ANGRY INDUS RIVER

The devastation for this man is clear – he has lost everything; his home and his livelihood. Christian Aid will be working in the long-term with ACT Alliance partners to help communities rebuild their lives once the floodwaters have receded.

ANGRY INDUS RIVER

17.2 MILLION AFFECTED.
6.5 MILLION HOMELESS.460 MILLION $ NEEDED NEXT 3 MONTHS.

ANGRY INDUS RIVER

Pakistan floods in pictures

August 2010

The worst flooding for 80 years has devastated huge swathes of Pakistan, with latest estimates reporting that 14 million people have been affected. The official death toll is more than 1,300 and 300,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed.

Whole towns and villages have been destroyed, and farmland and crops have been wiped out. Waterborne diseases and food shortages remain serious concerns.

Christian Aid is working through ACT Alliance partners to help support 200,000 in nine of the most affected districts - providing food, essential household items, shelter, hygiene kits and medical care. 

Photos: CWS-P/A/Zafar Wazir, CWS-P/A/Zafar Wazir, Sujag Sansar Organization, CWS-PA/Ghulam Rasool, CWS-PA/Mohd. Younes, CWS-PA/Saleem Dominic.  

Pakistan floods appeal - Christian Aid

Pakistan floods appeal - Christian Aid: "Pakistan floods appeal
Please donate to Christian Aid's�Pakistan floods appeal.

23/08/10

In southern Pakistan, the Sindh Province is now being described as the worst hit area, with an estimated four million people having been displaced in the city of Sukkar alone. The city is situated on the west bank of Indus River.

Around 10 per cent�of those made homeless are living in relief camps, with limited aid and enormous demand.

Donations

Your donations will help make a difference to the people of Pakistan whose homes and livelihoods have been�destroyed in what the UN is describing as the worst natural disaster since�the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.�"

Christian Aid

Christian Aid: "Thanks for calling for action on climate change

Making companies report their carbon footprint really would be a significant step towards the UK cutting its emissions.

We will bring you updates on our campaign in the coming weeks.

Our Pakistan floods emergency appeal

The news continues to bring us deeply upsetting images from Pakistan.

Please, if you haven't already, donate to our appeal so that our partners can continue to help those affected worst."

**IVF Video Podcast** Patrick Steptoe FRCS, FRCOG - "Test Tube Baby - The First Birth"

**IVF Video Podcast** Patrick Steptoe FRCS, FRCOG - "Test Tube Baby - The First Birth"

SPERM DAMAGE

A chemical found in some common plastics may be linked to reduced fertility in men, according to a new report. A US study found that men with the highest levels of Bisphenol A (BPA) in their urine had a sperm count 23 per cent lower on average than those with the lowest BPA levels.

Although the study is small and in need of replication, these preliminary results add to growing concerns over the effects of BPA on health. 

The study was led by Professor John Meeker from the University of Michigan in conjunction with the Harvard School of Public Health. 190 men were recruited to the study through a fertility clinic and 90 per cent tested positive for BPA in their urine.

Researchers looked for correlations between the level of BPA and sperm quality and quantity. In addition to the decrease in sperm count, men with the highest BPA levels also tended to have more sperm DNA damage – increasing on average by ten per cent compared to those with the lowest BPA levels.

BPA is widely used in the hardening of plastics and can be found in various food and drinks containers, baby bottles and CD boxes. There has been much debate over the safety of the chemical, with particular concerns over its effect on unborn babies and young children. This is because BPA, once inside the body, mimics key hormones involved in development - including the female sex hormone, oestrogen.

This has led Canada and three US states to ban the chemical in food and drinks containers used by newborns and infants, with Denmark becoming the first EU country to follow suit earlier this year.

Professor Meeker said: 'Much of the focus for BPA is on the exposures in utero (in the womb) or in early life, which is of course extremely important, but this suggests exposure may also be a concern for adults'. 

Some studies in animals have previously linked BPA with fertility problems, as well as with breast cancer, diabetes and obesity. However, other animal studies have found no such links and this study is the first to report adverse effects of BPA on sperm count and quality in humans.

Dr Allan Pacey, a fertility expert at Sheffield University, said: 'This survey needs to be followed up. The inference is it’s not good for fertility but it's also not good for any fetus'.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) stresses that human exposure to BPA through plastics is 'well below levels considered harmful'.

FERTILE SPERM

A sperm test that could help thousands of men who are infertile has been developed by UK and US scientists, according to The Times.

The first clinical trials of the procedure, which aims to select fertile sperm, could begin next year after a research team was awarded a £120,000 grant to develop the technology by the pharmaceutical company Merck Serono.

The test identifies unhealthy sperm by tagging them with a protein dye that binds to damaged DNA. The healthy sperm can then be selected and injected into a woman's eggs using an IVF method called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

This new technique has been developed by Dr Dagan Wells from the University of Oxford, UK, and Professor George Pieczenik from Rutgers University in the US. Dr Wells said: 'Sperm with fragmented DNA are hard to tell apart under the microscope, but we've developed a protein that labels fragmented DNA'.

'We think it enables us to see which sperm have genetic damage and which ones don't. The idea is to pick out the ones without the stain to use for ICSI'.

