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A “fat head” isn’t so bad after all!
The reason why human babies are so plump is related
to the energetic needs of our uniquely enlarged brain
claim a team of scientists in the latest edition
of the American Journal of Human Biology.
Humans are the species with the fattest newborns. Proportionately,
our babies are as fat as animals living in the artic and fatter
than aquatic animals, which need extra adipose (fat) tissue
as insulation for a life in the water. In fact, a human newborn
has four times more fat than would be predicted for its size,
a fact that always puzzled scientists.
But in evolution things do not happen by chance and so the
question is: what were the evolutionary gains that we had,
in return for spending extra energy during pregnancy creating
fatter babies? What is the function, in newborns, of these
extra layers of fat?
Hamilton Correia, Manuel L. de Areia and colleagues at the
Department of Anthropology, University of Coimbra and the
Department of Anthropology, University of Aveiro, Portugal
claim to have found experimental evidence that can help to
answer this enigma.
The team of scientists studied 1069 human newborns and found
a link between the size of their head and their fatness at
birth. The investigators observed that infants with bigger
heads were also the ones that fell into the group of fatter
babies.
Based on the results of their work, Correia, Areia and colleagues
propose that the "exaggerated" fat in human newborns
is at least partially explained as being an important energy
reserve for the unique high energetic needs of our large brain.
£48M to build a sun
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council is allocating its largest ever grant
of £48M. The funding, for fusion research,
will run over 4 years.
EPSRC took over responsibility for the UK fusion program
in April 2003 with dedicated funding allocated via the Office
of Science and Technology.
Fusion, the process by which the sun produces heat and light,
has the potential to provide an almost limitless clean, safe,
renewable energy source for future generations. However, before
that can be achieved some formidable engineering and scientific
challenges need to be addressed which is why strong investment
in this area is so crucial.
The EPSRC grant has been awarded to the UK Atomic Energy
Authority (UKAEA) at its Culham site in Oxfordshire. The grant
will underpin the UK involvement in the EURATOM Joint European
Torus (JET), also at Culham, the development of the UK’s
own fusion device, MAST (Mega-Amp Spherical Tokamak) and research
on the materials needed for a fusion power station.
Professor Sir David King, Chief Scientific Advisor to the
Government and Head of the Office of Science and Technology
said, “this grant will enable Culham to continue its
excellent work in the development of fusion science leading
to fusion power, and in doing so maintain the UK's position
as one of the world leaders in fusion ".
ESA sets sights on earth ventures
The European Commission has adopted a system to
ensure that GMOs contained in food and feed products
can be precisely identified.
Each GMO that has been approved for use in the
EU will be given a different code composed of letters
and digits, a so-called "unique identifier".
Unique identifier codes will be required to accompany
any products containing a GMO through every stage
of production and distribution.
Operators will have to list the codes for individual
GMOs, in accompanying documentation, that have
been used to constitute the original raw material
for products intended for food, feed or processing.
This will allow products containing these GMOs
to be accurately traced and labelled when they
arrive in the marketplace.
The proposal is intended
to make it easier for consumers to spot GMOs
and decide whether or not to eat them.
This follows on from new EU laws tightening up
the labelling and traceability of GMOs in the food
chain.
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