| A Rush to Operating Rooms That Alters Men's Lives Prostate cancer is a dark and mysterious country, and the authors Ralph H. Blum and Dr. Mark Scholz are good, levelheaded guides through these thickets. feeds.nytimes.com |
Football: the benefits of playing into the second half (of your life) Scientists at the British Science Festival extol the advantages of playing football into middle age and beyondThe beautiful game – it's a national obsession. Many of us might play football when we're young and probably think about giving up as we get older.But hold onto your boots for a moment. At the British Science Festival in Birmingham this week, scientists argued that we can and should play football into middle and older age. And they've been thinking about how the beautiful game might be adapted for our more delicate constitutions as we reach our 30s and older.Research published earlier this year in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science found that untrained middle-aged men and women who participated in regular football for an hour two or three times a week, and elderly men (63-78 years) exposed to lifelong football had marked physiological, mental and social health benefits.They saw improved cardiovascular health and better bone density and postural strength, which can protect against broken bones in older age. The study participants reported "a sense of flow", a term used by psychologists to describe a rewarding psychological state. They also felt a sense of social belonging, which has benefits on mental health. The benefits were greater than those seen in endurance running for increases in muscle mass, some cardiovascular benefits and reduced worry. Moreover, the footballers had fun.So should we begin to build football academies for baby boomers? Not quite yet. There are certainly physical, mental and social benefits to playing football for older people, but many of these benefits are common to most regular exercise. Previously untrained football players are also at risk of injury – appropriate fitness training is necessary. A game of two halves with 45 minutes each way can perhaps be too long for some participants.The benefits of "flow" and social belonging may well be seen in other team sports such as hockey and rugby. In any case, this social aspect of football, the day out with the boys on the pitch and then in the pub, may not be compatible with all lifestyles.So what's the solution? Researchers, led by psychologist Peter Reddy, at the University of Aston held an international tournament for over-45s, in the name of research, and they believe we can learn lessons from junior football. A shorter small-sided game with three periods and a smaller goal and pitch may be more manageable. The researchers think there may also be a market for international Saga-style football tourism, a bit like golf holidays, that might provide a more family friendly environment.It's not just researchers who are looking into playing football into older age. AC Milan's laboratory, headed up by Jean-Pierre Meersseman, has tailored training for the needs of older players.In our increasingly sedentary society, perhaps it's not a bad idea to reinvigorate our enthusiasm for playing football in older age. Being more innovative in our wider public health strategy for our middle-aged and senior citizens, via football, might not be a bad idea.Monica Desai is a British Science Association media fellowAgeingHealthBritish Science Festival 2010British Science FestivalMonica Desaiguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Video: Michael Shermer on the pattern behind self-deception | GrrlScientist This video is Shermer's discussion about how the human tendency to believe strange things is actually due to two of the brain's most basic, hard-wired survival skillsIn this video, Michael Shermer presents some of the evidence that suggests the human tendency to believe strange things - from alien abductions to dowsing rods - is the result of two of the brain's most basic, hard-wired survival skills. He explains what they are, and how they get us into trouble.Dr Michael Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, executive director of the Skeptics Society, and columnist for Scientific American.TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks.GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Vital Signs: Hazards: Codeine’s Safety Is Questioned Two doctors argue in a commentary that morphine’s effects are more predictable than codeine’s. feeds.nytimes.com |
Technology is as great a force as nature 'Digital prophet' Kevin Kelly says we are experiencing the most significant period in human history since the invention of languageKevin Kelly is a former editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and co-founder of Wired magazine, where he remains editor-at-large. He has been an irrepressible prophet of our digital future for 40 years. His most influential book was Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995) – mandatory reading for all the actors in The Matrix. His latest book marks a development of such thinking. In What Technology Wants (newly published in the US by Viking), Kelly sees technology as an extension of evolutionary life, a selfish system with its own urges and desires. Kelly takes technology in its broadest sense to include all invention, including language and culture. Some of the things that technology wants are diversity, beauty and complexity. Technology may be, Kelly writes, "as