iblog

Rushda: After doing a number of tests on animals, researchers from the Royal Veterinary College believe they have seen a possible link between the food mothers eat during pregnancy and the eating habits of their children. Indeed it is very likely, they say, that those mothers who eat lots of junk food when they are pregnant will have children who also have the same cravings.

The results come after studying pregnant rats which were given different diets. Those rats who were given unhealthy foods like crisps and sweets were found to have babies who ate more unhealthily too. On the other hand, pregnant rats who were fed “rat chow”, an unappealing but more healthy diet, gave birth to rats who were more likely to eat it, even after being allowed the unhealthy foods as well.

The head of research, Professor Neil Stickland, believes there is evidence to suggest that humans work in the same way. He argues that the mother’s diet is vital for ensuring children’s health. He says:

“The government is trying to encourage healthier eating habits in school, but this shows that we need to start during the foetal and suckling life. Future mothers should be aware that pregnancy and lactation are not the time to over-indulge on fatty and sugary treats on the assumption that they are ‘eating for two’.”

A healthy and balanced diet for the mother has always been encouraged but these results emphasise its importance even more. Obviously a lot more needs to be done before a link similar to that found in rats can be established in humans. However, if it really is the case that cravings can be inherited, it is perhaps possible for mothers to give their children a healthier start by being careful about their own diet before giving birth.

Rushda: A team of researchers from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have recently estimated that the future of power could lie in paper batteries that are only slightly larger than a postage stamp! They have already produced flexible paper batteries that are able to release up to 2.3 volts of electricity - sufficient for a small light. But this is apparently only a glimpse of what is to come - indeed, the researchers say that their ambition is that one day even cars will be powered by paper batteries.

The research into the paper battery (which can be found in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) is very exciting news as it could prove to be very beneficial in a number of ways. Unlike a normal battery which contains separate parts, the paper battery is a single structure which makes it more energy efficient, something which could be of paramount importance in years to come. Professor Linhardt, who co-authored a report on the new technology says:

“Think of all the disadvantages of an old TV set with tubes. “The warm up time, power loss, component malfunction; you don’t get those problems with integrated devices. When you transfer power from one component to another you lose energy. But you lose less energy in an integrated device.”

He argues that because the battery consists mostly of carbon and paper, it could also be used inside the body, for example to power pacemakers, because unlike ordinary batteries there wouldn’t be a toxic threat.

Most are understandably amazed by the results of the study. Personally I’m very impressed at the way progress in technology is really going at phenomenal speeds - who would have even thought of the concept of batteries made of paper a while back? I really wonder how different the world will be in a couple of generations!

Virgil: Three hackers recently managed to change data on the United Nations webpage for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, plastering accusations that the USA and Israel were responsible for killing children. The UN website was forced to take the pages offline for repair.

Whilst other sections of the site were also altered, the main area of attack was a section reserved for statements made by the secretary general. These were wiped and replaced with the text:

“HACKED BY KEREM125 M0STED AND GSY THAT IS CYBERPROTEST HEY ŶSRAIL AND USA DONT KILL CHILDREN AND OTHER PEOPLE PEACE FOREVER NO WAR”.

“kerem125″, “m0sted” and “gsy” have previously attacked several other websites, describing themselves as “Turkish defacers”. Despite this piece of information they have not been caught.

I personally find the act highly immature and dishonourable. If they had something to say, there are many legal avenues of protest. However, regardless of the method, protest is about highlighting actions needed to change the world for the better, not just mindlessly accusing countries of killing children. The attack was unproductive at best, nothing but vandalism at worst. The only eyebrows they may have raised will be in surprise that the UN’s website didn’t have better defences.

The so-called cyberprotest has come to very little effect; the page has now been restored, and - no doubt due to the crassness of the alterations - no one is taking the event particularly seriously. I wonder whether the hackers were really out to protest or just prove to their buddies they could break in.

Jeanne: The Cuban President, Fidel Castro appears to be . This appears to be yet another reminder of that fact that the 81-year-old President no longer holds the reigns of power in this one of the last surviving Communist regimes. For over a year now, Castro’s brother, Raul, has served as de-facto leader and little has been seen of Fidel since he entered hospital over a year ago.

Reports have suggested that Castro is currently suffering from some form of intestinal cancer. However, the Cuban government has denied this. Cuban government officials remain tight-lipped when it comes to providing details on Castro’s current condition. Little has been seen of the leader during the last two months. Pictures provided to the media a few months ago showed a frail Mr. Castro. His current location is a state secret.

However, Mr. Castro will not be forgotten any time soon despite the fact that he is unlikely to ever make any sort of return to Cuban politics. The fireworks which marked his birthday were a reminder of the significant role played by Castro in the politics of the region since the 1950s. Even during his illness, Castro’s influence continues to be felt in Cuban media: for example, his editorials routinely appear in the Cuban print media. Many observers believe that Castro has now taken a new position as an advisor to his brother, who has little experience in politics. And despite the many Cuban dissidents who flee to the United States every day, Mr. Castro appears to have many supporters in Cuba as well. Party members held candle-lit vigils across the island as a mark of solidarity with their leader.

