Mass turkey cull to halt bird flu

Tens of thousands of turkeys are being culled at a Suffolk farm as efforts continue to prevent the spread of a mass outbreak of bird flu.

Government vets say 50,000 turkeys have been gassed so far at the Bernard Matthews site near Lowestoft where the H5N1 strain of the virus was found.

reposted from: BBC Last Updated: Sunday, 4 February 2007, 20:24 GMT
my highlights / emphasis / edits

Officials, who said a further 100,000 birds would be killed, denied they had responded slowly to the outbreak.

Sealed lorry loads of carcasses are being taken 200 miles to be destroyed.

Compensation

Government vets said 50,000 turkeys had been gassed at the farm at Holton, about 27km south-west of Lowestoft, by 1300 GMT on Sunday.

The cull is expected to be completed by Monday morning.

Fourteen sealed lorries containing the bird carcasses were travelling to a rendering plant in Cheddleton, Staffordshire, on Sunday evening where they will be destroyed.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed that the Bernard Matthews company will be entitled to compensation for the slaughtered birds.

Q&A: Bird flu Send us your comments

The company could claim under the Animal Health Act 1981 the value of each bird just before slaughter as well as that of any eggs and property removed and destroyed, a spokesman said.

Investigations are continuing into how the disease, identified as the "highly pathogenic" Asian strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus, entered the poultry flock.

Some experts have suggested it might have been spread by wild birds.

The first turkeys died at the site on Tuesday and government vets were called in on Thursday after a vet for the Bernard Matthews company concluded the disease was "unidentifiable".

The authorities have denied their response was slow.

Fred Landeg, the government's deputy chief vet, said that although the company vet was called out on Tuesday, turkeys only began to die in significant numbers two days later, suggesting avian flu might be cause.

Farmer reacts to threat

"The premises were immediately placed under restrictions and an investigation started," he said.

A biosecurity zone has been set up around the farm and poultry owners in the restricted area have been told to keep their flocks isolated from wild birds.

A three-kilometre protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone also remain in place around the farm site.

A much wider restricted zone covering 2,090 sq km is bordered by the A140 to the west and the A47 to the north and almost to Felixstowe in the south.

What each zone means

Health experts have been quick to quell fears the virus found in Suffolk could be passed on to humans.

The avian flu virus has so far killed 164 people worldwide - mainly in south-east Asia - since 2003. So far, all those who contracted the virus had come into close contact with infected birds.

Bird watchers stay vigilant

Health Protection Agency chief executive Professor Pat Troop said the virus "doesn't pass easily from bird to human" and the risk to the general population from the outbreak was "very, very low".

But Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said the government was taking the possibility of a human flu pandemic in Britain "very seriously".

The Department of Health had taken the advice of scientists and stockpiled enough of the Tamiflu anti-viral drug to cover a quarter of the population, she told ITV1's The Sunday Edition.

But agencies dealing with the Suffolk cull said they were confident it had been contained.

The virus has so far been detected in only one shed out of 22 at the site, and 100 of the 2,000 staff who work at the Holton farm have been given the Tamiflu anti-viral drug.

DEFRA CONTINGENCY PLAN Full document [372KB] Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Reader. Download the reader here

A spokesman for the Bernard Matthews company said none of the affected birds had entered the food chain and there was no risk to public health.

Jill Korwin, assistant head of Trading Standards for Suffolk, added: "At the moment we are very encouraged that it has been contained."

But United Nations co-ordinator for bird flu, David Nabarro, has said farmers will have to get used to the presence of the disease in the UK as it is "going to be in bird populations for several years to come".

For more information call the Defra Helpline on 08459 33 55 77

If you have any pictures from the scene you can send them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text your pictures to 07725 100 100.

