Sunset at Mount Yamnuska

A new poster, Sunset at Mount Yamnuska, is now available in our online store: SciTechLab. See it and more.

April 1, 2014

Mount Yamnuska in the Canadian Rockies poster. Image by Chuck Szmurlo

A stunning sunset of Mount Yamnuska in the Canadian Rockies by famed photographer Chuck Szmurlo will bring a breath of fresh air into your everyday life. Let the image brighten up that dull wall and lift your spirits in an office or study.

What better way to bring a touch of nature’s beauty right inside than with our uplifting posters. Remind yourself of the many happy hours you have spent outdoors.

So go ahead, bring a breath of fresh air into your everyday life, put a poster of a wonderful vista on your wall today!

Global climate change consensus tops 95%!

Consensus! Climate scientists agree: global climate change caused by humans1 March 11, 2014 Temperature data from four international science institutions. All show rapid warming in the past few decades and that the last decade has been the warmest on record. Image from NASA. Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities,2 and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position. The following is a partial list of these organizations, along with links to their published statements and a selection of related resources. American Scientific Societies Statement on climate change from 18 scientific associations “Observations throughout the world make it clear that climate change is occurring, and rigorous scientific research demonstrates that the greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are the primary driver.” (2009)3 American Association for the Advancement of Science “The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society.” (2006)4 American Chemical Society “Comprehensive scientific assessments of our current and potential future climates clearly indicate that climate change is real, largely attributable to emissions from human activities, and potentially a very serious problem.” (2004)5 American Geophysical Union “Human‐induced climate change requires urgent action. Humanity is the major influence on the global climate change observed over the past 50 years. Rapid societal responses can significantly lessen negative outcomes.” (Adopted 2003, revised and reaffirmed 2007, 2012, 2013)6 American Medical Association “Our AMA … supports the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth assessment report and concurs with the scientific consensus that the Earth is undergoing adverse global climate change and that anthropogenic contributions are significant.” (2013)7 American Meteorological Society “It is clear from extensive scientific evidence that the dominant cause of the rapid change in climate of the past half century is human-induced increases in the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and nitrous oxide.” (2012)8 American Physical Society “The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.” (2007)9 The Geological Society of America “The Geological Society of America (GSA) concurs with assessments by the National Academies of Science (2005), the National Research Council (2006), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) that global climate has warmed and that human activities (mainly greenhouse‐gas emissions) account for most of the warming since the middle 1900s.” (2006; revised 2010)10 Science Academies International academies: Joint statement “Climate change is real. There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate. However there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring. The evidence comes from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures and from phenomena such as increases in average global sea levels, retreating glaciers, and changes to many physical and biological systems. It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities (IPCC 2001).” (2005, 11 international science academies)11 U.S. National Academy of Sciences “The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify taking steps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” (2005)12 U.S. Government Agencies U.S. Global Change Research Program “The global warming of the past 50 years is due primarily to human-induced increases in heat-trapping gases. Human ‘fingerprints’ also have been identified in many other aspects of the climate system, including changes in ocean heat content, precipitation, atmospheric moisture, and Arctic sea ice.” (2009, 13 U.S. government departments and agencies)13 The following page contains information on what federal agencies are doing to adapt to climate change: http://www.c2es.org/docUploads/federal-agencies-adaptation.pdf  Intergovernmental Bodies Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.”14 “Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely† due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.”15  †IPCC defines ‘very likely’ as greater than 90 percent probability of occurrence. List of worldwide scientific organizations Worldwide, nearly 200 scientific organizations hold the position that climate change has been caused by human action.16 Academia Chilena de Ciencias, Chile  Academia das Ciencias de Lisboa, Portugal  Academia de Ciencias de la República Dominicana  Academia de Ciencias Físicas, Matemáticas y Naturales de Venezuela  Academia de Ciencias Medicas, Fisicas y Naturales de Guatemala Academia Mexicana de Ciencias,Mexico  Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Bolivia  Academia Nacional de Ciencias del Peru  Académie des Sciences et Techniques du Sénégal  Académie des Sciences, France  Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada  Academy of Athens  Academy of Science of Mozambique Academy of Science of South Africa  Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS)  Academy of Sciences Malaysia  Academy of Sciences of Moldova  Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic  Academy of Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran  Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, Egypt  Academy of the Royal Society of New Zealand  Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy  Africa Centre for Climate and Earth Systems Science  African Academy of Sciences  Albanian Academy of Sciences  Amazon Environmental Research Institute  American Academy of Pediatrics  American Anthropological Association  American Association for the Advancement of Science  American Association of State Climatologists (AASC)  American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians American Astronomical Society  American Chemical Society  American College of Preventive Medicine  American Fisheries Society  American Geophysical Union  American Institute of Biological Sciences  American Institute of Physics  American Meteorological Society  American Physical Society  American Public Health Association  American Quaternary Association  American Society for Microbiology  American Society of Agronomy  American Society of Civil Engineers  American Society of Plant Biologists  American Statistical Association  Association of Ecosystem Research Centers  Australian Academy of Science  Australian Bureau of Meteorology  Australian Coral Reef Society  Australian Institute of Marine Science  Australian Institute of Physics  Australian Marine Sciences Association  Australian Medical Association  Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society  