Giving children a diet rich in fish and “fruity vegetables” can reduce asthma and allergies, according to a seven-year study of 460 Spanish children.

The findings also reinforce the researchers’ earlier findings that a fish-rich diet in pregnancy can help to protect children from asthma and allergies.

“We believe that this is the first study that has assessed the impact of a child’s diet on asthma and allergies and also taken into account the food their mother ate during pregnancy” says lead author Dr Leda Chatzi from the Department of Social Medicine at the University of Crete, Greece.

Tendon damage can sometimes be severe enough to end an athletic career but a consortium of scientists has identified unique cells within the adult tendon that have stem-cell characteristics —including the ability to proliferate and self-renew.

The research team was able to isolate these cells and regenerate tendon-like tissue in the animal model. Their findings hold tremendous promise for the treatment of tendon injuries caused by overuse and trauma.

Tendons, the tough band of specialized tissues that connect bone to muscle, are comprised of strong collagen fibrils that transmit force allowing the body to move. Tendon injuries are a common clinical problem as damaged tendon tissue heals slowly and rarely regains the integrity or strength of a normal, undamaged tendon.

A leading UK expert in analysing pharmaceutical compounds has demonstrated that Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) technology can identify fake medicines in minutes.

Traditional technology, based on large, laboratory-based methods, takes hours and sometimes days of intensive work.

More than a billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water. Diseases caused by unsafe drinking water are among the world's most serious public health threats.

The Global Health and Education Foundation provided funding to the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences to develop "Safe Drinking Water Is Essential" ( http://www.drinking-water.org), a resource devoted to providing international decision makers with peer-reviewed scientific information about enhancing the safety of drinking water supplies.

More than 125 academies worldwide are disseminating information about the Web resource, which is available in five languages.

In the September issue of the journal Stem Cells, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University write that moderate physical movement of embryonic stem cells in fluid environments, similar to shaking that occurs in the womb, improves their development and suggests that different types of movement could some day be used to control what type of cell they become.

“Embryonic stem cells develop under unique conditions in the womb, and no one has ever been able to study the effect that movement has on that development process,” said Todd McDevitt, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and head of the project.

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center are reporting in the September issue of the American Heart Journal that women with a family history of heart disease are less likely than men to change habits such as smoking and infrequent physical activity.

They also are more likely to engage in lifestyle choices that increase their risk of heart disease than are women who did not report a history of heart disease.

“A family history of heart disease is as important an indicator of future cardiovascular health in women as it is in men – perhaps more important,” said Dr. Amit Khera, assistant professor of internal medicine and senior author of the study.