In Infrared Light Everyone Looks Terrifying

Infrared Light is emitted by an object because of what is happening at the atomic level. Using a typical camcorder, you can see the infrared light from a remote control.


Like humans, most animals rely on visible light for seeing, and plants rely on it for photosynthesis. In addition to the light that's visible to us, the sun also radiates ultraviolet and infrared light.


Snakes have infrared sensors, and bees can see some ultraviolet light, but they're among the few exceptions to the rule. Why are we earth dwellers so attuned to visible light, instead of some other segment of the spectrum?


Why don't we see ultraviolet or infrared?

The traditional answer to this question was that most of the sun's radiation is visible light, so our eyes evolved to see those wavelengths. However, the sun also gives off a whole lot of infrared radiation. What would it be like if our eyes evolved to see infrared light?


If we could see infrared, the sky would appear dark, and grass and trees very bright. Our veins would shine darkly through our skin, and warm blooded creatures would be very easy to spot. That would be a great advantage not only for predators on the prowl, but also escaping prey.


What's visible light?

No one knows for sure why animals and plants on earth evolved to perceive visible light, rather than infrared. One theory is that maybe there's no biochemical reaction that would allow us to translate infrared light into a visual image we can perceive, as we do with visible light. Or, maybe evolution just hasn't found it yet.

"Three things I like the most in the world: The sun,the moon and you.The day is the sun,the night is the moon and you are eternity."

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

Feel Free to Shake Hands

In China, July is the graduation season, and some scientists got to wondering whether the folks who shake hundreds of hands while passing out diplomas run the risk of coming away with a fistful of infectious microbes, such as Staphylococcus aureus.



Good news turns out the risk of being passed a disease-causing bacterium while pressing the flesh is pretty remote. That’s according to a study in the Journal of School Nursing.

"Quantifying School Officials’ Exposure to Bacterial Pathogens at Graduation Ceremonies Using Repeated Observational Measures", said Dave.


The researchers swabbed the palms of 14 school officials before and after graduation. They found that before the ceremony, and even after a slathering of sanitizer, hands were home to plenty of nonharmful bacteria. On the infectious scorecard, one dean brought Staph aureus to a commencement.

Two others at a different ceremony walked away with it. And one of those samples came from a left hand, which didn’t participate in any of the meeting or greeting. So the math says that of more than 5,000 handshakes, just one may have passed along something less welcome than a sheepskin.

So if you’re graduating this summer, don’t fear handshakes, it is not a big deal.

Wait, while you wonder if the last person who wore that robe had anything contagious...

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

Now We’d Like to Vindicate for Bedwetting

Guide: Bed-wetting, this is not but a pleasant topic. Bedwetting now plagued 5,000,000-7,000,000 American children. If we can not explain why those children who are unluckily suffered from bedwetting bed, then let us at least to explore out the reasons for bed-wetting. Nowadays scientists believe that bedwetting is based on physiological factors, and some children suffer from common curable diseases or have structural defects.



Never a happy topic, bed wetting is a very distressing problem for five to seven million American kids. If we can’t explain why some people like to pick on these kids, can we at least shed some light on what causes bed wetting?

At one time, people punished bed-wetters for acting badly, but today scientists believe that this condition has several physical causes. Some kids suffer from problems like infections or anatomical defects that can be easily identified and treated.

Other causes are harder to pin down. One promising area of research is on the kidney hormone ADH. We all produce more ADH hormone at night. ADH signals the kidney to slow down production. This is why we don’t go to the bathroom for eight hours at night but could never last that long between bathroom breaks during the day.

Some children who wet their beds do not produce enough ADH at night. When given drugs that boost this hormone, they stop bed wetting.

Finally, some kids simply have small bladders and an undeveloped nervous system. The good news is that these kids, like most bedwetters, will grow out of it as their bodies develop and mature.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

Be Careful of Your Mobile Phone!

Recently, The WHO(World Health Organization) has added to the debate over the risk of brain cancer from mobile phone use. Last week the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer listed the signals from wireless devices as "possibly carcinogenic." This finding puts cell phones in the same risk group as the pesticide DDT -- but also in the same group as coffee. So, it seemed that when mobile phone take us convenience, the same time its dangers can not be ignored easily.



A group of thirty-one scientists from fourteen countries made the finding. The announcement came at the end of a meeting at the agency's headquarters in Lyon, France.

The concern is that extended contact with radiofrequency electromagnetic fields may increase a user's risk for glioma. Glioma is the most common form of brain cancer.

The scientists spent a week examining existing research. Dr. Jonathan Samet from the University of Southern California led the group.

