Bacterium 'to blame for Crohn's' Intestine

Researchers believe the lack of a specific bacterium in the gut may be a cause of Crohn's disease. A shortage of naturally-occurring bacteria is thought to trigger the inflammatory gastrointestinal disorder by over-stimulating the immune system. Now a French team has highlighted the bug, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, which they show secretes biochemicals that reduce inflammation. The researchers, from the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, had already shown that patients with Crohn's disease have a marked deficiency in bacteria from the Clostridium leptum group. Their latest work shows that F. prausnitzii - a major component of this group - accounts for a large part of the deficit. The study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Bowel surgery

The researchers found that Crohn's patients who underwent bowel surgery were more likely to experience a recurrence of the condition if they had low levels of F. prausnitzii. And in experiments on cultured cells, they showed that liquid in which F. prausnitzii had been grown provided an anti-inflammatory effect. The researchers said that if ongoing animal trials prove successful, human patients could benefit from a probiotic treatment with F. prausnitzii. Dr Anton Emmanuel, medical director of the digestive disorders charity Core, called the study "exciting" and agreed it raised the possibility of a therapeutic "replacement" therapy. "It would be interesting to see how this finding relates to the emerging body of evidence looking at genetic changes in some patients with Crohn's disease, with the known abnormal gene being one that codes for the body's ability to recognise foreign bacteria." Dr John Bennett, chairman of Core, said there was growing evidence that micro-organisms combined with immunological weaknesses to either cause, or exacerbate Crohn's symptoms. However, he said: "The gut contains a huge number and variety of organisms, and many of them have been investigated without any single one seeming to be entirely responsible." Dr Bennett said scientists were testing the theory that harmful bacteria could be neutralised, or at least counter-acted, by preparations of beneficial "probiotic" micro-organisms, but as yet no definitive proof of their effect had been produced.

Third of heart risk down to food

Swapping fried and salty foods for salads could cut the global incidence of heart attacks by a third, a study of eating habits suggests. Researchers analysed the diet of 16,000 people in 52 countries and identified three global eating patterns, Circulation journal reports. The typical Western diet, high in fat, salt and meat, accounted for about 30% of heart attack risk in any population. A "prudent" diet high in fruit and veg lowered heart risk by a third. An Oriental diet, high in tofu, soy and other sauces, made no difference to heart attack risk. The researchers created a dietary risk score questionnaire based on 19 food groups and then asked 5,561 heart attack patients and 10,646 people with known heart disease to fill out their survey. People who ate a Western diet had a 35% greater risk of having a heart attack than those who ate little or no fried foods and meat. It is well known that the typical Western diet causes heart disease. High salt in the diet can raise blood pressure and the wrong type of fat can clog blood vessels. Investigating overall eating patterns is more true to life than looking at intake of individual foods or nutrients.

Global trend

The researchers said their work suggested that the same relationships between food and heart disease that are observed in Western countries exist in other regions of the world. Lead author Romania Iqbal, of McMaster University in Canada, said: "30% of the risk of heart disease in a population could be related to poor diet." The researchers said that while components of the Oriental diet might be bad for the heart - such as the salt in soy sauce - these elements were likely cancelled out by protective components. Ellen Mason, a cardiac nurse for the British Heart Foundation, said: "This study shows that it doesn’t matter whether you live in Bolton or Bombay, or whether you like to eat British, African Caribbean or Asian foods. "The vital thing is to reduce your intake of salty, fried, fatty food to a minimum but increase the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat."

Probe studies Solar System's edge

Nasa's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (Ibex) spacecraft has been launched into Earth orbit to study the edge of our Solar System. Ibex was launched on Sunday aboard a Pegasus rocket that was dropped from a jet flying over the Pacific Ocean. It is the first probe to study particle interactions at the boundary where our Solar System meets interstellar space. The two-year mission should shed light on the decline of the solar wind, which is at its lowest pressure in 50 years. The interstellar boundary is the point in space at which the particles emitted from the Sun begin to compete with those from elsewhere in the galaxy. This region serves as a buffer that protects the Solar System's interior from 90% of the cosmic rays heading towards it. Recent observations have seen a reduction in the solar wind that propels particles towards the boundary. The level has dropped by 25% in the last decade, reaching a 50-year low. The two Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, are currently in the "termination shock" zone, where the particles from the Sun crash into those from interstellar space. David McComas, the mission's lead scientist, who is based at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas saidthe Voyager spacecraft are making fascinating observations of the local conditions at two points beyond the termination shock that show totally unexpected results and challenge many of our notions about this important region. The 50cm-wide octagonal spacecraft will use two cameras to take images of the boundary region. It will study both the outbound solar particles and the incoming cosmic rays, providing more insight into the particle interactions that occur there. The probe was developed at the Southwest Research Institute and is part of a new generation of small-scale, directed projects in the US space agency's Small Explorers programme.

Terminator Salvation is an upcoming science ficton war film set for release on May 22, 2009. Directed by McG, it is the fourth film in the Terminator franchise and stars Christian Bale as John Connor, Sam Worthington as the new Terminator Marcus Wright, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor, and Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, while Moon Bloodgood, Common, Helena Bonham Carter and Roland Kickinger are among the supporting cast. The film, set in 2018, focuses on the original war between humanity and the Terminator computer network Skynet. It abandons the formula of the series, which had involved Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Model 101 Terminator time-traveling to the present to protect or kill someone of future importance. Filming began on May 5, 2008.

World Jobless 'to Add 20 Million'

This will bring the total number of people without work to 210 million by the end of next year, said the International Labor Organization (ILO). ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said the figures showed that governments had to focus on individuals not just banks. He called for more efforts to help those affected cope with unemployment.

'Care about people'

Mr Somavia said we thought it was not good to talk about the financial crisis exclusively in financial terms. We have to talk about the financial crisis in terms of what happens to people and in terms of what happens to jobs and enterprises. If we have enough resources to pump into the financial system, this is not the moment to say, 'Yes, but we don't have the resources to care about people'. Mr Somavia added that while governments were right to try to end the "credit paralysis" in the first instance, attention should now be expanded to helping firms maintain jobs. In particular, he said governments should help small companies, since combined, these produced the most jobs. Mr Somavia added that protecting people's pensions was also vital. Returning to the global economy, he said the sectors that were likely to see the most job losses were construction, the housing market, financial services, the wider service sector, and carmakers.

Rock Record Dino 'Dance Floor'

There are so many prints (more than 1,000) that geologists have dubbed the site "a dinosaur dance floor". Located within the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, the marks were long thought simply to be potholes gouged out of the rock by years of erosion. A paper describing the 190-million-year-old footprints is published in the palaeontology journal Palaios. Professor Marjorie Chan from the University of Utah said that get out there and try stepping in their footsteps, and you feel like you are playing the game 'Dance Dance Revolution' that teenagers dance on. This kind of reminded her of that - a dinosaur dance floor - because there are so many tracks and a variety of different tracks. There must have been more than one kind of dinosaur there. It was a place that attracted a crowd, kind of like a dance floor. The site covers about a third of a hectare and records dinosaur movements around what was probably a watering hole during the Early Jurassic Period, when the US south-west was covered with a field of sand dunes larger than the Sahara Desert. Investigation of the site reveals at least four dinosaur species were present, with the animals ranging from adults to youngsters. Winston Seiler who worked on the project said that the different size tracks [2.5-50cm] may tell us that we are seeing mothers walking around with babies. As well as footprints, the site also records tail-drag marks - which are up to seven metres in length. The scientists say the dinosaur prints were locked into sandstone after being covered by shifting dunes. They became exposed through erosion and will eventually disappear through erosion, too.