A study from the Harokopio University of Athens (Greece) says that adherence to a dietary pattern close to the Mediterranean diet, with high consumption of fish and olive oil and low red meat intake, has a significant impact in women skeletal health.

Results suggest that this eating pattern could have bone-preserving properties throughout adult life.

Diet is one of the modifiable factors for the development and maintenance of bone mass. The nutrients of most obvious relevance to bone health are calcium and phosphorus because they compose roughly 80% to 90% of the mineral content of bone; protein, other minerals and vitamins are also essential in bone preservation.

With its light body made of Kevlar, sleek aerodynamic design and three Olympic-racing wheelchair tires, it looks like something that escaped from the Batcave but it’s actually a school project by a team of six Dalhousie University senior mechanical engineering students.

The ultimate in fuel efficiency, the “Maritime Mileage Machine” will be entered in the 2009 Shell Eco-marathon Americas taking place on April 15 to 18 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The event challenges high school and post-secondary students across Canada, the U.S., Mexico and South America to design and build a vehicle that will drive the farthest using the least amount of energy.

Can you connect the dots? Playboy playmates, Barbie, and Wired Magazine.

Give up? Wired featured a charticle in the February issue on the BMI of Playmates, starting back in 1953 with Marilyn Monroe to the recent January 2009 cover girl, versus those of the average woman. No surprise, the bunnies are trending toward Barbie (who turns 50 this year), while the average woman is slowly crawling up the BMI scale.

A case report published in PLoS Medicine describes a rare side effect of human fetal stem cell therapy. Ninette Amariglio and Gideon Rechavi from the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel, and colleagues report the case of a boy with a rare genetic disease, Ataxia Telangiectasia, who underwent human fetal stem cell therapy at an unrelated clinic in Moscow and who, four years after the therapy began, was shown to have abnormal growths in his brain and spinal cord.

Show Me The Science Month Day 16



Black wolves look like creatures out of frightening fairy tales, but their black color actually came from pet dogs. Today's evolution paper is about a potentially beneficial mutation for black coat color picked up by wolves as the result of interbreeding with dogs. This story got some press, so it may sound familiar, but here we're going to focus on just how scientists could know where the black color gene came from. This research is a great example of the genetic sleuthing that's now possible with easy, affordable DNA sequencing.

Increasing numbers are risking their health just because they want to have a tan, say researchers in an editorial published on bmj.com today.

The authors, led by Michael Evans-Brown from Liverpool John Moores University, argue that while the actual number of people having 'tan jabs' (the drugs Melanotan I and Melanotan II) is unknown, they are easily available via the internet and in some tanning salons and hairdressers. A thriving online community of users exist, the largest of which is Melanotan.org with over 5,000 members.

BARCELONA, Spain, February 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- Forges Strategic Partnerships with Belgacom International Carrier Services and the Royal Bank of Scotland Group

MINNEAPOLIS, February 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- Leopold to Offer AdvantEdge Support to German Users

BARCELONA, Spain, February 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- GSMA also reveals winners of 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition

The GSMA today announced the winners of the 14th Annual Global Mobile Awards at a gala dinner at the National Palace in Barcelona, hosted by the rising star of comedy, Michael McIntyre. The ceremony, one of the highlights of the Mobile World Congress, the leading event for the mobile communications industry, also revealed the Global Champion of the GSMA's 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition.

IRVINE, California, February 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- Carriers can now offer 3G touch and QWERTY keyboard smartphones for mass market adoption

AnyDATA Corporation, a global leader in the design and manufacture of wireless communications devices, is introducing at the 3GSMA Mobile World Conference a series of 3G smartphones for carriers worldwide. AnyDATA smartphones provide a unique combination of innovative design, high quality components, and the latest wireless technologies, yet at an affordable price for mass market adoption.