Genes, Environment Link ADHD, Math and Reading Difficulty

Genes, Environment Link ADHD, Math and Reading Difficulty: "

An innovative new study using identical and fraternal twins shows both genetic and environmental influences link attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) behaviors in children with difficulties on math and reading tests.

Sara Hart, Ph.D., of Florida State University, and her colleagues used twins enrolled in a long-term study of reading and math. Hart said by focusing on twins specifically, psychological scientists are able to tease out the difference between nature and nurture.

To do this, scientists compare identical twins, who have virtually the same DNA, with fraternal twins, who generally only share about half of their DNA. If identical twins are generally more alike on a trait — say, their eye color or reading ability — and fraternal twins are much less alike on the same trait, one can presume the trait is inherited.

On the other hand, if pairs of identical twins are alike on a trait to the same extent that pairs of fraternal twins are alike on that trait — like how outgoing they are — then the trait is probably influenced by their environment. Most traits fall somewhere in between, and twin studies can show that, too.

In this case, Hart and her colleagues were interested in how twins matched up on symptoms of ADHD, reading achievement, and math achievement. At about age 10, every pair of twins was tested on their reading and math ability. Their mothers also filled out surveys on any problems the children have with attention or hyperactivity.

The researchers found that ADHD behaviors, reading achievement, and math achievement were all influenced by the same genetic influences; this doesn’t prove what causes what, but some psychological scientists think all three might be linked through the working memory system.

Although common genetic influences are a typical result from twin studies, the study also found that ADHD behaviors, reading achievement, and math achievement are associated by common environmental influences.

Although it is not known what the actual environmental influences are, Hart and her colleagues suggest that it could be related to aspects of the classroom and homework environment. If researchers can figure out what these environmental influences really are, they may be able to help children with ADHD do better in school.

The study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Source: Association for Psychological Science

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Animal Study Suggests Dietary Link to Mental Illness

Animal Study Suggests Dietary Link to Mental Illness: "

Emerging research on mice suggests that changes in diet can both reduce and/or trigger mental illness.

Prior studies have found diet linked to reduction of abnormal behaviors in mentally ill people or animals. Now, a Purdue University study shows that diet might also trigger the onset of mental illness in the first place.

Joseph Garner, an associate professor of animal sciences, fed mice a diet high in sugar and tryptophan that was expected to reduce abnormal hair-pulling.

Instead, mice that were already ill worsened their hair-pulling behaviors or started a new self-injurious scratching behavior, and the seemingly healthy mice developed the same abnormal behaviors.

“This strain of mouse is predisposed to being either a scratcher or a hair-puller. Giving them this diet brought out those predispositions,” said Garner, whose results were published in the December issue of the journal Nutritional Neuroscience.

“They’re like genetically at-risk people.”

Garner studies trichotillomania, an impulse-control disorder in which people pull out their hair. The disorder, which disproportionately occurs in women, is thought to affect between 2 percent and 4 percent of the population.

Mice that barber, or pull their hair out, have been shown to have low levels of serotonin activity in the brain. That neurotransmitter is known to affect mood and impulses. Garner hypothesized that increasing serotonin activity in the brain might cure or reduce barbering and possibly trichotillomania.

Serotonin is manufactured in the brain from the amino acid tryptophan, which is consumed in certain foods. The problem is that tryptophan often doesn’t make it across the barrier between blood and the brain because other amino acids can get through more easily and essentially block the door for tryptophan.

Garner modified a mouse diet to increase simple carbohydrates, or sugars, and tryptophan. The sugars trigger a release of insulin, which causes muscles to absorb those other amino acids and gives tryptophan a chance to make it to the brain.

Using eight times as much sugar and four times as much tryptophan, Garner observed a doubling of serotonin activity in the brain. But the mice that barbered did not get better.

“We put them on this diet, and it made them much, much worse,” Garner said.

A second experiment divided the mice into three groups: those that were seemingly normal, others that had some hair loss due to barbering and a group that had severe hair loss. All the mice soon got worse, with conditions escalating over time.

“Three-quarters of the mice that were ostensibly healthy developed one of the behaviors after 12 weeks on the new diet,” Garner said.

Some of the mice developed ulcerated dermatitis, a fatal skin condition thought to be caused by an unidentified pathogen or allergen. Garner saw that the only mice that contracted the condition were the scratchers.

“What if ulcerated dermatitis, like skin-picking, another common behavioral disorder, is not really a skin disease at all?” Garner said. “We now have evidence that it may be a behavioral disorder instead.”

When taken off the new diet, the negative behaviors stopped developing in the mice. When control mice were switched to the new diet, they started scratching and barbering.

Garner’s study raises questions of how diet might be affecting other behavioral or mental illnesses such as autism, Tourette syndrome, trichotillomania and skin-picking. He said that before now, a link between diet and the onset of mental disorders hadn’t been shown.

“What if the increase of simple sugars in the American diet is contributing to the increase of these diseases?” Garner said.

“Because we fed the mice more tryptophan than in the typical human diet, this experiment doesn’t show that, but it certainly makes it a possibility.”

Garner next wants to refine the experiments to better imitate human dietary habits, including the amount of tryptophan people consume. Internal Purdue funding paid for his work.

Source: Purdue University

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Study IDs Brain’s Fear Region, May Improve Treatment for Anxiety

Study IDs Brain’s Fear Region, May Improve Treatment for Anxiety: "

Scientists have confirmed the precise area of the brain that causes people to experience fear. Experts believe the discovery could improve treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety conditions.

University of Iowa researchers studied an individual who has a rare condition that destroyed the part of the brain called the amygdala.

Researchers observed the patient’s response to frightening stimuli such as a haunted house, snakes, spiders, and horror films, and asked her about traumatic experiences in her past – including situations that had endangered her life.

They found that without a functioning amygdala, the individual was unable to experience fear.

The study is published in the journal Current Biology.

Studies in the past 50 years have shown the amygdala to play a central role in generating fear reactions in animals from rats to monkeys. Researchers have suspected involvement of the amygdala in processing fear states, but this study confirms for the first time that the amygdala is required for triggering fear in humans.

Previous studies with this patient confirmed she cannot recognize fear in facial expressions, but it was unknown until this study if she had the ability to experience fear herself.

Daniel Tranel, Ph.D., UI professor of neurology and psychology and senior study author, said the findings could lead to new interventions for PTSD and related anxiety disorders.

PTSD affects more than 7.7 million Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, and a 2008 analysis by the Rand Corporation predicted that 300,000 soldiers returning from combat in the Middle East would experience PTSD.

“This finding points us to a specific brain area that might underlie PTSD,” said Tranel.

“Psychotherapy and medications are the current treatment options for PTSD and could be refined and further developed with the aim of targeting the amygdala.”

Justin Feinstein, lead study author and a UI doctoral student studying clinical neuropsychology, says the findings suggest that methods of safely and non-invasively dampening amygdala activity may help people with PTSD.

“This past year, I’ve been treating veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from PTSD. Their lives are marred by fear, and they are oftentimes unable to even leave their home due to the ever-present feeling of danger,” Feinstein said.

“In striking contrast, the patient in this study is immune to these states of fear and shows no symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The horrors of life are unable to penetrate her emotional core. In essence, traumatic events leave no emotional imprint on her brain.”

In examining the role of the amygdala, Feinstein observed and recorded the patient’s responses during exposure to snakes and spiders (two of the most commonly feared animals), during a visit to one of the world’s scariest haunted houses, and while watching a series of horror films.

Feinstein also measured the patient’s experience of fear with a large number of standardized questionnaires that probed different aspects of fear, ranging from the fear of death to the fear of public speaking. Additionally, over a three-month period, the patient carried a computerized emotion diary that randomly asked her to rate her current fear level throughout the day.

