TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Mariner Rig Accident Undercuts Efforts to End Drilling Moratorium As lawmakers call for new inquiries into Thursday's accident, oil industry executives say it will now be more difficult to lift the government's offshore drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. feeds.nytimes.com |
Child's cancer risks rise 'before pregnancy' Biggest study on preventing the disease finds parents' habits and upbringing play major roleThe chances of getting cancer begin even before conception, according to one of the world's leading experts in nutrition. Women's lifestyles before getting pregnant and while carrying their baby have a major impact on whether their child will develop the disease, Professor Ricardo Uauy said.Uauy, an adviser to the United Nations and the World Health Organisation, has put together the most comprehensive picture yet of cancer prevention throughout the course of a life, including how what happens to babies helps to define their risk later. Whether a mother-to-be smokes, drinks or is overweight all play a key role, said Uauy, a professor of public health nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.Cancer risk is usually associated with people's genes and their behaviour as adults. But emerging scientific evidence pinpoints the influence both of parents and the family's circumstances, he said."Someone's risk of developing cancer starts from before the time of conception. The risk factors are already operating in the mother's eggs before conception," said Uauy."Yes, cancer is a genetic disease, but your chances of getting cancer are affected by the environment in which you live. So it's not just about if you smoked from the age of 12. But did your mother smoke? What was the water like that she drank? Is she exposed to toxins such as dioxins, which are found in the environment, and did she pass them on to her baby through her breast milk?"Uauy, who helped the World Cancer Research Fund to draw up its landmark 2007 global report on prevention, used growing evidence of how early-life factors affect the chances of developing the disease to highlight at a WCRF scientific conference last week what parents can do to minimise their child's cancer risk.His analysis has led him to recommend that parents seek to reduce their baby's risk of cancer as an adult by steps such as eating less tinned food, reducing exposure to chemicals, limiting their child's television viewing to encourage active play habits, and not telling children to clean their plate at mealtimes in order to avoid obesity.Women should stop smoking before they start trying to conceive, because that increases the chances of the child having a low birthweight. Children born lighter than average often then put on weight quickly, but in the form of fat rather than muscle, and develop fat around the middle, which raises cancer risk. Women should achieve a body mass index of between 18.5 and 25 before they conceive, said Uauy. They should not drink alcohol, take an iron tablet if necessary, and ensure they get at least 400 micrograms of folate every day.Girls born weighing more than 8.8lb, or about 4kg, are at increased risk of breast cancer. For each 500g beyond 8.8lb of birthweight, the child has a 6% increased risk of the disease. Obesity has been linked to various cancers, including colon, breast and kidney cancer. "Mothers-to-be only need to consume an extra 150 calories a day during the nine months of pregnancy, and should not 'eat for two'," stressed Uauy.Pregnancy weight is also important because girls born unusually long – the average length of a newborn baby is 50cm – are at increased risk of breast cancer, while longer boys may have a greater chance of prostate cancer.In the child's early life, breastfeeding has recognised anti-cancer effects. Babies should not eat any solid food until they are six months old, nor be given any sweet drinks such as fruit juices in case that encourages an appetite during childhood for sugar-laden drinks, which promote weight gain.Children should also not spend more than 90 minutes a day watching television, using a computer or playing games involving hand-held consoles, as too much sedentary activity contributes to obesity.CancerPregnancyCancerDenis Campbellguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
2 Brothers Await Broad Use of Medical E-Records After more than a decade, Dr. Tom Doerr and his brother, John, see a possible turning point for their business with Apple’s iPad and a national mandate for digital medical records. feeds.nytimes.com |
Scientist at Work: Trip to Kolombangara Island Scientists travel through one of the world's biggest lagoon systems to reach Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Islands. feeds.nytimes.com |
Spooks and Horizon | TV review The new series of Spooks is even more bonkers than ever. But it's still a brilliant rollercoaster, says Sam WollastonSpooks series blog: series nine, episode sixYou may be interested to hear what happens when someone experiences technological difficulties here at the Guardian. A frozen screen, lost file, that kind of thing. So you call the IT department. And one of the nice people will ask some questions in order to diagnose the problem, then they'll say they're going to take control of the computer remotely from wherever they are (the basement I imagine, like in The IT Crowd). It's quite weird, seeing your cursor moving around the screen without you doing anything. Like some one's taken over your mind.Not interesting? The same where you are? I only mention it because something similar happens in this episode of Spooks (BBC1). But it's not the MI5 IT department moving the cursor around Harry and the team's screens. Nor are they searching for a three-quarters finished but totally unsaved television review. This is a Chinese-Russian alliance of cyber-hackers and it's after classified information: state secrets, information about troop movements, that kind of thing. The enemy is intent on causing maximum damage.So, desperately trying to keep the MI5/my workplace parallel alive, it's as if the IT departments of the Times and the Independent have successfully hacked into our system and now control Guardian computers. They're undermining our integrity by typing gibberish interspersed with rude words, then sending it off to our printers. (What do you mean you've long thought that was already happening? Cheeky.) And they've locked down the building so we can't get out to tell the world what's going on. Look up at the second floor: that's me at the window, holding up a piece of paper. "DON'T BELIEVE OUR LIES" it says.Here the two paths – ours and MI5's – diverge. Because what we don't have lying around the office at Kings Place is an old bomb that can be recommissioned and used to blast our way out (well, security editor Richard Norton-Taylor probably does, but he's not in today, and his drawer's locked). The Spooks dudes do though, and are able to escape their prison, then locate and capture the enemy. And the west is saved from defeat in the cyber war.It wasn't going well up to that point. The Taliban had already hacked into allied networks, figured out how to make US drones perform U-turns in mid-air and attack the bases they'd just left (you'll soon be able to read about it on WikiLeaks). This was due to discrepancies in the American and British operating systems – they'd upgraded to Windows 7, we were still on 3.1. But if you can do this from a cave in the Afghan mountains, imagine what a collaboration between China and Russia could have achieved. The security of the free world was looking seriously compromised. But in the end, even in these hi-tech times, what won the day was a good dollop of old-fashioned British pluck. Hurrah!I don't do Spooks religiously any more. These days I just drop in from time to time, usually to find that someone I used to like is no longer there, most probably neutralised (bayonet protocol, data five, as Harry says when he's authorising a kill). Plus it's increasingly unclear whose side Lucas is on. And the whole thing is even more bonkers than it was before. It doesn't really matter though; it's still bloody good fun, a buttock-clenching roller-coaster. The music's so good too. If you had it for your ringtone would your life immediately become more exciting and glamorous? Only one way to find out.Horizon: Miracle Cure? A Decade of the Human Genome (BBC2) has a different, deeper and more real kind of urgency to it. The documentary assesses how much progress has been made in finding treatments for genetic diseases since the decoding of the human genome 10 years ago. But it's given a whole lot of extra personal potency because the three people doing the investigating have genetic disorders themselves. So it's not just a case of: "Tell us about this interesting research you're doing." It's more along the lines of: "Any idea when you may have figured out how to diffuse this ticking time bomb I've got round my neck?" Especially for Sophie, who has cystic fibrosis and whose lungs will pack up in the not-too-distant future. She does a brilliant job, finding out about mutated genes and how it will be possible to insert healthy genes into cells, how gene therapy is already being used to treat other condictions. And all the time inside she must be shouting – gasping – get a bloody move on.TelevisionSpooksDocumentaryMedicineGeneticsSam Wollastonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |