Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind

Age-related macular degeneration, known as AMD, is a disease that affects the central area of the retina, causing sight loss.  The Centre for Eye Research Australia has just done a study showing that by incorporating olive oil into your diet, the risk of developing AMD is reduced drastically.

The study found that people who consumed roughly seven tablespoons of olive oil per week were fifty percent less likely to develop AMD as they begin to age.  The doctors say that the reason olive oil slows the onset of AMD is because it is rich in antioxidants like Vitamin E and also contains an anti-inflammatory which helps protect blood vessels in the eye.  Other foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids are also beneficial.  These include fish, like salmon and tuna, as well as most nuts.

While this study proposes a potential preemptive strike against the disease, it also gives future researchers insight into what causes the disease in the first place.  By knowing what can help prevent it, they may be able to develop something that could target the underlying causes and eliminate it entirely.

To read the original article, please go to http://cera.unimelb.edu.au/news/Media%20Release%20-%20Good%20fats%20prevent%20blindness%20in%20old%20age.pdf

While the deadly earthquake that rocked Chile on February 27 absolutely moved the Earth around quite a bit, the powerful shaker also knocked our planet off of its axis and shortened our day.

According to a NASA scientist, the Earth’s axis was altered by roughly 3 inches. A short search on the internet revealed that the Earth weighs an estimated 13 septillion pounds. That’s a 13 with 24 zeros after it. So, while in the grand scheme of things 3 inches may seem very small, that’s one big boulder to be tilting over.

However, while the Earth is a huge rock to be moving, this quake was nothing to scoff at. With a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale, it produced roughly 67 exajoules of energy. As a basis of comparison, if the United States could have harnessed that energy, it would power the entire country for over four and a half years. The violent event was also equivalent to the explosion of 15.8 gigatons of TNT, a blast roughly 316 times more powerful than the largest nuclear explosion in history. In short, it was rather large and shook Chile quite a bit.

As was mentioned before, this quake also shortened our day. While it is probably impossible to perceive, our day is now 1.26 microseconds shorter. It’s a measurement of time that not even the Olympic judges would pay attention to. But again, keep in mind that the Earth is a pretty large object to be jostling this much. This effect, called the “ice skater effect,” is due to the massive amount of rock being moved, which changes the overall mass distribution of Earth, and thus the way it spins. They call it the ice skater effect because if you watch a figure skater spin, they rotate faster as they bring their arms closer to their body and change the distribution of their mass.

Other effects of the earthquake may be more perceivable. Santa Maria Island of the coast of the Chilean city of Concepcion may have lifted as much as 6 feet, and the resulting tsunami that swept across the Pacific has hit the Hawaiian Islands some 6,500 miles away and forced Japan to issue its own warnings another 4,100 miles away.

The current death toll sits at about 720 people, but as many as two million are displaced from their homes in the country that’s been rattled to its core.

To read the original article, please go to

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-01/chilean-quake-likely-shifted-earth-s-axis-nasa-scientist-says.html

Various numbers were acquired using calculations from www.wolframalpha.com

Familial Exudative Vitreoretinopathy, otherwise known as FEVR is an inherited disease that causes the blood vessels in the retina do not fully develop.  Researchers studying this disease found that a specific gene, known as TSPAN 12, is at fault by disrupting cell signals as the blood vessels develop in the back of the eye.

What makes their finding so important is that by screening family members to see if they have a TSPAN 12 gene mutation, they may be able to eliminate any chance of blindness in the affected person before the disease has a stronghold.  The gene can lie dormant in family members of those who are affected by the disease and if doctors can establish that the gene has mutated and been passed along, they can perform surgery before any retinal damage has occurred.

While these findings will immediately aid in helping those who suffer from FEVR, it will also broaden the understanding of how other genetic diseases affect blindness.  With gene science becoming increasingly more advanced, research like this could mean that someday soon, doctors will know exactly what gene is causing a certain blindness disorder and will be able to treat it effectively without the patient’s sight ever being compromised.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/gene-discovery-may-offer-blindness-cure-2_100318805.html

Oxytocin, sometimes called the “love hormone,” has been thought to encourage bonding between a mother and her baby.  Now, it seems that a study may also show that the hormone, when administered through an inhaler, may alleviate the symptoms of autism in some patients. 

