We all acknowledge that smoking is bad for your health and can ultimately be fatal. Smoking during pregnancy not only poses a risk for the mother but also for the unborn child. The children of women who smoked while pregnant are more likely to be obese in their teenage years, a study has revealed. Researchers found that those who were exposed to cigarette smoke while in the womb had significantly higher quantities of fat than their non-exposed peers later in life. The exposed teenagers had a third more fat around their internal organs and 26 per cent more fat directly under the skin, according to the international team that carried out the study.
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21
Apr
Brain training games do nothing to keep the mind nimble, according to Cambridge University researchers. The scientists concluded that while we get better at the complex computer exercises with practice, there is no evidence that this is of any use in everyday life. Healthy middle-aged people would do more for their brain by eating a salad, going for a stroll or taking up ballroom dancing, experts said. Read the full article on the Daily Mail.
14
Apr
Dozens of human embryos with three parents have been created by British scientists, ushering in an era of designer babies. The embryos - which effectively have two mothers and one father - have been genetically engineered to be free from incurable muscle, brain, heart and digestive illnesses, some of which kill within hours of being born. The Newcastle University researchers say that within as little as three years, it could allow women whose families are blighted by disease the chance of bringing a healthy child into the world. Read the full article on the Daily Mail.
23
Oct
ow-tech roof tiles made from hair gel could provide one revolutionary solution to climate change. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that hair gel when mixed with water, changes colour depending on the temperature. The team of students used the technology to create special panels that reflected the suns rays away from Earth when it was hot but absorbed them in chilly weather. The carbon-busting roof slates work by mixing the polymer with water and sealing the substance within two flexible plastic layers against a dark background. When it is cold the polymer remains dissolved and the black backing shows through. This absorbs the available warmth from the sun, which could be harnessed to heat buildings below.
18
Oct
More than 1.5 million people who are most at risk from bowel cancer have ignored a simple, free test that could spot an early symptom of the disease - one of the deadliest cancers but which is treatable in nine out of ten cases. Perhaps they are anxious about the follow-up tests but the latest procedure - a virtual colonoscopy - is pain and anaesthetic-free, as I recently discovered. The NHS launched its nationwide bowel cancer screening programme three years ago in an attempt to cut deaths from 16,000 a year - only prostate and lung cancer kill more men and only breast cancer claims more women. Since June 2006, testing kits have been sent to 3.7million men and women between 60 and 69 - the most vulnerable age group - asking for a stool sample, which will be examined for minute traces of blood, but just 55 per cent of kits were returned. By the end of this year, everyone in the UK should be sent a kit once they reach the age of 60.