Doctors in the U.S. are increasingly employing a new approach when treating tumors, thanks to the new technology of genomic sequencing. It allows them to look at each patient and his or her cancer as an individual, and develop a customized therapy. The new approach is showing some promising results. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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Arctic sea ice may be thinning faster than predicted because salty snow on the surface of the ice skews the accuracy of satellite measurements, a new

study from the University of Calgary said on Tuesday.

The report from the Canadian university’s Cryosphere Climate Research Group published in the academic journal Geophysical Research Letters found satellite estimates for the thickness of seasonal sea ice have been overestimated by up to 25 percent.

That means the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free much sooner than some scientific predictions, which forecast sea ice will first disappear completely during summer months between 2040 and 2050, according to lead author Vishnu Nandan.

Ice-free summers in the Arctic Ocean would impact global weather patterns by increasing the magnitude and frequency of major storms, and alter the Arctic marine ecosystem, making it harder for animals like polar bears to hunt.

There are a wide range of projections as to when Arctic sea ice will start disappearing in summertime as a result of warming global temperatures, and the University of Calgary study calls into question satellite measurements provided so far.

“The problem is, microwave measurements from satellites don’t penetrate the salty snow very well, so the satellite is not measuring the proper sea ice freeboard and the satellite readings overestimate the thickness of the ice,” Nandan said.

The sea ice freeboard refers to ice that can be seen above sea level and co-researcher John Yackel said, “Our results suggest that snow salinity should be considered in all future estimates on the Arctic seasonal ice freeboard made from satellites.”

Reporting by Nia Williams; editing by Diane Craft.
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Hope is the thing with feathers, poet Emily Dickinson wrote. For Richard Thorns, the feathers are pink.

 

Thorns’ hope? To prove that a colorful duck is not extinct. This week, he launches a seventh expedition into the inaccessible wilds of Myanmar to search for the pink-headed duck that hasn’t been seen alive since 1949, and that was in India. No one has seen the bird alive in Myanmar in more than a century.

 

Thorns, a British writer who quit his shop clerk job 20 years ago after reading about the pink-headed duck in the book “Vanishing Birds,” has spent $20,000 of his own money on previous fruitless trips. His birder brother called him mad.

 

“I could have had a lot of nice things,”  the 53-year-old said. “I don’t want nice things. I want to see a pink-headed duck.”

 

This time, he is backed by the Global Wildlife Conservation group, which launched a hunt for “lost species” — 25 quirky and elusive plants and animals beginning with the duck. A sports optic company and cheesemaking company are also helping pay.

 

Thorns and three others plan to head to the wetlands north of the vast Indawgyi Lake during the rainy season where they believe they have a better chance of spotting the duck. And Thorn thinks he has a secret weapon: elephants.

 

He used canoes in the past and thinks he probably spooked the shy birds. Now he plans to bring elephants stomping through the wetlands.

 

“Clearly a bird isn’t going to hunker down if there are 2-ton elephants,” said Thorn.

 

As crazy as it may seem, Thorns may be onto something, said ornithologist Kevin McGowan at Cornell University who isn’t part of the expedition.

 

“Fairly regularly birds get rediscovered,” says McGowan, who has gone on unsuccessful expeditions for the ivory-billed woodpecker. “We don’t see all the world that is in front of our eyes.”

 

A Cornell student found Bermuda petrels, rare seabirds thought to be extinct for 300 years. Other rediscovered animals include a crow species in Asia and a nocturnal parrot in Australia. These birds survive by not being noticed “so what’s your certainty that it’s gone?” said McGowan.

 

One thing that keeps Thorns going is the thought that someone else might find the pink-headed duck first.

 

Every time he goes out, the bird “breaks my heart,” he said. “Sometimes I wish I hadn’t seen that picture.”
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Nearly 30 years ago, 1,000 children a day were paralyzed by the polio virus. So far this year, 11 children have been diagnosed with polio, thanks to a global effort to wipe out the polio virus. The effort has produced amazing results, but as VOA’s Carol Pearson reports, those behind it say it’s not time yet to celebrate.
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When Britain’s Cambridge University put physicist Stephen Hawking’s 1966 thesis on line for the first time Monday, the university’s website collapsed.