Scene of outbreak All poultry to be culled Visitors disinfected and restricted access 3km Protection Zone Poultry kept indoors and tested 10km Surveillance Zone No movement of poultry to or from area except for slaughter Trains carrying live poultry are prevented from stopping in the protection zone Bird fairs and markets banned Increased surveillance of wetland areas Domestic birds not to share water used by wild birds Footpath restrictions likely only on free-range farms People in towns not affected unless they keep poultry. Restriction Zone Isolation of poultry from wild birds Poultry movements to be licensed Source: Defra Timeline of Bird Flu in UK Quick guide to Bird Flu Wikipedia H5N1 article

World braced for huge surge in bird flu cases

· 160,000 turkeys slaughtered on farm
· Don't panic over food, plead experts
· Concern at delay in informing Defra

Robin McKie and Nick Mathiason
Sunday February 4, 2007
The Observer


All the turkeys on the affected farm near Lowestoft will be culled. Photograph: Chris Young/PA

reposted from: Observer
my highlights / emphasis / edits

The number of cases of the deadly bird flu virus is increasing around the world as scientists struggle to combat the disease that is now threatening to jump species and infect humans. The news comes as Britain confirmed its first ever case of H5N1 in a farm in Suffolk. More than 160,000 birds will now be slaughtered as the country's farming industry goes on high alert for more outbreaks.

As the authorities responded to the outbreak in Suffolk, local residents questioned why it had taken some 48 hours after the first chicks died last Tuesday for the government's Department of Food and Rural Affairs, Defra, to be informed.
But there was also wider concern. Japan and Nigeria have reported a series of cases of the lethal virus, and China, Egypt, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam have also revealed outbreaks in birds and in humans in the past two months. Indonesia began a mass bird cull in the capital city of Jakarta last Wednesday. At least 164 people are now known to have been killed by the disease across the globe.

The rapid spread of avian flu can be traced to the fact that the H5N1 virus is mutating as it spreads through birds and a variety of mammals including cats, tigers and pigs, said Robert Webster, a researcher at St Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Last night British health officials insisted the risk to the public was still negligible. It set in motion a series of emergency measures aimed at halting the spread of the disease among poultry in Britain. All the turkeys on the affected farm at Holton near Lowestoft, the largest poultry centre run by the breeder Bernard Matthews, are now being culled. Yesterday, piles of slaughtered birds were being scooped into open tractor trailers before being removed for incineration.

An exclusion zone of three-kilometres (nearly two miles) has been set up around the farm. All poultry in the area are to be kept indoors and tested for the H5N1 virus. A further 10km zone has been established in which all movements of poultry are banned, and last night another 2,090sq km restriction zone was created to isolate poultry from wild birds. Other measures will include a ban on bird shows, poultry markets and pigeon racing. This follows a decision by Defra to revoke the national general licence on bird gatherings.

Last night, the National Farmers' Union president, Peter Kendall, said his organisation had warned members to be vigilant. A spokesman for Matthews said his organisation could confirm there had been a case of H5N1 avian influenza at its Holton site. But he added: 'It is important to stress that there is no risk to consumers.'

Dr Andrew Landeg, the government's deputy chief veterinary officer, revealed he had called in ornithologists in a bid to understand how wild fowl - now thought to be the most likely source of the Suffolk outbreak - might have carried the virus into one of the 22 turkey breeding sheds at the farm. Officials also needed to know what other areas of the country might now be at risk of outbreaks.

Last night, it was revealed that Defra had identified several areas in Britain considered to be at particular risk of picking up H5N1 from infected wild fowl. The farm at Horton was one of them.

Avian flu expert Dr Colin Butter of the Institute of Animal Health said it was now crucial that veterinary scientists discover whether the farm was the first place this strain of flu had emerged. It could be that the outbreak was an 'unhappy chance event', or it could indicate a significant level of the disease in wild birds indigenous to the UK, which in turn would make the virus harder to stamp out. Exclusion zones and culling would not be sufficient to contain the virus, Butter added.

However, Landeg yesterday ruled out the alternative - the introduction of vaccinations for poultry, a measure already introduced in Holland - as being ineffective.

As a result, farmers with free-range flocks may face serious threats to their livelihood. However, one organic poultry producer said moves to house birds permanently indoors would be counter-productive. 'My birds are resistant to the range of diseases that affect conventional flocks because their immune systems have been boosted through living outdoors. I accept that as a new strain of bird flu, special measures may be required in the short-term, but these should not be at the expense of the principles of good husbandry.'

However, Landeg yesterday insisted that the disease could be contained. 'There's a good hope, if this is not the first case, we will be able to contain this disease.'

It was revealed last night that five people in Indonesia have died from the virus since the beginning of the year while Japan yesterday confirmed its fourth outbreak of H5N1 bird flu this year and Thailand has reported three outbreaks during the past month.

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Belief or not

• 03 February 2007
• David McMahon Mosman, New South Wales, Australia

Roy Sablosky writes to claim that atheism is not itself a belief (13 January, p 19).

But, to quote the Oxford English Dictionary, an atheist is "one who denies or disbelieves the existence of a God".

The correct term for someone who does not believe in the existence of a god, but does not assert the non-existence of a god, is "agnostic".

From Dave Minter

Roy Sablosky's letter reminds me of a signature line that I saw on a contribution to an online bulletin board.

It read: "If atheism is a faith, then not playing chess is a hobby."

London, UK

From issue 2589 of New Scientist magazine, 03 February 2007, page 21

Car drivers 'risking skin cancer'

Drivers who spend a lot of time behind the wheel increase their risk of skin cancer, US work suggests.

Experts say repeated sun exposure through the car's side windows is to blame, and drivers who roll down the window are at even greater risk.

Most glass used for windows blocks UVB rays that cause sunburn but not deeper penetrating UVA rays.

The Saint Louis University School of Medicine team presented their work to the American Academy of Dermatology.

reposted from: BBC

my highlights / emphasis / edits

Exposure

They looked at 898 patients (559 men and 339 women) with skin cancers occurring on either side of their body.

Among the men, the rate of cancers directly correlated to the areas of the body most often exposed to UV radiation while driving - which in the US is the left-hand side of the body.

Although glass greatly reduces the risk of sunburn, it does not prevent long term damage from UVA Cancer Research UK

Many of these tumours were cancers that develop over time and are linked to cumulative sun exposure rather than intense, intermittent sun exposure.

They affected sun-exposed areas like the head, neck, arms and hands.

Lead author Dr Scott Fosko said: "This finding supports our theory that drivers who regularly spend more time in the car over the course of several years are more likely to develop skin cancers on the left side of the body, particularly skin cancers that develop gradually over time."

Windows open

Dr Fosko's team is now starting to gather detailed information on the driving habits of the skin cancer patients they see in their clinic.

Initial data shows that those who spend the most time per week driving a car are more likely to develop left-sided cancers.

"We're also finding that all drivers who occasionally drive with the windows open had a higher incidence of left-sided cancers," Dr Fosko said.

He added: "Since there are more cars on the road than ever before, it is likely that this trend will continue. And with more women driving...higher reports of left-sided skin cancers in women in the future."

Harmful rays

Most windscreens, unlike the side windows of a car, are made of laminated glass that can filter both UVB and UVA.

Dr Fosko suggested tinting the side window glass or using UV filters on windows might help reduce a driver's risk of harmful exposure.

Cancer Research UK advises: "Although glass greatly reduces the risk of sunburn, it does not prevent long term damage from UVA.

"So if you are driving long distances or sitting in your conservatory every day for long periods of time, with the sun beaming in on you, then you are putting yourself at risk."

But Josephine Querido, cancer information officer for the charity, stressed this did not necessarily mean that you would get skin cancer.

"In terms of the amount of UV sunlight people are exposed to during the course of a year, the amount received through car windows is likely to be a very small percentage.

"It is important to take care whenever you are exposed to the sun, to know your skin type, and, above all, never burn as this can double your risk of getting skin cancer," she said.

