A parasite that affects the mind
A colleague recently drew my attention to a study1 entitled ‘Is Toxoplasma gondii a potential risk for traffic accidents in Turkey?’; it appears that it is, which lends support to the idea that it is a more significant public health problem than it is often thought to be. T. gondii is a protozoan parasite whose…
Two pints of lager and a tin of sardines
Here’s one for the pub this weekend: omega-3 fortified Bacardi Breezers, or maybe a Tropical Reef with the rest of the aquarium thrown in? Make mine an old-fashioned snowball made with omega-3 fortified eggs
Take one funny film twice daily
I saw this paper while selecting items for the database and had to share it. This study found that laughing at a comic film increases melatonin excretion into breast milk and babies fed this milk suffer fewer atopic eczema symptoms. Sounds like the treatment for atopic eczema could suddenly become fun! Hajime Kimata, the author…
Organic tomatoes – better for your heart?
Having carried out organic farming research for three years prior to joining CABI, my attention is always grabbed by comparisons between organic and ‘conventional’ agriculture. The size of the organic food market continues to grow (the global organic food and drink market was projected to generate revenues of US$40 bn in 2006, according to British…
What are my chances of catching an interesting parasite?
For most of the time that I have worked at CABI I have dealt, among other things, with articles on parasitology, and reading about some of the things that can be caught from undercooked meat or fish has made me tend to avoid it. However, on a recent holiday on the Trans-Siberian railway I stopped…
Don’t you know there’s a war on?
Aspartame1‘s back in the news. The data we’ve been waiting for since I was last moved to post on this deceptively sweet little dipeptide has been published. The European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences in Italy published their latest findings in the journal European Health Perspectives. ‘Lifespan exposure to low doses of aspartame…
Obesity- now blame the microwave or lack of sleep.
Two stories I noticed in the last week add to the long list of culprits for the obesity epidemic, invention of microwave ovens and not getting enough sleep. Blaming microwaves seems a bit unfair. What they are really saying is that microwaves, combined with ready meals and the freezer have encouraged people to take an…
CABI fungi examined for medical marvels
Hot off the press is this news release from CABI’s Bioservices department: CABI houses one of the world’s largest genetic resource collections of fungi, numbered at over 28,000 strains. We will be supplying the University of Strathclyde’s Institute for Drug Research (SIDR) with extracts from filamentous fungi to be screened for pharmaceutically active compounds, which…
B-list celebrity in shock relationship scandal
the headlines in the journals are written specifically to grab your attention and make you read the rest.
Have you ever milked a hemp?
Hemp agriculture is thought to be more acceptable to those consumers sensitive to environmental issues. Hemp requires very little water, no herbicides and is believed to stimulate soil