Youngest bone marrow transplant patients at higher risk of cognitive decline

 

December 11, 2014 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Toddlers who undergo total body irradiation in preparation for bone marrow transplantation are at higher risk for a decline in IQ and may be candidates for stepped up interventions to preserve intellectual functioning, investigators report. The results clarify the risk of intellectual decline faced by children, teenagers and young adults following bone marrow transplantation. The procedure is used for treatment of cancer and other diseases. It involves replacing the patient's own blood-producing stem cells with those from a healthy donor. Toddlers who undergo total body irradiation in preparation for bone marrow transplantation are at higher risk for a decline in IQ and may be candidates for stepped up interventions to preserve intellectual functioning, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators reported. The findings appear in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The results clarify the risk of intellectual decline faced by children, teenagers and young adults following bone marrow transplantation. The procedure is used for treatment of cancer and other diseases. It involves replacing the patient's own blood-producing stem cells with those from a healthy donor. Researchers tracked IQ scores of 170 St. Jude patients before and for five years after transplantation, making this the most comprehensive effort yet to determine how the procedure affects intelligence. The patients ranged in age from 4 months to 23 years when their transplants occurred. The procedure had little lasting impact on the IQ scores of most patients. "For the great majority of patients, these findings provide reassurance that transplantation will not have a significant negative impact on cognitive development," said corresponding author Sean Phipps, Ph.D., chair of the St. Jude Department of Psychology. "We have also identified a high-risk group of younger patients who may benefit from more intensive interventions, including developmental stimulation and other rehabilitative therapies designed to prevent a decline in intellectual functioning and aid in recovery." The high-risk group includes patients whose transplants occurred when they were aged 3 years or younger and involved total body irradiation (TBI). TBI is used to prepare patients for transplantation by killing remaining cancer cells and protecting the transplanted cells from their immune systems. TBI is associated with a range of short-term and long-term side effects. At St. Jude, therapeutic advances have significantly reduced the use of TBI in bone marrow transplantations. Previous studies of bone marrow transplantation survivors reported conflicting results about the long-term impact of age and TBI on cognitive abilities. Before transplantation, the average IQ scores of all patients in this study were in the normal range. One year after transplantation, average IQ scores of patients aged 5 and younger had declined sharply. But scores of most patients rebounded in subsequent years. Five years after the procedure, IQ scores for most patients, even the youngest survivors, had largely recovered and fell within the range of normal intelligence. Patients in the high-risk group were the lone exception. IQ scores of patients who were both aged 3 or younger when their transplants occurred and who received TBI failed to recover from the first-year decline. Five years after transplantation, these survivors had average IQ scores in the low-normal range of intelligence. Their scores were more than 16 points lower than the scores of patients who were just as young when their transplants occurred but did not receive TBI. Of the 72 patients in this study whose transplants included TBI, researchers found there was a long-term impact on intellectual functioning only of patients who were aged 3 or younger at transplantation. "The significant first-year decline reflects the intensity of transplantation, which our results suggest leads to greater disruption in development in the youngest children than was previously recognized," said the study's first author Victoria Willard, Ph.D., a St. Jude psychology department research associate. These findings are good news for most parents whose children must undergo transplantation and provide another reason for hope of good long-term outcomes. For those whose children are in the newly recognized high-risk group, increased attention and activities designed to stimulate cognitive development may help to prevent reduced IQ following transplantation, Phipps said. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Victoria W. Willard, Wing Leung, Qinlei Huang, Hui Zhang, and Sean Phipps. Cognitive Outcome After Pediatric Stem-Cell Transplantation: Impact of Age and Total-Body Irradiation. Journal of Clinical Oncology, December 2014 DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2014.56.2223.