Bird flu in Sussex - Experts play down risk to humans

Last Updated: Saturday, 3 February 2007, 13:34 GMT

Experts play down risk to humans

Bird flu cannot pass easily between humans Experts have stressed the outbreak of bird flu at a farm in Suffolk poses no immediate risk to human health. The outbreak has been confirmed as the H5N1 strain of the virus which has infected 270 people, and killed 164 - most in south east Asia - since 2003. However, the virus cannot easily pass from human to human at present. reposted from: BBC my highlights / emphasis / edits So far, all those who have been infected have been poultry workers who have come into intimate contact with infected birds. There is no immediate public health risk Dr Colin Butter Institute of Animal Health Experts warn that if the virus acquires the ability to pass from human to human, then it will pose a potential threat to millions across the globe. Health chiefs in the UK have warned that if such a modified strain does emerge then tens of thousands of people could die in Britain alone. However, at present H5N1 remains overwhelmingly a disease of birds, and not humans. So at present the threat to human health from the outbreak in Suffolk is minimal - particularly as it appears to have been rapidly contained. Asia is key Dr Colin Butter, a bird flu expert at the Institute of Animal Health, said: "This outbreak is no risk to the general public and will be controlled by culling. It is exceedingly unlikely that any human is going to get sick as a result of H5N1 in one turkey farm in Britain at this time Dr David Nabarro United Nations "The risk to public health is from a human pandemic which is not likely to originate in Europe. "A pandemic of this type, if it does happen, is likely to occur in an area where people live side by side with birds, like in East Asia. "So there is no immediate public health risk, but this is clearly something we need to get under control." Dr David Nabarro, bird flu coordinator for the United Nations, also stressed that H5N1 posed little threat to humans. He said: "It is exceedingly unlikely that any human is going to get sick as a result of H5N1 in one turkey farm in Britain at this time. "The numbers of human cases are very, very small indeed, even though the virus has been moving through poultry in at least 50 countries in the last year, and led to millions of birds dying. "This is really not a human disease, it is a poultry disease." Farm workers Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union, said the workers on the Suffolk farm were also unlikely to be at risk. He said poultry workers in south east Asia effectively lived with their birds, and had far closer contact than any of their counterparts in the UK. "On a modern poultry farm a lot of the feeding is done mechanically, and the involvement of the workers with the poultry is really minimalised." Dr Maria Zambon, from the Health Protection Agency, said farm workers who had come into contact with infected birds, and those involved in the culling process would be offered the anti-viral drug tamiflu as a precaution. She stressed that nobody had developed symptoms of bird flu following similar outbreaks among farm birds in continental Europe. David Catlow, president of the British Veterinary Association, said the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had acted quickly to contain and isolate the outbreak. He stressed that the public were safe to continue eating poultry. Virus mix The H5N1 virus is most likely to acquire the ability to pass easily from human to human if it mixes with a standard flu virus, and swaps genetic material. This could happen if H5N1 infects a human - or other animal - which is already infected with standard flu. To minimise the risk of this happening in the UK, the Department of Health recently announced that it would offer seasonal flu vaccine to poultry workers across England. The theory is that if poultry workers are kept free of normal flu, then even in the highly unlikely event that they were infected with H5N1, the bird flu virus would not come into contact with its cousin.

The Higgs particle just got 8% lighter

The Higgs particle just got a bit lighter, and the race to find it a little tighter, thanks to the most precise measurement yet of the mass of the W boson.

Physicists at the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) near Chicago announced on Monday that the W boson - one of the particles that mediate the weak nuclear force - has a mass of 80.413 gigaelectronvolts (GeV).

reposted from: New Scientist 13 January 2007
my highlights / emphasis / edits

The standard model of particle physics links the masses of W boson, the "top" quark and the Higgs boson. Using the newly measured mass of the W and the already well-known mass of the top quark, the team recalculated the predicted mass of the elusive Higgs, which is thought to give all other particles their mass. The upper limit for the mass of the Higgs is now 153 GeV, down from the previous limit of 166 GeV.

Physicists already know that the Higgs is heavier than 114 GeV, because searches up to that energy have found nothing.

Until now, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, due to start working later this year, was the firm favourite to find the Higgs. But the lighter Higgs is well within the range of the Tevatron collider running at Fermilab. "For us at the Tevatron and CDF, it is very good news," says Mark Lancaster, CDF team member at University College London.

If the colliders do not find the Higgs at these energies, physicists will be forced to look beyond the standard model.

