dr. Susan Barr.Dr. Barr is a professor of nutrition at the University of British Columbia and she has had a truly illustrious career, having published dozens of peer reviewed articles. She's also been a workhorse for the milk industry serving as a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Milk Processors' Education Program, the Medical Advisory Board for the International Dairy Foods Association and speaking and writing regularly for the Dairy Farmers of Canada.So what's got my knickers ........ Read more »
Kris-Etherton PM, Grieger JA, Hilpert KF, & West SG. (2009) Milk products, dietary patterns and blood pressure management. Journal of the American College of Nutrition. PMID: 19571168
BARR, S. (2000) Effects of Increased Consumption of Fluid Milk on Energy and Nutrient Intake, Body Weight, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Healthy Older Adults. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 100(7), 810-817. DOI: 10.1016/S0002-8223(00)00236-4
Appel, L. (1997) A Clinical Trial of the Effects of Dietary Patterns on Blood Pressure. New England Journal of Medicine, 336(16), 1117-1124. DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199704173361601
- October 5, 2009
- 07:06 AM
- 314 views
In the News this month: first results from a panoramic survey of the Andromeda galaxy
Edwin Hubble's original classification of galaxies into various types based on their visible shapes and structures has been a feature of extra-galactic astronomy since the 1920s. The scheme, originally thought to depict an evolutionary sequence, has two major groups: spiral galaxies with a small central bulge, spiral arms and possibly a central bar, and elliptical galaxies that are more spherical in structure with no spiral arms or disk. There are however, many galaxies which do not fit into thi........ Read more »
McConnachie, A., Irwin, M., Ibata, R., Dubinski, J., Widrow, L., Martin, N., Côté, P., Dotter, A., Navarro, J., Ferguson, A.... (2009) The remnants of galaxy formation from a panoramic survey of the region around M31. Nature, 461(7260), 66-69. DOI: 10.1038/nature08327
- October 2, 2009
- 02:00 PM
- 1,043 views
The Ig Nobels are out! And the winners are....
by Christie Wilcox in Observations of a Nerd
If you haven't heard, the 2009 Ig Nobels have been given. The Ig Nobels are one of my favorite yearly treats. They are given to research that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."The prizes "celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology."And the winners are...Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are namel........ Read more »
Bertenshaw, C., & Rowlinson, P. (2009) Exploring Stock Managers' Perceptions of the Human–Animal Relationship on Dairy Farms and an Association with Milk Production. Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People , 22(1), 59-69. DOI: 10.2752/175303708X390473
Taguchi, F. (2001) Microbial treatment of kitchen refuse with enzyme-producing thermophilic bacteria from Giant Panda feces. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 92(6), 602. DOI: 10.1016/S1389-1723(01)80326-1
Donald L. Unger,. (1998) Does knuckle cracking lead to arthritis of the fingers?. Arthritis , 41(5), 949-950. info:/
Whitcome, K., Shapiro, L., & Lieberman, D. (2007) Fetal load and the evolution of lumbar lordosis in bipedal hominins. Nature, 450(7172), 1075-1078. DOI: 10.1038/nature06342
Javier Morales, Miguel Apátiga, & Victor M. Castaño. (2008) Growth of Diamond Films from Tequila. -. arXiv: 0806.1485v1
Bolliger, S., Ross, S., Oesterhelweg, L., Thali, M., & Kneubuehl, B. (2009) Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull?. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 16(3), 138-142. DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.013
Kent, R., Forman, J., & Bostrom, O. (2009) Is There Really a “Cushion Effect”?: A Biomechanical Investigation of Crash Injury Mechanisms in the Obese. Obesity. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2009.315
- September 21, 2009
- 05:30 AM
- 290 views
Danone's latest sexy health claim (sarcasm alert).
by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters
Somehow I don't think you'll be seeing this one on the side of your Activia anytime soon, but not because it isn't true.If you remember a while back I observed that if Danone's Activia health claims were really as robust as they like to present them, that perhaps they wouldn't have withdrawn them from consideration in the EU where the rules of proving your claim to be true are much, much more stringent.Well Danone's resubmitted a claim all right, but it's not the claim that Activia helps keep yo........ Read more »
Hickson, M., D'Souza, A., Muthu, N., Rogers, T., Want, S., Rajkumar, C., & Bulpitt, C. (2007) Use of probiotic Lactobacillus preparation to prevent diarrhoea associated with antibiotics: randomised double blind placebo controlled trial. BMJ, 335(7610), 80-80. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.39231.599815.55
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