Hepatitis C ruled out as cause of mental impairment in HIV patients

 

December 11, 2014 Washington University in St. Louis Advances in treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have made it possible for people with HIV to survive much longer. As they age, however, many experience impaired thinking, memory loss, mood swings and other evidence of impaired mental function. Secondary infection with the hepatitis C virus does not contribute to the mental impairments seen in many long-term survivors of HIV infection, a new study reveals. Advances in treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have made it possible for people with HIV to survive much longer. As they age, however, many experience impaired thinking, memory loss, mood swings and other evidence of impaired mental function. To stop these changes, scientists have to learn what is causing them. One possibility researchers are considering is that long-term infections with other pathogens, common in HIV-positive patients, are affecting the brain. But a new study has eliminated one of their prime suspects: the hepatitis C virus, which infects about one in every three HIV-positive patients in the United States. The research, conducted by a team that includes scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, appeared Dec. 10 in Neurology. "Hepatitis C infection has serious long-term side effects, such as damage to the liver, but our research indicates that it does not affect the brain," said lead author David Clifford, MD, of Washington University. The research was conducted as part of the CNS HIV Anti-retroviral Therapy Effects (CHARTER) study, a multicenter collaborative that is examining the long-term neurological effects of HIV infection. Hepatitis C most commonly infects illicit-drug users who share needles used to inject the drugs. Drug abuse can harm the brain, making it difficult to determine whether hepatitis C or problems caused by drug use contribute to brain impairment in patients with both HIV and hepatitis C. To answer this question, Clifford and his colleagues studied 1,582 HIV patients, 408 of whom were also infected with hepatitis C. Each patient received a detailed neuropsychological exam devised by Clifford and other CHARTER researchers to detect signs of HIV-associated mental deficits. The exam takes two to 2 1/2 hours, and includes written examinations taken by the patient and physical exams given by medical professionals. Patients are tested for their ability to express themselves, to make decisions, to learn and retain new information using multiple types of memory, and to move the body and control muscles. "In all, we looked at seven domains of mental function," said Clifford, who is the Melba and Forest Seay Professor of Clinical Neuropharmacology in Neurology. "We studied their overall performance and looked at each domain individually and found no evidence that the group with hepatitis C performed worse." According to Clifford, this was particularly impressive because the participants in the group with hepatitis C were older, had less education and had lower scores on tests of reading, comprehension, spelling and math. With hepatitis C eliminated, Clifford and his colleagues are turning their attention to the immune responses triggered by HIV in the brain and the bowel during the initial stages of infection. He and others believe these early responses, which include bursts of inflammation, lead to chronic inflammation that adversely affects the brain. "If a hepatitis C infection gets to the point where it damages liver function, the resulting inflammation might well contribute to mental impairment," Clifford said. "Beyond that, though, it doesn't seem to be an active collaborator in the harm HIV does to the brain." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Washington University in St. Louis. The original article was written by Michael C. Purdy. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: David B. Clifford, Florin Vaida, Yu-Ting Kao, Donald R. Franklin, Scott L. Letendre, Ann C. Collier, Christina M. Marra, Benjamin B. Gelman, Justin C. Mcarthur, Susan Morgello, David M. Simpson, Igor Grant, Robert K. Heaton. Absence of neurocognitive effect of hepatitis C infection in HIV-coinfected people. Neurology, December 2014 DOI: 10.1212/WNL.000000000000115

Hemingwrite digital typewriter looks to let you write in peace

 

The Hemingwrite does away with the distractions of laptop computers and tablets Image Gallery (13 images) For more than a century typewriters were the weapon of choice for professional writers, office workers and those of us with messy handwriting. Then came the age of personal computers complete with the internet and its infinite reel of comical cat videos. A pair of US entrepreneurs believe this has been to the detriment of productivity and are looking to reign things in a little. The Hemingwrite typewriter offers the bare essentials for a writer in the digital age, no email alerts or Youtube recommendations in sight. Hemingwrite features a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches and a 6-inch e-paper display, all protected by an aluminum casing. As the user pounds away, their work is synced over Wi-Fi to Hemingwrite's web application, dubbed Postbox. From here, Postbox can be configured to automatically synch your words with common applications such as Google Docs, Evernote or Microsoft Word. A knob on the left allows the user to navigate between a maximum of three live documents, while a knob on the right switches the Wi-Fi off and on. There's also a dedicated print key and a status bar that can be set to display a timer or a word and character count. Battery life is estimated at an impressive four to six weeks. It is with a certain degree of skepticism that I describe the features of the Hemingwrite typewriter. I'm not entirely convinced that the answer to procrastination is as simple as shutting out the internet. In lieu of firing up Facebook, one might reach for their phone or check to see if the fridge magically restocked itself since the last time they checked. Failing that you can always stare out the window for a while. With that said, writing is quite the personal thing and everybody has their own process. Not needing to navigate a minefield of apps, notifications and inbox messages when starting up the machine might be just the thing to cultivate the next generation of Ernest Hemmingways. If this sounds like the answer to your writing woes, then you can head over to the Hemingwrite Kickstarter campaign where the funds are rolling in thick and fast. The team is well on its way to hitting its US$250,000 goal, having amassed more than $180,000 at the time of writing. Early pledges of $349 are gone, but there are some left at the $369 level with shipping slated for September 2015. Hemingwrite is set to retail at $499 if it does eventually hit the shelves. Source: Hemingwrite