The study involved 13 individuals who had been diagnosed with high functioning autism. Eleven of the participants were men and two were women. The experiment involved how the autism patients focused on other people’s faces. Most people with autism have a hard time looking people in the face while communicating, which leads to their poor social skills and inability to be comfortable during normal social interactions. The results of the experiment showed that after the oxytocin was administered, the participants paid much closer attention to facial expressions in pictures and had a better understanding of social cues in a game situation.

The reason why doctors believed that there was a connection in oxytocin was not only because it connects mothers to their babies, but also because children diagnosed with autism are usually found to have very low oxytocin levels.  If this test proves successful in further trials, they may be able to begin administering oxytocin treatments to people at a much younger age and counteract the onset of impaired social interactions entirely.

With an estimated 1 in 110 children being diagnosed with autism, experiments like this could have a potentially huge impact on our society.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61E4NA20100216

While it may seem like something straight out of science fiction, a company has developed glass in a spray can.  The spray solution is based on silica, which is also present in real glass as well.  When the solution is mixed with either water or ethanol, it can be sprayed on a number of surfaces and objects to protect them from nearly anything.  At just 100 nanometers thick, the layer of glass is 500 times thinner than a human hair when applied, making it amazingly thin considering its laundry list of potential uses. 

The miraculously scant layer of glass can repel dirt, water, and bacteria and can resist acid, heat, and UV light while still remaining breathable.  It is also extremely environmentally friendly because it allows a surface to be cleaned without the use of bleach or other harmful chemicals.  When tested in Germany, it was found that surfaces treated with the glass could be easily cleaned with nothing more than hot water and were more sterile than untreated surfaces that were scoured with bleach.  What’s more impressive is that the surfaces treated with the glass would stay that way for months, proving that the spray is as resilient as it is thin.  The company claims that a bathtub may only need to be treated with the spray once per year to maintain its amazing cleaning properties.

But what about softer items like cloths?  Well, since the layer is so thin and remains breathable, clothing would be able to be sprayed down as well.  You could dump a whole bottle of wine on your shirt and it would just slide right off.  Speaking of wine, the company also claims that corks sprayed with the solution might prevent wines from becoming corked, a condition that occurs when contaminants in the cork spoil the flavor of the wine.

Even plants can be treated with this spray to give them increased resistance to fungi and molds and plant seeds could be treated to ensure quicker and more reliable germination, something that might mean the world to developing countries attempting to grow more of their own food.

The list could go on and on, really.  The spray seems to be the most innovative protective implement developed in decades and will definitely have far reaching uses that haven’t even been thought of yet.  Currently, the product is available in Germany and will be sold in the United Kingdom very soon.  Hopefully, this will be offered in the states in the near future as well.  I know I’m looking forward to it.  I’ve grown tired of washing my car so often and my shirts deserve to be impenetrable.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1247712/Revealed-The-spray-liquid-glass-protect-dirt-bacteria.html

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, known as SIDS, claims the lives of nearly 3,000 babies in the United States each year.  Now, doctors at the Children’s Hospital in Boston believe that low serotonin levels may be part of the cause.

Dr. Hannah Kinney and her colleagues found that compared to babies who had died from other medical conditions, babies who died from SIDS had much lower serotonin levels and even fewer serotonin receptors.  When tests were performed, babies who had died of SIDS had 26 percent less serotonin than the control group, and 50 percent less serotonin receptors.

Serotonin is known to help regulate our circulatory and respiratory systems as we sleep.  When serotonin levels are low, especially in babies, it’s possible that these systems would not function correctly.  If an infant is lying on their stomach with their face down, they might be re-breathing the carbon dioxide that they exhale.  Without appropriate amounts of serotonin to regulate the breathing process, the baby’s body might not ever realize anything is wrong, which can create a fatal situation.

Dr. Kinney says that to reduce to risk of SIDS, babies should sleep on their backs on a firm mattress until they are at least 12 months old.  She also reiterates that common risk factors like smoking and drinking during pregnancy should be avoided.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Disease/low_serotonin_linked_to_sids_0302100746.html

Bill Gates and his wife Melinda plan to donate 10 billion dollars over the next decade to develop and deliver vaccinations to developing nations worldwide. Over the past 10 years, they have already given 4.5 billion to the same cause, but plan to double that due to the increased need.

Their goal is to increase the amount of vaccination coverage to 90 percent within that 10 year time frame. By accomplishing this, they hope to save nearly 7.6 million children under the age of five who would’ve otherwise perished from highly curable diseases.

The GAVI alliance, an organization that the Gates family has been largely responsible for creating, has seen much success so far. Portions of the world that seemingly had no hope are now in a much better position to protect themselves from disease. Some cities in Malawi are now supplied with enough vaccinations to put them on par with some western cities.

Bill Gates hopes that the money he has promised to fund vaccines will help greatly reduce or entirely eliminate diseases like rotavirus, pneumonia, and even the mosquito-born killer, malaria.

It’s comforting to see someone in such a high financial position focusing on problems that affect those far less fortunate. It’s one thing to be the richest man in the world. It’s a completely different thing when you use that to become one of the world’s greatest philanthropists as well.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60S3K420100129

The Spirit Rover, which has been motoring all over the surface of our neighboring red planet has been stuck in loose sand since May and NASA officials are saying that it won’t be able to pull itself out.

At this point, two of the rover’s wheels are broken, making it even harder to free itself from its current predicament. NASA is attempting to tilt the rover in the direction of the weak solar rays in an effort to keep its batteries charged up enough that it can still conduct soil experiments where it is. If they are unable to accomplish this, the rover will enter a hibernation mode that it will not come out of until the end of this summer when the sun’s rays are strong enough to juice up the onboard batteries again.

Not becoming discouraged, scientists now believe that they can use the disabled rover to investigate different aspects of the planet that they hadn’t thought of before. Since the rover is now stationary, they can use its instruments to determine how much the planet wobbles. Once that data is gathered, they will be able to figure out whether the interior of the planet is liquid or solid, which will in turn allow them to better understand the planet’s magnetic history.

Even though the little rover is stuck far away from the scientists who devoted themselves to this project, there are still many things that it can reveal about Mars that we would’ve otherwise never known for sure.

To read the original article, please go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8481798.stm

On the surface, a lighting industry transition from incandescent to LED bulbs isn’t exactly the most exciting news in the world. However, something this simple may have far reaching impacts on global energy consumption.

Viewed as being similar to the film industry’s transition from conventional film to digital cameras, the lighting industry is getting ready for its next big revolution since Thomas Edison came on the scene. LED lights represent a large step forward in terms of efficiency and longevity. A LED bulb producing 60 watts will use 80 percent less energy than a conventional bulb. Even on a small scale, like a house, replacing every normal light bulb with an LED would represent significant savings over time. Now, multiply that by every light bulb in, say, New York City. Or every bulb in New England. Or how about the roughly 1 billion conventional incandescent light bulbs in the United States. The potential energy savings is immense.

Since LED bulbs operate entirely different from their incandescent counterpart, their longevity is significantly increased. The average LED light bulb will be able to last almost 20 years. Imagine screwing one of them in and not having to replace it for the first time until your child has almost graduated college.

So what’s the hold up, right? Why haven’t we been given this money and energy saving wonder yet? The main reason is money. Up until recently, the technology was too expensive to realistically offer anything to the general public. Even now, with the technology as evolved as it is, Philips will debut its LED bulb sometime in 2010 at 20 dollars a piece.

Currently there are a number of government programs and companies who are trying to increase awareness of these new bulbs so that we can all begin to incorporate them in our homes and businesses. Hopefully, with technologies constantly improving, that awareness will spread and LED light bulbs will become a very practical and environmentally friendly part of our lives in the near future.

To read the original article, please go to http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/01/26/the-light-bulb-goes-digital/?section=magazines_fortune

At the Korean Institute of Science and Technology, scientists have developed an automated robot that is capable of tossing laundry into the washer and starting the cycle all on its own.

The robot, named Mahru-Z, is shaped like a human and has arms, legs, a rotating head, and fingers. It can also recognize objects in a three dimensional space and will be able to understand which chores need to be done. By using its fingers, Mahru-Z will be able to pick up a shirt, put it in the washer, add the appropriate amount of soap, and push buttons to begin the washing cycle. It is controlled by a central computer that gives it commands as it goes about its defined chores.

Mahru-Z also has a robot friend, Mahru-M, whose mobility is much better and would have the capability to bring things to its owner much easier and quicker. The two can work in conjunction, with Mahru-Z putting laundry in the basket, and Mahru-M bringing the basket where it has been asked to go.

While this technology is in its infant phase and a consumer ready robot is years away from being available, it’s nice to know that maybe someday I can call in my robot butler and ask him if my jeans are clean yet.

To read the original article, please go to http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10438089-1.html?tag=rtcol