April 23, 2008
An appetite for sex
The sex of new babies is influenced by the mother’s diet before she conceives, a new study suggests. According to a survey of 740 British mums to be, a high-calorie diet is more likely to lead to a baby boy in nine months’ time.
Researchers led by Fiona Mathews of the University of Exeter collected data on the pre-conception dietary habits of pregnant women, and found that 56% of women in the highest one-third of calorie intake had male fetuses. In the lowest third, only 45% bore boys.
The women, who were attending maternity clinics, were asked to compile a ‘retrospective diary’ of their food intake in the weeks before they fell pregnant. Mathews and her colleagues then analysed the results to look for a relationship between food intake and the sex of their offspring.
The level of calorie intake was the main dietary factor that affected offspring sex, say the researchers, who report their research in Proceedings of the Royal Society B 1. Overall, women in Matthews’s study who produced sons ate an average of 180 calories more per day than those who had daughters — “the equivalent of eating a banana”, she says.
Intriguingly, a major difference seemed to be between women who routinely ate breakfast cereals and those who didn’t, Mathews adds. Among those who ate breakfast cereals almost every day, 59% gave birth to boys. In contrast, 43% of those who claimed to eat breakfast “rarely or never” produced sons.
Sugar babies
The researchers are unsure of why this happens, although they suggest that it could be to do with levels of glucose in the blood. Male test-tube embryos generally require a more glucose-rich growth medium to survive in the lab — Mathews suspects that a similar process may operate in the uterus, so women with higher sugar levels are more likely to nurture a male embryo as it is implanted in the womb lining.
Mathews even suggests that the prevalence of dieting in young Western women might be skewing the sex ratio towards more baby girls. She cites studies from the United States showing that average energy intake in adolescent women has declined by 17% between 1965 and 1996.
It is not clear how overeating may affect gender selection, however — the new study excluded obese women because of the other health complications involved with being severely overweight.
The results seem to fit with the biological theory that many animals, perhaps including humans, tend to produce male offspring when food and resources are in plentiful supply. This is thought to be a strategy to maximize genetic returns, as successful, healthy sons can go on to produce far more grandchildren than daughters.
What mum eats
It’s an interesting theory, although far from proven, says Paul Haggarty, an expert on nutrition and reproduction at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, UK. “There are some plausible biochemical mechanisms, although what they have done is pretty limited,” he says — it was a rather small study, he points out.
Haggarty adds that his own database of dietary habits in some 1,500 Scottish mothers shows no evidence that diet can affect the gender of their offspring. “But who knows, we may well come up with something very interesting in bigger data sets,” he says.
Nevertheless, evidence is emerging that not only is it true that ‘you are what you eat’ — but also that your mother’s or even your grandparents’ diet can affect your health. Previous studies of mice have shown that coat colour can be determined by a mother’s diet during pregnancy, and that children’s risk of diabetes can be raised by chemical changes to DNA that resulted from their grandparents’ poor diet when pregnant with the children’s parents.
Haggarty would also like to see more conclusive, large-scale studies that address the effect of food supplements such as folate, which is crucial for healthy embryonic development, on the gender or health of babies. Pregnant women, and those hoping to get pregnant, tend to take far more supplements than the general population, he says.
Although Mathews and her team did not collect data on food supplements, she suggests that trace nutrients such as potassium in the diet might also affect the sex of babies, perhaps by raising the acidity of the womb, which might make it more welcoming for a male embryo.