"Fat-burning pill" inches closer to reality

 

Researchers have developed a system to uncover compounds capable of turning 'bad' white fat cells into 'good' brown fat cells (Photo: Shutterstock) Researchers at Harvard University say they have identified two chemical compounds that could replace "bad" fat cells in the human body with healthy fat-burning cells, in what may be the first step toward the development of an effective medical treatment – which could even take the form of a pill – to help control weight gain. Not all fat is created equal. While white fat cells store energy as lipids and contribute to obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the less common brown fat cells pack energy in iron-rich mitochondria, have been shown to lower triglyceride levels and insulin resistance in mice, and appear to be correlated with lower body weight in humans. Brown fat makes up about five percent of the body mass of healthy newborns, helping them keep warm, and is still present in lower quantities in our neck and shoulders as adults, where it helps burn the white fat cells. Associate professor Chad Cowan and colleagues at Harvard say they have developed a way to identify the chemical compounds that induce fat stem cells to produce "good" brown-like fat cells instead of the "bad" white ones. The scientists say they have already used their system to pinpoint two such compounds that can accomplish this in humans. Other drugs (viagra included) have been known to be able to turn white fat cells into brown, but their effect is only temporary. This new method, however, is reportedly showing a stable conversion of fat cells over time, which has an exciting potential for long-term health improvement. But turning these two chemicals into a practical treatment is not going to be a straightforward process. Aside from the lengthy medical trials still to come, the two compounds identified so far both target the same molecule  –  a molecule that contributes to the inflammatory response. The concern here is that tinkering with it by using the compounds over the long term and without modifications could end up compromising the immune system. Cowan’s team achieved this result by screening a catalog of only about one thousand compounds. But now, as the first two are being tested on mice to investigate the long-term effects on metabolism and immune system, the researchers are approaching pharmaceutical companies to gain access to a much larger database of over a million compounds, with the hope of finding a candidate that doesn't have the potential adverse effects of the first two. A paper describing the advance was published on the journal Nature Cell Biology. Sources: Harvard University, National Institutes of Health

The top 10 things you CAN have for Christmas 2014

 