Some men are infertile because their sperm has genetic damage, which prevents them from fertilising eggs. Picking out the healthy sperm and using ICSI increases the chance of fertilisation compared to standard IVF.

The test is comparatively cheap and would add about £100 to the cost of ICSI that generally costs £3,500 to £4,500.

After screening the dye for toxicity, the next step will be to apply to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) for permission to start testing the procedure during fertility treatment. Dr Wells said: 'I would hope we could be ready for clinical trials within the next year'.

Dr Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at Sheffield University commented: 'This is the sort of thing we've been looking for, but we need to see patient data before we can judge'.

NEW METHOD FOR MATURE OF EGGS

Immature mouse eggs have been successfully matured and fertilised in the laboratory for the first time. Eggs from women undergoing cancer therapy were also successfully matured using the new method, offering hope for some women suffering infertility such as cancer patients made infertile by treatment.

Until now, fertility treatments have matured eggs at a relatively late stage in development when they are less numerous and harder to access. But the new method, termed 'in vitro activation' (IVA) stimulates ovarian follicles - the structures encasing immature egg cells - earlier when they are still dormant.

Professor Aaron Hsueh, senior author of the study, said the technique: 'holds the promise of expanding the options for women seeking treatment for infertility', particularly those who have no or too few eggs.

To generate the mature eggs, an ovary from three-day-old mice was treated with a chemical inhibitor of PTEN - an enzyme which keeps the early follicles in an inactive state - along with 740Y-P, an activating substance. After two days, most of the follicles were activated. The follicles were transferred to adult mice and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) was given daily.

Two weeks later, the treated ovaries were visibly larger, heavier and contained up to six times more advanced follicles than the untreated ones. Twenty healthy mouse pups were born after the mature eggs were fertilised and 118 embryos transplanted into adult female mice.

The same PTEN-blocking chemical was used to treat immature eggs in human ovarian tissue, which was transplanted into host mice. After six months, the tissue contained a much higher percentage of advanced follicles or mature eggs than the untreated tissues. But the human eggs weren't fertilised and the authors were careful to point out much more work is required before the technique can be used in humans.

The researchers, led by Dr Jing Li at Stanford University, California, published their findings online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study was funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH).

she wolf

'The Expendables' Trailer HD

'The Expendables' Trailer HD

DUSTIEST PLACE IN THE PLANET

Dust from one of the world's most desolate places is providing essential fertilizer for one of the most lush, scientists have discovered. Significant amounts of plant nutrients have been found in atmospheric mineral dust blowing from a vast central African basin to the Amazon, where it could compensate for poor rainforest soils.

The basin, known as the Bodélé depression, is the site of a once-massive lake in Chad. Bodélé is thought to be the dustiest place on Earth.

BHANGRA

SUPER GALS

CEPHALOPODS

A Penis As Big As His Body

Scientists didn’t have a good idea about how the cephalopods – octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish – of the deep get in on. The problem is in the way the body is set up. Most of what appears to be the body and head of, say a squid, is actually a hood, called a mantle. They use the mantle both to move through the water and to force water across their gills by forcing water out of the bottom, like jet propulsion. But that also means that their sex organs are protected inside.

That makes a pretty big problem for the dudes. How do they get their sperm past the female’s mantle? If they spray some sperm up in there, it won’t stick around long since it will get washed out as she propels all that seawater through her mantle.

Shallow-water dwelling cephalopods have figured out a solution. They have short penises which produce small “packets” of sperm called spermatophores. One of their eight eponymous limbs is actually modified to transfer this sperm into the proper receptacle on the female cephalopod.

But scientists still had no good idea how their deeper-dwelling cousins got the job done. Deep-water male squid are known to use a more primitive method, which involves somehow injecting their sperm into the female’s body. But how? “Obviously a strongly elongated penis is the solution,” says Dr Arkhipkin of the Falkland Islands Government Fisheries Department, who explains how he and his colleagues made the discovery:

“The mature male squid was caught during a deep-water research cruise on the Patagonian slope. We took the animal from the catch, and it was moribund with arms and tentacles still moving, and chromatophores on the skin contracting and expanding,” he told the BBC.

“When the mantle of the squid was opened for maturity assessment, we witnessed an unusual event.

“The penis of the squid, which had extended only slightly over the mantle margin, suddenly started to erect, and elongated quickly to 67cm total length, almost the same length as the whole animal.”

…

The squid uses its lengthy organ to reach into the body of the female, and it then injects the sperm directly to prevent it being washed away.

How the sperm injected into a female’s body then reaches her reproductive organs remains a mystery.

Male with erect penis and ejaculated spermatophores on table (penis is white tubular structure in lower half of the picture).

I’m not really sure what the moral of this story is. But next time someone calls me a squidfucker, I will take it as a compliment.

Signing off, polyps. Remember! You don’t know Dick.
…But don’t worry. We’re here to help you.


Information and photo from BBC Earth News.

Dick Feynman (@feynmandick) is a Los Angeles-based scientist, specializing in diluting scientific research findings into tasty, bite-sized bacon-flavored snacks for the unwashed masses.

BEYONCE

Beyonce's New Fall 2010 Dereon Ad Campaign [Video]

BEYONCE

BEYONCE