WASHINGTON — Low-oxygen zones where sea life is threatened or cannot survive are growing as the oceans are heated by global warming, researchers warn. Oxygen-depleted zones in the central and eastern equatorial Atlantic and equatorial Pacific oceans appear to have expanded over the last 50 years, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science. Low-oxygen zones in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas also have been studied in recent years, raising concerns about the threat to sea life. Continued expansion of these zones could have dramatic consequences for both sea life and coastal economies, said the team led by Lothar Stramma of the University of Kiel in Germany. The finding was not surprising, Stramma said, because computer climate models had predicted a decline in dissolved oxygen in the oceans under warmer conditions. Warmer water simply cannot absorb as much oxygen as colder water, explained co-author Gregory C. Johnson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. There are complex biological and chemical interactions in these low-oxygen regions, Stramma said, adding that this needs to be more closely studied. Frank A. Whitney of Canada’s Institute of Ocean […]
Nursing a migraine today? New research shows you’re not alone. More than a quarter of Americans suffer daily pain, a condition that costs the U.S. about $60 billion a year in lost productivity. And how often you’re in pain depends largely on the size of your paycheck. Americans in households making less than $30,000 a year spend nearly 20% of their lives in moderate to severe pain, compared with less than 8% of people in households earning above $100,000, according to a landmark study on how Americans experience in pain. The findings, published Thursday in the British journal the Lancet, also found that participants who hadn’t finished high school reported feeling twice the amount of pain as college graduates. ‘To a significant extent, pain does separate the classes,’ says Princeton economist Alan Krueger, who authored the study along with Dr. Arthur Stone, a psychiatry professor at Stony Brook University. Krueger notes that the type of pain people reported typically fell on either side of the rich-poor divide. ‘Those with higher incomes welcome pain almost by choice, usually through exercise,’ he says. ‘At lower incomes, pain comes as the result of work.’ Indeed, Krueger and Stone found that blue-collar […]
The ‘ketogenic’ diet, which features high levels of fat, low levels of carbohydrates and controlled protein intake, helps control and prevent seizures in children with drug-resistant epilepsy, a new study finds. The trial is the first randomized controlled study to confirm that the ketogenic diet — widely used since the 1920s — is effective against epilepsy, the British researchers said. Experts believe that the regimen’s high fat and restricted carbohydrate content mimics the biochemical response to starvation, when compounds called ketone bodies (rather than sugar) provide the main source of energy for the brain. Ketone bodies are byproducts produced when fatty acids are broken down for energy in the liver and kidneys. They are used as energy sources in the heart and brain. In the brain, ketone bodies are a crucial source of energy when a person fasts. This University College London study included 145 children, aged 2 to 16, who suffered seizures at least once a day or more than seven seizures per week. These patients hadn’t responded to treatment with at least two epileptic drugs, and hadn’t previously been placed on the ketogenic diet. Baseline information about the children’s seizures was first recorded. […]
INDIANAPOLIS — Until now, Shirley Morgan had always been the kind of voter the Republican Party thought it could count on. She comes from a family of staunch Republicans, has a son in the military and has supported Republican presidential candidates ever since she cast her first ballot, for Richard M. Nixon in 1972. But this year Mrs. Morgan exemplifies a different breed: the Republican crossing over to vote in the Democratic primary. Not only will she mark her ballot for Senator Barack Obama in the May 6 primary here, but she has also been canvassing for him in the heavily Republican suburbs of Hamilton County, just north of Indianapolis – the first time she has ever actively campaigned for a candidate. ‘I used to like John McCain, but he’s aligning himself too closely with what Bush did, and that’s just not what I want for this country,’ Mrs. Morgan, who is 56, said when asked to explain her rejection of the presumptive Republican nominee. Since the start of the primary and caucus season in January, Republican voters have been crossing over in increasing numbers to vote in Democratic contests – supplying up to 10 percent of […]
Two parched years – punctuated by the driest spring in at least 150 years – could force districts across California to ration water this summer as policymakers and scientists grow increasingly concerned that the state is on the verge of a long-term drought. State water officials reported Thursday that the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of a huge portion of California’s water supply, was only 67 percent of normal, due in part to historically low rainfall in March and April. With many reservoirs at well-below-average levels from the previous winter and a federal ruling limiting water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the new data added a dimension to a crisis already complicated by crumbling infrastructure, surging population and environmental concerns. ‘We’re in a dry spell if not a drought,’ said California Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman. ‘We’re in the second year, and if we’re looking at a third year, we’re talking about a serious problem.’ Chrisman stopped short of saying the state would issue mandatory water rationing, which appears possible only if the governor declares a state of emergency. Rather, the burden will fall on local water agencies. Many, such as San Francisco and […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