Across all of the scenarios, the patient failed to experience fear. Moreover, in everyday life, she has encountered numerous traumatic events that have threatened her very existence, yet, by her report, have caused no fear.

“Taken together, these findings suggest that the human amygdala is a pivotal area of the brain for triggering a state of fear,” Feinstein said.

“While the patient is able to experience other emotions, such as happiness and sadness, she is unable to feel fear. This suggests that the brain is organized in such a way that a specific brain region – the amygdala – is specialized for processing a specific emotion – fear.”

For Feinstein and Tranel, the most surprising finding of the study was the patient’s behavior when exposed to snakes and spiders. For many years, the patient told the researchers that she hates snakes and spiders and tries to avoid them, yet she immediately started touching them at a pet store, stating that she was overcome with curiosity.

Antonio Damasio, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California and a longtime collaborator of Tranel, helped interpret the findings. The researchers say the results suggest that our fear behavior is oftentimes controlled at a very instinctual, unconscious level.

“Without our amygdala, the alarm in our brain that pushes us to avoid danger is missing,” Feinstein said.

“The patient approaches the very things she should be avoiding, yet, strikingly, appears to be totally aware of the fact that she should be avoiding these things. It is quite remarkable that she is still alive.”

Source: University of Iowa

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Smart Pen Detects, Helps to Reduce Stress

Smart Pen Detects, Helps to Reduce Stress: "

Move over smart phones, a new device — a pen — is said to measure if an individual is stressed-out and provide individual biofeedback for assisting self-regulation.

Researcher and designer Miguel Bruns Alonso has developed a pen which can measure the stress levels of the person using it, and can actually help to reduce that stress.

In experiments, the heart rate of people who used the anti-stress pen fell by an average of five percent.

There are already devices which can detect what the user is doing and feeling, and use this information in a smart way.

This has now become a primary goal for product developers, and one which has already been achieved in automobiles, to some extent. For example, some cars can detect aggressive driving and intervene to counteract it.

Following this model, Alonso decided to develop an anti-stress pen to demonstrate the potential of this relatively new concept in product design.

Bruns’ experiments showed that people tend to play with pens in their hands when they are tense. It also seems that when they are encouraged to check these nervous movements, or make more gentle movements, they can gain more control over a situation.

“Sensors in a pen could provide an unobtrusive way of measuring stress levels. Giving users the right feedback could then help them deal with their stress in a constructive way,” says Bruns.

“That is why I have developed a pen which can detect ‘nervous’ movements and determine whether the user is stressed. The pen also provides a counterweight to these movements using built-in electronics and electromagnets.

“When it detects the quicker movements associated with stress, the pen gradually becomes more difficult to move around. This encourages users to move in a more relaxed way, which in turn makes the pen yield more easily again.”

When the pen was evaluated in an experiment, people who received feedback on their behavior had a lower heart rate (around 5 percent lower) than those who received no feedback.

By these measures, then, they experienced less psychological stress — even though they were unware they were receiving any feedback on their behavior. They also said that they did not feel any less stress.

According to Bruns, this means products that seek to reduce short-term stress should, preferably, intervene directly to modify that behavior to prevent a potential build-up of stress, rather than warning the user “after the fact” about their stress levels.

“This could allow products to reduce stress in an unobtrusive way,” he said.

Source: Delft University of Technology

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Positives moods helps creativity

 

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 16, 2010

If goofing off at the office makes people happy, it may result in more innovative thinking. That is one of the implications of a new study that suggests upbeat work environments can improve creativity.

The work settings can put people in a good mood so they can then think more creatively.
“Generally, positive mood has been found to enhance creative problem-solving and flexible yet careful thinking,” said Ruby Nadler, a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario. She and colleagues Rahel Rabi, also a grad student, and Dr. John Paul Minda carried out the study published in the journal Psychological Science.
For this study, Nadler and her colleagues looked at a particular kind of learning that is improved by creative thinking.
Students who took part in the study were nudged into different moods and then given a category learning task to do (learning to classify sets of pictures with visually complex patterns). The researchers manipulated mood with help from music clips and video clips; first, they tried several out to find out what made people happiest and saddest.
The happiest music was a peppy Mozart piece, and the happiest video was of a laughing baby.
The researchers then used these in the experiment, along with sad music and video (a piece of music from the movie “Schindler’s List” and a news report about an earthquake) and a piece of music and a video that didn’t affect mood. After listening to the music and watching the video, people had to try to learn to recognize a pattern.
Happy volunteers were better at learning a rule to classify the patterns than sad or neutral volunteers.
“If you have a project where you want to think innovatively, or you have a problem to carefully consider, being in a positive mood can help you to do that,” Nadler said.
And music is an easy way to get into a good mood. Everyone has a different type of music that works for them—don’t feel like you have to switch to Mozart, she said.
Nadler also thinks this may be a reason why people like to watch funny videos at work. “I think people are unconsciously trying to put themselves in a positive mood”—so that apparent time-wasting may actually be good news for employers.
Source: Association for Psychological Science

Search for Unconscious Memory Gets Warmer

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 16, 2010

University of California-Davis researchers have discovered that a small area deep in the brain called the perirhinal cortex is critical for forming unconscious conceptual memories.
The perirhinal cortex was thought to be involved, like the neighboring hippocampus, in “declarative” or conscious memories, but the new results show that the picture is more complex, said lead author Wei-chun Wang, a graduate student at the university.
We’re all familiar with memories that arise from the unconscious mind. Imagine looking at a beach scene, said Wang. A little later, someone mentions surfing, and the beach scene pops back into your head.
Declarative memories, in contrast, are those where we recall being on that beach and watching that surf competition: “I remember being there.”
Damage to the hippocampus affects such declarative “I remember” memories, but not conceptual memories, Wang said. Neuroscientists had previously thought the same was true for the perirhinal cortex, which is located immediately next to the hippocampus.
Wang and colleagues carried out memory tests on people diagnosed with amnesia, who had known damage to the perirhinal cortex or other brain areas. They also carried out functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of healthy volunteers while they performed memory tests.
In a typical test, they gave the subjects a long list of words, such as chair, table or spoon, and asked them to think about how pleasant they were.
Later, they asked the subjects to think up words in different categories, such as “furniture.”
Amnesiacs with damage to the perirhinal cortex performed poorly on the tests, while the same brain area lit up in fMRI scans of the healthy control subjects.
The study aids in understanding how memories are assembled in the brain and how different types of brain damage might impair memory, Wang said.
For example, Alzheimer’s disease often attacks the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex before other brain areas.
The results were published in the journal Neuron.
Source: University of California – Davis

People Who Join Groups Better Off Physically, Mentally, Emotionally

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 16, 2010

New research further bolsters the positive effects of social contacts, finding that participation in different social groups can improve mental health and help a person cope with stressful events.
The active involvement also leads to better physical health, improving an individual’s ability to withstand — and recover from — physical challenges.
Belonging to groups, such as networks of friends, family, clubs and sport teams, improves mental health because groups provide support, help you to feel good about yourself and keep you active.
But belonging to many different groups might also help to make you psychologically and physically stronger. People with multiple group memberships cope better when faced with stressful situations such as recovering from stroke and are even more likely to stay cold-free when exposed to the cold virus.
Drs. Janelle Jones and Jolanda Jetten of the University of Queensland in Australia were interested in how group memberships might give people the resilience to face novel and aversive challenges.
In one study, they asked a dozen soldiers undergoing ice-camp training to wear heart rate monitors while experiencing their first bobsled, luge, or skeleton runs—an exciting, but very stressful occasion. A trip down an icy course set everyone’s heart racing, but the soldiers who said they belonged to many groups returned to their normal heart rate faster than soldiers who did not.
And people with many memberships recovered from the stress more quickly.
To find out if making people aware of their group memberships would improve their resilience, Jones and Jetten randomly assigned 56 college students to think about one, three, or five groups that they were members of, and to take care to describe why the group was important to them. Then all participants began a very challenging physical task—keeping one hand in a bucket of near-freezing water.
The more group memberships the participants had thought about, the longer they were able to keep their hand in the icy water. People who were told to think about five groups were able to keep their hand in twice as long as people who were told to think of only one group. Because people were randomly assigned the number of groups to think of, the difference in coping with pain was due to thinking about group memberships, and it is not merely due to mental toughness.
“Group memberships are an important resource,” the researchers said.
“The identity that we gain from our group memberships helps us to develop a sense of belonging, purpose, and meaning. This gives us the psychological strength to endure and recover physical challenges.”
Encouraging people to think about their groups—and to join new ones—is a promising avenue to promote health and well-being with very few negative side effects.
The study is found in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
Source: SAGE Publications

