Are Chiles Good for You? Or Bad? What Does Science Say?

Science is groovy and everything, but it can be annoyingly confusing when it comes to telling us what to eat. Today’s knotty conundrum: the chile. Is it an antioxidant-filled, pain-relieving wonder food? Or an addictive, deadly carcinogen? We took a look through the annals of science to produce this timeline of the chile’s best and worst moments.

1774: Hot sauce suggested to perk up languid appetites. (The History of Jamaica)

1810: Capsicum relieves gout and excites “torpid” body organs. (Medical Botany, Volume 1)

1847: Cayenne is suggested to treat asthma. (Consumption of the Lungs and Asthma, Arrested and Cured)

1861: Gargling with chiles cures laryngitis and relieves a sore throat. (The Floral World and Garden Guide, Volume 4)

1889: Chiles burn on the way in and on the way out. (A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Volume 2)

1899: Chiles are as addictive as “opium or ganja.” Also, they cause dyspepsia. (Pharmaceutical Journal)

1921: Medicinal capsicum should be of the “highest pungency.” (American Pharmaceutical Association)

1954: Capsicum lowers blood pressure and rectal temperature, increases intestinal activity and gustatory sweating. (British Journal of Pharmacology)

1965: Capsaicin stimulates respiratory neurons (the nerves that help us breathe). (Journal of Physiology)

1967: Capsaicin prevents neurogenic inflammation, the process that incites diseases like psoriasis, asthma, eczema, and migraines, among other things. (Journal of Pharmacological Chemotherapy)

1976: Red peppers (yes, specified: red) increase stomach acid. (Niger Medical Journal)

1980: Capsaicin—the active ingredient in chiles—inhibits absorption of sodium and glucose. (Journal of Pharmacobiodyn)

1994: Chiles may cause gastric cancer. (American Journal of Epidemiology)

1995: Capsaicin protects the stomach from aspirin-induced gastritis. (Digestive Diseases and Sciences)

1998: Capsaicin is an anti-carcinogen. (Mutation Research)

1999: Capsaicin decreases appetite in Japanese woman and energy in Caucasian men. (Journal of Nutrition)

2002: Red pepper powder is effective treatment of dyspepsia. (Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics)

2002: Chili powder does not trigger irritable bowel syndrome. (Indian Journal of Gastroenterology)

2003: Capsaicin inhibits growth of adult T-cell leukemia cells. (Leukemia Research)

2006: Regular ingestion of chiles induces gastric reflux. (Digestive Diseases)

2010: Capsaicin causes skin cancer, but the “molecular mechanisms” behind it remain unclear. (Cancer Research)

2010: Chiles lower blood pressure. (Cell Metabolism)

2012: Capsaicin does not cause cancer—and might even help prevent it. (Toxicologic Pathology)

2012: Blame bacteria-harboring chiles for Mexico’s endemic gastroenteritis (maybe). (Food Microbiology)

2012: Chiles prevent autoimmune diabetes. (Mucosal Immunology)

2012: Chiles contain potential antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds that might make for useful drugs. (Journal of Ethnopharmacology)

2013: Capsaicin plaster may reduce nausea for patients undergoing thyroid surgery. (Korean Journal of Anesthesiology)

2013: Capsaicin has analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. (African Health Science)

2013: Capsaicin patches may cause inflammation of eye. (Ocular Immunology and Inflammation)

2013: Topical application of capsaicin may lesson fat accumulation in liver. (Obesity Journal)

2014: Capsaicin patches relieve neuropathic pain. (Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders)

2014: Capsaicin may prevent obesity. (Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry)

2014: Capsaicin may relieve arthritis. (Journal of Drug Delivery)

So, there you have it. Over the centuries, the good news about chiles generally outweighs the bad—but chiles may harbor disease-causing bacteria and incite ulcers. Also, you don’t want to get capsaicin in your eye. Still, it’s nice that what scientists discovered in 1774 still holds true today—chiles definitely perk up languid appetites. Trust us, we’ve done the research.

Top 10 Failures of Modern Science

There is no doubt that science and technology have improved the quality of modern life. Innovations like the personal computer, advances in HIV treatment and digital photography have become so accepted that it is difficult to imagine human existence without them. However, science is not infallible; sometimes things go wrong. In some cases, scientific failures just mean a trip back to the drawing board. In others, loss of human life is the tragic result. Below, in no particular order, are listed 10 major failures of 20th and 21st century science and technology.

10

Microsoft Vista

Chances are, if your computer runs a Windows-based operating system, the OS isn’t Vista. If your computer does run Vista, odds are good that you wish it didn’t. Vista’s release on January 30, 2007 had been preceded by bad press and known compatibility issues with older PCs. Some reviewers claimed that Vista actually ran slower on PCs than XP, which had established itself as a stable, robust OP. The result – consumers and enterprise users alike gave Vista the backs of their hands. Microsoft was forced to back off on its plans to sunset the popular XP while simultaneously fast-tracking its replacement, Windows 7, which was much better received.

10 Great Popular Science Books

A great popular science book needs to strike a balance between being accessible and entertaining to the general public, whilst being informative enough to satisfy the most inquisitive minds. When an author is successful in doing this, great popular science books are born. To ensure some diversity I have only included one entry per author and excluded books mentioned in other lists. Due to this many other great books by these authors weren’t included. Though most of these are best-sellers this is clearly a subjective list and I would love to hear your thoughts on what could be included in a follow-up list. The list is in no particular order.

10

A Briefer History of Time

Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

Stephen Hawking is one of the world’s most famous physicists. He is well-known by the general public for his extensive work in theoretical physics, cosmology and unfortunately his debilitating battle with motor neuron disease. A Briefer History of Time is an updated and easier to read version of his 1988 bestseller, A Brief History of Time. The book – like its predecessor – reads like a biography of the universe, and is a great introduction to the world of physics. The Sunday Times sum it up best: “This book marries a child’s wonder to a genius’s intellect. We journey into Hawking’s universe while marveling at his mind.”

A Refrigerator that runs without electricity

London: An Oxford electrical engineer has come up with a refrigerator that runs without electricity. Not his own idea. He has based it on a model invented by Albert Einstein in 1930.
Einstein and his colleague, Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, patented a fridge that had no moving parts and used only pressurized gases to keep things cold. The idea is to eventually stop using modern refrigerators, which use gas that harm the environment. They work by compressing and expanding greenhouse gases called freons — far more damaging that carbon dioxide.
Almost every household in the developed world owns a fridge and its sales are rising as demand increases in developing countries.
Malcolm McCulloch, an electrical engineer at Oxford who works on green technologies, is leading a three year project to develop fridges that can be used in places without electricity.
The Einstein-Szilard model design was partly used in the first domestic refrigerators but the technology was abandoned when more efficient compressors became popular in the 1950s.
Einstein and Szilard’s idea avoids the need for freons. It uses ammonia, butane and water and takes advantage of the fact that liquids boil at lower temperatures when the air pressure around them is lower.
“If you go to the top of Mount Everest, water boils at a much lower temperature than it does when you’re at sea level, and that’s because the pressure is much lower up there,” says McCulloch.
At one side is the evaporator, a flask that contains butane. “If you introduce a new vapor above the butane, the liquid boiling temperature decreases and, as it boils off, it takes energy from the surroundings to do so,” says Mc-Culloch. “That’s what makes it cold.”
He is not the only one interested in environment-friendly fridges. Engineers working at a Cambridge-based start-up company, Camfridge, are currently using magnetic fields, instead of gas, to cool things.
Managing director Neil Wilson says: “When the magnetic field is next to the alloy, it’s like compressing the gas, and when the magnetic field leaves, it’s like expanding the gas. This effect can be seen in rubber bands — when you stretch the band it gets hot, and when you let the band contract it gets cold.” IANS 

हैदराबाद के इस आदमी का शरीर आप देख नहीं पाएंगे

एक अच्छा इंसान होने के बावजूद मुहम्मद उमर का शरीर कुछ ऐसा है कि लोग उन्हें घृणा की दृष्टि से देखते हैं। उमर अपना शरीर और लोगों का रवैया देखकर मानसिक रूप से परेशान रहते हैं। उमर का कहना है कि शरीर ऐसा है तो इसमें उनका क्या दोष?

62 साल के मुहम्मद उमर के पूरे शरीर पर ट्यूमर के अनेक गोले हैं। उनकी मां को सिर्फ हथेली पर इस तरह के गोले थे। बचपन में उमर ठीक थे लेकिन चौदह साल की उम्र से उनके शरीर पर भी ये गोले निकलने शुरू हो गए। मां उन्हें डॉक्टर के पास ले गई लेकिन कोई फायदा नहीं हुआ।

उमर को डॉक्टर ने कहा था कि वह अगर शादी करेंगे तो उनके बच्चों को भी यह बीमारी होने की संभावना रहेगी। उमर बहुत दिनों तक इस बारे में चिंतित रहे लेकिन आखिर में 45 साल की फरहात से उन्होंने प्रेम विवाह किया। फरहात भी उनसे प्रेम करती है। उसका कहना है कि वह समझ गई थी कि उमर अच्छे आदमी हैं। परिवार वालों ने फरहात को रोका लेकिन वह नहीं रूकी।