Gizmag's selection of 2014's most innovative and, in some cases, odd product offerings Image Gallery (21 images) The silly season is well and truly upon us again and with it comes the challenge of selecting a suitable gift for tech-loving friends and family. The options are a little overwhelming, but Gizmag's editorial team has sifted through 2014's most innovative and, in some cases, odd product offerings in an effort to help.   Be upstanding The standing desk was a product that really seemed to find its feet in 2014. With people becoming more aware of the dangers of sitting for extended periods, we saw a number of standing desks aimed at getting desk-bound workers to their feet. While the UpStanding Desk and ZestDesk are easy options for those wanting to convert an existing desk to standing height, and the Hamster Wheel Standing Desk looked like the healthiest option, our two favorites are the StandDesk, which converts from sitting to standing modes at the push of a button and is priced from US$399, and the Varidesk, which provides a very practical standing or sitting workspace for $350.   Much more than the time The number of smartwatches on the market turned from trickle to flood in 2014, with an accompanying leap in quality and functionality. Apple's foray into the wearables market won't hit wrists until next year and we've already looked in detail at some of the best smartwatches on offer, but for a combination of software, style, battery life and price, we're giving the LG G Watch R the nod as the top smartwatch of 2014 in a close run race. The LG G Watch R costs $300.   I'm being followed by a drone shadow Since Parrot's original AR Drone first made our Christmas list in 2010, to say consumer quadcopters have really taken off would be a huge understatement. In that time they've continued to evolve, getting smaller, cheaper and packing more features. One of the most notable of these is the ability to ditch the manual control and have the drone fly autonomously. While a number of drones boasted this capability, including the popular DJI Phantom which got this capability with an app update, they required users to pre-program a flight path. The Iris+ from 3D Robotics also boasted this capability, but went one better with the ability to autonomously follow a GPS-enabled Android device on the ground. Appropriately, the Iris+ itself followed drones offering similar capabilities, such as the AirDog and Hexo+, but both of these are the subject of (very) successful crowdfunding campaigns and won't be landing under the tree in time for Christmas. The Iris+, on the other hand, is available now from US$750.   Nothing to lose The Tile is one of several object tracking systems to emerge over the past 12 months, all with the goal of ensuring you don't lose your stuff. The 37 x 37 x 5.3 mm Tile can be placed in your bag, attached to your keyring or stuck to your laptop or remote control so if any of these items disappear, you can track their location using a smartphone app or trigger an audible alert so that you don't have to pull all the cushions off the sofa. The system also recruits other Tile app users to help with the search when the missing object is beyond Bluetooth range. Four Tiles cost US$70 and the device is also being incorporated into products like umbrellas in an effort to make them unforgettable.   Not a drop too much We've only just begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities offered by the Internet of Things, but already we're seeing some very practical (as well as not so practical) examples of cloud-connected everyday objects around the home. One of our favorites to surface this year is the The Droplet, a smart sprinkler that can be programmed to selectively water your plants (i.e. not the driveway, the lawn or the wall of the garage). It draws on weather data and transpiration rates for different plants to further streamline the process and also tracks its own water consumption. The Droplet is available for US$299.99.   A slot of racing There's nothing like a toy that appeals to all generations to get a family playing together on Christmas day. One product that should fit the bill, at least for boys, dads and granddads, is a slot car racing set. Scalextric has been producing such sets since the 1950s and in 2014 brought a modern twist to the ever-popular toy with the introduction of the ARC (App Race Control) One system (known as the Race Control System when we previewed it in January). This added a digital powerbase that slotted onto the track and connected to a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth, allowing racers to change race settings and view live race stats and info on-screen using a companion app. The app's ability to track things such as top speeds, lap times and the leader-board, should mean fewer family arguments on Christmas day. Then again, maybe not. The ARC One System retails for £99.99 (US$156), while the Powerbase can also be purchased separately for £39.99 (US$63).   What's better than a blanket fort? If you're looking for a gift to foster the aspirations of any budding young architects in the family – or want to push them in that direction – then Buildies might provide a good foundation. Coming in a kit consisting of cardboard blocks and connectors, Buildies allow youngsters to "build on" that age-old rite of passage that is blanket fort construction and create something a bit sturdier. And if you're looking to keep some separation between family members that don't get along but are forced under the same roof at Christmas, Buildies can also be used to create a makeshift wall between the offending parties. Buildies retail for US$125.   Hi-Fi Mo-Fi Wires may be old hat and diminutive may be de rigueur in the world of consumer electronics, but being both wired and bulky hasn't stopped Blue's Mo-Fi over-ear headphones from making our top 10 list. The Mo-Fi headphones have a built-in 240 mW amplifier and 50 mm fiber-reinforced dynamic drivers which have been custom-tuned to match. There are cables, two of them in fact – a 2 m (6.6 ft) cable for lolling around at home and a shorter cable with inline playback control for iOS devices. The folks at Blue are not kidding when they warn that things might get "like, really loud." Lowering your source device volume before you hit play is not just advised, it's an absolute necessity. The Mo-Fi headphones are available now US$350.   Escape from temptation Christmas can be a time of overindulgence, leaving us with an overwhelming feeling of guilt, not to mention getting familiar with some new belt holes after working our way through the inevitable leftovers and remaining candy canes over the following days. If your own will power isn't enough to keep you from gorging on those temptations staring you in the face every time you open the fridge, then the Kitchen Safe could be a worthwhile investment. Basically a plastic container measuring 6.25 x 6.25 x 7.5 in (15.8 x 15.8 x 19 cm) topped with a tamper-proof time lock, the Kitchen Safe allows the tantalizing treats to be safely locked away for as little as a minute or as long as 10 days. And there's no need to limit the device to preventing access to just food, with the threat of locking away a favorite toy or mobile device sure to act as a good deterrent to bad behavior over the holiday season. The Kitchen Safe was the subject of a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2013, and is now available in a variety of colors for US$49.   A petty plaything And we can't forget our furry friends, can we? Pet owners looking to put something under the tree for their beloved pet might want to take a look at the Petcube. The device itself is an aluminum cube measuring 4 in3 (10 cm3) that packs a 138-degree wide-angle camera to stream 720p video of your pet over the internet via the home Wi-Fi network. It also includes a built-in microphone and speaker so you can tell Fido to stop chewing those slippers via an app for iOS (7.0 or greater) and Android (4.0 and greater) devices. But the Petcube is more than just a Big Brother for Benji and Boots. Thanks to a built-in laser pointer, which the pet owner, or other approved party, can control via the aforementioned app, they can play with the pet from wherever they may be. The Petcube is available for US$199 While we've narrowed it down to 10 editor's picks (though not without contention), this list could easily run into triple figures given the mountain of new and interesting gear we've covered this year. What have we missed? Let us know what you'll be wrapping this year in the comments section below. Share