Prayer Can Help Manage Anger and Sadness

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 15, 2010

While prayer has been practiced for millennia, a new study looks at the way individuals believe prayer can comfort during hard times.
The 75 percent of Americans who pray on a weekly basis do so to manage a range of negative situations and emotions — illness, sadness, trauma and anger.
However, the mechanism by which relief is accomplished has gone unconsidered by researchers.
Through the course of in-depth interviews with dozens of victims of violent relationships with intimate partners, Shane Sharp, a University of Wisconsin graduate student, gathered an array of ways prayer helped them deal with their situation and emotions through coping mechanisms such as venting.
Sharp’s interviewees represented a wide swath of the United States in geographic, educational and racial terms, and came largely from Christian backgrounds.
Those who were boiling with anger said they found “a readily available listening ear,” said Sharp, who explores how prayer helps manage emotional pain in the current issue of the journal Social Psychology Quarterly.
“If they vented their anger to that abusive partner, the result was likely to be more violence,” Sharp says. “But they could be angry at God while praying without fear of reprisal.”
During any interpersonal interaction, the participants are considering how they look through the other’s eyes. In the case of people who pray, they are considering God’s view.
“During prayer, victims came to see themselves as they believed God saw them. Since these perceptions were mostly positive, it helped raise their sense of self-worth that counteracted their abusers’ hurtful words,” Sharp said.
Prayer is also a handy distraction for some, Sharp’s study found. Simply folding hands and concentrating on what to say is a reprieve from the anxiety of an abusive relationship. The experience isn’t that much different from a conversation with a close friend or a parent, he said.
“I looked at the act of praying, of speaking to God, as the same as a legitimate social interaction,” Sharp said. “Instead of a concrete interaction you would have face-to-face with another person, prayer is with an imagined other.”
That’s not to diminish God’s role by considering him an imagined participant in a prayer, Sharp added.
“On the contrary, I wouldn’t expect prayer to have these benefits for people if they thought God wasn’t real,” he says. “The important point is that they believe God is real, and that has consequences for them emotionally and for their behavior.”
Yet, the consequences of prayer aren’t always positive.
“For some, through prayer they told me they learned to forgive their abusive partners, to let go of their anger and resentment,” Sharp said. “But that’s a double-edged sword. It’s good for those who are out of that violent relationship to let go of it to a certain extent. But if they’re still in their violent relationship, it may postpone their decision to leave, and that can be bad.”
That double-edged sword makes the mechanics of prayer an important topic for new research, according to Sharp. “Religion is often pointed to as a mostly positive or mostly negative thing,” he said. “It’s way more complicated than that.”
Many of those interviewed by Sharp said they believe in God, but don’t belong to a specific church.
“They still pray,” he says. “It’s the most common religious practice you can find. For that reason alone it deserves more attention, and I think future research should consider prayer as an interaction instead of a one-sided act.”
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Pet rat takes smoldering cigarette to bed with him, starts blaze Read more: http://www.news.com.au/weird-true-freaky/pet-rat-takes-smoldering-cigarette-to-bed-with-him-starts-blaze

• Rat takes butt to bed and starts fire
• Survives fire and found by owner
• Slight fire damage to home

A PET rat named No Name triggered a fire in his beer can-strewn cage when he stole a smoldering cigarette butt from an ashtray and took it to bed with him.

Miraculously, No Name survived the cage blaze and was found scampering around the floor at owner Nelly Banks's apartment in the town of Morecambe, the UK's Lancashire Evening Post said.
"He is a little pincher, he is always taking stuff and hiding it and this time he took one of my cigarettes and put it into his cage which is obviously flammable," the paper quoted Ms Banks as saying.
"He had beer cans and bits of paper and all sorts in there, so it did not take much to send it up.
"I don't know what he thought he was doing, it was about 3 am and I woke up and there was smoke everywhere."

A member of the local fire crew said he believed No Name was building a nest and managed to escape through an open door when he discovered his home was about to go up in flames, the Post said.
"He's in the dog house, but I’m too soft to be upset with him forever," Ms Banks was quoted as saying.

COMPUTER-BASED PROGRAM MAY HELP RELIEVE SOME ADHD SYMPTOMS IN CHILDREN

COLUMBUS, Ohio – An intensive, five-week working memory training program shows promise in relieving some of the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, a new study suggests.
Researchers found significant changes for students who completed the program in areas such as attention, ADHD symptoms, planning and organization, initiating tasks, and working memory.
“This program really seemed to make a difference for many of the children with ADHD,” said Steven Beck, co-author of the study an associate professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
“It is not going to replace medication, but it could be a useful complementary therapy.”
Beck conducted the study with Christine Hanson and Synthia Puffenberger, graduate students in psychology at Ohio State.  Their findings are published in the November/December 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology.

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“One of the encouraging findings is that parents reported even ADHD symptoms improved after the program, and that isn’t the focus.  This program is focused on improving working memory.”

The researchers tested software developed by a Swedish company called Cogmed, in conjunction with the Karolinska Institute, a medical university in Stockholm.
The software is designed to improve one of the major deficiencies found in people with ADHD – working memory.
Working memory is the ability to hold onto information long enough to achieve a goal.  For example, you have to remember a phone number long enough for you to dial it.  Students have to remember the passage of a book they just read, in order to understand what they’re currently reading.
“Working memory is critical in everyday life, and certainly for academic success, but it is one of the things that is very difficult for children with ADHD,” Hanson said.
The study involved 52 students, aged 7 to 17, who attended a private school in Columbus that serves children with learning disabilities, many of whom also have an ADHD diagnoses.   All the children used the software in their homes, under the supervision of their parents and the researchers.
The software includes a set of 25 exercises that students had to complete within 5 to 6 weeks.  Each session is 30 to 40 minutes long.  The exercises are in a computer-game format and are designed to help students improve their working memory.  For example, in one exercise a robot will speak numbers in a certain order, and the student has to click on the numbers the robot spoke, on the computer screen, in the opposite order.
“At first the kids love it, because it is like a game,” Puffenberger said.  “But the software has an algorithm built in that makes the exercises harder as the students get better.  So the children are always challenged.”
Half the students participated at the beginning of the study.  The other half were wait-listed, and completed the software program after the others were finished.
Parents and teachers of the participating students completed measures of the children’s ADHD symptoms and working memory before the intervention, one month after treatment, and four months after treatment.
Results showed that parents generally rated their children as improving on inattention, overall number of ADHD symptoms, working memory, planning and organization and in initiating tasks.  These changes were evident both immediately after treatment and four months later.
On individual measures, between one-fourth and one-third of the children showed clinically significant progress – in other words, enough progress to be easily visible to their parents.
The teacher ratings, while pointed in the direction of improvement, were not strong enough to be statistically significant in this study.  That’s not surprising, Beck said, because very few treatment studies ever find significance among teacher measures.
“Teachers only see the kids for a few hours a day and they are dealing with a lot of other children at the same time.  It would be difficult for them to see changes,” Beck said.
Beck said this is the first published study they know of testing this software in the United States.  One of the strengths of the study is that it used a very typical sample of children with ADHD – other studies in Sweden had excluded children who were on medication.
“Most kids with ADHD are on some kind of medication, so it helps to know how this intervention works in these cases,” he said.
In this sample, 60 percent of the students were on medication.  The results showed the program was equally effective regardless of whether they were on medication or not.
“Medication for ADHD does not help directly with working memory, and the training program does, so it can be useful,” Beck said.
“One of the encouraging findings is that parents reported even ADHD symptoms improved after the program, and that isn’t the focus.  This program is focused on improving working memory.”
Beck said they can’t say for sure how the program works to help kids with ADHD.  But it seems that children are learning how to focus and how to use their working memory on everyday tasks, and they are able to use that knowledge at school and home.
One possible criticism of the study could be that it relies on parental reports, and the parents may be biased.
“That’s true, but it is also the parents who are observing the kids day in and day out, and they are the ones who would be most likely to observe any changes that occur,” Beck said.
The researchers plan on extending the work by using more objective measures of children’s progress after using the program.
Two other co-authors of the study were William Benninger, an adjunct assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State, and Kristen Benninger, a medical student at the University of Toledo
Beck, Hanson and Puffenberger have no financial interest in the company that makes the software.  William Benninger does have an interest, but was not involved in the collection of the data.

Aussie consumers develop a taste for ethical eating

How much a part do ethics play in Australians' food choices? Do we care about how animals have been treated in the production of our food, or how much jet fuel has been burned in moving food from paddock to plate?
These questions and more will be answered by a University of Adelaide project starting in 2011, looking at the ethical reasons that come into play for many Australians on their weekly visits to the supermarket or greengrocers.
Associate Professor Rachel Ankeny, a University of Adelaide researcher who studies bioethics, history and food, has won a $155,000 Federal Government grant to investigate food ethics in contemporary Australia over the next three years.
"Increasingly, people are making decisions about what they buy and what they eat, based on what they consider to be ethical reasons," Associate Professor Ankeny says.
"These can include a whole range of factors, such as the impact of food production on the environment, the importance of buying local produce, religious reasons, health considerations and animal welfare."
The latter is emerging as a powerful consumer influence, with Australia's two major supermarket chains responding to public concern about what is perceived to be inhumane treatment of animals in the production of some foods.
The massive growth in free-range eggs, chicken and pork on the supermarket shelves and the phasing out of cage eggs in some outlets is testament to the growing awareness of animal welfare.
"Organic produce is also becoming more widespread, but this does not appear to be as popular among consumers as many other countries, such as the United Kingdom," Associate Professor Ankeny says.
"People in Australia are more focused on the `buy local' message, for several reasons, which are not always ethically motivated. They are keen to support their local retailers in an economic sense, but they also believe food grown closer to home is fresher and of higher quality."
The Fair Trade movement, which aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading and working conditions, and promote sustainability, is also emerging as an important concept in Australia.
According to the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand, retail sales of Fair Trade certified products - such as coffee, tea, chocolate and cocoa - increased by 58% between 2008 and 2009, to more than $50 million.
Associate Professor Ankeny says the project will try to `disentangle' the motivations behind why people make the food choices they do.
"Sometimes they are not necessarily ethical. People are vegetarian, for instance, for a whole range of reasons, such as health and cultural reasons and the fact they just don't like the taste of meat. It's not always tied to ethical beliefs."
The project will also look at the historical development of our food culture and the close relationship between meat and Australia's national identity, as well as the economic value of the meat industry to our nation.
"How did we get to this point today where there are a small percentage of people who are vegetarians, and an even smaller percentage who are vegans, compared to some other places in the world?"
Focus groups will be recruited mid-way through 2011 to define not only the ethical factors which come into play in food purchases, but also the impediments to making these choices, including cost, time, skills, lack of information, poor food labelling and limited choices.
"The project has a number of goals," Associate Professor Ankeny says. "One is to get to a point where we have a clear definition of what ethical consumption is, according to consumers, and the obstacles they face in pursuing it. Indirectly, the results of this project should be useful for marketing purposes as well.
"Another goal is to incorporate these concepts into food policy. I think most Australians would like a more transparent process when it comes to the food they consume," Associate Professor Ankeny says.
This includes better labelling, showing how food is produced, and the distance it has travelled during various phases of production from paddock to plate.
"This information should allow consumers to better gauge whether the ethical choices they wish to make in regards to food purchases actually have the desired effect."
The University of Adelaide

Most powerful microscope in the UK unveiled

he most powerful atom resolving microscope in the UK was today revealed at the University of Cambridge. The new electron microscope, which will enable scientists to view individual atoms in any material, was officially unveiled by the Minister for Universities and Science, the Rt Hon David Willetts MP.

The unique machine, the FEI Titan 3 Electron Microscope, enables scientists to view and analyse structures at a resolution of 0.7 Angstrom - less than one-half the size of a carbon atom and over a million times smaller than the width of a human hair.

The microscope's impressive power will facilitate pioneering research previously restricted by scientists' inability to view and analyse structures at such a small scale.

One of the research projects which will be using the new microscope is an investigation into diseases which can be characterised by the deposition of plaques, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. These plaques consist of rods as strong as steel called 'nanowires' which are made up of proteins that have misfolded. As they are only a few nanometres in diameter, they are exceptionally difficult to study and are too small to be seen using MRI scans or X-rays.

Researchers will also be using the microscope to study the next generation of lighting for our homes and offices. These new lights will save substantial amounts of energy (possibly enabling the UK to close - or not build - eight large power stations) as well as reduce carbon emissions. They will provide natural lighting, like sunlight, and could last for sixty years.

Another project will examine how to purify water in the developing world using special ultraviolet lights which kill all bacteria and viruses, an advance which could save millions of lives. The new UV lights are also likely to be used in the UK, being more effective and safer than adding chlorine to our water.

Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts, said:
"Scientists working at the threshold of human discovery now have access to the UK's most powerful microscope. By capturing the sharpest possible images of individual atoms, researchers can swell their knowledge of how materials work to deliver far-reaching benefits for society, such as understanding what causes debilitating diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's."
Professor Sir Colin Humphreys, Director of Research in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge, said:
"I am delighted that David Willetts has unveiled our new world-class electron microscope. This atom-resolving microscope will be used to help solve some of the most important problems facing our world today: for example shortages of energy and drinkable water. It will also be used in many collaborative projects with existing and emerging UK industries."

The new microscope is currently housed in the Nanoscience Centre.
Article by the University of Cambridge Press Office.

Animal Study Implies Male Sexuality Influenced By Gender of Siblings

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 22, 2010

A new study published by the Association for Psychological Science suggests growing up with lots of sisters makes a man less sexy.
Among rats, anyway.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, finds that the sex ratio of a male rat’s family when he’s growing up influences both his own sexual behavior and how female rats respond to him.
David Crews, a psychobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, is interested in how early life affects behavior later. This is an area that has received a lot of attention recently, such as research showing that the position of a fetus in the uterus matters.
For example, a female fetus that spends the pregnancy sandwiched between two brothers grows up to be more masculinized, because she’s been exposed to their hormones. Other researchers have found that sex ratio of the litter itself affects adult behavior.
But Crews wanted to separate the effects of life before and after birth.
“Life is a continuous process: you’re a fetus, then you’re born into a family. Each one of these periods can be important,” he says — and they don’t necessarily have the same effects.
When rat pups were born, the researchers counted the number of males and females in each litter to determine the sex ratio in the womb. Then they reassembled litters in three ways: so the litters were balanced between males and females, strongly male-biased, or strongly female-biased.
Then they observed the mother’s behaviors toward their pups and, once the males grew up, tested them to see how they behaved with sexy female rats.
The researchers found no effects of the sex ratio in the uterus. But they did find differences in behavior based on the kind of litter in which the males grew up.
When males who were raised with a lot of sisters were presented with receptive female rats, they spent less time mounting them than did male rats that were raised in male-biased litters or in balanced families. But they penetrated the female rats and ejaculated just as much as did the other males.
This means “the males are more efficient at mating,” Crews says.
The males may be compensating for the fact that they’re less attractive to females. You can tell this by watching the females—if they want to mate with a male, they’ll do a move called a dart-hop, says Crews, and “they wiggle their ears. It drives males nuts.”
The females did this less when they were with a male rat that had grown up in a female-biased litter.
These were rats, but the results have implications for humans, too, Crews says.
“It tells you that families are important—how many brothers and sisters you have, and the interaction among those individuals.”
Families are particularly important in shaping personalities, he says. The environment where you were raised “doesn’t determine personality, but it helps to shape it.”
Source: Association for Psychological Science

Baby’s Sex Influences Response to Pregnancy Stress

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 30, 2010

According to University of Adelaide researchers the gender of a baby determines the way it responds to stressors during pregnancy and its ability to survive pregnancy complications.
Male and female babies during pregnancy show different growth and development patterns following stressors during pregnancy such as disease, cigarette use or psychological stress.
“What we have found is that male and female babies will respond to a stress during pregnancy by adjusting their growth patterns differently,” said associate professor Vicki Clifton, lead researcher.
“The male, when mum is stressed, pretends it’s not happening and keeps growing, so he can be as big as he possibly can be. The female, in response to mum’s stress, will reduce her growth rate a little bit; not too much so she becomes growth restricted, but just dropping a bit below average.
“When there is another complication in the pregnancy – either a different stress or the same one again – the female will continue to grow on that same pathway and do okay but the male baby doesn’t do so well and is at greater risk of preterm delivery, stopping growing or dying in the uterus.”
Prof. Clifton said this sex-specific growth response had been observed in pregnancies complicated by asthma, preeclampsia and cigarette use but was also likely to occur in other stressful events during pregnancy such as psychological stress.
She said this sex-specific growth pattern was a result of changes in placental function caused by the stress hormone cortisol.
In female babies, increased cortisol produces changes to the placental function which lead to the reduction in growth, but the increased cortisol levels in a mother carrying a male baby doesn’t produce the same changes in placental function.
Prof. Clifton said this research could lead to sex-specific therapies in preterm pregnancies and premature newborns. It was also important in helping obstetricians more accurately interpret growth and development of the fetus in at-risk pregnancies.
“We are looking at what events during pregnancy cause changes in how the baby grows, what’s behind this and ways in which we can improve the outcomes for pregnant women and their babies,” she said.
Source: University of Adelaide

Brain Inflammation Linked to Suicidal Tendencies

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 1, 2010

New research suggests depressed and suicidal individuals have low levels of the stress hormone cortisol, as well as substances in their spinal fluid that indicate increased inflammation in the brain.
These findings could help to develop new methods for diagnosing and treating suicidal patients.
This new theory challenges the prevalent view that depression is only due to a lack of the neurotransmitters serotonin and noradrenaline.
“However, current serotonin-based medication cures far from all of the patients treated. We believe that inflammation is the first step in the development of depression and that this in turn affects serotonin and noradrenaline,” Daniel Lindqvist said. Lindqvist, a doctoral candidate at Sweden’s Lund University, is part of a research group that sees inflammation in the brain as a strong contributory factor to depression.
One of the articles in his thesis shows that suicidal patients had unusually high levels of inflammation-related substances (cytokines) in their spinal fluid. The levels were highest in patients who had been diagnosed with major depression or who had made violent suicide attempts, e.g. attempting to hang themselves.
Lindqvist and other researchers from Lund will now begin a treatment study based on the new theory. Depressed patients will be treated with anti-inflammatory medication in the hope their symptoms will be reduced.
The researchers believe that the cause of the inflammation that sets off the process could vary. It could be serious influenza, or an auto-immune disease such as rheumatism, or a serious allergy that leads to inflammation in the body. A certain genetic vulnerability is probably also required, i.e. certain gene variants that make some people more sensitive than others.
Other studies in Lindqvist’s thesis show that patients with depression and a serious intention of committing suicide had low levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood. The cortisol levels were also low in saliva samples from individuals several years after a suicide attempt.
This has been interpreted to mean that the depressed patients’ mental suffering led to a sort of “breakdown” in the stress system, resulting in low levels of stress hormones.
“It is easy to take and analyze blood and saliva samples. Cortisol and inflammation substances could therefore be used as markers for suicide risk and depth of depression,” Lindqvist said.
Source: Lund University

Bacterial Influence on Prevalence of Depression?

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 10, 2010

The prevalence of depression is increasing among all age cohorts with the expansion among younger people leading researchers to explore for answers.
One interesting line of investigation involves a search for potential triggers of inflammatory responses that can eventually contribute to depression.
As such, researchers are taking a close look at the immune system of people living in today’s cleaner modern society.
Rates of depression in younger people have steadily grown to outnumber rates of depression in the older populations and some researchers think it may be because of a loss of healthy bacteria.
In an article published in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, Emory University neuroscientist Charles Raison, M.D., and colleagues say there is mounting evidence that disruptions in ancient relationships with microorganisms in soil, food and the gut may contribute to the increasing rates of depression.
According to the authors, the modern world has become so clean, we are deprived of the bacteria our immune systems came to rely on over long ages to keep inflammation at bay.
“We have known for a long time that people with depression, even those who are not sick, have higher levels of inflammation,” explains Raison.
“Since ancient times benign microorganisms, sometimes referred to as ‘old friends,’ have taught the immune system how to tolerate other harmless microorganisms, and in the process, reduce inflammatory responses that have been linked to the development of most modern illnesses, from cancer to depression.”
Experiments are currently being conducted to test the efficacy of treatments that use properties of these “old friends” to improve emotional tolerance.
“If the exposure to administration of the ‘old friends’ improves depression,” the authors conclude, “the important question of whether we should encourage measured re-exposure to benign environmental microorganisms will not be far behind.”
Source: Emory University

How Does Stress Affect Us?

The subject of stress has become a favorite subject of everyday conversation.
It is not unusual to hear ourselves talk with friends, coworkers, and family members about the difficulty we have with managing the stress of everyday living. We talk about being burned out, overwhelmed and “losing it.” We also hear and talk about our efforts to control the events that cause stress, and most of us understand the results of not controlling our reactions to stress.
Yes, we know that stress may cause heart disease. But most of us are unaware of the many other emotional, cognitive and physical consequences of unmanaged stress.

• Forty-three percent of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress.
• 75 to 90 percent of all physician office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints.
• Stress is linked to the six leading causes of death–heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has declared stress a hazard of the workplace.

Stress is expensive. We all pay a stress tax whether we know it or not. And one in four people in a 2004 poll say they’ve taken a “mental health day” as a result of work stress.
While stress plays havoc with our health, productivity, pocketbooks, and lives, stress is necessary, even desirable. Exciting or challenging events such as the birth of a child, completion of a major project at work, or moving to a new city generate as much stress as does tragedy or disaster. And without it, life would be dull.
Article courtesy of the American Psychological Association. Copyright © American Psychological Association. Reprinted here with permission.

Home » News » Stress News » Diabetic Stress Linked to Memory Loss

Diabetic Stress Linked to Memory Loss

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 23, 2010

New research suggests stress is associated with memory loss among older people with diabetes.
In the study, University of Edinburgh researchers followed more than 900 men and women aged between 60 and 75 with type-2 diabetes.
Scientists evaluated mental abilities with a range of tests, including memory function and how quickly participants processed information.
They compared this with general intelligence levels, using vocabulary tests, to work out whether brain function in participants had diminished over time.
They found that brain function slowed in participants with higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
This study shows that older people with diabetes who have higher levels of stress hormones in their blood are more likely to have experienced cognitive decline. It may be that regulating cortisol levels could help improve cognitive decline in patients with type-2 diabetes.
The study, published by Diabetes Care, took into account factors such as education, cardiovascular disease, smoking and mood.
It is part of the Edinburgh Type-2 Diabetes Study which was initiated four years ago to better understand why people with diabetes may have memory problems.
Researchers are now inviting people who enrolled when the study was set up to take part in followup research to repeat the memory tests.
Adult-onset or Type-2 diabetes tends to be more common after the age of 40. The condition is linked to problems with memory, but the reason behind this is unclear.
Future studies will review other factors which may also affect memory problems.
Source: University of Edinburgh

Depression During Pregnancy Impacts Baby’s Stress Hormones

Fetal development is influenced by a wealth of factors, including maternal depression. University of Michigan researchers have found that more severe depression in mothers during pregnancy was linked to higher levels of stress hormones in their children at birth and other neurological and behavioral differences.

“The two possibilities are that they are either more sensitive to stress and respond more vigorously to it, or that they are less able to shut down their stress response,” says the study’s lead investigator, Delia M. Vazquez, M.D.
The analysis, which appears online ahead of print publication in Infant Behavior and Development, examined links between maternal depression and the development of an infants’ neuroendocrine system, which controls the body’s stress response and impacts moods and emotions.
At two weeks old, researchers found that the children of depressed mothers had decreased muscle tone compared to those born to mothers who weren’t depressed, yet they adjusted more quickly to stimuli like a bell, rattle or light – a sign of neurological maturity.
“It’s difficult to say to what extent these differences are good or bad, or what impact they might have over a longer time frame,” says the study’s lead author, Sheila Marcus, M.D., clinical director of U-M’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section.
“We’re just beginning to look at these differences as part of a whole collection of data points that could be risk markers. These in turn would identify women who need attention during pregnancy or mother/infant pairs who might benefit from postpartum programs known to support healthy infant development through mom/baby relationships.”
The longer-term question for researchers is the degree to which the hormonal environment in the uterus may act as a catalyst for processes that alter infant gene expression, neuroendocrine development and brain circuitry – potentially setting the stage for increased risk for later behavioral and psychological disorders.
While cautioning against alarm, the researchers recommended that mothers experiencing symptoms of depression during pregnancy talk to a therapist.
They also noted that interventions aimed at mother-child bonding after birth can act as countermeasures, stimulating children’s neurological development and lowering the possible effects of stress hormone production early in life.
Postpartum depression is one of the most common complications of pregnancy and up to 1 in 5 women may experience symptoms of depression during pregnancy.
Along with tracking the mothers’ depressive symptoms throughout gestation, U-M researchers took samples of umbilical cord blood right after birth. They found elevated levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in babies born to mothers with depression. ACTH tells the adrenal gland to produce the stress hormone cortisol.
Cortisol levels, however, were similar in children of mothers with varying levels of depression, likely an indication of the high level of stress associated with the birth itself, the researchers note.
Source: University of Michigan

Dementia May Be Caused by Incomplete Memories

By Traci Pedersen Associate News Editor

Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 12, 2010

Dementia may be caused by incomplete or partial memories — rather than by a lack of them — which creates more room for confusion, according to research from the University of Cambridge.
Current theory holds that memory problems are the result of total forgetfulness in regards to past events or objects. New findings, however, reveal that the brain’s capacity for holding complete, detailed memories is limited. The remaining less-detailed memories can become easily confused, resulting in an increased possibility for remembering false information.
“This study suggests that a major component of memory problems may actually be confusion between memories, rather than loss of memories per se,” said Dr. Lisa Saksida, from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge.
“This is consistent with reports of memory distortions in dementia – for example, patients may not switch off the cooker, or may fail to take their medication, not because they have forgotten that they should do these things, but because they think they have already done so.”
Previous studies have shown that animals with dysfunctional memories couldn’t tell the difference between a new object and an old one. In these studies, however, scientists were unable to determine whether the animal couldn’t distinguish the objects because it viewed the old object as being new (forgotten something that happened), or because it saw the new object as being old (false memory).
In an effort to figure out which scenario was the case, scientists devised a new method to analyze the animals’ responses to both new and old objects. Animals were exposed to an object for an hour, and then once the researchers took the object away, the animal was given a memory test by being shown either the same object again or a new object.
The results show that amnesic animals spent the same amount of time investigating the old object and the new one.  Healthy animals, however, showed more interest in the new object by exploring it longer.  To scientists, this extra interest in something new suggested that they still held a memory for the “old” object.
Interestingly, the amnesic animals spent less time on the new object than did the healthy animals, a possible indication for a false memory for the new object.
In conclusion, the researchers believe that these memory difficulties resulted from the brain’s inability to form complete memories of the objects, and that the remaining, less detailed memories became more prone to confusion.
The scientists then used this information to see if they could improve an animal’s performance on the memory test if there were no other memories to puzzle the brain. For this experiment, the animals were placed in a dark, quiet environment (instead of the usual busy one) before the test.
Animals that had originally displayed poor memories after spending pre-test time in the normal, busy environment, later had perfect memories when their pre-test moments were spent in a dark and quiet environment.
“One thing that we found very surprising about our results was the extent of the memory recovery, achieved simply by reducing the incoming information prior to the memory test,” said Saksida.
“Not only does this result confound our expectations, but it also gives us a clearer understanding of the possible nature of the memory impairment underlying amnesia and certain types of dementia, which is critical to developing more sophisticated and effective treatments.
“This also tells us something about how detrimental interference from other things can be when we are trying to remember something, an issue that may be increasingly relevant as the number of potential distractions in our daily lives seems to be on the rise.”
The researchers hope this study leads to new treatments capable of diminishing confusion between memories, possibly through the development of drugs that can enhance the intricacies required to separate memories.
“Alternatively, deliberate and intentional use of the details differentiating objects and events might be a strategy that could prolong independence and help to improve daily functioning for patients,” said Saksida.
“Even more exciting would be the ability to develop treatments that could stop the disease in the early stages, rather than treatments that address the symptoms once dementia has set in. Early detection of memory impairment is critical for the development of such treatments, and a better understanding of the nature of the impairment, as we have found here, is critical to such early detection.”
The study is published in the journal Science.
Source:  University of Cambridge

The Cancer-Causing Sex Virus

The culprit: human papilloma virus.

