Pollution blamed as China confronts surge in number of deformed babies

An alarming rise in birth defects was acknowledged by China yesterday, amid concern that heavy pollution is damaging the country’s children.

Babies born with conditions such as cleft palates and extra fingers and toes now account for up to 6 per cent of births each year, according to statistics published yesterday. And the number of babies born with disabilities has increased by 40 per cent since 2001 – a period that has coincided with China’s meteoric economic growth – to between two and three million a year. Up to 12 million more develop defects in childhood.

Read More…Pollution blamed as China confronts surge in number of deformed babies – Times Online

Humans At War With Earth On Climate Change Says James Lovelock

We could be on the brink of natural disaster and even the gloomiest predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report are underestimating the current severity of climate change, Professor James Lovelock will say at a public lecture at the Royal Society (1) the UK National Academy of Science today (Monday 29 October 2007).

Read More…Humans At War With Earth On Climate Change Says James Lovelock

Supersize elements created in lab

US researchers have created exotic new versions of atomic nuclei including one previously thought to not exist.

The three new isotopes of magnesium and aluminium suggest other heavy variants of everyday elements could be created.

Read More..BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Supersize elements created in lab

The KapKids Project

A little off-topic but I wanted to share this with my my readers!

The Child Orphanage is for kids in Nepal whose parents were killed by Maoists demanding the abolition of the country’s monarchy.The building is near Kathmandu and most people in the West wouldn’t use it for much more than a gardening shed.But it’s home to 29 children aged four to 12. They eat, sleep play and do everything else in one tiny room with bamboo walls. The three beds they

share also double as benches.The kids in Child Orphanage get a free education in a nearby school, but that’s where it ends.

And that’s why p2pnet and TorrentFreak have adopted the Kapan Kids.

Read More….The KapKids Project

In millions of Windows, the perfect Storm is gathering

In millions of Windows, the perfect Storm is gathering | Business | The Observer

A spectre is haunting the net but, outside of techie circles, nobody seems to be talking about it. The threat it represents to our security and wellbeing may be less dramatic than anything posed by global terrorism, but it has the potential to wreak much more havoc. And so far, nobody has come up with a good idea on how to counter it.

Scientists hail DNA repair study

One of the images used by the research team

Research into how the human body repairs damaged DNA has been described as a “major breakthrough”.

The way that cells protect themselves from diseases like
cancer has been the focus of a study by scientists at Dundee and Leeds
Universities.

Read More.. BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Tayside and Central | Scientists hail DNA repair study