Career women work longer hours than men
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Housework and child care are condemning millions of career women to much longer working days than men, a major report claims today. Women who go out to work still do the bulk of household chores, according to the study by Cambridge University of more than 30,000 people. So while men may spend longer at the office, it is women who work more each week if domestic and paid employment is added together. Several commentators have argued that the “have it all” woman with a career, children and husband has turned into the “do-it-all woman”. Shirley Conran, author of the 1975 bestseller Superwoman and founder of the Work-Life Balance Trust, said recently that women needed to fight for “domestic democracy”, with men sharing a bigger burden of the chores and child care at home. Today’s European Union-funded report, which examined working practices across member states, says that the average man in full-time employment works about 55 hours a week. In the UK that figure includes about 3.6 hours commuting, and eight hours of domestic work such as cleaning, cooking and child care. By contrast, the average working week for a woman in full-time employment in the EU is 68 hours. For British women that comprises 40 hours in the office, 3.3 hours commuting and 23 hours a week spent doing domestic work. But even women who work part time put in longer hours overall than men in full-time work, because they do so many household chores. Women with part-time jobs work on average 57 hours a week. That is made up of 21.3 hours in paid work, 2.4 hours commuting and 32.7 hours of domestic work. The domestic workload also prevents millions of women from working the long office hours typically required to break into the top management jobs on high salaries, the report says. Many more women with school-age children are only able to work part-time because they have to pick their children up at 3.30pm, cook their dinner and help them with their homework. The upshot is that three quarters of the EU workforce is still managed by men and just nine per cent of full-time male workers are managed by women, says the report. In the UK, women make up just under half the workforce, but they represent less than a third of legislators, managers and senior officials. The lifestyle divide must change if women are to have equal opportunities in the workplace, the report says. “The working lifestyles of most people in Europe still seem to be determined by gender,” said Dr Brendan Burchell, a senior lecturer in sociology, who will present the study in Brussels today. He added: “A lot of women feel they don’t have choices. They have children with a partner and reduce their hours in the early stages of a child’s life and when they want to re-establish themselves in their careers and in terms of their earning power, they are so far behind their husbands. “There should be more equal career breaks between men and women when children are born – for instance, by encouraging men to take their parental leave entitlements.” |
MIT, Chesonis Foundation announce solar revolution
Promising to transform solar power from a “boutique” option to an affordable, dependable, mainstream energy solution, MIT and the Chesonis Family Foundation today launched a “solar revolution” with the ultimate aim of making solar energy America’s primary carbon-free fuel.
The Solar Revolution Project (SRP), funded by a $10 million gift from the Foundation, will explore new materials and systems that could dramatically accelerate the availability of solar energy. The SRP will complement and interact closely with other large solar projects at MIT, creating one of the largest solar energy clusters at any research university.
The Chesonis gift will allow MIT to explore bold approaches that are essential for transforming the solar industry. Specifically, it will focus on three elements –capture, conversion and storage — that will ultimately make solar power a viable, near-term energy source.
“Solar is thought of as an ultimate energy technology off in the distant future. The goal of SRP is to move this timeframe nearer to the present. The SRP will make solar a practical alternative, by committing a 10-year timeframe for establishing the new base of scientific knowledge it will take to draw a market-competitive energy supply from the sun,” said Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and Professor of Chemistry at MIT, who will direct the SRP. “With SRP, think ’solar’ and think ‘now.’ This is the revolution that is implied in the project name.”
Professor Ernest Moniz, director of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), said, “Climate change makes the search for more environmentally benign sources of energy urgent and hugely important. Many experts have concluded that solar energy is a key, if not the key answer to our global energy challenges in the long term.
“The Chesonis investment — large, flexible, empowering of highly creative MIT faculty and students — embodies this conclusion,” Moniz continued. “We applaud the vision, generosity and confidence in MIT that this extraordinary gift demonstrates.”
Most solar research focuses on known materials and systems, but, thus far, these approaches cannot be implemented on a large scale. The SRP will allow researchers to explore entirely new materials and systems that could transform solar power into a viable, widely deployed and affordable source of energy.
A unique feature of the SRP is its flexibility: The gift’s unrestricted funding is aimed at creating a “no holds barred” research environment that will inspire innovations in the field.
The SRP will initially support 30 energy fellowships for students on a range of solar-related studies, from the development of novel materials for energy conversion and storage to using solar energy to produce hydrogen fuel from water.
Each fellowship will span five years, which allows for significant continuity and greater impact. The gift from the Foundation will also help support an integrated study on the future of solar energy, building on the success of two earlier MIT interdisciplinary reports on the future of coal and of nuclear energy in a carbon-constrained world.
“We are at a breakpoint, both in energy supply and environmental consequences. Solar energy has enormous promise as the ultimate answer to our energy problems,” said Arunas Chesonis, benefactor of the Foundation. “Solar energy is widely distributed and the fuel cost for solar power is zero. It is our hope that by investing in the people at MIT and giving them the freedom to take risks in the lab, we will enable them to be true game-changers — advancing the state of the art to a point where solar power is cheaper and more reliable than electricity from coal.”
The Foundation will also contribute to the MITEI Energy Seed Fund Program (ESFP), which solicits and funds innovative energy proposals from across the MIT campus. The first round of solicitations for the ESFP (and the related Ignition Grant program for junior faculty) provided close to $2 million to fund 20 outstanding proposals. The Chesonis gift will provide an additional $500,000 to supplement funds from MITEI industry partners.
Other large solar projects at MIT include the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center, the MIT-Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, the Masdar Foundation solar project and a range of solar research grants to MIT from the U.S. Department of Energy and other federal agencies.
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MITEI is an Institute-wide initiative designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the challenges of the future. In its first full year of operation, MITEI has attracted more than $100 million from industry and public partners as well as private donors to fund critical energy research to enhance the environmental performance of conventional energy and enable a sustainable energy future through transformational technologies. The current MITEI program will also support more than 175 graduate energy fellows over the next five years to help develop the next generation of energy scientists, technologists and social scientists. For more information, please visit http://web.mit.edu/mitei/.
The Chesonis Family Foundation is a private philanthropic organization that targets environmental and energy research projects. The foundation is working to address global climate change by supporting high-risk, proof-of-concept technology research and providing funding that allows research to move from development to commercial deployment. The foundation’s benefactor, Arunas Chesonis, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 and is Chairman and CEO of PAETEC Holding Corp. (NASDAQ GS: PAET). The Chesonis Family Foundation is based in Cambridge, Mass.
Tastes Like Chicken
Read Daniel Engber’s “Science” column on the fake-meat prize.
Two years ago, I proposed a compromise between carnivores and vegetarians: We couldn’t change our craving for meat, but we could change the way we sated it. The solution was to grow meat in labs, the way we grow therapeutic tissue from stem cells.
Looks like I might get my wish.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has just offered a $1 million prize to anyone who develops a commercially viable “in vitro chicken-meat product.” The catch is that the product can’t contain or entail the use of “animal-derived products, except for starter cells obtained in the initial development stages.”
The idea is simple: Instead of growing a chicken embryo into a bird and cutting meat from it, you skip the bird part and grow the meat directly from the embryo.
Time to clip Formula 1’s wings – then we’ll really see Lewis Hamilton flying
All this aerodynamic gear is killing the Grand Prix spectacle, with cars unable to overtake and races decided on pit stops rather than driver skill.
‘The problem was graphically illustrated at Melbourne, with Kimi Raikkonen being held up behind Honda’s Reubens Barrichello for 19 laps despite the Ferrari being 1.5 seconds per lap faster…’
Wings are the problem. Not the seventies pop-rock supergroup created to continue to feed Paul McCartney’s over-bloated ego, but the aerodynamics package bolted to F1 cars – and they’re ruining Formula 1.
Despite all of this year’s changes to the driver’s aids – taking away traction and launch control, stability programs etc, to make the racing more even – the F1 bosses have myopically neglected the one thing that would make the most difference.
The massive aerofoils that produce so much downforce that it is theoretically possible to drive an F1 car on the ceiling are the fundamental problem facing Formula 1 today. The hole punched through the air by a modern F1 car makes it all but impossible for a car following to overtake without the leading driver either conceding the position or making a mistake.
The turbulent air zone interrupts the airflow over the following car’s wings, robbing it of its own downforce at the moment that it’s needed most – during cornering. This leads to understeering, slower corner speeds and prevents cars getting close enough to slipstream and then overtake on the straights.
The problem was graphically illustrated in the 2008 season opener at Melbourne, with Ferrari pilot Kimi Raikkonen being held up behind Honda’s Reubens Barrichello for 19 laps despite the Ferrari being 1.5 seconds per lap faster than Barrichello’s chariot. Lewis Hamilton suffered the same problem behind Mark Webber in Malaysia.
Although this is bad enough, it gets even worse. The disturbed air doesn’t flow through the car radiators properly, causing overheating and increased strain on the engine. Raikkonen’s engine blew up a few laps from the end of the race – coincidence? Probably not.
Australia’s former world champion Alan Jones has long advocated the return to slick tyres and reducing the amount of wing allowable to increase the competitiveness of the sport. Many other recently retired drivers have bemoaned the amount of technology that has decreased the downplayed the role of drivers and made the car the real star of F1.
The reputation of Formula 1 continues to take a battering. It is derisively referred to as slot car racing because it is so difficult to overtake. The races are interesting, but rarely exciting and there is something fundamentally wrong with races being decided on pit stop strategy and fuel loads. It should be about the combination of car and driver – that’s what we pay to see.
Having said that, F1 fans are divided into two distinctly different tribes. There are those who love the racing, with overtaking and crashes, who want to see the very best cars and drivers pitted against each other.
On the other hand, there are those who just want to see the pinnacle of automotive engineering in its native environment; they are there for the sights, sounds and smell of Formula 1. There is nothing quite like seeing a live F1 grand prix. It is a feast for the senses and the fact that there is a race thrown in is a bonus – but it’s not why they’re there. Wouldn’t it be nice to keep both groups happy?
Is a Dog’s Mouth Cleaner Than a Human’s?
Here’s the myth that makes dogs sound like a dental miracle: Despite all the leftover macaroni, rubber bands and dead squirrels they chew, our canine friends still maintain better oral hygiene than human beings do, no matter how studiously we floss and how often we visit our dentists.
Could this really be true?
Well, sadly, no. In short, a dog’s mouth is besieged by its own legions of germs, roughly as huge in population as those living in the human mouth and causing a similar array of dental illnesses.
“It’s like comparing apples and oranges,” says Colin Harvey, a professor of surgery and dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. He is also the executive secretary at the American Veterinary Dental College.
Although there’s a vast overlap of bacteria in the mouths of both species, Harvey considers the question of which one is cleaner to be irrelevant because a) both are teeming with microbes, and b) in many cases, a dog’s dental bacteria differ from their human counterparts.
One example is the Porphyromonas, a family of rod-shaped bacteria known for causing periodontal disease, a serious gum infection that leads to the loosening and, eventually, detachment of teeth in both humans and animals. Scientists have spotted two distinct species within the family: P. gingivalis was found in the human dental plaque, while its sibling, P. gulae, was found in dogs. Both bacteria thrive on periodontal tissues, eating up the gums and reducing well-rooted teeth to shaky cavities.
Although there are no theories so far to correlate breed and a dog’s proneness to periodontal disease, small and old dogs generally have higher risks of developing a serious form of the disease.
Another common dental disease in humans, however, has largely spared dogs. Dental caries (tooth decay), which according to a 2003 World Health Organization report may affect 90 percent of schoolchildren around the world, hits only about 5 percent of dogs. As complicated as the reason may be, most scientists, including Harvey, point to the scarcity of a bacterium in dogs’ mouths as the major explanation.
The culprit bacterium, S. mutans, eats a big sugar molecule by chopping the sugar into two slightly smaller molecules. This process produces acid as a byproduct. Therefore, the bacterium has evolved to require a slightly acidic habitat, and if lucky, it ends up in the more acidic human mouth rather than the more alkaline dog’s mouth.
One of the rumors related to the cleanliness of a dog’s mouth is the idea that human bites are more infectious than dog bites. However, this too doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. According to Jeein Chung, a veterinarian at Hoboken Animal Hospital in New Jersey, the danger of both human and dog bites depends on the kinds of bacteria in the mouth and the depth of the wound. The bottom line: Cleanse as thoroughly as possible after getting bit, and go to an emergency room if you feel the wound go anywhere beyond the muscles.
As for dogs’ favorite archrivals — I mean, besides squirrels — cats are found to be largely in an identical condition to that of dogs. “We haven’t done as much research on cats,” says Harvey. “But to the extent of what’s been studied, they are [almost] the same.”
Steve Carell on How to Act Brilliant
Steve Carell is no dummy. In fact, the man who plays hapless half-wit Michael Scott on NBC’s The Office and equally hapless gumshoe Maxwell Smart in this summer’s big-screen redo of Get Smart is nothing short of a genius — a genius wrapped in a doofus, hidden by an idiot. Here’s his advice on how to attain Carell-level smarts.
Engage in Reading-Type Behavior
If we were meant to read for enjoyment, would God have created television? Read as it was intended — for exercise. The more you read, the more you expand your — what’s the word I’m looking for? — your stockpile of words. You must have a stockpile of words that you can pass along to your children for their stockpile.
Appear to Listen
I’ve learned to appear scintillatingly intellectual by asking people questions (“Do you like pizza?”). Then I just look at them, nodding and saying “Hmmm” and “Um hmmm” every few seconds. Try and keep one or two things in your head to regurgitate later. After all, what is knowledge, really, but high-resolution regurgitation?
Just Say Yes
I’ve been injecting human growth hormone into my brain for several years now, with no ill effects. I feel smarter, and I often feel compelled to show people — really show them — just how smart I am. HGH has also colored the way I perceive the world, which is now a sort of bloodred.
Get the Abs of Einstein
A healthy body means a healthy mind. You get your heart rate up, and you get the blood flowing through your body to your brain. Look at Albert Einstein. He rode a bicycle. He was also an early student of Jazzercise. You never saw Einstein lift his shirt, but he had a six-pack under there.
Don’t Chew Your Food
I recommend tuna melts. Fish is very healthy, as is cheese, and toast. I also recommend eating peeled baby carrots. Carrots are very good for the eyes, but they absolutely must be baby carrots so you don’t chew too much. I don’t think I have to explain crunchwaves to people who read wired. They already know that when you chew something too hard, the vibrations fire up those crunchwaves, which shake the neurons in your brain. Do that too much and those brain cells shake loose and die. I usually gulp my food, and you should, too.
Practice Thinking by Yourself
Your brain, like your tongue, is a muscle. Practicing thinking by yourself really helps develop your brain, which you need throughout your day. I like to practice my thinking in a darkened room, alone. I focus on one thing, such as Tree. I think about Tree. Then, after that, I think about Cloud. Then later, as I walk outside, I see Tree and since I have practiced thinking, I avoid hitting it. I try and have six or seven thoughts a day.
Match Your Shoes to Your Belt
If you don’t look good, you don’t think good.
Know Things
It’s important to be well-rounded — not purely scientific and analytical. Explore the arts: poetry, music, decoupage (a visual art form I’ve been developing since the first grade). And remember, it’s always better to have a cursory knowledge of a lot of things than to actually know a lot about any one thing. This is called a liberal arts education.
Act “Human”
When I go to parties, people often look stunned at how smart I am. But nobody wants to talk about astrophysics at a dinner party. Hey, when I want to talk like that, I head to the lab! Instead, I talk about “human” things they enjoy and understand: midrange wines, movie trivia, and mundane subjects like family and emotional fulfillment. I like to end my conversations with a quote, usually something in French, like “c’est la vie,” which means “down the hatch!” But don’t overdo it: Nobody likes a show-off.
Retain Your Childlike Sense of Wonder
Children are very smart, in their own stupid way. A child’s brain is like a sponge, and you know how smart sponges are. My children are like little processors. They pick up all kinds of things, then process that into information. And what is knowledge, really, but processed information? We must always strive to be overly processed, like our children
Quantum Shot
(original unknown)
Gotta be “sports and hobbies” -
(images credit: Engrish)
(image credit: Simon Mills)
Amuseful Customers:
(image credit: Dylan Rich)
Acid Beef (discharged, too) -
(image credit: Dylan Rich)
And we finish with the most mysterious occasion of all:
Coincidence?
QUANTUM SHOT
“Comrades! The way across the bridge is closed. There IS no bridge.”
Imaginative Store Signs
Intense… almost like poetry:
How would you justify this name for a restaurant? -
(seen in Kyoto, but there is also a hotel/resort by the same name in Thailand)
(image credit: Chris Gladis)
Sometimes it’s a sheer coincidence, sometimes a malicious intent.
(image credit: Chuck Walker)
Something clearly went wrong here:
(image credit: idioteka)
Washroom signs that aren’t very helpful
This sinister “glaring entity from above” haunts the men’s room in Japan:
(image credit: Chris Gladis)
Only sitting allowed, please. No other unnecessary acrobatics:
(more info)
Wondering which door to choose? This page collects all kinds of “men/women” sign variations, not all of them obvious:
(image credit: Dave Linabury)
Probably the best one:
Here is a really exasperating situation. Imagine opening the door to the last available cabin, hoping to… and seeing this:
(image credit: idioteka)
Spontaneous Graffiti
Some of it is funny, some appeared there for no sensible reason. The following sign was spotted outside a cafe (somebody spent too much time on the internet?) -
(image credit: Willy de Bok)
(original unknown)
Could be the famous Banksy’s work:
So true:
Gamers will know what’s this about -
And this sign speaks for all the squashed pop cans everywhere:
“STOP STEPPING ON US!”
This is not broken English… just imaginative.
This “vending machine poetry” was spotted, where else – in Japan. Wonderfully convincing piece:
(image credit: Chris Gladis)
And then, the broken English rears its ugly (entertaining) head:
(images credit: asylum.com)
(image credit: Engrish)
“Be careful to Tsunamis”. I doubt they’ll return the favour, though -
(image credit: Michael I. Colwill)
(original unknown)
