Health & Science

A miracle weight-loss pill

NEWS 17

What the scientists are saying

showed that when the volunteers heard music they enjoyed, their dopamine levels rose whenever the music produced a chill. (One of the eight volunteers experienced a rise comparable to that of someone who had taken cocaine.) When they were played music they did not like there were no such chills, and less dopamine was released. Listening to the pleasurable piece also resulted in increased heart rate, breathing and sweating. The authors of the report, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, say it is signicant that humans obtain pleasure from music an abstract reward that is comparable to the pleasure obtained from more basic biological stimuli. These ndings provide neurochemical evidence that intense emotional responses to music involve ancient reward circuitry in the brain, said neuroscientist Dr Robert Zatorre. Is there a perfect time to wean a baby? For the past eight years, the NHS has advised that infants should be fed exclusively breast milk until six months. And although 99% of parents start giving their babies formula milk at some point, around half delay the introduction of solids. Yet now a team from the Universities of London, Edinburgh and Birmingham has enraged many health practitioners and alarmed new mothers by presenting evidence, based on a review of several studies, that the advice is ill-founded. Their report, published in the British Medical Journal, says there is no compelling evidence for not introducing solids at four to six months, and that their introduction might reduce the risk of iron deciency, coeliac disease and allergies. While the two sides battled it out, commentators advised mothers just to do whatever they felt most comfortable with.

Its what drugs companies (and dieters) have longed dreamed of a pill that causes people to lose weight, with minimal effort on their part, and no negative side effects. And now it seems this Holy Grail may have been discovered, says the New Scientist. Known as ZGN-433, the drug is still in the early stages of testing, but in trials carried out in Massachusetts, 24 obese women who took it went on to lose an average of 1kg a week over the next month. This is almost the maximum rate of weight loss considered safe and amazingly, it was achieved without the women changing either their diets or exercise habits. The mechanism by which ZGN-433 works isnt fully understood, but it appears to set off a chain reaction between enzymes and genes that reduces insulin resistance, inhibiting the overproduction of fat and suppressing inammation all problems associated with obesity.

When should you give a baby solids?

Armenia is not a big player in the wine world today yet there is a good chance that wine was first produced in the mountains of this Central Asian republic, says BBC News online. A team of archaeologists was recently exploring a collapsed cave in the Little Caucasus Mountains when they stumbled upon a wine press and other vessels apparently designed for viticulture, and bearing the residue of grapes and dried vines. Subsequent carbon dating revealed them to be 6,000 years old at least 1,000 years older than any other wine press ever found. This find shows there was a high degree of agriculture and horticultural skill even back in 4000 BC, commented team leader Gregory Areshian of the University of California. Since the vine species has

The worlds oldest wine press

been identified as Vitis vinifera, the kind used in most wines today, Areshian believes that the ancient vintage would have tasted much the same as the modern drink. But he says it would probably have been used for ceremonial, rather than social, purposes. The wine press was found near graves, suggesting the drink may have been made for use during funerary rites. Have you ever felt a shiver run down your spine while listening to music? If so, thats because according to the latest research music can boost levels of dopamine, a reward chemical usually associated with sex, money and food as well as cocaine and other psychoactive drugs. For the study, carried out at McGill University in Canada, volunteers who said that they often experienced chills such as goosebumps in response to music were played instrumental recordings (lyrics might have triggered a response) while their brains were scanned. The scans

When babies should eat

The reward produced by music

A laser to dazzle Somali pirates

Last year, 430 boats were attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia, and though the wide expanses of the Gulf of Aden are patrolled by various naval vessels, boats plying these waters remain extremely vulnerable. But now BAE Systems in Hampshire thinks it may have come up with an effective weapon against the pirates: a long-range laser. It will flash a warning to suspicious-looking vessels; if they dont change course, the ships captain can turn up the intensity of the beam, so as A pirate surveys the Gulf of Aden to dazzle and disorient the crew of the approaching vessel, making it all but impossible for them to find their target. We are using the laser as a kind of dummy sun that we can hide the vessel behind, BAEs Roy Clarke told the Daily Mail. Under the terms of Protocol IV of the Geneva Convention, it is illegal to use weapons that cause permanent blindness, so BAE must prove that its green laser causes no lasting damage. Assuming the company can do this and that it gets the necessary financial backing the laser could be deployed within the next 12 months.

ESP study controversy

A respected journal has accepted a scientific paper purporting to show that ESP exists. The paper, due to appear in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, is by a Cornell University psychology professor, Daryl Bem, who has been exploring extrasensory perception for eight years. In a recent experiment, he asked 100 students to look at a computer screen showing two curtains. They were told that one curtain hid an image that might be erotic, and asked them to guess which. They predicted correctly 53% of the time when the picture was erotic, while regular images elicited a success rate of 50%, in line with chance. The gap is small, but cannot be explained by chance, says Bem. However, many academics are appalled by the decision to publish his paper. One has denounced it crazy and an embarrassment to the field.

22 January 2011 THE WEEK