Professor Hawking’s “Properties of Expanding Universes” has been the most requested item in the university’s library.

To meet the demand, and with Hawking’s encouragement, Cambridge made it available on line.

About 60,000 people sought to access it, causing the system to periodically shut down throughout the day Monday.

Hawking is the world’s best-known physicist and expert on the cosmos.

His landmark 1988 work “A Brief History of Time” has sold more than 10 million copies.

With his thesis now available for anyone to read, Hawking said he hopes to “inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet, to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos.”
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A chocolate bar may make you feel better when you’re down, but a cup of yogurt or a handful of cashews might be a better choice.

“I think about our body in some ways like a car engine,” says therapist Leslie Korn. “We need to give it the right fuel. And each of us have a need for a particular combination of proteins, and carbohydrates and fats.”

 

Korn has been treating people for trauma and depression for more than 40 years. She noticed that when her patients changed their diet and began eating foods like dark chocolate, sweet potatoes, eggs and cherries, they had much more success in lifting their depression and decreasing their pain.

 

She turned her observations into a book: The Good Mood Kitchen. It contains recipes and nutrition tips that can help put you in a good mood.

 

Fat for the brain

Fats, she explains, are not the nemesis many diets have made them out to be. We need fats in our diet because our brain is made up of fat. “It’s made up of chemicals that talk to each other and that are lubricated by the fat in order to communicate across the synapses, and contribute to our ability to focus, to apply attention and to lift our mood. Indeed, there is some very good research going on in the military looking at the role of Omega 3 fatty acids for not only treatment of depression and anxiety, but also for suicide prevention.”

 

Taking care of the digestive system, which breaks down the fat, is essential for the brain to benefit, and Korn has a suggestion for that, too.

 

“For example, if your liver and if your gallbladder is not working, you can’t break down fats that are absorbed into the blood stream and then support brain function. What we know is that the greens, in particular bitter greens, help us digest fats and send those fats to the brain where we need it.”

 

The Brainbow diet

Those greens are part of what Korn calls the “Brainbow” diet. She says the colors in the food represent different nutrients. “Your orange, and kind of yellow foods provide lots of vitamin A, lots of vital nutrients. The variety of greens are very good for our digestion. Your purple food and your red food are very anti-inflammatory. These are beets and our eggplants and our berries.”

The “Brainbow” Food list also includes:

Red foods: red cabbage, radishes, watermelons

Orange foods: carrots, sweet potatoes, oranges, pumpkins

Yellow foods: lemons, bananas

Green foods: kale

White foods: garlic, onion, nuts

Foods for every symptom

Therapist Korn says probiotics are important in treating depression and lifting our mood. She calls them “psychobiotics.” Those can be found in yogurt and fermented food.

For people who suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), she recommends foods rich in Omega 3 fatty oils like salmon, flaxseed oil and nuts.

Cocoa and chocolate are known to be good for improving the brain’s cognitive function.

Caffeine helps the brain focus. It stimulates the brain to release dopamine, a chemical messenger that helps in the transmission of signals in the brain and other vital areas.

Cherries and chamomile help the brain release melatonin and anti-anxiety chemicals for a good night’s sleep.

 

Around the world with good mood food

Every country, Korn says, has certain foods that enhance mental well-being. In her book, she offers recipes for them — fresh raw sauerkraut from Eastern Europe, kimchi from Korea and miso soup from Japan. Plantain is a popular food in India, Mexico and countries in Africa and the Caribbean. The Good Mood Kitchen includes a recipe for Plantain Soup.

 

“Plantains are large bananas, very starchy and a little bit sweet. And I add some lemon, and butter and chopped onion, and garlic. And you make it with either a vegetable broth or a chicken broth. Then you add coconut milk, and blend. And then I top it with cilantro, Chinese parsley and garlic, grated orange peel and lime juice.”

 

Sweet potatoes are familiar to people around the world. In her book, Korn offers a simple recipe for preparing them. “Add butter, sea salt and bake. This is good for stress.”

Relax and savor

Korn says because mood follows food, we have to improve our digestion in order to improve our mental health. And since stress and hyperactivity slow down the enzymes our body releases to digest food, once you have prepared a dish designed to improve your emotional balance, it’s important to slow down, take some deep breaths, relax and enjoy eating the meal.  

Good Mood Recipes

Baked Wild Salmon

Sprinkle sea salt and a little olive oil on the salmon and place it on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then place it under the broiler for at least 5 minutes.

Keep an eye on the salmon. It should be pink on the inside.

Garlic Yogurt Salad Dressing

½ -3/4 cup plain cow or goat milk yogurt

1 small garlic clove (minced)

¼ tsp. dried basil

½ tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1/16 tsp. stevia powder

1 tsp. chopped fresh parsley

4 tbsp. organic mayonnaise

Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl and serve.
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It was a source of national pride — technology and discipline besting a crippling lack of water.

But four years of drought have overtaxed Israel’s unmatched array of desalination and wastewater treatment plants, choking its most fertile regions and catching the government off-guard.

“No one imagined we would face a sequence of arid years like this, because it never happened before,” said Uri Schor, spokesman for Israel’s Water Authority.

The Sea of Galilee, technically a lake near the border with Syria, is forecast to hit its lowest level ever before winter rains come, despite the fact that pumping there was massively reduced. Underground aquifers, the other main freshwater source, are nearing levels that will turn them salty.

How to cope with the crisis is becoming an increasingly touchy subject in Israel. Proposed cuts to water use for the coming year, more than 50 percent in some areas, prompted vehement opposition from farmers, who already face tough restrictions and would have been the hardest hit. The government quickly backtracked.

In the Middle East, one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, water is also the subject of wider tensions.

Intense pressure on already scarce water resources could lead to an increase in migration and the risk of conflict, the World Bank has warned.

Syria and Jordan depend on some of the same water sources as Israel, which as added to tensions in the past. Palestinians have long complained of inadequate access to water, which is mostly under Israeli control in the occupied West Bank. Israel has said it has supplied more water than required under interim peace deals.

Under discussion for a possible long-term solution to Israel’s water problem is the construction of an additional desalination plant, an industry official said. A similar facility in Israel has cost more $400 million.

Several new reservoirs to catch rain and flood waters could also relieve some pressure as a quick, $60 million fix, the official said, asking to remain anonymous due to the political sensitivity of the subject.

Just a few years ago Israel, a country two-thirds arid, declared an end to the water shortages that hounded it for decades. A longstanding nationwide awareness campaign ceased and Israelis could take long showers and water their gardens.

There was even talk of exporting surplus water to its neighbors. This came as a result of a massive investment drive which saw Israel put 15 billion shekels ($4.3 billion) in its national water grid and sewage treatment centers. The commercial sector invested another 7 billion shekels into the construction of five desalination plants.

Supply issues are being hardest felt among farmers in the northern tip of Israel, the region where Dubi Amitay, a fourth-generation farmer and president of the Israel Farmers Federation, lives.

Amitay said the shortage had made him decide to dry out 3,700 acres of land, which will take a toll on future harvests.

His home region of eastern Galilee, a lush swath of land between the coast and the Golan Heights, could lose up to 500 million shekels this season, he said.

The lack of reliable waters supply leaves farmers with deep uncertainty.

“Will we have water or not?,” he said.
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The United States is in the middle of an unprecedented opioid overdose epidemic. The abuse of prescription opioids along with the illicit use of heroin killed nearly 60-thousand people last year. Every day 91 Americans die from prescription opioid related overdoses. VOA’s Chris Simkins has more on the story.
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