How to take great photos—even on your cell phone

 

Posted by: Emily Pidgeon December 2, 2014 at 11:52 am EST

Taking great photos isn’t just about having a nice camera. I’m a firm believer that good photography comes from smart photographers who think creatively and know how to make the most of what they’ve got—whether they’re working with fancy DSLR or an iPhone. On TED’s design team, where I manage TED’s Instagram account, we’re always on the lookout for beautiful, arresting images. Below are 8 non-technical, non-intimidating tips that I continue to refer to even after years of taking pictures. Keep your lens clean and your battery charged. Yes, both of these things are obvious, but they’re also very easy to forget. With my camera, I like to keep at least one extra fully-charged battery on hand, and I always keep my phone charger with me because it’s such a bummer when you want to take a photo but can’t. Phones can get especially dirty from riding around in our pockets and getting our fingerprints all over them. So form a habit where every time you go to pick up your camera, you clean off your lens. You can wipe your lens with a lens cloth or a super soft fabric like an old T-shirt. But be careful; using a fabric that’s too rough will scratch. And that’s the worst. Light is king. If you remember one thing from this list, choose this one. Lighting is as valuable a tool as your camera itself. In fact, I think of them as equal teammates that have to work together to do the job — and you are their coach. Generally, natural light from the sun is the best option. If you’re inside, raise the blinds and open the curtains to let in as much light as possible and, if you can, move your subject near the window. If you’re limited to artificial lighting (anything that uses electricity), you’ll want to make sure you place the lamps in a way that they’re fully lighting your subject because artificial light tends to be uneven. If you have a lamp or overhead lighting, take note of the direction the light is pointing in. Can you point another light from the other side to balance it out? Use a reflector. Reflectors bounce light from the sun or a lamp onto an object. And this can make a big difference in your photography. If you want to get that clean, professional studio look, use a white piece of poster board or foamcore to reflect light onto your subjects. Here’s an example: Notice how in the image on the left, this guy’s face is almost entirely dark in the shadow? In the image on the right, the photographer used a reflector to the left of his face. There’s no “right” way to hold the reflector, you’re just looking for an angle that will bounce light from your main source onto your subject. This process is generally just trial and error. Think before you shoot. Remember: you are the one taking the photo, not just the camera. The point of being a photographer is to capture the world as you see it and share your unique perspective with others. So it’s important to visualize what you want your photo to look like before you take it. This means taking time to consider what’s in the frame, and coming up with the best composition. When you look through the screen or viewfinder in your camera, examine every single thing that’s showing. For a photo to have impact, there should be no distractions that cause a viewer to look at something other than what you wanted them to see. Are there any water bottles or random objects that should be moved? Have you cropped off the top of someone’s head? Take some time to consider it. Mind the lines. Horizon lines should be straight unless you’re making them diagonal for a creative effect. I like to use the grid feature on my phone to make sure I’m not off. I also often use a 9-square grid like the one below that breaks my photo up into thirds. This is called the Rule of Thirds — aim to place the points of interest in your photo along the lines or where the lines cross, and your photos will naturally feel more balanced to the viewer. They call it a “rule,” but think of it more as a guideline. It’s useful in creating compositions that are pleasing to the eye. Move around. Get up close. One mistake that many new photographers make is that their photos all look the same. It’s important to move around and explore every angle of your subject. If you’re photographing a person, you might want to stand above them so they look smaller or more elegant. If you want to show that the person is strong and powerful, you can try shooting from below a bit to make them seem larger. If you’re photographing an object, really think: Does the object need to be shown in an abstract way with a wacky perspective? Or does a straight on angle help make it feel more truthful and direct? Take a lot of photos. Challenge yourself to take 10-20 shots of the same thing, making sure each shot is unique. This will give you lots of options and is especially helpful when you’re photographing people. You can also try comparing photos with different lighting scenarios. Sometimes, low lighting will make things feel more mysterious, while bright lighting can seem happier or more honest. Share your photos. The whole reason you’re capturing photos is so that you can express your unique perspective. And thus, it can be very rewarding to show your images to people. On Instagram, I’m always fascinated to see how many likes a photo gets and what people comment on. Getting feedback like this can help you understand what makes an image successful—it can help show you what resonates. Want more detail? Ask people what they think of your photos. The feedback isn’t always going to be nice, but that’s okay. These are your photos. And there’s no wrong way to do photography.