From issue 2586 of New Scientist magazine, 13 January 2007, page 5

H5N1 bird flu outbreak confirmed on English farm

• 13:25 03 February 2007
• NewScientist.com news service
• New Scientist, Reuters and AFP

An outbreak of bird flu on a farm run by Europe's biggest turkey manufacturer Bernard Matthews is the highly pathogenic H5N1 version of the virus which can kill humans, the European Commission said on Saturday.

Government veterinary experts were called to the farm near Lowestoft in eastern England late on Thursday after the death of 2500 birds. The UK government is enforcing EU-agreed controls to contain the outbreak, which involves setting up a protection zone with a radius of 3 kilometres (2 miles) and a surveillance zone of 10 km around the infected farm.

reposted from: New Scientist
my highlights / emphasis / edits

It is the second confirmed case of H5N1 in the 27-country European Union in 2007, following one in Hungary.

The farm has 160,000 turkeys, but only one of the 22 sheds that house the birds has so far been affected by the outbreak. Strict movement controls are in place, poultry must be kept indoors, bird shows and pigeon racing are prohibited, and on-farm biosecurity measures will be strengthened.

The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 270 people and killed at least 164 worldwide since 2003, most of them in Asia, and over 200 million birds have died from it or have been killed to prevent its spread. (Find out more in our Bird Flu special report.)

Surprising timing

Avian flu expert Colin Butter, at the UK's Institute of Animal Health, said: "This news is a bit surprising because it's not the time of year when we have a lot of bird migration. If it was going to happen we would expect it to happen in spring, not the middle of winter."

He said it is now crucial to find out if this is the only outbreak, or whether it has spread from another, as-yet-undiscovered outbreak. "If this is a secondary case it is much more serious. If this is the first case, and we can stamp it out, the outbreak will be controlled."

John Oxford, a virologist at London's Queen Mary's School of Medicine, told the BBC he was confident that the outbreak could be contained: "I don't think it has made any difference to the threat to the human population."

Wild swan

The highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 bird flu was found before in the UK, when a wild swan was discovered dead in Scotland in March 2006 (see UK's first case of H5N1 bird flu confirmed). It was thought to have caught the disease elsewhere, died at sea and been washed ashore.

In May 2006, 50,000 chickens at three farms in Norfolk, also in eastern England and home to some of Europe's biggest poultry farms, were culled after the H7N3 strain was detected. Farming leaders said those two scares cost the UK poultry industry 58 million pounds ($115 million) in 2006.

Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union, urged consumers not to stop buying poultry because of the outbreak: "We're encouraging all farmers to be incredibly vigilant, and look at their flocks carefully. We do need to reassure consumers, however, that this is not an issue about safety of poultry."

Bernard Matthews said in a statement: "There has been a case of H5N1 avian influenza at the Holton site, but it is important to stress that none of the affected birds have entered the food chain."

Bird Flu - Learn more about the flu pandemic that could kill millions in our continually updated special report.

Tests show bird flu is H5N1 virus in Norfolk

Last Updated: Saturday, 3 February 2007, 16:11 GMT

Tests show bird flu is H5N1 virus

People at the farm in Suffolk are having to wear protective clothing

The avian flu which killed 2,600 turkeys at a Suffolk farm has been confirmed as the H5N1 virus.

That strain can be fatal if it is passed on to humans but experts said the outbreak was being contained and posed little danger to people.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the European Commission carried out virus tests at laboratories in Weybridge, Surrey.

The 159,000 other turkeys on the farm will now have to be slaughtered.

A three-kilometre protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone will be set up around Holton, which is approximately 27km south-west of Lowestoft.

In pics: containment operation Measures when bird flu hits Q&A: Bird flu

A Defra statement said further tests to characterise the virus were under way in order to ascertain whether or not it is the Asian strain.

It is the first case on a UK commercial farm of infection with the H5N1 strain, which has killed 164 people worldwide - mainly in south-east Asia - since 2003.

However, the virus cannot pass from human to human at present.

