Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him – and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.

“Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better – much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants.”

Staff believe that the octopus called Otto had been annoyed by the bright light shining into his aquarium and had discovered he could extinguish it by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water in its direction. The short-circuit had baffled electricians as well as staff at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, who decided to take shifts sleeping on the floor to find out what caused the mysterious blackouts.

Type 2 diabetes is up 90% since 1997. And that may be an underestimate because the numbers come from self-reported surveys conducted by the CDC in 1995-1997 and in 2005-2007. About a third of people with diabetes don’t yet know they have the dangerous disease.
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“The growth in diabetes prevalence has been concomitant with growth in obesity prevalence,”
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Obesity, the CDC says, is the major risk factor for diabetes. Yet it’s not necessary to become thin to avoid this debilitating disease. A study of people at high risk for diabetes shows you can cut your risk of diabetes by 58% in a three-year period by doing just two things:

* Lose 5% to 10% of your body weight.
* Five days a week, get 30 minutes of moderate physical activity.

A study found that copper fittings rapidly killed bugs on hospital wards, succeeding where other infection control measures failed.
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It is thought the metal ‘suffocates’ germs, preventing them breathing. It may also stop them from feeding and destroy their DNA. Lab tests show that the metal kills off the deadly MRSA and C difficile superbugs. It also kills other dangerous germs, including the flu virus and the E coli food poisoning bug.
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Researcher Professor Peter Lambert, of Aston University, Birmingham, said: ‘The numbers decreased always on copper but not on the steel surfaces.’
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The healing power of copper has been recognised for thousands of years. More than 4,000 years ago, the Egyptians used it to sterilise wounds and drinking water and the Aztecs treated skin conditions with the metal. The ancient Greeks also knew of its benefits. Hippocrates, sometimes called ‘the father of medicine’, noted that it could be used to treat leg ulcers.

The problem came to the forefront last week with Cleveland Browns player Kellen Winslow, who recently had his second staph infection. He is reportedly the sixth player to acquire staph among the Browns in five years.
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Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts was revealed to have a staph infection, the Indianapolis Star reported Friday. University of North Carolina-Asheville fans also recently learned that Kenny George, the 7-foot-7 center on the basketball team, had a staph infection complication that led to part of his foot being amputated. It’s unclear how these high-profile athletes acquired their infections, but locker rooms have been found to habor staph bacteria in previous outbreaks.
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A study on the St. Louis Rams published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 found that during the 2003 football season, there were eight MRSA infections among five of the 58 Rams players.

Entomologist Jennifer Zaspel at the University of Florida in Gainesville said the discovery suggests the moth population could be on an “evolutionary trajectory” away from other C. thalictri populations.

In January, she will compare the Russian population’s DNA to that of other populations and other species to confirm her suspicions. “Based on geography, based on behavior, and based on a phenotypic variation we saw in the wing pattern, we can speculate that this represents something different, something new,” Zaspel said.
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Only male moths exhibit blood feeding, she noted, raising the possibility that as in some species of butterflies and other moths, the Russian moths do it to pass on salt to females during copulation.

“There is no evidence it prolongs the life of the male, or anything like that,” she said. “So we suspect that it is probably going to the female.” The sexual gift, she said, would provide a nutritional boost to young larvae that feed on leaf-rich, but sodium-poor, diets.

Conceived in Scotland almost 200 years ago, the Stirling [engine] is a marvel of thermo-dynamics that could help to replace the internal combustion engine – in theory it can turn any source of heat into electricity, in silence and with 100 per cent efficiency. But corporations including Phillips, Ford and Nasa have devoted decades of research, and millions of dollars, to developing the engine, and all retired defeated, having failed to find a way of turning the theoretical principles of the engine into a workable everyday application. Kamen, nevertheless, has spent the past 10 years and, he estimates, up to $40 million working on the problem.

Now he and his engineers have built and tested a range of Stirling engines suitable for mass production that can be run on anything from jet fuel to cow dung. The one in the boot of the small blue car is designed to extend its range and constantly recharge its batteries to make a new kind of hybrid vehicle: one fit for the roads of the 21st century. A Stirling-electric hybrid, Kamen tells me, can travel farther and more efficiently than conventional electric cars; it generates enough power to run energy-hungry devices such as heaters and defrosters that are essential for drivers who, unlike those he calls the ‘tofu heads’ of California, must cope with a cold climate; and even using petrol, the engine runs far cleaner than petrol-electric hybrids such as Toyota’s Prius.

However, Kamen confesses, his new creation isn’t quite finished yet: ‘The Stirling engine’s not hooked up. Which really pisses me off.’

But it could work?

‘It will work,’ he says. ‘Trust me.’

Canadian and U.S. researchers have found that the human rhinovirus, long blamed for causing the common cold, doesn’t actually cause those annoying sniffles, sneezes, and coughs.

Instead, the ubiquitous virus alters the activity of genes in the body, which then results in the misery that afflicts most people every year or so, according to a study in the first November issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
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Human rhinovirus (HRV) causes some 30 percent to 50 percent of common colds and can also worsen more serious conditions, such as asthma.
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A “microarray analysis” of DNA showed no genetic changes eight hours after infection. But, after two days, about 6,500 genes had been affected, either with heightened activity or dampened activity.

The genes most affected by the presence of the virus were ones that make antiviral proteins and pro-inflammatory chemicals that contribute to airway inflammation, the researchers said.

In spite of urbanization, Nigeria remains essentially an agricultural country, since about 80 percent ‘of our population continues to engage in agriculture.
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The application of science and technology has made it possible to carry out agricultural activities in areas hitherto considered impossible. A good example is the state of Israel, which has successfully engaged in agriculture in the desert through intelligent application of irrigation and information technology. Israel has literally made the desert bloom.

With increased crop yields, a new problem arises, namely, storage and retardation of spoilage. Again, science and technology come to the rescue. Modem storage silos designs and chemical fumigation are available to facilitate long term storage without spoilage.
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We have illustrated and drawn a correlation between advances in science and national economic development. Fortunately this country is endowed with brilliant men and women who have distinguished themselves in the physical, biological and medical sciences, engineering and technology. The country is also rich in natural resources; therefore, we have no reason to remain underdeveloped if only we apply suitable policies to harness the available talents to achieve meaningful and sustained development. We can borrow a leaf from the Asian tigers to seek our own niches for focused advancement. This is the challenge for our leaders in all tiers of government.