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Females at risk again! This time from air
pollution. Researchers at Pennsylvania
State University say that air pollution
affects females more than males. They
studied two groups of mice with
pneumonia. One group was exposed to
ozone, an air pollutant at ground level,
and the other breathed filtered air. The
likelihood of female mice surviving
pneumonia as compared to males
decreased significantly in the group
exposed to ozone. And these mice died
more often than their counterparts!
Anyway, there are differences in the immune functions of males and females,
now “if we could extrapolate what we
found to the human population, it would
mean women with lung infections may
be at higher risk for negative outcomes if
they are exposed to high amounts of air
pollution, and in particular, ozone,” says
researcher Joanna Floros.
After the zoo at the Thai city of Chiang
Mai used dung from a couple of pandas
to make paper souvenirs, now it’s India’s
turn to be innovative. Holong in
Jaldapara wildlife sanctuary, West
Bengal, will make paper from elephant
dung! Cooch Behar forest division will
set up a manufacturing unit beside the
elephant pilkhana (shed) in the
sanctuary. The idea came from Yukio
Kawaguchi, an elephant expert from Japan. A Kalimpong-based company
will turn the 7-8 tonnes of daily elephant
waste into a wealth of paper.
What is similar between sea and human
stomach? Gut bugs. A group of Japanese
scientists have discovered that human
pathogens (gut bugs) evolved from a
deep-sea ancestor. The scientists
compared the genetic sequences of two
disease-causing pathogens (Helicobacter
that causes ulcers, and Campylobacter
that causes food-borne diarrhoea) and
two closely related but harmless bacteria
found deep in ocean (Proteobacteria
called Sulfurovum and Nitratiruptor).
The organisms shared many similar
genes, which enable them to grow in
extreme environments. They also had
DNA repair genes, which allow frequent
mutations, and adapt quickly to changing
conditions and to the immune response
of a symbiotic host. This research was
published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
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It’s not a name of some special smoking
area, but a piece of bad news for
smokers in England. England has barred
smoking in all enclosed public spaces,
including pubs, clubs, restaurants,
offices, public transport, and shops.
There are heavy fines for  people smoking
in smoke-free premises or vehicles; for
the person managing the premises for
failing to prevent smoking in that place;for not displaying ‘No Smoking’ signs,
and so on. Though smoking is allowed in
outdoor areas, smokers will be fined for
littering by discarding their cigarette butts
in the street. A great smoke-proof plan!
Smokers better start carrying ashtrays
with them. And we in India better learn to
implement such strict norms.
Earth was warmer hundreds of
thousands of years ago than is
generally believed. Scientists
recovered the oldest plant DNA on
record from beneath a southern
Greenland glacier. And the DNA of
trees, plants and insects (including
butterflies and spiders) date back to
450,000 to 900,000 years. This
means that forests existed in
Greenland before the prevailing
view of 2.4 million years ago. The
samples also suggest that
temperature probably reached 10ºC
in summer and –17ºC in winter. And
during the last period between ice
ages (116,000130,000 years ago),
when temperatures were 5ºC higher
on average than now, the glaciers in
Greenland did not completely
melt away. “These findings allow us
to make a more accurate
environmental reconstruction of the
time period from which these
samples were taken,” says Martin
Sharp, a glaciologist at the
University of Alberta, Canada.
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