Footballers Ronaldo and Bale in Ebola awareness campaign

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Footballers Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and Gareth Bale have all appeared in a new Ebola awareness campaign run by Fifa.

The players from some of Europe's biggest clubs came together for the "11 Against Ebola" video.

It promotes simple health messages selected with the help of doctors and health experts in West Africa.

Source; BBC World News

6 Things You Didn't Know About Watermelon

By Dr. Mercola

In the US, July is National Watermelon Month, so named not only because a cool, refreshing slice of watermelon represents the epitome of summer, but also because watermelon harvests peak this month.1

Watermelon is now the most-consumed melon in the US (followed by cantaloupe and honeydew). This cousin to cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash is thought to have originated in Egypt close to 5,000 years ago, where it is depicted in hieroglyphics.

Today, upwards of 300 watermelon varieties are grown in the US and Mexico (although only about 50 are popular).2 You may think you know everything there is to know about this summertime fruit, but allow me to surprise you… watermelon is more than just delicious… it’s a super-healthy addition to your diet (in moderation, of course).

You just need to be careful when eating any melon, including watermelon to follow the advice of Wayne Pickering in my interview. Eat melon alone or leave it alone because it will make your stomach groan. So ideally, no food 30 minutes before or after eating melons.

6 Watermelon Facts That Might Surprise You

1. Watermelon Has More Lycopene Than Raw Tomatoes

Lycopene is a powerful carotenoid antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables a pink or red color. It’s most often associated with tomatoes, but watermelon is actually a more concentrated source.

Compared to a large fresh tomato, one cup of watermelon has 1.5 times the lycopene (6 milligrams (mg) in watermelon compared to 4 mg in a tomato).3 More on why lycopene is so important shortly…

2. Watermelon Juice May Relieve Muscle Soreness

If you have a juicer, try juicing about one-third of a fresh watermelon and drinking its juice prior to your next workout. This contains a little over one gram of l-citrulline, an amino acid that seems to protect against muscle pain.

One study found that men who drank natural unpasteurized watermelon juice prior to their workouts had reduced muscle soreness 24 hours later compared to those who drank a placebo.4

You do need to be careful with drinking watermelon juice, though, as it contains a significant amount of fructose. It may be better to eat the entire fruit, or opt for these other tips to prevent muscle soreness.

3. Watermelon Is a Fruit and a Vegetable

Remember how watermelon is related to cucumbers, pumpkin, and squash? That’s because it’s part vegetable and part fruit (it’s a sweet, seed-producing plant, after all).5 The other clue that watermelon is both fruit and vegetable? The rind is entirely edible…

4. You Can Eat Watermelon Rind and Seeds

Most people throw away the watermelon rind, but try putting it in a blender with some lime for a healthy, refreshing treat.6 Not only does the rind contain plenty of health-promoting and blood-building chlorophyll, but the rind actually contains more of the amino acid citrulline than the pink flesh.7 

Citrulline is converted to arginine in your kidneys, and not only is this amino acid important for heart health and maintaining your immune system, but it has been researched to have potential therapeutic value in over 100 health conditions.8

While many people prefer seedless watermelon varieties, black watermelon seeds are edible and actually quite healthy. They contain iron, zinc, protein, and fiber. (In case you were wondering, seedless watermelons aren’t genetically modified, as they’re the result of hybridization.9)

5. It’s Mostly Water

This might not be surprising, but it’s still a fun fact; watermelon is more than 91 percent water.10 This means that eating watermelon with you on a hot summer day is a tasty way to help you stay hydrated and avoid dehydration (it’s not a substitute for drinking plenty of fresh water, however).

6. Some Watermelon Are Yellow

The Yellow Crimson watermelon has yellow flesh with a sweeter, honey flavor than the more popular pink-fleshed Crimson Sweet. It’s likely that yellow watermelon offers its own unique set of nutritional benefits, but most research to date has focused on the pink-fleshed varieties.11

Lycopene: Watermelon’s Nutritional Claim to Fame

Watermelon is an excellent source of lycopene, with upwards of 6,500 micrograms (6.5 mg) in less than half a cup (the red-fleshed varieties will contain significantly more lycopene than yellow-fleshed watermelon).