So far, all those who have been infected worldwide have come into intimate contact with infected birds.

Vaccinations

Fred Landeg, Britain's Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer, said an investigation was under way but the most likely source of the outbreak was wild birds.

He told BBC News that vaccinations for poultry were not currently being considered.

"There are a number of problems with vaccination in that it takes about three weeks to get immunity."

DEFRA CONTINGENCY PLAN Full document [372KB] Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Reader. Download the reader here

Mr Landeg said the turkeys at the farm had been too young to enter the food chain and no birds or produce had moved off the site.

Dr Maria Zambon, from the Health Protection Agency, said farm workers who had come into contact with infected birds, and those involved in the culling process, would be offered the anti-viral drug tamiflu as a precaution.

She stressed that nobody had developed symptoms of bird flu following similar outbreaks among farm birds in continental Europe.

Vets were called to the Bernard Matthews farm on Thursday night.

The company said it was confident the outbreak had been contained and there was no risk to consumers.

How bird flu became global

National Farmers Union president Peter Kendall told BBC News 24 the priority would be eradicating the outbreak.

"[We will be] making sure we get the message across about how well this will be managed and controlled.

"We're encouraging all farmers to be incredibly vigilant, look at their flocks carefully and we do need to reassure consumers that this is not an issue about the safety of poultry - it's completely safe to eat."

Defra has revoked the national general licence on bird gatherings and bird shows and pigeon racing will not be permitted.

Detergent

Professor John Oxford, a virologist at the London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, said he was confident the outbreak could be contained.

He said: "I don't think it has made any difference as a threat to the human population. The most likely explanation is that a small bird has come in through a ventilation shaft.

"One good thing about this virus is that it's easily destroyed. You can kill it with a bit of detergent."

Dr Oxford also said that while four strains of the H5N1 virus have been identified so far, all are deadly to birds and show potential of being harmful to humans.

He said that identifying the particular strain found in Suffolk will help scientists work out how the disease is moving around the world.

HAVE YOUR SAY The people most at risk are farmers and their families Andrew Olgado, London Send us your experiences Community in shock

In May last year, more than 50,000 chickens were culled after an outbreak of the H7 bird flu in farms in the neighbouring county of Norfolk.

One member of staff at the farm contracted the disease and was treated for an eye infection.

In March 2006, a wild swan found dead in Cellardyke, Fife, was found to have the H5N1 strain of the virus.

For more information call the Defra Helpline on 08459 33 55 77

WHEN BIRD FLU HITS THE UK 1: Scene of outbreak All poultry to be culled Visitors disinfected and restricted access 2: 3km Protection Zone Poultry kept indoors and tested 3: 10km Surveillance Zone No movement of poultry to or from area except for slaughter Rail transport restricted to non-stopping movements Bird fairs and markets banned Increased surveillance of wetland areas Domestic birds not to share water used by wild birds Footpath restrictions likely only on free-range farms People in towns not affected unless they keep poultry. Source: Defra

Cheap, safe drug (based on vinegar) kills most cancers - Dichloracetate (DCA)

IT SOUNDS almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their "immortality". The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe. It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs.

reposted from: New Scientist
my highlights / edits

New Scientist has received an unprecedented amount of interest in this story from readers. If you would like up-to-date information on any plans for clinical trials of DCA in patients with cancer, or would like to donate towards a fund for such trials, please visit the site set up by the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board. We will also follow events closely and will report any progress as it happens.

Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks.

DCA attacks a unique feature of cancer cells: the fact that they make their energy throughout the main body of the cell, rather than in distinct organelles called mitochondria. This process, called glycolysis, is inefficient and uses up vast amounts of sugar. Until now it had been assumed that cancer cells used glycolysis because their mitochondria were irreparably damaged. However, Michelakis's experiments prove this is not the case, because DCA reawakened the mitochondria in cancer cells. The cells then withered and died

Full Article: Cancer Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2006.10.020 (pdf)

Michelakis suggests that the switch to glycolysis as an energy source occurs when cells in the middle of an abnormal but benign lump don't get enough oxygen for their mitochondria to work properly (see Diagram). In order to survive, they switch off their mitochondria and start producing energy through glycolysis.

