Americans drink half the world’s orange juice — 21 quarts per person each year. Most of them do so because of reasons connected to taste and to the perceived health benefits of a glass of O.J. every day. But that may change soon. According to a new study by scientists at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, purple grape juice is now your best bet for preventing heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and a host of other chronic ailments. Elixir for a Long Life What’s the secret ingredient that makes juice such a potent weapon against disease? Well, all juices contain chemical compounds known as polyphenols — a variety of antioxidant that, when consumed, helps to remove harmful free radicals from the body. Although exact information about how antioxidants combat illness is not forthcoming, a number of studies place them at the forefront of protecting the body from free radicals, molecules that destroy cells and allow diseases to develop. The findings from the University of Glasgow come on the heels of the recent U.S.-based Kame project, which suggested that volunteers who drank three or more glasses of juice a week could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s […]
RALEIGH, N.C. — Hardly articulate, the tiny strangleweed, a pale parasitic plant, can sense the presence of friends, foes, and food, and make adroit decisions on how to approach them. Mustard weed, a common plant with a six-week life cycle, can’t find its way in the world if its root-tip statolith – a starchy ‘brain’ that communicates with the rest of the plant – is cut off. The ground-hugging mayapple plans its growth two years into the future, based on computations of weather patterns. And many who visit the redwoods of the Northwest come away awed by the trees’ survival for millenniums – a journey that, for some trees, precedes the Parthenon. As trowel-wielding scientists dig up a trove of new findings, even those skeptical of the evolving paradigm of ‘plant intelligence’ acknowledge that, down to the simplest magnolia or fern, flora have the smarts of the forest. Some scientists say they carefully consider their environment, speculate on the future, conquer territory and enemies, and are often capable of forethought – revelations that could affect everyone from gardeners to philosophers. Indeed, extraordinary new findings on how plants investigate and respond to their environments are part of […]
Over a span of two decades, warming temperatures have caused annual losses of roughly $5 billion for major food crops, according to a new study by researchers at the Carnegie Institution and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. From 1981-2002, warming reduced the combined production of wheat, corn, and barley-cereal grains that form the foundation of much of the world’s diet-by 40 million metric tons per year. The study demonstrates that this decline is due to human-caused increases in global temperatures. ‘Most people tend to think of climate change as something that will impact the future,’ said Christopher Field, co-author on the study and director of Carnegie’s Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, Calif. ‘But this study shows that warming over the past two decades has already had real effects on global food supply.’ The study is the first to estimate how much global food production has already been affected by climate change. Field and David Lobell, lead author of the study and a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, compared yield figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization with average temperatures and precipitation in the major growing regions. They found that, on average, global yields for several […]
He doesn’t ask for directions after repeatedly taking wrong turns, and when he’s hurt you’d never know it. The stereotypical ‘tough guy’ or ‘real man’ rarely asks for help or shows signs of weakness, because then he wouldn’t be a guy, right? While many scientists have considered these masculine tendencies to be barriers to health and recovery, a small study of about 50 men suggests the opposite. The man-of-steel mentality, often associated with military men and those in other high-risk occupations, can boost and speed up a guy’s recovery from a serious and/or traumatic injury possibly. ‘It has long been assumed that men are not as concerned and don’t take as good of care of their health,’ said lead study author Glenn Good of the University of Missouri, Columbia, ‘but what we’re seeing here is that the same ideas that led to their injuries may actually encourage their recovery.’ The annual incidence of traumatic brain injuries in the United States is greater than that of all cancers, Good writes in his study, and men account for three-quarters of such injuries. The number will increase if the Iraq war continues, he said. Manly scale Good […]
A nation in ruins 2,000,000 Iraqis now live outside Iraq, according to UNHCR 12,000 doctors have fled Iraq since the war began. Another 2,000 are said to have been killed, and at least 250 kidnapped 50% Average inflation in 2006, according to the World Bank 6.3 hours of electricity daily in Baghdad in December 2006. In May 2003 there were 16-24 hours 32 percentage of people in Iraq with drinkable water 3,700,000 Iraqis now receive food aid from the UN World Food Programme 16% Proportion of Iraqis who said in January that their income meets their basic needs ————— Four years ago this Tuesday, George Bush began his ill-fated Iraq campaign. Today’s news that the US is sending an extra battalion to Baghdad will push troop levels to 160,000 – 10,000 more than at the time of the invasion US troop levels in Iraq are set to rise higher than at any time since the war began four years ago, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. This summer, troop levels will top 160,000 – compared with the 150,000 there were at the time of the invasion. As Britain […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