So far the handover of power in Cuba appears to have gone relatively smoothly. Raul Castro has indicated that he intends to implement much needed reforms to the Cuban economy. It is likely that the longer Fidel Castro remains out of the public eye, the more likely it is that the current state of affairs will continue.

Jeanne: Researchers believe that a treatment used by the Red Army to combat bacterial infections could now be used to deal with the deadly MRSA bug which, in recent years, has claimed many lives in British hospitals. The cure for bacterial infections was a staple in the kit-bags of Red Army doctors and is still used commonly in Eastern European hospitals. It was developed by Soviet scientists during the 1930s. Whilst antibiotics such as penicillin gradually became the norm in the West, in the Soviet Union, Georgian scientists pioneered the development of what became known as bacteriophages (which literally means ‘to eat bacteria’). Bacteriophages were used by Soviet doctors to treat everything from gangrene to strep throat.

Doctors now believe that the Soviet treatment could be used to treat MRSA sufferers in the UK. It is likely to have important uses in the future as well. With doctors more willing than ever to prescribe antibiotics, a number of bacterial strains have now shown resistance to such treatments. Drug companies have found it increasingly difficult to develop new types of antibiotics, not least because of the time and money costs involved. Research into a new drug costs in the region of $800 million and it can take up to ten years before the new drug enters the market.

However, bacteriophages have their limitations as well. A specific phage is required to treat each type of infection. Nevertheless, according to Dr Ron Dixon, Head of the Department of Forensic and Biomedical Sciences at Lincoln University, this feature is not necessarily a disadvantage:

It’s this specificity which makes them so attractive. It will only kill the bacteria you want it to.

Bacteriophages work in a specific manner. On entering the body, they latch on to the offending bacteria infusing their own DNA into its cells. The bacteria cells then transform into phages. Once the job is complete, the bacteriophages disappear. At the moment, scientists have only a very limited knowledge about potential side effects associated with this treatment. However, Soviet scientists have noted a number of deaths as a result of the treatment during the 1930s and 1940s. Nevertheless, British doctors are cautiously optimistic that the Red Army’s treatment of bacterial infection could one day be used to combat more modern diseases.

Rushda: It might seem a little drastic, but that hasn’t stopped an academic in London getting so annoyed with the spelling mistakes of his undergraduate students that he wants to publish a whole list shaming them and their poor command of English.

The victim of the mistakes is Dr Bernard Lamb, who is a reader of Genetics at Imperial College London. Lamb, who has been with Imperial College for almost 30 years and is also the chair of the London branch of the Queen’s English Society, says he was so upset by the consistently low level of English from his students that he will publish a list of mistakes made by 75 students over the course of an academic year. Examples of misspellings include “sun” instead of “son”, “seamen” instead of “semen”, and constant confusions over “affect” and “effect”. Lamb argues that publishing the list will encourage students to be more careful.

Of the scripts he marks, Lamb has said:

“I correct them but they still get it wrong. They haven’t been trained to be accurate. They haven’t been corrected and a lot of them don’t even think it’s important. This year I just found the errors were so frequent I wanted to get publicity to put pressure on the education establishment.”

As noble as the sentiment may be, I only wonder: who will even want to buy it?

Rushda: Scientists have recently discovered that ordinary blind matter in space can take on characteristics of living organisms. Apparently galactic dust could transform into helixes and double helixes, and these formations would even have the memory and power to reproduce themselves.

The study was done by an international panel from the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck institute in Germany and the University of Sydney. The scientists believe their research will transform our beliefs about human and alien life. They also support the ongoing bid for Nasa to start a search for what is often called “weird life” - organisms that lack DNA but still potentially count as life forms.

The researchers are amazed by the results, which are published in New Journal of Physics. The study shows that when non organic dust, when held in the form of plasma at zero gravity form helical structures that are strikingly similar to the helixes of DNA. Apparently these particle structures could contain a code which is very similar to the genetic information held inside organic matter, and most interestingly, the code is likely to be able to replicate itself across generations.

As Professor Greg Morfill, of the Max Planck institute of extra-terrestrial physics, has said:

“Going by our current narrow definitions of what life is, it qualifies. The question now is to see if it can evolve to become intelligent. It’s a little bit like science fiction at the moment. The potential level of complexity we are looking at is of an amoeba or a plant. I do not believe that the systems we are talking about are life as we know it. We need to define the criteria for what we think of as life much more clearly.”

It really does all sounds like something out of science fiction, and indeed Philip Pullman fans will be probably be reminded of how similar this science is to his world of conscious dust in His Dark Materials. As pretty as the picture is however, I think a lot more needs to be done before establishing something like this counts as life and like most I remain sceptical. Only future research in this fascinating field will tell how much of this theory is really fantasy and how much is not.

Virgil: There are fears that the History A-Level is under threat through lack of popularity - being an optional part of the National Curriculum after the age of 14, students are opting for the so-called “softer subjects” such as Media Studies instead. Will this mark an even bigger decline in the poor number of British youngsters who have little idea of their own country’s past or its place in the world?

The decline in the subject goes alongside loss of interest in Geography and Modern Languages, all of which are seen as boring, useless options, unless you want to become bookish, a weatherman, or go on holiday a lot - the former necessitating less exciting and lucrative careers, the latter requiring more exciting and lucrative careers.

Katherina Tattersall, of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors, considers this change in emphasis, saying:

“History is … disappearing into the new citizenship, which is being promoted by the government.”

Whether the government is to blame is a matter of debate. Over in America, all primary school children are taught to memorise the chronology of American presidents, and some begin to learn the names of all the states. Over here, very few children will know about the chronology of English Kings. However, whilst some fears are over children not knowing enough about their own country, there are others saying the History syllabus is far too English-orientated. Some advocates have even complained that a focus on “Britishness” amounts to fuelling racism.

A spokesperson from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCFS) comments that the important thing to focus on in teaching History is to give pupils an overview of it. To extend his point, I think it’s fairly obvious that the useful thing to be taught before A-Level is where everything stands - it’s knowledge that will help you to understand the world, and will also help you decide what topic to go into further detail on if you take the subject on to A-Level or further.

OFSTED states that History is one of the best taught subjects at schools, a statistic that I personally never benefited from. But whether there are flaws in the teaching or the focus of the subject, the DCSF is positive that enough interest remains in the subject at A-Level for it to continue, with over a quarter of a million entries last year.

Jeanne: The Arctic is one of the most inhospitable regions of the world. However, it is rich in natural resources, and with supplies of fossil fuels dwindling, a number of countries have sought to take possession of the territory in the hope that they will be able to lay claim to its vast fuel deposits.

A week ago, Russian navel crews set about mapping part of the region, which they argue belongs to their country. According to the Russians, this is because the disputed area forms part of the Russian continental shelf. In a controversial move, they placed a Russian flag over part of the disputed Arctic territory. However, Russia is not the only country to have staked an ownership claim over this cold, barren wasteland. Just a few days ago, the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, embarked on a three-day visit to the Arctic. Not surprisingly, he has been highly critical of Russia’s activities in the region:

“Canada has taken its sovereignty too lightly for too long. This government has put a big emphasis on reinforcing and strengthening our sovereignty in the Arctic.”

However, ownership of the Arctic Ocean and her surrounding icy territories is anything but clear-cut. At the moment, jurisdiction over the Arctic seabed is monitored by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is likely that ownership claims will have to be resolved through further scientific analysis of the seabed – what Russian scientists claim to have been doing during the recent incident. Unusually, the Russians have also received support some individuals within the Canadian scientific and intellectual community. Michael Byers, a professor at the University of British Colombia has commented on the matter, stating:

“The Russians are fully committed, at a political and scientific level, to filing a comprehensive scientific claim, with the United Nations. They’re perfectly entitled to do so, in fact I think we should celebrate that they’re working within the framework of international law. Politicians in Russia or Canada can never lose domestically by standing up for sovereignty in the Arctic. But underlying all of the rhetoric is the very important fact that all of the Arctic countries are working within a legal framework.”

With yesterday’s announcement from Denmark that she too would be sending an expedition to the region, matters are likely to remain quite frosty on the Arctic front for some time to come.

Rushda: Finally philosophy is being taught to younger pupils, as a number of schools such as Eliot Bank Primary School in Forest Hill, south-east London have begun to offer lessons in what is normally a subject only taken at university. The seven-year-olds frequently sit in the classroom and discuss opinions to famous old riddles such as “whether it is possible to step in the same river twice?” which was originally asked by the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus centuries ago. The teachers at the school are delighted with the response so far and believe that learning to think philosophically when young helps develop minds and encourages children to think and discuss.

As Mr Worley, the philosophy teacher at the school says:

“In philosophy, instead of working out how to do a sum, we think about what maths actually is. As Einstein says, once a mind has been stretched over a new idea - it cannot be stretched back. It’s opening up channels in the brain - teaching them to think for themselves by giving them the tools to do that. And they’re learning skills in how to discuss and argue with people - but constructively.”

Being a philosophy student myself, I was delighted to discover that finally philosophy is being given the importance it deserves by being offered to younger students. I think it was about time that people realise that thinking philosophically can be encouraged at any age, and as well as it being enjoyable to study, the benefits of it, even when applied to other disciplines, are huge. For example, a recent study has even suggested that children’s IQs improved by learning philosophy at an early age. Congratulations then to Eliot Bank for taking such a great initiative!