Bangladesh Academy of Sciences  Botanical Society of America  Brazilian Academy of Sciences  British Antarctic Survey  Bulgarian Academy of Sciences  California Academy of Sciences  Cameroon Academy of Sciences Canadian Association of Physicists  Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences  Canadian Geophysical Union  Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society  Canadian Society of Soil Science  Canadian Society of Zoologists  Caribbean Academy of Sciences views  Center for International Forestry Research  Chinese Academy of Sciences  Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) (Australia)  Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research  Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences  Crop Science Society of America  Cuban Academy of Sciences  Delegation of the Finnish Academies of Science and Letters  Ecological Society of America  Ecological Society of Australia  Environmental Protection Agency  European Academy of Sciences and Arts  European Federation of Geologists  European Geosciences Union  European Physical Society  European Science Foundation  Federation of American Scientists  French Academy of Sciences  Geological Society of America  Geological Society of Australia  Geological Society of London  Georgian Academy of Sciences  German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina  Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences  Indian National Science Academy  Indonesian Academy of Sciences Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management  Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology  Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand  Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK  InterAcademy Council  International Alliance of Research Universities  International Arctic Science Committee  International Association for Grea Lakes Research  International Council for Science  International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences  International Research Institute for Climate and Society  International Union for Quaternary Research  International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics  International Union of Pure and Applied Physics  Islamic World Academy of Sciences  Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities  Kenya National Academy of Sciences  Korean Academy of Science and Technology  Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts  l’Académie des Sciences et Techniques du Sénégal  Latin American Academy of Sciences  Latvian Academy of Sciences  Lithuanian Academy of Sciences  Madagascar National Academy of Arts, Letters, and Sciences Mauritius Academy of Science and Technology Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts  National Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, Argentina  National Academy of Sciences of Armenia  National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic  National Academy of Sciences, Sri Lanka  National Academy of Sciences, United States of America  National Aeronautics and Space Administration  National Association of Geoscience Teachers  National Association of State Foresters  National Center for Atmospheric Research  National Council of Engineers Australia  National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, New Zealand  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  National Research Council  National Science Foundation  Natural England  Natural Environment Research Council, UK  Natural Science Collections Alliance  Network of African Science Academies  New York Academy of Sciences  Nicaraguan Academy of Sciences  Nigerian Academy of Sciences  Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters  Oklahoma Climatological Survey  Organization of Biological Field Stations  Pakistan Academy of Sciences  Palestine Academy for Science and Technology  Pew Center on Global Climate Change  Polish Academy of Sciences  Romanian Academy  Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium  Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain  Royal Astronomical Society, UK  Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters  Royal Irish Academy  Royal Meteorological Society (UK)  Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences  Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research  Royal Scientific Society of Jordan  Royal Society of Canada  Royal Society of Chemistry, UK  Royal Society of the United Kingdom  Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences  Russian Academy of Sciences  Science and Technology, Australia  Science Council of Japan  Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research  Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics  Scripps Institution of Oceanography  Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts  Slovak Academy of Sciences  Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts  Society for Ecological Restoration International  Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics  Society of American Foresters  Society of Biology (UK)  Society of Systematic Biologists  Soil Science Society of America  Sudan Academy of Sciences  Sudanese National Academy of Science Tanzania Academy of Sciences  The Wildlife Society (international)  Turkish Academy of Sciences  Uganda National Academy of Sciences  Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities  United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  University Corporation for Atmospheric Research  Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution  World Association of Zoos and Aquariums  World Federation of Public Health Associations  World Forestry Congress  World Health Organization  World Meteorological Organization  Zambia Academy of Sciences Zimbabwe Academy of Sciences  References 1 NASA Global Climate Change – Consensus: 97% of climate scientists agree  2 W. R. L. Anderegg, “Expert Credibility in Climate Change,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Vol. 107 No. 27, 12107-12109 (21 June 2010); DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1003187107. P. T. Doran & M. K. Zimmerman, “Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change,” Eos Transactions American Geophysical Union Vol. 90 Issue 3 (2009), 22; DOI: 10.1029/2009EO030002. N. Oreskes, “Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change,” Science Vol. 306 no. 5702, p. 1686 (3 December 2004); DOI: 10.1126/science.1103618. 3 Statement on climate change from 18 scientific associations (2009)  4 AAAS Board Statement on Climate Change (2006)  5 ACS Public Policy Statement: Climate Change (2010-2013)  6 Human‐Induced Climate Change Requires Urgent Action (2013)  7 Global Climate Change and Human Health (2013)  8 Climate Change: An Information Statement of the American Meteorological Society (2012)  9 APS National Policy 07.1 Climate Change (2007)  10 GSA Position Statement on Climate Change (2010)  11 Joint science academies’ statement: Global response to climate change (2005)  12 Understanding and Responding to Climate Change (2005)  13 Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States (2009)  14 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers (2007)  15 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers (2007)  16 Calafornia Office of Planning & Research List of Worldwide Scientific Organizations