Also noteworthy, the lycopene in watermelon appears to be quite stable, with little deterioration occurring even after it’s been cut and stored in the refrigerator for more than two days. In one study, it took about seven days of storage for the lycopene to deteriorate, and then it was only by about 6 percent to 11 percent.12

So what makes lycopene so important? Lycopene's antioxidant activity has long been suggested to be more powerful than that of other carotenoids, such as beta-carotene. In one study, after controlling for other stroke risk factors, such as older age and diabetes, they found that men with the highest blood levels of lycopene were 55 percent less likely to have a stroke than those with the lowest.13

A 2014 meta-analysis also revealed that lycopene decreased stroke risk (including stroke occurrence or mortality) by more than 19 percent.14 In addition to lowering your risk of stroke, lycopene has been shown to have potential anti-cancer activity, likely due to its potent antioxidant properties.

A 2014 meta-analysis of 10 studies also showed that dietary lycopene may protect against the risk of ovarian cancer among postmenopausal women.15There is also some evidence from animal studies that lycopene may help with cancer treatment as well.

One study found that lycopene treatment reduced the growth of brain tumors while another showed frequent lycopene intake suppressed breast tumor growth in mice.16

Watermelon Extract May Significantly Reduce Blood Pressure

New research also highlights the role of watermelon nutrients on heart attack prevention, via a significant reduction in blood pressure. Obese study participants who received citrulline and arginine supplements derived from watermelon extract had significant improvements in blood pressure and cardiac stress, both while at rest and undergoing a stressful cold-water test.17 According to the researchers:

“Watermelon supplementation reduced aortic BP [blood pressure] and myocardial oxygen demand during CPT [cold pressor test] and the magnitude of the cold-induced increase in wave reflection in obese adults with hypertension. Watermelon may provide cardioprotection by attenuating cold-induced aortic hemodynamic responses.”

Remember, in your body the citrulline in watermelon is converted into L-arginine, which is a precursor to nitric oxide. Adequate nitric oxide is required to enable you blood vessels to stay relaxed and open for blood flow, which is one reason why it may help lower blood pressure.

Watermelon for Inflammation, Sexual Health, and More

L-arginine may also help with erectile dysfunction by helping to relax your blood vessels, including those supplying blood to your penis – and that’s why watermelon is sometimes referred to as “Nature’s Viagra.” In fact, citrulline supplementation has been found to improve erection hardness in men with mild erectile dysfunction.18

What else is watermelon good for? It’s rich in anti-inflammatory substances. For instance, watermelon contains the anti-inflammatory antioxidant lycopene as well as cucurbitacin E, or tripterpenoid, which reduces the activity of the pain and inflammation-causing enzyme cyclooxygenase – the same enzyme blocked by COX-2 inhibitors, which include most NSAIDs like aspirin and ibuprofen. While being very low in calories (about 46 calories in a cup), watermelon also contains an impressive variety of other important nutrients in which many Americans are lacking, including:

• Vitamin C
• Vitamin B6
• Potassium
• Vitamin A
• Magnesium

How to Pick the Perfect Watermelon

Cutting into a watermelon and finding out it lacks flavor is disappointing. There’s a trick you can use to pick out a ripe watermelon, either from your farmer’s market or your own melon patch. Look for a pale, buttery-yellow spot (not white or green) on the bottom. This is where the watermelon sits on the ground ripening, and it’s one of the best indicators of ripeness you can use (even commercial watermelon pickers use this as a gauge). Other tricks for picking a ripe watermelon include:

• Should be heavy for its size
• Smooth rind with a dull top (the top is the side opposite the ground spot)
• The thump test (this is controversial, but ripe watermelon is said to have a hollow bass sound)

Store your watermelon in a cool area (50-60 degrees F) until it’s cut. Cut watermelon should be refrigerated (and be sure to wipe off your watermelon with a damp cloth prior to cutting it). Remember, try the rind blended with some lime juice rather than simply tossing it in the trash (choose an organic watermelon especially if you’ll be eating the rind). Finally, watermelon should be enjoyed in moderation due to its fructose content. One-sixteenth of a medium watermelon contains 11.3 grams of fructose (I recommend keeping your total fructose intake below 25 grams of fructose per day if you're in good health, and below 15 grams a day if you’re overweight or have high blood pressure or diabetes).

Solar powered Electric Cars and the history of low-emissions transport

As a boy growing up in Australia I remember the buzz around the inaugural World Solar Challenge, a 3,000 km race for solar-powered cars through the centre of the country. The first race was spectacularly won by the GM Sunraycer, a sleek futuristic-looking super-light car piloted by Australian John Harvey. The Sunraycer featured many world-first innovations, including the GM Magnaquench motor, solar cells from space satellites, silver-oxide batteries and a frame that weighed only 14 pounds. The car caused such a stir that it seemed electric cars, if not solar-powered ones, were just around the corner. Since that time the World Solar Challenge has been run 12 times, the record is held by a team from TU Delft, set in 2009 with a time of 29 hours 11 minutes, over 15 hours quicker than the Sunraycer. More importantly, we are starting to drive electric cars of our own. The promise of electric cars is finally starting to materialize, 27 years later.

The GM Sunraycer Picture credit: Wiki commons

The history of low-emissions transport goes back much further than 1987. Let’s take a drive back through the history of the automobile to look at some of the remarkable designs that have graced our roads.

Stem cell scientist found dead in apparent suicide

By Jonathan WebbScience reporter, BBC News

Prof Sasai answering questions from reporters at a news conference in April

Continue reading the main story

A Japanese scientist involved in a scandal over discredited stem cell research has been found dead at his laboratory in an apparent suicide.

Prof Yoshiki Sasai, 52, was cleared of direct misconduct by an investigation, but faced criticism for his oversight.

Scientists around the world have expressed regret at losing a renowned researcher and concern at the "witch-hunt" that followed the revelations.

The president of RIKEN, where he worked, said Sasai was "irreplaceable".

The 52-year-old professor, well known for his work turning stem cells into other types of cells like eye and brain tissue, was found by a security guard at RIKEN's Centre for Developmental Biology in Kobe, western Japan.

Deeply ashamed

Prof Sasai, the centre's deputy chief, was widely respected in the scientific community. But earlier this year two studies that he supervised caused controversy, after other scientists failed to replicate the results.

The two papers, both published in the journal, Nature in January 2014, had suggested that stem cells could be produced from normal adult cells by dipping them into acid for a 30-minute shock period.

These "STAP" cells (stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) held great promise for both developmental biology and medical science.

But the widely reported findings were too good to be true, attracting scepticism and, eventually, claims of scientific fraud.

The work was investigated by RIKEN and retracted by Nature in July, amid concern that some of the results had been fabricated.

Continue reading the main storyAlthough the study's first author, Dr Haruko Obokata, was found guilty of misconduct, Prof Sasai was cleared of direct involvement.

He was criticised, however, for his supervision of Dr Obokata and for not spotting inconsistencies in the publications.

Prof Sasai had said he was "deeply ashamed" of the problems in the papers and regretful of his role in the scandal.

Lasting legacy

Many of his scientific colleagues have expressed their regret, and called for more reasonable discussion of irregular results.

Others have noted the damaging effect of the fierce competition that pervades science, heaping pressure on both junior and senior researchers.

Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell researcher from the National Institute for Medical Research, described Prof Sasai as "an excellent scientist who made some fundamental discoveries", adding that he had played a central role in establishing the world class reputation of the RIKEN institute.

"We will never know quite how he got ensnared into the whole story about STAP stem cells, and for some reason wasn't his usual cautious self," Prof Lovell-Badge told the BBC.

"Maybe some lessons can come from this - that you have to be a little bit more proportionate in the way these things are dealt with."

Nature's editor-in-chief, Dr Phil Campbell, said: "This is a true tragedy for science and an immense loss to the research community."

Included in the legacy Sasai leaves behind is a clinical trial underway in Kobe, which draws on some of his work. It is testing the safety of a stem-cell based treatment for macular degeneration, a severe eye disease.

Source; BBC World News

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