Favourite Foods Determined by Mother's Milk

Scientists have found that children's food preferences depend on the flavours passed to them through their mothers milk.

Dr. Beauchamp of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in philadelphia, found that children who had been fed savoury milk preferred savoury tastes, where as those with sweet milk preferred sweeter tastes.

The critical time in which babies learnt this preference was at the age of two to five months. It is believed that if mothers eat healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables at this critical time, babies can be primed to like it later in life. Mothers are therefore to be advised to increase consumption of healthy products during this time.

This means that babies who are fed formula milk instead of breast milk do not get this priming, and do not get the varied sensory stimuli that they would be exposed to with breast milk.

To find out more:

Paper: Beauchamp, G. et al. (2009) Early milk feeding influences taste acceptance and liking during infancy. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Article: Flavours in mothers milk may determine the foods children like, Telegraph.

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Glass half full genetics

Scientists at the University of Michigan have discovered that people optimistic or pessimistic outlook to life is genetic, and depends on levels of just one molecule: Neuropeptide Y.

They found that if you have lower levels of NPY, you are likely to be more pessimistic than those with higher levels. This in turn means that people with lower NPY are more likely to have depression and react badly to stressful situations.

The scientists made this finding by scanning peoples brains while showing them neutral and emotionally charged photos. Those with high NPY had a stronger emotional response to the photos than those with lower levels. This means that people may be diagnosed earlier with psychiatric conditions such as depression.

To find out more:

Original paper: Mickey et al (2011) Emotion processing, Archives of General Psychiatry.

Articles: Born miserable - some people genetically programmed to be negative, Telegraph

Wear Blue to Prevent Shark Attack

Researchers have found that sharks are colour blind. They can only distinguish between light and dark areas. This has lead researchers to conclude that swimmers who wear blue wetsuits are less likely to be attacked as the sharks could not distinguish between them and the surrounding sea.

Statistics shows that people attacked by sharks usually are wearing black wetsuits, backing up this claim.

This information means that surfing equipment and swim wear will be able to be designed to be essentially invisible to sharks. I could also be used when designing fishing lures, to prevent sharks from being caught.

To find out more:

Articles: Sharks are colourblind new research finds, Daily Telegraph

'Colour blind' sharks are less likely to attack a swimmer wearing a sea blue wetsuit, Daily Mail

'Toylet': Gaming While You Go!

Sega have invented a new gaming system that you play while you are in the bathroom, and the controller is your wee!

The device, named the 'Toylet', has sensors that can pick up the speed, location and intensity of urine as it enters the urinal. There are currently a choice of four games that you can play. 

The consoles are going to be installed in four metro stations in Japan. The screens will show adverts as well as the games in order to make money from the consoles.

To find out more:

Article: The Toylet: Sega launches video games controlled by men's urine in Tokyo. Daily Mail.

Poo Transplant?!

Would you have a poo transplant to save your life? Many people have, but not many of us know about this unusual procedure, as the thought of poo is such a taboo subject. 

Faecal transplants are happening around the world, and are giving high success to curing intestinal infection. Most cases show that people recover within 48 hours of receiving the transplant. 

The transplants have been particularly good at curing infections of C. difficile, the superbug, which often takes hold after patients are given large doses of antibiotics that kill off their gut microbes, the good bacteria we are used to hearing about.

By transplanting poo, the gut bacteria can be restored and fight off the C. difficile infection. 

Donors are best if they are related to the patient. The faeces are mixed with a saline solution and large particles are removed. There are then a number of ways in which the solution is delivered into the patients colon.

The procedure has been carried out thousands of times with a high success rate. But the idea of poo is just too much for some, so this transplant may be taboo for some time.

To find out more:

Original article: Taboo transplant: How new poo defeats superbugs, New Scientist