Martin Duffy, a Boston consultant and economist, thought he just had a sore throat. When it persisted for months he went to the doctor and learned there was a tumor on his tonsils.
Duffy, now 70, had none of the traditional risk factors for throat cancer. He doesn't smoke, doesn't drink and has run 40 Boston Marathons. Instead, his cancer was caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted and a common cause of throat and mouth cancer.
HPV tumors have a better prognosis than those caused by too many years of booze and cigarettes. But Duffy "is in the unlucky 20%" whose cancer comes back, despite rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that melted 20 more pounds off a lean 150-pound frame. Now the cancer has spread throughout his throat, making eating and talking difficult. "I made my living as a public speaker," he says. "Now I sound like Daffy Duck." Duffy believes he has only a few months left. "How do you tell the people you love you love them?" he asks.Most strains of the HPV virus are harmless, but persistent infections with two HPV strains cause 70% of the 12,000 cases of cervical cancers diagnosed annually in the U.S. Other forms of the sexually transmitted virus can cause penile and anal cancer, and genital warts. The HPV throat cancer connection has emerged in just the last few years and is so new that the U.S. government doesn't track its incidence. Researchers believe it is transmitted via oral sex. But top researchers estimate that there are 11,300 HPV throat cancers each year in America--and the numbers are growing fast as people have been having more sexual partners since the 1960s. By 2015 there could be 20,000 cases.These big numbers have some top researchers arguing that drugmakers should test whether HPV vaccines now used to prevent cervical cancer in women can also prevent throat infections in boys. Two vaccines, Gardasil from Merck ( MRK - news - people ) and Australia's CSL, and Cervarix from GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK - news - people ), are U.S. FDA-approved for preventing cervical cancer. Gardasil is approved for use in boys only to prevent genital warts.Vaccinating boys could stop this meteoric increase in throat cancer. "Clearly, boys need to be vaccinated," says Marshall Posner, the incoming medical director of head and neck cancer at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. "I want my kids to be vaccinated. I don't see a downside to these vaccines."www.forbes.com

Huge Asteroids Brought Gold to Infant Earth, Study Says

Just as wise men are said to have brought gold to baby Jesus, huge asteroids may have brought gold and other precious metals to infant Earth, new research suggests.
Scientists have long known that there's a mysterious amount of siderophile ("iron-loving") metals in Earth's mantle. Such metals, including gold, tend to affiliate with iron in their liquid forms.
The best explanation has been that some sort of space object brought the elements to the planet just after it formed its core, but the exact nature of the impactor has been a matter of debate.
Based on computer simulations, the new study says that a small number of enormous, random impacts roughly 4.5 billion years ago are the sources of Earth's iron-loving materials.
These impactors were rocky objects left over from our solar system's planet-formation phase. The largest one that hit Earth was roughly the size of Pluto—up to 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) wide, the study suggests.
And young Earth wasn't the only recipient: Cataclysmic collisions delivered iron-loving metals to the moon and Mars around the same time, the study authors say. What's more, the impacts may have been the source of water on the moon.
"These elements are telling us about what was hitting these worlds in sort of the 'last gasp' growth spurt that they had," said study leader William Bottke, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Impact Odds Like Rolling the Dice
Moon rocks brought back during the Apollo missions led to the now widely accepted theory that the moon formed when a Mars-size object crashed into early Earth.
Energy from the impact would have spurred the still forming Earth to develop its mostly iron core. When this happened, iron-loving metals should have followed molten iron down from the planet's mantle and into the core.
But we know that gold and other iron-lovers are found in modest abundances in Earth's mantle. (Explore Earth's insides.)
Using a mathematical approach called Monte Carlo analysis, Bottke's team calculates that iron-loving metals were delivered in a limited number of massive impacts that just happened to miss the moon.
In cross section, the moon is about one-twentieth Earth's size, so one might expect the moon to have one-twentieth as many precious metals in its mantle, if the materials were delivered by impacts.
That's because, if millions of impacts had occurred, the odds of objects hitting Earth and the moon would likely have evened out to sustain the 1-to-20 ratio.
Instead, the moon has one-thousandth as many iron-loving metals as Earth. According to the study, published this week in the journal Science, those odds can be explained if a limited number of massive impactors were involved.
A lucky roll of the dice could easily have meant that a huge object missed the smaller moon but smashed into Earth—creating the metal discrepancies we see today.
Asteroid Belt Puts Proof in the Pudding?
"It's a cute result, but how do you prove such a thing?" Bottke said. The key, he thinks, is to look at the existing remnants of planet formation in our solar system, aka asteroids.
In the inner asteroid belt, the three largest space rocks—Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta—range from 300 to 600 miles (483 to 966 kilometers) across.
These bodies are much larger than the biggest of the rest, which measure only 150 miles (241 kilometers) across, and no "in between" sizes seem to exist.
"Most of the mass is in the biggest objects," Bottke said. "It's a top-heavy size distribution that is consistent with the kinds of populations needed to make what we see on the Earth and moon."
Martian craters tell a similar tale. The sizes of the oldest impact basins on the red planet appear consistent with a theory that Mars was hit by a population of space objects dominated by a few large asteroids, Bottke said

Japan's Akatsuki probe fails to enter Venus orbit

apan's first space probe bound for Venus has failed to enter the planet's orbit, the country's space agency says. The space craft, Akatsuki, is believed to have passed Venus after it failed to slow down sufficiently.
Akatsuki, launched about 200 days ago, fired its main engine just before 0000 GMT on Monday to allow the planet's gravity to capture the probe.
A previous interplanetary space probe launched by Japan in 1998 to orbit Mars was also a failure.
Akatsuki briefly lost contact but was now back in communication and functioning normally as it headed off around the sun, officials said.
"Unfortunately, it did not attain an orbit," said Hitoshi Soeno of the space agency, Jaxa.
"But it appears to be functioning and we may be able to try again when it passes by Venus six years from now."
The failure was disappointing for the 200,000 names carried by the craft in a bid to raise awareness of Japan's space programme.
Akatsuki was launched to the inner-world by an H-IIA rocket in May. Its goals included finding definitive evidence for lightning and for active volcanoes.
The Japanese probe had been due to conduct joint observations with the European Space Agency's Venus Express craft, which arrived at the planet in 2006.
Venus is almost identical in size to earth, and is thought to have a similar composition.

Continue reading the main story

AKATSUKI ('DAWN') VENUS ORBITER

• Will study atmosphere and surface
• Size: 1.0m by 1.4m by 1.4m
• Mass at lift-off: About 500kg
• 5 cameras; 1 radio experiment
• Designed for 4.5-year life
• Will sit in 300km by 80,000km orbit

The thick Venusian atmosphere is opaque to instruments that operate at visible wavelengths.

Europe's Venus Express probe recently found lava flows that could have been younger than 250,000 years old.
Japan scored a major success earlier this year with the safe return to Earth of the Hayabusa probe which had collected dust grains from the surface of an asteroid.
The same H-IIA rocket that launched Akatsuki also launched the country's Ikaros solar sail - the first practical demonstration of a spacecraft being propelled around the Solar System by the pressure of sunlight alone.

Frogs pee out foreign objects stuck in their skin

By Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience / December 7, 2010

Imagine some buckshot from a shotgun got stuck in your chest or you had a radio transmitter stuck in your side. If you were a frog, your body might be pristine a few weeks afterward — they apparently have the remarkable ability to pee out foreign objects, with their bladders engulfing the intrusions to help get rid of such junk, scientists now find.
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  View gallery: Don't Fear the Leaper: A world of frogs

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No other animal until now has ever been seen using their bladder eliminating foreign objects embedded in their bodies.
Scientists originally implanted temperature-sensitive radio transmitters in three species of tree frogs in Australia to learn more about how temperature-regulating abilities in frogs might vary with the habitats in which they lived. Unexpectedly, after 25 to 193 days, when the investigators recaptured the amphibians to recover the transmitters, many of the devices — up to 75 percent in one species — were no longer in the body. Instead, the implants had somehow migrated to the bladder.