Dark chocolate is beneficial for blood vessels health

February 27, 2014 Cody Mooneyhan of FASEB —

Dark chocolate. Image by Boz Bros at flickr

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Dark chocolate helps restore flexibility to arteries.
• Dark chocolate helps to prevent white blood cells from sticking to the walls of blood vessels.
• 70 grams of dark chocolate.
• Both arterial stiffness and white blood cell adhesion are known factors that play a significant role in atherosclerosis.

It might seem too good to be true, but dark chocolate is good for you and scientists now know why. Dark chocolate helps restore flexibility to arteries while also preventing white blood cells from sticking to the walls of blood vessels. Both arterial stiffness and white blood cell adhesion are known factors that play a significant role in atherosclerosis. What’s more, the scientists also found that increasing the flavanol content of dark chocolate did not change this effect. This discovery was published in the March 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal.

“We provide a more complete picture of the impact of chocolate consumption in vascular health and show that increasing flavanol content has no added beneficial effect on vascular health,” said Diederik Esser, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Top Institute Food and Nutrition and Wageningen University, Division of Human Nutrition in Wageningen, The Netherlands. “However, this increased flavanol content clearly affected taste and thereby the motivation to eat these chocolates. So the dark side of chocolate is a healthy one.”

To make this discovery, Esser and colleagues analyzed 44 middle-aged overweight men over two periods of four weeks as they consumed 70 grams of chocolate per day. Study participants received either specially produced dark chocolate with high flavanol content or chocolate that was regularly produced. Both chocolates had a similar cocoa mass content. Before and after both intervention periods, researchers performed a variety of measurements that are important indicators of vascular health. During the study, participants were advised to refrain from certain energy dense food products to prevent weight gain. Scientists also evaluated the sensory properties of the high flavanol chocolate and the regular chocolate and collected the motivation scores of the participants to eat these chocolates during the intervention.

“The effect that dark chocolate has on our bodies is encouraging not only because it allows us to indulge with less guilt, but also because it could lead the way to therapies that do the same thing as dark chocolate but with better and more consistent results,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. “Until the ‘dark chocolate drug’ is developed, however, we’ll just have to make do with what nature has given us!”

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Meat and cheese have same risk factor as smoking

March 4, 2014 Suzanne Wu of USC —

Quadruple cheese burger. Image by Beau96080 at Wikipedia

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A diet rich in meat and dairy proteins during middle age makes you four times more likely to die of cancer than someone with a low-protein animal diet.
• Equals the mortality risk factor from smoking.

That chicken wing you’re eating could be as deadly as a cigarette. In a new study that tracked a large sample of adults for nearly two decades, researchers have found that eating a diet rich in animal proteins during middle age makes you four times more likely to die of cancer than someone with a low-protein diet — a mortality risk factor comparable to smoking.

“There’s a misconception that because we all eat, understanding nutrition is simple. But the question is not whether a certain diet allows you to do well for three days, but can it help you survive to be 100?” said corresponding author Valter Longo, Edna M. Jones Professor of Biogerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology and director of the USC Longevity Institute. Longo has a joint appointment at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Not only is excessive protein consumption linked to a dramatic rise in cancer mortality, but middle-aged people who eat lots of proteins from animal sources — including meat, milk and cheese — are also more susceptible to early death in general, revealed the study published today in Cell Metabolism. Protein-lovers were 74 percent more likely to die of any cause within the study period than their more low-protein counterparts. They were also several times more likely to die of diabetes.

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Yogurt cuts risk of type 2 diabetes

Feb 6, 2014  MRCEU of University of Cambridge —

Yogart. Foto: Schwäbin (Wikimedia) / Lizenz: Creative Commons CC-by-sa-3.0 de Fromage frais. Photo by Pancrat (Wikimedia) under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Cottage cheese. Photo by FASTILY (Wikimedia) under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Overview
• Increase consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products reduces the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes.
• Examples: low-fat yogurt, fromage frais, and low-fat cottage cheese.
• Overall risk reduction was 24% and for yogurt 28%.
• Note: Low-fat fermented dairy products replaces undesirable foods.

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Published in the journal Diabetologia, the study showed that eating yoghurt in place of a portion of other snacks such as crisps also reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The study found that higher consumption of yoghurt, compared with no consumption, can reduce the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes by 28%, and that higher consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products – including all yoghurt varieties and some low-fat cheeses – also reduced the relative risk of diabetes by 24% overall.

According to lead researcher Dr. Nita Forouhi, from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge: “This research highlights that specific foods may have an important role in the prevention of type 2 diabetes and are relevant for public health messages.”

The research was based on the large EPIC-Norfolk study, which includes more than 25,000 men and women living in Norfolk, UK.

It compared a detailed daily record of all the food and drink consumed over a week at the time of study entry among 753 people who developed new-onset type 2 diabetes over 11 years of follow-up with 3,502 randomly selected study participants.

This allowed the researchers to examine the risk of diabetes in relation to the consumption of total dairy products as well as individual dairy products.

Total dairy, total high-fat dairy or total low-fat dairy consumption was not associated with new-onset diabetes once important factors like healthier lifestyles, education, obesity levels, other eating habits and total calorie intake were taken into account. Total milk and cheese intakes were also not associated with diabetes risk.

However, those with the highest consumption of low-fat fermented dairy products (such as yoghurt, fromage frais and low-fat cottage cheese) were 24% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes over the 11 years, compared with non-consumers.

Previous studies on the link between dairy product consumption (high fat or low fat) and diabetes have proved inconclusive, prompting this more detailed assessment of diary product consumption.

Type 2 diabetes is common and its incidence is increasing. In 2013, there were 382 million people worldwide with diabetes and by 2035 that number will increase to 592 million, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

While this type of study cannot prove that eating dairy products causes the reduced diabetes risk, dairy products do contain beneficial constituents such as vitamin D, calcium and magnesium. In addition, fermented dairy products may exert beneficial effects against diabetes through probiotic bacteria and a special form of vitamin K (part of the menaquinone family) associated with fermentation.

“At a time when we have a lot of other evidence that consuming high amounts of certain foods, such as added sugars and sugary drinks, is bad for our health, it is very reassuring to have messages about other foods like yoghurt and low-fat fermented dairy products, that could be good for our health,” said Dr. Forouhi.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence . If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

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