उमर रेलवे में लगेज एसिस्टेंट थे लेकिन उनके शरीर का ट्यूमर बढ़ने के बाद लोगों ने उन्हें काम देना बंद कर दिया और उनको नौकरी से निकाल दिया गया। उमर को उसके बाद किसी ने नौकरी नहीं दी। उमर कहते हैं कि अब लोग उन्हें देखने से भी कतराते हैं और यह स्थिति वह सह नहीं पाते। उनकी बीवी को घर चलाने के लिए स्कूल में नौकरी करनी पड़ी।

दोनों के चार बच्चे हुए। पहले तीन बच्चों को जब ट्यूमर नहीं हुआ तो उमर को लगा कि शायद सब ठीक रहेगा, लेकिन उनके सबसे छोटे बेटे के शरीर पर ट्यूमर निकलने शुरू हो गए हैं। उमर यह देखकर और भी दुखी रहते हैं।

बाप और बेटे दोनों की बीमारी देख चुके हैदराबाद के यशोदा हॉस्पिटल के डॉक्टर चिलुकुरी श्रीनिवास का कहना है कि उमर और उनके बेटे को हुई बीमारी लाइलाज है। इस बीमारी को न्यूरोफाइब्रोमेटोसिस (

Neurofibromatosis ) कहते हैं।

उमर अब कभी-कभी भीख भी मांगते हैं। उनका कहना है कि अगर लोग उसे काम नहीं देते तो फिर उनके पास घर के लिए कुछ पैसे जुटाने के लिए इसके अलावा कोई चारा नहीं है। उनके शरीर का ट्यूमर बढ़ता जा रहा है। आंखो के आसपास ट्यूमर के बड़े होने से दिखना कम हो गया है। गर्मी में पसीने से पूरे शरीर में खुजली होती है।  बीवी फरहात उनका बहुत ख़याल रखती है। 

 

Do We really need a leap second?

 

 

 

 

Everyone knows what a leap year is, but did you know there are also leap seconds? 

At least for now, because the leap second’s very existence was debated in Geneva Yesterday: 

with Britain, China and Canada fighting to keep it against the USA, Germany and France.

Introduced globally 40 years ago, the leap second was designed to keep atomic time 

(used by computer systems) and astronomical or solar time (the Earth’s rotation) in sync with each other.

Discrepancy

Atomic time, which GPS and telecommunications depend on,

is so accurate that it gains or loses no more than a second every million years.

However, astronomical time alters because of variations in the Earth’s rotation and can be affected 

by things like earthquakes. The leap second was needed to keep the two time scales coordinated 

so atomic time doesn't jump ahead of astronomical time, the International Telecommunication’s 

Union (ITU-R) explained to Yahoo! News.

In fact, a leap second has been added at irregular intervals – a total of 24 times since 

its introduction in 1972.

Without the leap second keeping time in check, it is predicted that the difference between 

atomic time and astronomical time will increase at a rate of approximately one second per year – 

meaning that in 550 years, the difference between atomic time and astronomical time will be 

about an hour, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) projects.

The decision

Thursday’s Radiotelecommunication Assembly saw delegates from member states discuss the

elimination of the leap second and voting for or against the controversial proposal.

A decision to remove the leap second completely would then need to be approved at the 

ITU-R’s World Radiocommunication Conference due to take place next week.

The next leap second is expected to be added at midnight on 30 June. However, 

Thursday’s debate, which an ITU-R spokesperson described as “very polarised” could see all that change.

Against the leap second 

Countries like France, Italy, Germany and the USA are calling for an end to the leap second 

because telecommunications from GPS systems to mobile phone networks must be manually 

adjusted by a  whole second to keep in sync with the change every year or two.

This adaptation of a second, critics argue, leaves systems open to the risk of error. 

If the leap second was abolished, time would be more standard.

The ITU-R, a United Nations agency, said in a statement: 

“The benefits of the change would be a continuous time scale available for all the modern electronic navigation 

and computerised systems to operate with and eliminate the need for specialised ad hoc time systems.”

For the leap second

Britain, China and Canada are opposed to the change because without that leap second, 

atomic and astronomical time will drift further apart, which would need to be corrected by 

adding a single leap second, minute or hour at an agreed point in time which would be 

even more technically challenging and costly.

“Without leap seconds we will eventually lose the link between our perception of time 

and our own experiences of day and night,” added the ITU-R’s spokeswoman