Pearl Harbor survivors gather 69 years later

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — Aging Pearl Harbor survivors on Tuesday heard reassurances their sacrifice would be remembered and passed on to future generations as they gathered to mark the 69th anniversary of the attack.
"Long after the last veteran of the war in the Pacific is gone, we will still be here telling their story and honoring their dedication and sacrifice," National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis told about 120 survivors who traveled to Hawaii from around the country for the event.
Merl Resler, 88, of Newcastle, Calif., was among those who returned. He remembered firing shots at Japanese planes from the USS Maryland and standing in the blood of a shipmate hit by shrapnel during the attack.
"My teeth was chattering like I was freezing to death, and it was 84 degrees temperature. It was awful frightful," said Resler.
On Tuesday, fighter jets from the Montana Air National Guard flew above Pearl Harbor in missing man formation to honor those killed in the attack, which sunk the USS Arizona and with it, nearly 1,000 sailors and Marines. In all, about 2,400 service members died.
Sailors lined the deck of the USS Chafee and saluted as the guided missile destroyer passed between the sunken hull of the USS Arizona and the grassy landing where the remembrance ceremony was held.
After the ceremony, the survivors, some in wheelchairs, passed through a "Walk of Honor" lined by saluting sailors, Marines, airmen and soldiers to enter a new $56 million visitor center that was dedicated at the ceremony.
"This facility is the fulfillment of a promise that we will honor the past," Jarvis said.
The Park Service built the new center because the old one, which was built on reclaimed land in 1980, was sinking into the ground. The old facility was also overwhelmed by its popularity: it received about 1.6 million visitors each year, about twice as many as it was designed for.
People often had to squeeze by one another to view the photos and maps in its small exhibit hall. In comparison, the new center has two spacious exhibition halls with room for more people, as well as large maps and artifacts such as anti-aircraft guns.
There was a minor disruption on the center's first day when the discovery of an unidentified bag inside one of the galleries prompted the Park Service to briefly evacuate the two exhibit halls and a courtyard. But the rest of the visitors center remained open, and everyone was allowed back in the galleries after the object was determined to be a medical bag carrying oxygen.
U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Patrick Walsh said the new center, which has twice the exhibition space as the old one, would tell the story of those who fought and won the peace.
"This museum gives a view into their lives, a window into the enormity of their task, an appreciation of the heaviness of their burden, the strength of their resolve," Walsh said.
Assistant Secretary of the Interior Thomas Stickland said the events of Dec. 7, 1941, were so traumatic and marked by heroism that they had become ingrained in the nation's consciousness.
"That day is now fundamental to who we are as a people. Its stories must be preserved. They must be honored and they must be shared," Strickland said.
USS Pennsylvania sailor DeWayne Chartier was on his way to church that day but never made it: "I got interrupted someplace along the line," the 93-year-old recounted.
He returned to Pearl Harbor from Walnut Creek, Calif., to mark the anniversary and see the dedication of the new center.
"It is my duty. It is not just a visit," Chartier said. "I felt I should be part of it."

Is the Google eBookstore any different?

• 
  Google launched an online bookstore on Monday.

Google on Monday launched what it says is the largest digital bookstore on the internet -- a site called the Google eBookstore.
"The idea behind Google eBooks is to truly set your reading free," the company says in a YouTube video about the new service.
Sounds nice. Free reading. But is Google's foray into digital books actually any different than efforts from Amazon and Barnes & Noble? Here's a quick guide:
More e-books, and millions are free

WikiLeaks' Assange jailed while court decides on extradition

London (CNN) -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange handed himself over to police Tuesday, promptly appeared in court where he was denied bail and left for jail in a police van.
A judge will now decide whether to extradite him to Sweden to face questioning over allegations he had sexual relations with two women without their consent. He has not been charged with a crime.
The judge at the City of Westminster Magistrate's Court ordered Assange jailed until December 14, despite several celebrities coming forward and offering to pay his surety, or bail. It was not immediately clear if the court would decide on that date whether to release him.
The judge repeatedly said the case is "not about WikiLeaks," but about serious sexual offenses that allegedly occurred on three occasions with two women.
Assange, who was in court with security guards on either side of him and his lawyer in front, initially proved reluctant to declare a home address.

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At the start of the proceedings, Assange was asked for his address and at first gave a post office box. When told that wasn't sufficient, he wrote a location on a piece of paper and handed it to the judge. It was later revealed that Assange wrote "Parkville, Victoria, Australia" on the paper.
In making his decision to deny bail, the judge cited the fact that Assange gave no permanent address and has a nomadic lifestyle, and that he has access to significant funding that would make it easy for him to abscond.
Vaughn Smith of the Frontline Club, a journalists' organization that hosts many of WikiLeaks press events and gives WikiLeaks workspace in London, said he offered Assange an address for bail. Smith said he was "suspicious of the personal charges" against Assange.
English socialite Jemima Khan had offered to pay bail of 20,000 pounds ($31,500), and journalist John Pilger also offered a sum of money.
The media was allowed inside the courtroom initially but was later ordered to leave.
Assange appeared in court after turning himself in at a London police station. He was arrested on a Swedish warrant.
He refused to agree to be extradited to Sweden, so the court now has roughly 21 days to decide whether to order his extradition, said Mark Ellis, executive director of the International Bar Association.
Ellis was surprised that Assange was denied bail, he said.
But Assange will now face an uphill battle to prevent being sent to Sweden -- showing that he cannot get a fair trial there.
"That is difficult" given Sweden's highly developed legal system, Ellis said.
The Swedish warrant is a European arrest warrant designed for easy transfer of suspects among European states, Ellis said.
If the court does decide to allow his extradition, Assange will be allowed to appeal that decision, too, elongating the legal process, he said.
Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, has said he has long feared retribution for his website's disclosures and has called the rape allegations against him a smear campaign.
Sweden first issued the arrest warrant for Assange in November, saying he is suspected of one count of rape, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of unlawful coercion -- or illegal use of force -- allegedly committed in August.
Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny said in a website statement that Tuesday's actions don't represent any movement in the investigation.
"At present, the case is a matter for British authorities," she said.
Ny also said that the arrest has nothing to do with WikiLeaks.
"I want to make clear that I have not been subjected to any kind of pressure, neither political nor of any other kind," she said. "I am acting as prosecutor because there are suspicions of sex crimes committed in Sweden in August. Swedish prosecutors are completely independent in their decisions."
Assange's Swedish lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, told CNN affiliate TV4 that his client is innocent. "Yes, I think that Julian Assange will soon be set free if all applicable laws are followed," Hurtig said. "The prosecutor wants Assange to be arrested because he didn't participate in an interrogation. But once this interrogation has taken place, there won't be any more reason to keep him, so then he should be set free."
Claus Borgstrom, the Swedish lawyer representing the two women who have accused Assange, said he is "very relieved, above all, on behalf of my clients."
"Now we are just waiting for the next step which is for him to be handed over to Sweden," he said.
The Australian High Commission in London said Tuesday it was providing consular assistance to Assange as it "would to any Australian under arrest."
A spokesman for WikiLeaks said Tuesday the legal proceedings in London had not affected the site, which facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information.
"WikiLeaks is operating as normal, and we plan to release documents on schedule," spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said.
WikiLeaks has been under intense pressure from the United States and its allies since it began posting the first of more than 250,000 U.S. State Department documents November 28.
Since then, the site has been hit with denial-of-service attacks, been kicked off servers in the United States and France, and found itself cut off from funds in the United States and Switzerland.
In response, the site has rallied supporters to mirror its content "in order to make it impossible to ever fully remove WikiLeaks from the internet." More than 500 sites had responded to the appeal by Monday evening, it said.
WikiLeaks has also posted a massive, closely encrypted file, identified as "insurance" -- a file Assange's lawyer has described as a "thermonuclear device." Assange has said the more than 100,000 people who have downloaded the file will receive the key to decoding it should anything happen to him or should the site be taken down.

"The insurance file will only be activated in the gravest of circumstances if WikiLeaks is no longer operational," Hrafnsson said.