much a reflection of the divine as nature is". As well as being a devoted evolutionist, Kelly is a Christian. He is 58. He lives just outside San Francisco.At one point in your book, you write that "technology is as great a force as nature". How so? Well, I am arguing that technology is both an extension and acceleration of natural evolution; what I am trying to suggest is that it is greater than the organic. Tools and technology drive us. Even if a problem has been caused by technology, the answer will always be more technology.You sense that we are in a special moment in technology's journey; do you think every civilisation has felt that? We like to think that the most marvellous organ in the world is our brain, but we obviously have to remember which organ is telling us that; we have a natural tendency to put ourselves at the centre of things. But I do think it is true that we are always at the edge of this process and have been for 10,000 years. The first singularity was language, 15,000 years ago. That was the first great technology. Are we at another cusp? I think we are. A lot of people say the invention of the internet was like the invention of fire, but I'm going further – I think actually what is happening right now might be comparable with the invention of language.And you see that as an overwhelmingly positive fact. Is that just because you are an optimistic character?If I am totally honest, I would have to say that all this is part of my temperament. When I was a younger man, instead of going to college, I went to Asia, and travelling there I caught this disease called optimism. Right before my eyes, I saw an entire continent begin to transform itself using technology from third world to first world-plus. You could see progress happening daily. When I was growing up, we prayed for the starving people of China; pretty soon they might be praying for us. So I have come to believe in the impossible.It is technology that creates these impossibilities?If I went back now 20 years and told you that all of the world's information – second-by-second stock quotes, a constantly revised encyclopaedia, 24‑hour news – would be available to you for free, at all times, in your pocket, you would have dragged me off the stage as a lunatic...Does technology change the underlying dynamics of what it is to be human?It is very clear that our media change our brains – to what extent, we are still working out. Literate people think differently to illiterate ones and the internet will no doubt have a similar effect. And if it changes the way we think, then it changes our identity and therefore it changes the way we live and the way we love. Right now, the changes are small. But I think in the long run bigger change of who we are is inevitable.And in your terms these will inevitably be changes for the good?The orthodoxy is to say technology is neutral. I acknowledge the fact that there are many destructive problems created by technology. But what I am saying is that despite all the problems, there is always a small advantage to the good, and if you multiply that small advantage incrementally, then over years and generations it becomes a very positive thing. Even if there is only one-tenth of a percent more good than bad in technology, or if we create one percent more than we destroy each year, then that compounded is how civilisation progresses.Should we describe this purposive force, this compound interest of goodness, as God?I call it exotropic force. We can't describe it without supernatural language. It is the force that runs counter to entropy – the force of life if you like. This energy is not evenly spread in the universe but we happen to live in a little corner where exotropy is greatly accelerated to produce not only life, but also minds and now technology from those minds.And the purpose – what technology wants – is understanding?The point of technology, I would say, is to create structures that organics cannot. What life is trying to do is to discover all the possible ways to evolve. What we are seeing is that there are possibly minds in the universe that biology cannot get to, but technology might be able to get there. We are making minds that biology can't make. The long-term trend will be to make as many different kinds of mind as possible, because only in that way can we comprehend the universe.Is more of this exotropic energy found in California than elsewhere?A hotel clerk in Delhi once said to me that the centre of the universe is where there is least resistance to new ideas. The hippy origins of the computer revolution are well documented. Changing consciousness and changing tools, they have always gone together, and in our lifetime California is where this has happened.How would you describe yourself in religious terms?I'm a Christian.A Christian with caveats?We go to a rock'n'roll church in San Francisco. I'm an evolutionist but I happen to believe that Jesus was some incarnation of God. My epiphany for that came from looking at virtual realities, god-games. Those who create the rules always want to put themselves inside the world they have made to see how it feels. There it was: the Christian story. I believe that we are creators and that we will create in the way that we were created. The minds we create will eventually have free will. When we achieve that we will start to appreciate the complexities of godhood.InternetEvolutionBiologyChristianityTim Adamsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |