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Sunday, March 7, 2021
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Caffeine Mixed With Noise Leads To Permanent Hearing Loss

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Caffeine can lead to deafness

Caffeine and loud headphones make a bad combination, study shows.

A recent study reveals that a daily caffeine intake could have a damaging effect on consumer’s hearing.

The research data was gathered by scientists at the McGill University in Canada and it focused on the effects of caffeine in regards to the body’s ability to recover its hearing after being exposed to loud noises for a repeated amount of time.

Auditory temporary threshold shift is the ear’s ability to reduce overall hearing when it is exposed to loud sounds and noises for a continuous and lengthy amount of time. When the shift does kick in, adults require about 72 hours for their hearing to revert to normal.

Medical specialists have stated that if the hearing does not full recover in 72 hours, then the damage could be permanent.

Data gathered from the study is pointing towards caffeine impeding with the recovery time from auditory temporary threshold shift.

Of Caffeine and Guinea Pigs

The study was laboratory performed and guinea pigs were used to gather the data. McGill University Otolaryngologists initially split the guinea pigs into just two groups. Both groups of guinea pigs were exposed to different noises and sounds that stayed in the range of 110 decibels.

The exposure was limited to one hour every day. For comparison, a construction jack-hammer is 95 decibels loud, while a motorcycle easily hits 100 decibels. Power-saws usually hit the precise 110-decibel mark.

Caffeine was administered to only one group of guinea pigs. Every day, each of the subjects was given coffee with a caffeine concentration of 25 milligrams per kilogram. For comparison, a single regular adult-sized cup of coffee has a concentration of 400 milligrams per kilogram.

Guinea pigs are however considerably smaller than human adults, which is why the concentration was proportional to their height and weight.

Observation and data show that caffeinated guinea pigs were still experiencing the reduced hearing from the auditory temporary threshold shift even eight days after exposure to the noise stopped.

McGill University conducted the experiment due to previous observation of a potential correlation between caffeine consumption and loss of hearing during a different previous experiment.

On average, adults in the United States in urban environment consume more than one cup of coffee per day. A majority are also exposed to noises that surpass 90 decibels for more than one hour.

Avid caffeine consumers are advised to protect their hearing.

Image Courtesy of Flickr.

Goats Trust Friendly Humans As Much As Dogs Do

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Goats See Humans As Their Friends

Goats were domesticated 11,000 years ago. A long time to form an innate bond.

Domestication has ensured that humans were never alone during most of our history. Dogs are by far the oldest domesticated animal, to the point where scientists cannot even identify the exact period when wolves became man’s best friend.

Not many people know, however, that goats have been domesticated by humans early on as well.

A recent animal behavioral study has shown that goats will literally look to humans when faced with a problem they cannot manage by themselves. This type of behavior was known and well documented in dogs and horses. Researchers were actually surprised to learn that goats instinctively trust humans.

The Goats Who Stare At Men

The scientific experiment is quite straightforward. Animals will be shown that a box contains treats. They will then be trained to get the treats from the box. After they evidently master getting treats from the box, scientists will change it to another box that also holds treats but cannot be opened.

The science does lie in the animal’s ability to quickly learn to get the treats but in their behavior once they realize they cannot open the box anymore. In the same overall scene, a human is present. In some situations, they will be facing the animal, in others, they will have their backs turned.

When faced with an unopenable treat-filled box and a human with their face turned to them, dogs and horses will look to the human’s eyes. This sort of gaze between species is also used in situations of danger that is too far for the animal to directly intervene.

The eye contact acts as a silent notification, either meant to ask for assistance or alert of danger.

For the purpose of the experiment, scientists were certain that goats, as animals domesticated for their milk and meat, would have an entirely different behavior when faced with a box they could not open.

However, it would seem that more than ten thousand years of living alongside humans has given goats an instinctive trust in humans. Even though humanity did not domesticate goats for their companionship, like they did with dogs and horses, the goats still look to us with full trust.

This trust, in turn, has made many of the scientists consider the possibility that we have been for too long mistreating a species which regards us as friends and companions.

Image Courtesy of YouTube.

The Scarcity of Diamonds. A New Study.

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"The Scarcity of Diamonds. A New Study. "

New study suggests that diamods are no so rare after all.

It may be appropriate to think that diamonds are a girl’s best friend and that their luster has no equal. Diamonds are both beautiful and rare gems, hence the myriads of metaphors centered around this king gem. But there is more to be said regarding the scarcity of diamonds. A new study shows that they are not so rare.

The paper that prompted this bold and outstanding affirmation came directly from the chemists at Johns Hopkins University. During a geological endeavor meant to shed some light on how these miniature marvels occur, the team of scientists have discovered that diamonds occur more frequently in nature.

Traditionally, a diamond is defined as being a metastable allotrope of carbon, meaning that the dimond is a variation of carbon that is able to spend extra time in other configurations, different from the system’s least energy. Under the glass, we can see that a diamond is formed from many atoms that are practically arranged in the shape of a cube. This formation is called the diamond lattice. As a material, diamond seems to be less stable than graphite.

Regarding the process of formation, it seems that natural diamonds are formed at very high temperatures and pressures. Usually they form beneath Earth’s mantle at a depth of roughly 190 kilometers.

Diamonds can be also be created synthetically using a process called HPHT or high pressure, high temperature. HPHT is a process widely used to manufacture synthetical diamonds because it is very effective and very cheap. Basically, the process implies using large steel presses, capable of generating a pressure of approximately 5GPa. The temperature needs to reach 1500 degrees Celsius before the process can begin.

Among other methods used to create synthetical diamonds is the CVD method (chemical vapor deposition). The device creates a carbon plasma layer capable of capturing carbon atoms and then transform them into diamonds.

There are additional process that can trigger diamond creation. One of them is a process called redox reaction. Basically, this reaction occurs when fluids move due to the oxidation of methane or the reduction of CO2.

There is no longer an issue regarding the scarcity of diamonds. A new study reveals that diamonds can form from water. If the waters are highly acidic it can function as a catalyst and trigger the process of diamond formation.

Regarding the myth of diamond scarcity, it seem that there are a lot of theories out there pointing to Corporations keen on setting a high price for diamonds arguing that there are very rare.

Image source:www.wikimedia.org

Great Barrier Reef Not ”In Danger” For Now

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A United Nations draft report states that the Great Barrier Reef will not go on a World Heritage danger list.

The document says Australia must take commitments in order to protect the reef, which include restricting new port developments and restoring water quality. The final decision on the matter of the reef’s status will be taken at the World Heritage Committee meeting that takes place in Germany next month.

Conservationists have claimed that the state of the reef is “poor”. According to a study published in 2014 the condition of the natural wonder “is expected to further deteriorate in the future”. Pollution from industry, extreme weather and climate change were mentioned a key concerns.

Australia recently submitted a plan to Unesco, the UN heritage body, in which it explained how it would address these threats. The plan included reducing pollution by 80% by 2025, but also reversing a decision which allows dredged material to be deposited near the reef.

The new Unesco draft report states that Australia must carry out this 35-year action plan, while Unesco will check on its development. The Great Barrier Reef was included as a World Heritage site in 1981.

It is a great collection of thousands of small coral reefs, that are stretching from the southern city of Bundaberg to the northern tip of Queensland. The United Nations adds that of its World Heritage sites this is the “most biodiverse”, and that the reef is of “enormous intrinsic and scientific importance”.

Greenpeace also released a statement in which it criticized the draft report, saying it is a “red flag from Unesco”. Reef campaigner Shani Tager said the fact that the Australian authorities had been asked to draw up a report by 2017 is a bad decision.

Prof Callum Roberts, a marine conservation biologist at the University of York in the UK, argues that Unesco is on a good path, based on “major progress” which were recently made by the Australian authorities in the region. He added that the recent news was more of a postponement than a final decision.

“They’re setting targets and they’re obviously going to watch this very closely. I think Unesco is right to put on hold its decision, in view of this long-term sustainability plan. But it’s also very right to set some target dates for Australia to produce evidence that it’s actually sticking to the plan – that it’s investing enough money to make that plan happen”, Prof Roberts said.

Image Source: Australian Geographic

Sleep Can Fix Prejudices, Scientists Say

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What if gender and race prejudices and biases can be diminished or even fixed during sleep? According to scientists from the University of Texas in Austin, a good night’s sleep can aid to modify rooted attitudes and preconceptions in people.

Researchers have long known that sleep is increasing the memory formation by revitalizing faint neuron activity which is shaped during earlier time periods, when the individual is awake.

This entire process can be stimulated by offering a sleeping individual different cues related to a preceding period of learning.

Xiaoqing Hu from the department of Psychology at the University of Texas and his colleagues have expanded these discoveries to reveal that this method is not only working for recently acquired information but also to change or influence implicit attitudes that were learned during childhood.

The scientists targeted prejudices of gender and race.

In a test made of exercises aimed to counter typical gender and racial biases, the participants in the test were shown pictures of women and men of different races. They then learned to associate genders and races with opposing features such as female faces with science-related words or black men with positive words.

A specific sound was then associated with every type of counter-bias. The participants took a nap which lasted for 90 minutes during which one sound, which was assigned randomly, was played repeatedly to reactivate and cue a newly-learned association.

Minutes after waking the participants, the scientists discovered that implicit social prejudices were reduced for the counter-bias training which reactivated during sleep. The process was repeated again one week later, when subjects who hadn’t heard tone signals had turned back to their previous level of bias, while those who’d heard the tones in their sleep maintained a 20 percent reduction.

“The study should inspire research to solve remaining issues of targeted memory reactivation during sleep so that its mechanisms are fully understood. What we think is happening is that the new memory is stored in the hippocampus. But when it’s activated by this sound cue, perhaps it’s reorganized into the neocortex, where memories are more stable and longer lasting” the authors wrote.

The research adds further support to recent studies that have revealed that memories can be selectively strengthened and reactivated during slumber.

The study was carried out with support from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Image Source: Living Fit

Two Drinks Daily May Damage Aging Heart

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Having two or more drinks each day could bring significant damage to the hearts of elderly people, a research has warned.

Among men, heavy drinking, which is considered when drinking more than 14 alcoholic beverages each week, was found to be connected with the enlargement of the left ventricular mass, which is the wall of the heart’s most important pumping chamber.

The research was published in the Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging, which is an American Heart Association’s journal.

According to Scott Solomon, professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, women seem more exposed than men to the cardiotoxic consequences of alcohol which could potentially contribute to an increased risk of cardiomyopathy. The findings are valid for any given level of alcohol intake, the scientists added.

Cardiomyopathy is when the heart muscle becomes thicker, larger, and more rigid or is almost completely replaced by scar tissue. The research analyzed weekly alcohol consumption in almost 4,500 people, with an average age 76, by comparing it to the structure, size, and motion of different parts of the heart. The study revealed that the more people drank, the more severe are the changes to the heart’s function, but also to its structure.

Moderate drinking is generally considered to be two drinks a day – no matter if it is wine, beer or liquor – for men while for women, the level is set at one drink a day.

“In spite of potential benefits of low alcohol intake, our findings highlight the possible hazards to cardiac function by increased amounts of alcohol consumption in the elderly, particularly among women. This reinforces the US recommendations stating that those who drink should do so with moderation,” explained Alexandra Goncalves, post-doctoral research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

The American Heart Association recommendation and the 2010 United States dietary guidelines advise limiting alcohol consumption to up to one drink each day for women and no more than two for men.

Previous studies have revealed that light to moderate alcohol intake may guard the heart against some cardiovascular disease, but the effects of heavy drinking have been found to be in connection with a higher risk for cardiomyopathy.

The authors say the study’s observational design, which was not meant to establish a cause and effect link between alcohol and cardiac alterations, and its findings might not be valid for younger and nonwhite populations.

Image Source: Live Science

Depression Could Be Lethal For Heart Failure Patients

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Depression has be found to significantly increase the risk of death in the case of heart failure patients, a new study announced.

Heart failure patients whom suffer from moderate to severe depression had a five fold increased risk of death than those with no depression or just a mild form of the disease, researchers say.

“We know that depression is common in heart failure and affects 20 to 40 percent of patients,” explained study author John Cleland, a professor of cardiology at Imperial College London and the University of Hull in England.

The scientists studied 154 patients studied, 27 of whom had mild depression while 24 had been suffering from moderate to severe depression. The research followed the patients on an average of 302 days. In this period, 27 patients died.

The increased risk of death linked to moderate and severe depression was isolated from other health issue, and also from the severity of heart failure, the scientists added.

The research was revealed Saturday at the annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology which took place in Seville, Spain. Studies that are presented at meetings are usually considered preliminary until their results are published in a medical journal.

Heart failure happens when the heart can’t pump blood as efficient as it should.

“About one-quarter of patients hospitalized with heart failure are readmitted for a variety of reasons within one month. Within one year, most patients will have had one or more readmissions and almost half will have died,” Cleland mentioned in its adress.

“Our results show that depression is strongly associated with death during the year following discharge from hospital after an admission for the exacerbation of heart failure; we expect that the link persists beyond one year,” Cleland explained.

The research did not offer definitie proof that depression is linked to an increase in death risk in heart failure patients.

Depression is usually connected to loss of motivation, sleep disturbances, loss of interest in everyday activities and change in appetite which then causes weight changes. According to the scientist, this fact could be an explanation for the association the scientists found between depression and mortality.

Despite the discovery, Cleland is not recommending prescribing antidepressants to heart failure patients who suffer from depression. He said that studies point to the fact that they are not effective in cutting down depression in patients with heart failure. “Clinicians should consider referring patients affected by depression for counseling,” he recommended.

Image Source: Salon

Sunscreen Might Cause To Skin Melanoma

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The prolonged use of sunscreen might lead to skin melanoma, according to a new research.

The research carried out by scientists from the British Association of Dermatologists claims there is a certain amount of risks posed by the sunscreen products that are overly marketed, but fail to efficiently protect our skin.

Skin cancer can be avoided by staying in the shade and away from the sun, especially in the middle of the day. Appropriate clothing can also help, the scientists say. Skin cancer is affecting one in five people living in the United States, according to data from the Skin Cancer Foundation.

The British Association of Dermatologists announced that the latest studies on sun-exposure and its links to skin melanoma reveal that most sunscreens available on the market only give protection against two types of ultraviolet light, A and B respectively.

Ultraviolet A rays are causing the most damage. These beams of light are to blame for long-term skin cancer, the most dangerous form of cancer in the United States and the fifth most common in the United Kingdom. Ultraviolet B is responsible for burns that can cause skin cancer. Most sunscreen products are promising protection from both.

Nevertheless, it is still recommended that we don’t expose our bodies to the sun for long periods of time, even if we use these products which could protect us from developing skin melanoma.

The study carried out by the British Association of Dermatologists states that 72 percent of those who participated confirmed that they contacted sunburns last year, in spite of using sunscreen products.

It appears that in light of this study people are not using the right kind or the sufficient amount of sunscreen. At the same time, people believe that using sunscreen enables them to spend much longer amounts of time in the sun.

These misconceptions are increasing the risk of malignant skin melanoma. According to scientists, until further studies are conducted. people are advised not be fooled by miracle promising sunscreens, such as 50SPF, which is a product which filters just one type of ultraviolet light.

Experts also recommend to carefully check the labels of the sun-protecting products people are buying, and make sure they give complete protection from both Ultraviolet rays, A and B. At the same time, researchers ask people to keep in the sun exposure in limits, and not forgetting that sunscreen can only offer a limited level of protection.

Image Source: Money Saving Mom

Ancient Snakes Had Legs, Scientists Find

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Snakes have caught the human imagination ever since Christian mythology put the blame on them, but in scientific terms, where did these reptiles come from? Were the first snakes just overly ambitious eels which wanted to see how life was on the Earth’s surface?

According to a new study by scientists at Yale University, the answer is no. The researchers claim that ancient snakes most likely lived in forests and, even in those early times, were starting to lose what remained of their legs.

“Our analyses suggest that the most recent common ancestor of all living snakes would have already lost its forelimbs, but would still have had tiny hind limbs, with complete ankles and toes. It would have first evolved on land, and not in the sea. Both of those insights resolve longstanding debates on the origin of snakes” said co-author Daniel Field, a Yale Ph.D. candidate.

It seems that the common ancestor which is shared by all modern snakes acted similarly to the way the crawling reptiles do today. It was largely nocturnal and lived in the warmth of the southern hemisphere. Ancient snakes would have relied on stealth to hunt what is now considered to be large prey and they weren’t constrictors at all, such as modern anacondas, pythons, or boas. The snakes from the dawn of time used needle-like teeth to catch and swallow prey whole and also alive. A gruesome way to die. They would have started their existence approximately 128 million years ago.

The reasons why humans were fascinated with snakes is, according to the researchers,our fascination and fear of them, which they believe is practically programmed into our brains.

“Primate brains, including those of humans, are hard-wired to attend to serpents, and with good reason. Our natural and adaptive attention to snakes makes the question of their evolutionary origin especially intriguing,” said Jacques Gauthier, senior author of the study, a Yale professor of geology and geophysics, and also a curator of fossil vertebrates at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.

It is a strange thing, if you take into account that most adult humans are too big for most constricting snakes to eat, and our size is even larger compared to deadly venomous snakes. A possible answer is that when few species can end the life of humans without warning or reason, it was quite normal to be weary of the reptiles.

Image Source: Pics Portray

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