Boost immune system with low calorie diet

The immune system protects the body from infection by pathogenic organisms. It is composed of a complex constellation of cells, organs and tissues, arranged in an elaborate and dynamic communications network. The immune system is, in its simplest form, a cascade of detection and adaptation, culminating in a system that is remarkably effective.

The immune system protects the body from infection by creating and maintaining barriers that prevent bacteria and viruses from entering the body. If a pathogen breaches the barriers, and gets into the body, the innate immune system is equipped with specialized cells that detect, and often eliminate, the invader before it is able to reproduce, potentially causing serious injury to the host.

However according to new study low calorie die can boost your immune system. An extremely low-calorie diet slows the aging of the immune system in an elderly population of rhesus monkeys, according to research at the National Institute on Aging. A similar immune boost has already been observed in rodents on the calorie-restriction diet, and the monkey results–the first in primates–are an important step in determining whether such a diet could also strengthen the immune system in humans

red blood cell picture

The rhesus monkeys on a calorie-restriction diet in the study have significantly more young T cells–an important component of the immune system–and these T cells can proliferate vigorously, says Janko Nikolich-Zugich, senior scientist at the Oregon Health and Science University’s Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, who led the research. In addition, these monkeys have lower levels of the inflammatory immune compounds that can cause cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease in humans.

Read more at technologyreview.com

See video of NASA’s International Space Station

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an agency of the United States Government, responsible for that nation’s public space program. NASA is widely regarded as being in the forefront of space agencies worldwide.

The International Space Station (ISS) is a manned research space facility that is being assembled in orbit around the Earth. It is a joint project between five space agencies:
=> The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, United States)
=> The Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA, Russian Federation)
=> The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, Japan)
=> The Canadian Space Agency (CSA, Canada)
=> The European Space Agency (ESA, Europe)

Did you know?

=> Space tourism and weddings are two soruce of making money for ISS. Yuri Malenchenko was the first person who was married in space.
=> There have been four space tourists to the ISS, each spending ca. US$20 million; they went there aboard a Russian supply mission.

Now you can watch this video which is a tour of the International Space Station:

Maths finds the perfect way to cut a cake

cake.jpeg

Here is some advice on cutting the perfect cake.

From the article:
The art of cake-cutting requires care and skill to ensure no party is left feeling cheated or envious. Now, however, parents and party hosts can approach the task with a little more confidence mathematicians claim to have found the perfect way to cut a cake and keep everyone happy :D

What do Lions Eat – an elephant?

Information about Lion including lion pictures, lion pics, lion images, lion facts, and their eating habits. Find out What do lions eat?

The lion is a large mammal. It originally lived in Africa and Asia. Lions are mostly found in Africa and in a small reserve in India. They can live in cool areas, very hot areas or in thick forests. In the past, there were wild lions in Europe. Today, many live in zoos around the world.

A Mail Lion Picture
A Mail Lion Picture

Lions live in groups that are called prides. 10 to 20 lions may live in a pride. Each pride has a home area that is called its territory. Lions do not allow strange animals to hunt in their territory. A territory can be as large as 260 square kilometres (100 square miles). Lions live for 25 years in captivity.

Baby Lion with Father
Baby Lion with Father

Lioness

A female Lion Picture
A female Lion Picture

A lioness is a female lion. The female lions hunt the animals for the prides. They are ready to have young when she is 2-3 years old. Baby lions are called cubs. Cubs are born after 3 1/2 months. Lions do not have a den (home) where they would live for a long time. The mother moves around with the cubs.

Lions
Lions

What do Lions Eat?

Lions hunts many animals, for example, gnus (wildebeest) and antelopes, and eat a lot of meat. Male lions usually weigh 159 to 180 kilograms (350 to 400 pounds), but they can weigh more. It is the only cat with a mane.

The prey consists mainly of large mammals such as wildebeest, impalas, zebras, buffalo, and warthogs in Africa and nilgai, wild boar, and several deer species in India.

Occasionally, they take relatively small species such as Thomson’s Gazelle or springbok. Extensive statistics collected over various studies show that lions normally feed on mammals in the range 190–550 kg (420–1210 lb). Wildebeest rank at the top of peferred prey (making nearly half of the lion prey in the Serengeti) followed by zebra. Most adult hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, elephants, and smaller gazelles, impala, and other agile antelopes are generally excluded.

An adult lioness requires an average of about 5 kg (11 lb) of meat per day, a male about 7 kg (15.4 lb)

A video has been shot recording what no one knew occurred before-that lions are capable of taking down full grown elephants.

Lions are among the animal kingdom’s most brutal and efficient predators but no one had heard of them hunting elephants before. The BBC’s Natural History Unit decided to send a film crew to try to capture a hunt on film.

The lions hunt elephants because they have discovered that they can. The dry season has always been a desperate time for wildlife in northern Botswana. One year, perhaps, water, and therefore prey, was scarcer than ever and a small or weak elephant was killed in a moment of bold opportunism. Then there was no turning back.

Lion Hunting Video

(Click play button to see video)

Lunar X Games

The X Games are underway in Los Angeles. One day–who knows?–they might be held on the Moon. This story takes a whimsical look at the physics and gear of Lunar X Games.

From NASA site, “According to folklore, every full Moon has a special name. The Snow Moon comes in February, the snowiest month of the year. The Thunder Moon comes in July, the month of summer lightning. There are Wolf Moons, Strawberry Moons, Harvest Moons—each name evokes something nifty about its particular month.

Until August, that is. August has the Sturgeon Moon, named after a slimy, primeval fish. What happened? Long ago Native American tribes around the Great Lakes fished for sturgeon in August, and folklore did the rest…”

Scientist thinks invisibility possible in future

Scientist thinks invisibility possible in future …

According to Dr Ulf Leonhardt, a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University in Scotland, Invisibility is an optical illusion that the object or person is not there. Leonhardt uses the example of water circling around a stone. The water flows in, swirls around the stone and then leaves as if nothing was there.

If you replace the water with light then you would not see that there was something present because the light is guided around the person or object. You would see the light coming from the scenery behind as if there was nothing in front,” he said.

Read more at reuters.

Mysterious red cells might be aliens and may have landed in india

As bizarre as it may seem, the sample jars brimming with cloudy, reddish rainwater in Godfrey Louis’s laboratory in southern India may hold, well, aliens. Scientists have yet to identify these unusual red particles.
red cells

Read more

Note sure if this true or not, even scientist himself is doubtful of the idea ;)

Explore the ocean with Ocean Explorer site

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) site has tons of information about Ocean where generally we cannot go or dares to go.

The site has photo gallery, video clips and education section. This section provides direct access to over 200 lesson plans, offers professional development opportunities for educators, and has an ocean career component.

I find this site quite interesting and I’m gaining lots of knowledge about ocean.

See NOAA site for more information.