Crucially, though, mitochondria do another job in cells: they activate apoptosis, the process by which abnormal cells self-destruct. When cells switch mitochondria off, they become "immortal", outliving other cells in the tumour and so becoming dominant. Once reawakened by DCA, mitochondria reactivate apoptosis and order the abnormal cells to die.

“Once reawakened by DCA, mitochondria order the abnormal cancer cells in a tumour to die”

"The results are intriguing because they point to a critical role that mitochondria play: they impart a unique trait to cancer cells that can be exploited for cancer therapy," says Dario Altieri, director of the University of Massachusetts Cancer Center in Worcester.

The phenomenon might also explain how secondary cancers form. Glycolysis generates lactic acid, which can break down the collagen matrix holding cells together. This means abnormal cells can be released and float to other parts of the body, where they seed new tumours.

DCA can cause pain, numbness and gait disturbances in some patients, but this may be a price worth paying if it turns out to be effective against all cancers. The next step is to run clinical trials of DCA in people with cancer. These may have to be funded by charities, universities and governments: pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to pay because they can't make money on unpatented medicines. The pay-off is that if DCA does work, it will be easy to manufacture and dirt cheap.

Paul Clarke, a cancer cell biologist at the University of Dundee in the UK, says the findings challenge the current assumption that mutations, not metabolism, spark off cancers. "The question is: which comes first?" he says.

From issue 2587 of New Scientist magazine, 20 January 2007, page 13

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The Calorie Restriction Society - for people trying to live longer by eating fewer calories

Welcome to the Calorie Restriction (CR) Society

Our goal is to help people of all ages live longer and healthier lives simply by:

• eating fewer calories
• maintaining adequate nutrition

Since the 1930's extensive scientific research has shown that calorie restricted (CR) diets improve health and extend lifespans of nearly every species tested, including worms, spiders, rodents, dogs, cows and monkeys. We believe it is likely that people who carefully adopt a CR diet will see similar results.

The CR Society supports the efforts of people who practice CR for future longevity, current health, or other benefits; those curious about or interested in understanding the effects of the diet; and those interested in the development of related, science-based life-extension and health-enhancing technologies. Our mailing lists provide a rich forum for such topical discussions.

Calorie Restriction...the only proven life-extension method known to modern science.

reposted from: http://www.calorierestriction.org/Home
my highlights / emphasis / edits

The Scent of a Calorie: Whiff of Food Cancels Longevity from Caloric Restriction

February 01, 2007 The Scent of a Calorie: Whiff of Food Cancels Longevity from Caloric Restriction Diet-restricted fruit flies start acting like they are eating when they smell nutrients By Nikhil Swaminathan

reposted from: Scientific American
my highlights / emphasis / edits

Image: © STOCKBYTE/CORBIS LIFE-SHORTENING AROMA: In fruit flies, scientists have determined that the smell of food can have a negative effect on caloric restriction diets, generally designed to impart a longer life.

Evidence began mounting as long as 70 years ago that restricting calories while consuming necessary amounts of sustenance could increase one's life span. Since then, a group called the North Carolina-based Calorie Restriction Society has sprouted whose 1,800 members routinely down about half of the daily caloric intake recommended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the hope of living to the ripe old age of 120.

New research may prompt the organization to send out nose plugs with its next newsletter.

A team of scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, New Mexico State University at Las Cruces and the University of Houston found that the average life span of fruit flies on restricted diets decreased when they were exposed to food odors. The findings, according to lead researcher Scott Pletcher of Baylor's Huffington Center on Aging, suggest that the flies are "actually perceiving the environment," thinking they are in a nutrient-rich place and then their bodies are "adaptively responding to it." The results imply there is likely some olfactory component affecting humans on caloric restriction diets as well.

Pletcher's group exposed two lab strains of fruit flies on caloric restriction to smells created by live yeast, an important constituent of the fly's diet. These flies died three to 10 days sooner—a 6 to 18 percent reduction in life span—than flies on the same diet that did not get a whiff of the yeast. Their life spans were further shortened if the flies actually ate the yeast paste.

Pletcher says the smell of yeast only had an effect on the life spans of dieting flies and not on those that were fully fed and likely already perceived their immediate environment to be nutrient-rich. "If you're in what might be considered an alternative physiological state that is associated with long life span under diet restriction, then the foods have some effect," he says, noting "that suggests that there's some interaction because the odorants aren't having the same effect in all environments."

To determine if smell alone has an effect on longevity, Pletcher's team created a fruit fly strain that had a particularly sensitive olfactory receptor inhibited. Fully fed female flies with an impaired sense of smell exhibited an average life span increase of 56 percent compared with unaltered wild females. Males also lived longer than their wild counterparts. Pletcher says this indicates that odor-mediated aging and dietary effects on aging probably share some of the same physiological pathways.

Brown University ecologist Marc Tatar says the current study, published in this week's Science, provides "really profound evidence" that longevity is controlled not by actual resources but rather by hormones that are cued to resources (such as the way plants sense winter by sunlight changes). "It's like the whole system doesn't actually function on the currency of resources anymore, it all functions on virtual data about what the resources should be like," he says. "It's mind over matter."

Pletcher agrees with that analysis, at least in part. "Some component is due to perception," he says, "and another large component is actually consumption." But given the effect that eating versus smelling yeast had on longevity, he says, "Overall, I would guess consumption has a bigger effect than perception, that's for sure."

RELATED LINKS: Being Cool Could Be the Key to a Longer Life Caloric Restriction and Aging How Low-Cal Diet Lengthens Fruit Fly Life Span Benefits of Diet Can Kick in Late in Life

New particle accelerator could rule out string theory

• 22:04 01 February 2007
• NewScientist.com news service
• David Shiga

String theory could be ruled out by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator scheduled to open by the end of 2007, a new study says. The finding offers a new approach for testing this potential "theory of everything", a goal that has so far proven elusive.

reposted from: New Scientist
my highlights / emphasis / edits

According to string theory, particles like electrons and photons are actually tiny, vibrating strings. The beauty of the theory is that it accounts for all of the known forces – including gravity, which the standard model of physics does not. But its critics have complained that there is essentially no way to test it.

Strong evidence for string theory could come from the observation of short-lived, mini black holes at the LHC (see Watching God play dice: The Large Hadron Collider). But the chance of them appearing is extremely small, so a failure to see them would not be a death blow for the theory.

In 2006, string theorist Allan Adams of MIT in Cambridge, US, and others offered a more promising check. They showed that some particle collisions could reveal whether certain fundamental assumptions underlying string theory are wrong.

Now, another team has shown that the energies needed to reveal such effects are achievable at the LHC, which is being built in Geneva, Switzerland. The team was led by Jacques Distler of the University of Texas in Austin, US.

High energies

One of string theory's assumptions comes from Einstein's theory of relativity – that the speed of light is the same for all observers, a principle called Lorentz invariance.

This principle – and three others underlying string theory – determine how strongly particles called W bosons, which transmit the weak nuclear force, interact.

If these interactions are below the strength calculated by Distler's team, it would signal that one of the assumptions built into string theory is incorrect and that therefore string theory itself is wrong, the researchers say.

"They did a very important thing," Adams told New Scientist.

Quantised space

If string theory does seem to be ruled out, physicists will have to find another theory of everything that can explain the LHC observations. "If we see these violations, people will start working very feverishly on some sort of alternative that will produce these violations," Distler told New Scientist.

That alternative may turn out to be a theory called loop quantum gravity, which posits that space itself is quantised into tiny chunks. Some physicists argue that loop quantum gravity does not satisfy Lorentz invariance. "So that's one possible direction people might go," Distler says.

Although the test could in principle rule out string theory if violations are found, both Distler and Adams suspect that the results will turn out to respect the four assumptions, leaving string theory as a viable candidate for the theory of everything.

Quantum World - Learn more about a weird world in our comprehensive special report.

Journal reference: Physical Review Letters (in press)