Everybody farts. But here are 9 surprising facts about flatulence you may not know.

 

Whether you try to hide it or not, you fart. Everybody does. But even though it's such a routine activity — the average person farts between 10 and 20 times per day — there's a lot about farting that you might not know. As part of research into the microbiome — the rich community of bacteria that live throughout your body — scientists have learned all sorts of interesting things about the bacteria that produce gas inside your intestines. Here are the crucial things to know about flatulence. You produce about 500 to 1500 milliliters of gas per day, and expel it in 10 to 20 farts This might be more than you'd expect, but it's been measured in controlled studies. The surprisingly hefty amount is the result of bacteria that live in your colon and feed on most of the food you eat, says Purna Kashyap — a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic who studies the gut microbiome. "There are a lot of carbohydrates that we consume — mainly present in vegetables, grains, and fruits — that our bodies don't have the enzymes necessary to digest," he says. "These end up in large intestine, where microbes chew them apart and use them for energy, through the process of fermentation. As a byproduct, they produce gas." A huge variety of foods contain these complex carbs that we can't fully digest: virtually all beans, most vegetables, and anything with whole grains. For most people, this leads to somewhere between 500 to 1500 milliliters of gas daily — the equivalent of half a two-liter bottle of soda, every single day. 99 percent of the gas you produce does not smell One of the reasons that we produce so much more gas than we realize is that nearly all of it is odorless. Hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane make up as much as 99 percent of the gas produced in our large intestines by volume. (They're supplemented by air you swallow — more on that below.) All of these gases are odorless, which is why much of the time, farts don't actually smell at all. The potent stink, research has found, is largely due to the 1 percent or so of compounds with sulfur in them, such as hydrogen sulfide. (This sort of research itself is pretty amazing: one experiment involved two people judging the smelliness of farts of 16 participants who'd been fed pinto beans, collected with the aid of "gas-tight Mylar pantaloons.") Caution: these contain sulfur. (Shutterstock.com) Bacteria need to consume sulfur to produce sulfurous gases, and though not all foods with complex carbs contain sulfur, many do. They're mainly foods that you probably already associate with farting — things like beans, onions, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and dairy.   Gum and soda can make you fart more Apart from the gases produced by bacteria, a significant proportion of your flatulence is simply made up of inadvertently swallowed air. It doesn't smell — it's mostly nitrogen and oxygen — but it sounds and feels the same coming out. Some of this swallowing goes on while you're asleep, but it can be increased by drinking carbonated beverages (after all, you're ingesting the carbonation) and by chewing gum. Farting is the result of a healthy, complex ecosystem in your intestines Bacteroides fragilis, one of the bacteria species involved in gas production, cultured in a petri dish. (Nathan Reading) Modern society views flatulence as a negative. This is unfortunate, because in most cases, it's the byproduct of a beautiful thing — the intricate ecosystem of bacteria living in your intestines. "It's a complex ecology, with various organisms coexisting and thriving," Kashyap says. "When a complex carbohydrate reaches your colon, some bacteria will break it down first, and then some of their byproducts will feed other bacteria. The whole community benefits from a single carbohydrate that you consume." What's more, you also benefit. Scientists are still unraveling the role of the microbiome in digestion, but it's known that the same bacteria that produce gas also generate vitamins and fatty acids that help maintain our colon lining, and may support our immune systems. There's a simple reason why you don't mind the smell of your own farts The reason: we become habituated to all smells over time. That's why you might notice a scent walking into a stranger's house, but seldom do for your own. It's also why you become habituated to the characteristic mix of odors produced by the bacteria inside your own body, which differs slightly from everyone else's. As a result, your own farts just don't have the same impact on you — even though they're just as pungent for everyone else. Yes, you can light a fart on fire Because flatulence is partly composed of flammable gases like methane and hydrogen, it can be briefly set on fire. We don't recommend it, because of the risk of injury, but if you have to see it, there are plenty of examples here. No, you can't hold a fart in until it disappears This might seem obvious, but for whatever reason, people wonder about this question. At times, after holding in a fart for a while for social reasons, it can seem to disappear. However, this isn't actually possible. It might seem to vanish because you stop being conscious of it, and it leaks out gradually, but the physics of flatulence are pretty straightforward. A fart is a bubble of gas, and there's ultimately nowhere for it to go besides out of your anus. Beano cuts down on gas production by starving these bacteria In case you're wondering, the over-the-counter product Beano — which claims to "prevent gas before it occurs" — actually works as advertised. Two different controlled trials have found that it significantly reduces gas production in the hours following a bean-filled meal. The way it works is pretty simple: the pills contain an enzyme called alpha-galactosidase that cuts complex carbohydrates into shorter, simpler carbs that are much easier to digest. As a result, they get broken down in your small intestine, rather than making it all the way to the large intestine, where bacteria would ferment them, producing gas. However, there's a drawback to habitually taking Beano to prevent gas. Starving your fart-producing bacteria is not a good idea Bacteroides fragilis, one of the bacteria species involved in gas production. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) For most people, actively trying to limit your gas production isn't necessary, Kaskyap says. The amount you produce is the result of both your balance of gut bacteria and diet, and unless you're experiencing other sorts of problems — such as painful bloating — it's not wise to mess with it. "The knee-jerk reaction, for many people, is to stop eating things that produce gas," he says. "But these foods, which have complex carbohydrates, are nutrition for the bacteria in our gut. You don't want to starve them unless there's a good reason." Additionally, he notes, many people who believe they suffer from excessive gas production actually just have trouble with the flow of that gas through their intestines, perhaps due to constipation. Or, they might make the same amount of gas but emit it more frequently, in smaller doses. In either case, Kashyap says, "by changing your diet, you're not solving the problem and may in fact be harming yourself." Of course, there are exceptions here: if you produce truly excessive amounts of gas or experience painful bloating, it could be a sign of a problem — such as lactose intolerance — and you may want to see a doctor. Further reading: How bacteria in your gut could be making you fat, allergic, or anxious

‘Electronic skin’ detects pressure from different directions

 

Wed, 12/10/2014 - 2:12pm American Chemical Society A new kind of stretchy “electronic skin” (blue patch) is the first to be able to detect directional pressure. (Source: American Chemical Society)Touch can be a subtle sense, but it communicates quickly whether something in our hands is slipping, for example, so we can tighten our grip. For the first time, scientists report the development of a stretchable “electronic skin” closely modeled after our own that can detect not just pressure, but also what direction it’s coming from. The study on the advance, which could have applications for prosthetics and robotics, appears in the journal ACS Nano. Hyunhyub Ko and colleagues explain that electronic skins are flexible, film-like devices designed to detect pressure, read brain activity, monitor heart rate or perform other functions. To boost sensitivity to touch, some of them mimic microstructures found in beetles and dragonflies, for example, but none reported so far can sense the direction of stress. This is the kind of information that can tell our bodies a lot about the shape and texture of an object and how to hold it. Ko’s team decided to work on an electronic skin based on the structure of our own so it could “feel” in three dimensions. The researchers designed a wearable artificial skin made out of tiny domes that interlock and deform when poked or even when air is blown across it. It could sense the location, intensity and direction of pokes, air flows and vibrations. The scientists conclude that their advance could potentially be used for prosthetic limbs, robotic skins and rehabilitation devices. Source: ACS