eals Protect Brain, Conserve Oxygen By Turning Off Shivering Response On Icy Dives

Seals shiver when exposed to cold air but not when diving in chilly water, a finding that researchers believe allows the diving seal to conserve oxygen and minimize brain damage that could result from long dives.

The researchers presented the study at The American Physiological Society's conference "Comparative Physiology 2006: Integrating Diversity," in Virginia Beach, Va., October 8-11. The researchers, Arnoldus Schytte Blix, Petter H. Kvadsheim and Lars P. Folkow hail from the University of Tromsø, located above the Arctic Circle in Tromsø, Norway.

The research provides insight into how seals allow their bodies to cool (become hypothermic) during a dive, presumably to better cope with a lack of oxygen (hypoxia). Research into hypothermia and hypoxia is important because they are problems that affect people under a variety of circumstances. Doctors often are called upon to treat people who have suffered accidental hypothermia, for example, as a result of falling into the ocean or becoming lost during the winter. In addition, several hundred thousand people die or are irreversibly injured each year following cardiac arrest, stroke or respiratory disorders which cause inadequate oxygen supply to the brain, Folkow explained.

Folkow will present a second study on hypoxia, involving diving birds, at the conference. The study "Neuronal hypoxic tolerance in diving birds and mammals," examines how diving birds and seals preserve brain cell function in the face of oxygen deficits. The study is by Folkow, Stian Ludvigsen and Blix, of the University of Tromsø and Jan-Marino Ramirez of the University of Chicago.

Seals Protect Brain, Conserve Oxygen By Turning Off Shivering Response On Icy Dives

New Bird Discovered On Unexplored Colombian Mountain

A new bird to science was recently discovered on an unexplored mountain range in northern Colombia by a team supported by the BP Conservation Programme. It was named "Yariguies Brush-Finch," with the scientific name Atlapetes latinuchus yariguierum.

The new brush-finch was described by an Anglo-Colombian team of biologists including Thomas Donegan (Fundación ProAves) and Blanca Huertas (Natural History Museum and University College London), following their leadership of the first biological exploration of the Yariguíes mountains. The description was published in the June issue of the scientific journal Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club (Vol. 126: June 2006).

The new bird is named for the Yariguies indigenous people who formerly inhabited the mountain range where the bird was found. A large and colorful finch with black, yellow and red plumage, the new species differs from its closest relatives in having a black back and no white markings on its wings. It also is found in other nearby mountains in Colombia's eastern Andean range. Genetic, morphological and vocal studies have confirmed its identity as a new taxon.

New Bird Discovered On Unexplored Colombian Mountain

WEB EXCLUSIVE Hydrogen

There’s something disconcerting about driving a high-speed oval for the first time, and it’s easy to identify: As you approach either of the steeply banked turns, you don't slow down. Trust me when I tell you it’s easier to nod and say “Sure, I get it” than it is to blast into those perfect semicircles at full speed. Especially when you’re only the second civilian in the world to drive the next-generation Honda FCX prototype, a one-of-a-kind, multimillion-dollar, zero-emission fuel-cell car that you always assumed was made of duct tape and posterboard gussied up with a nice paint job, as is so often the case for auto-show concepts. Surely the rules are different for this car.

“Dondon dondon osaete kudasai.” Huh? I mentally check and then recheck my Japanese. There’s no question: The clipboard-clutching engineer next to me just told me to floor it. So I floor it. And the car goes—fast. Though Honda will not give official numbers for acceleration, my silent mental stopwatch puts the FCX’s 0–60 time at about seven seconds, on par with an Audi A4. And around the steep banks, the car is completely surefooted, with no shakes or scary suspension moments. It seems a lot closer to production-ready than its “limited release” date of 2008 (which refers to the year when, like, one guy in California gets to lease the car) would suggest.

The FCX's driving traits are attributable to Honda’s new vertically oriented fuel cell. Instead of lying flat under the floor like all the other hydrogen vehicles out there, Honda’s new stack stands upright where a normal car’s transmission would go. The advantage of this is that the water created as a by-product of converting hydrogen to electricity doesn’t need to be aggressively pumped out of the fuel cell; gravity does much of the work, so there’s much less need for a power-sucking, efficiency-stealing pump to move the moisture. The orientation also makes for a much lower center of gravity than a typical fuel-cell car. Almost all of the ones before the FCX looked like mini SUVs: high off the ground for their size. This is because most of the area under their floors was taken up by their fuel cells and the massive cooling ducts meant to keep them from overheating. This design made the cars nail-biters anywhere north of 75mph.

At least, that’s how the currently available version of the FCX felt when I drove it for comparison. While I slowed it waaaay down before entering the curve, I pushed the low-slung prototype into the bank at more than 80 miles an hour. The high-off-the-ground ’05 FCX felt skittish even on the straightaway at its maximum speed of 140 kph (about 87 mph). The FCX prototype, which looks like a sleeker and more stylish Accord, is low to the ground, sporty, and well-behaved at 92 mph, my maximum speed in it.

WEB EXCLUSIVE Hydrogen

Shop Until You Can't Stop

Talk about buyer's remorse. A new national telephone survey indicates that nearly 6 percent of adults find themselves unable to resist frequent shopping binges that leave them saddled with debt, anxiety, and depression.

Buying gone bad, also known as compulsive buying, occurs almost as often in men as in women, says a team led by psychiatrist Lorrin M. Koran of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

The new survey offers the best estimate to date for what some mental-health workers regard as an addiction to spending money. Earlier prevalence figures for compulsive buying, based on interviews with small groups of consumers, ranged from 2 percent to 16 percent. Because women seek psychiatric treatment for uncontrolled spending more often than men do, scientists previously pegged it as a predominantly female condition.

"The widespread opinion that most compulsive buyers are women may be wrong," Koran says.

He and his colleagues describe their findings in the October American Journal of Psychiatry. Koran says that he would now like to see a larger survey that probes the emotional and social impact of uncontrolled purchases on people's lives.

In 2004, the team conducted roughly 11-minute interviews with 2,513 individuals, ages 18 and up, contacted randomly by phone. Interviewers asked about cardinal signs of compulsive buying, such as intrusive or senseless impulses to buy, frequent purchases of unneeded or unaffordable items, and shopping for longer periods than intended. Questions also touched on financial problems and emotional letdowns after buying sprees.

Compulsive buying, as defined by a high score on a tally of the cardinal signs, occurred in 6 percent of women and 5.5 percent of men, regardless of racial or ethnic background, Koran's group says. Compulsive buyers averaged 40 years of age, compared with 49 years for the other participants. A majority of compulsive buyers reported annual incomes under $50,000, whereas only 39 percent of the others reported incomes in that category.

Compulsive buyers reported having the same number of credit cards as other participants did. However, compulsive buyers tended to stretch credit card limits thin, often to within $100 of the maximum. Compulsive buyers also preferred to make minimum payments on credit card balances, regardless of their annual incomes.

Shop Until You Can't Stop