JONATHAN SAMAT: "We also carefully consider the sources of exposure of populations to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, the nature of these fields as they come from various devices, including wireless phones, and we look carefully at the physical phenomenon by which exposure to such fields may perturb biological systems and lead to cancers."

He says the finding that there could be some risk means scientists need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer.

The statement noted that the number of mobile phone users is large and growing, especially among young adults and children. Mobile phone subscriptions are estimated at five billion worldwide.

The scientists called for more research into long-term, heavy use of mobile phones. They also suggested taking measures to reduce exposure to the signals, like hands-free devices or texting.

Camilla Rees from an American group called Electromagnetic Health praised the report but says wider research is needed.

CAMILLA REES: "We’ve only had this technology around for about fifteen years, and most carcinogens will take about several decades, thirty-forty years to develop a cancer. So based on some early indications, scientists are projecting that we’re actually going to be seeing a tsunami of brain cancer unless we do something to educate people to lower their exposure to this kind of risk."

CTIA, the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry, dismissed the report. The group pointed out that no new research had been done. And it noted that the cancer research agency has given the same finding to things like coffee and pickled vegetables.

Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

Just How Big a Deal is Milk Drinking?

[Guide] Recently, on the meeting of The Development of the Washington Association of Science, Sarah Waters Cove come from University of Pennsylvania pointed out that in fact, speaking for children and adults, when a type of protein called lactase expressed in the body, they can digest milk, body do not express this enzyme can not digest this complex sugar.


“The ability to digest milk as adults, and as infants, actually, is due to the expression of an enzyme called lactase.” That’s the University of Pennsylvania’s Sarah Tishkoff at the AAAS conference in Washington, D.C., on February 20th, talking about the recent evolution of lactose tolerance in different human populations within the past 9,000 years. “Individuals who don’t express this enzyme can’t digest that complex sugar.”

Can we put a number on the evolutionary importance of lactose tolerance? “The selective pressure was quite remarkable. We actually estimated it to be about 10 percent. So you’re more likely to have 10 percent more offspring essentially.”

How strong is that? Look at population genetics to see how fast a trait will spread that develops in one individual in a population and that confers a 10 percent reproductive advantage. A mathematical analysis reveals that in just 100 generations, such a trait can be found in 95 percent of the individuals in the population.

That time period could be less than 2,000 years for humans. “I’m often asked the question, are humans still evolving? I would say the answer is absolutely yes.”

Now, maybe we cam say: Digesting milk is No longer a Problem?

Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

New Results show Young Patients with Breast Cancer can Recovery Earlier

Guide: As we all know, breast cancer has been ones of major “killers” to many ladies, and the age women suffer the sick turn to more and more younger, recently, the latest medical research results show that early breast cancer can be found in young women earlier, so that they can be cured earlier, and more women can re-own a healthier body, as well as more happy times.

Have you ever felt lumps under the skin on the sides of your neck when you were sick? Those might be lymph nodes. They can get swollen and painful but their job is to fight infection. Lymph nodes are part of the body's defenses known as the lymphatic system.

This complex system throughout the body makes and transports a protective fluid called lymph. Lymph is made of white blood cells, proteins and fats.

In a patient with breast cancer, the cancer can spread to the large number of lymph nodes under the arm. Doctors have traditionally removed many of these lymph nodes in the hope of removing all the cancer.

But the latest research finds nothing to gain by removing so many lymph nodes.

Doctors have two choices when breast cancer starts to spread. They can do what is called a sentinel node biopsy. They remove the main growth and one or two lymph nodes nearest to it.

Or they can take more aggressive action and remove a lot of lymph nodes. But that can lead to shoulder pain and permanent swelling of the arm.

Dr. Armando Giuiliano at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California, was a leader of the study. He found that a sentinel node biopsy can be enough to eliminate all of the cancer. And the patient does not need to stay in a hospital to have it done.

Dr. Giuliano and researchers at other American cancer centers studied almost nine hundred breast cancer patients. In each case, the cancer had spread to no more than two lymph nodes.

Half of the women had the traditional surgery. Doctors removed an average of seventeen lymph nodes. The other half had the simpler operation with just one or two nodes removed. Then both groups received radiation treatment and chemotherapy drugs.

Doctor Giuliano says rates of survival five years later showed that the less invasive operation was just as successful as the more aggressive action.

Doctor Giuliano said: "The five-year survival was about ninety-two percent regardless of which operation. And, wonderfully, women who had the sentinel node biopsy alone did just as well as the women who had the more radical operation."

The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Some experts say the findings could change the way surgeons treat early breast cancers that have spread to the lymph nodes. But other doctors say they want more proof before they make a change.

Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis