She arrived four months early, so small that she could fit in the palm of her father's hand.
Six months on, Jessica Hawkins is still on the tiny side - but has beaten the odds by growing into a healthy baby girl.
Yesterday her mother Sam, 35, a child-care assessor, said: 'She has amazed us and all the hospital staff who have seen her.
She has just done brilliantly and didn't even need oxygen when she came home which we were very surprised about.
'We couldn't take our eyes off her and are still in disbelief every day that she's actually ours.'
Jessica was initially thought to have been miscarried, but a scan showed her heart was beating.
She then arrived very ahead of schedule on December 29 last year weighing just 1lb 7oz.
It was a particularly difficult time for Mrs Hawkins and her husband Pete, 44, as the couple had already lost five children to miscarriage, including one at 19 weeks and one at 20 weeks.
Mrs Hawkins had two cycles of IVF but was told it was 'highly unlikely' she would have children.
When Jessica was born at 23 weeks she was held in intensive care but only needed a ventilator for four weeks.
Mr Hawkins, an administrator with Bedfordshire Police, said: 'When I first saw her in the incubator I broke down because there were so many tubes and everything.'
Jessica was eventually allowed to return home to Bedford with her parents on May 5, just weeks after her original due date.
Today she weighs a healthy 9lb 11oz, has passed all her sight and hearing tests and is beginning to show interest in objects and toys like any normal child.
The only difference is she is the size of a six-week-old, not a six-month-old.
Last May MPs voted against cutting the upper limit for abortion from 24 weeks to 20 weeks.
Jessica's remarkable tale of survival may reignite the debate. Both her parents said they believed the limit should be lowered.
Tory MP Nadine Dorries, who was behind the campaign to change the law, said: 'I wish Jessica and her family well. She is a testament to how far medical science has advanced in neonatal care and she will be a valuable source of reference for the future.'
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Half of Americans Use Vibrators, Study Claims
About half of American adults indicate using a vibrator, according to a new survey that sheds light on acts that take place beneath the covers and behind closed doors.
The survey was funded, however, by Church and Dwight Co. Inc., maker of Trojan brand sexual health products. It finds it's not just women taking advantage of the battery-operated tickle toy. Forty-five percent of men said they'd employed a vibrator, with most heterosexual men doing so during foreplay or intercourse with a female partner. About 17 percent of men said they used a vibrator for solo masturbation.
And while vibrators are often hidden in sock drawers or beneath the bed, the study results suggest their use is a sign of a positive and healthy sex life. In fact, female vibrator users were significantly more likely to have had a gynecological exam during the past year and to have performed genital self-examination during the previous month.
Women who used vibrators also reported better sex, including higher sexual desire and arousal, as well as orgasm. However, there was no significant difference in general sexual satisfaction between female vibrator users and non-users.
"The study about women's vibrator use affirms what many doctors and therapists have known for decades — that vibrator use is common, it's linked to positive sexual function such as desire and ease of orgasm, and it's rarely associated with any side effects," said study researcher Debby Herbenick, associate director of Indiana University's Center for Sexual Health Promotion.
The new results are based on two studies, one surveying more than 2,000 women and the other more than 1,000 men (ages 18 to 60), both of which are published this week in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Some other findings included:
* More than 50 percent of women participants had used a vibrator, with nearly one in four having done so in the past month.
* More than 70 percent of women reported having never experienced any side effects associated with vibrator use. (Those side effects that were reported were typically rare and of a short duration, including mild genital numbness, irritation, or inflammation.)
* About 45 percent of men, both gay and heterosexual, reported incorporating a vibrator into sexual activities.
* Of men who have used vibrators, 10 percent had done so in the past month, about 14 percent in the past year and about 21 percent more than one year ago.
* Men who reported having used vibrators, particularly those with more recent use, were more likely to report participation in sexual health promoting behaviors, such as testicular self-exam.
* Men who had used vibrators recently also scored themselves higher on four of the five factors used to measure sexual function (erectile function, intercourse satisfaction, orgasmic function and sexual desire).
The survey was funded, however, by Church and Dwight Co. Inc., maker of Trojan brand sexual health products. It finds it's not just women taking advantage of the battery-operated tickle toy. Forty-five percent of men said they'd employed a vibrator, with most heterosexual men doing so during foreplay or intercourse with a female partner. About 17 percent of men said they used a vibrator for solo masturbation.
And while vibrators are often hidden in sock drawers or beneath the bed, the study results suggest their use is a sign of a positive and healthy sex life. In fact, female vibrator users were significantly more likely to have had a gynecological exam during the past year and to have performed genital self-examination during the previous month.
Women who used vibrators also reported better sex, including higher sexual desire and arousal, as well as orgasm. However, there was no significant difference in general sexual satisfaction between female vibrator users and non-users.
"The study about women's vibrator use affirms what many doctors and therapists have known for decades — that vibrator use is common, it's linked to positive sexual function such as desire and ease of orgasm, and it's rarely associated with any side effects," said study researcher Debby Herbenick, associate director of Indiana University's Center for Sexual Health Promotion.
The new results are based on two studies, one surveying more than 2,000 women and the other more than 1,000 men (ages 18 to 60), both of which are published this week in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Some other findings included:
* More than 50 percent of women participants had used a vibrator, with nearly one in four having done so in the past month.
* More than 70 percent of women reported having never experienced any side effects associated with vibrator use. (Those side effects that were reported were typically rare and of a short duration, including mild genital numbness, irritation, or inflammation.)
* About 45 percent of men, both gay and heterosexual, reported incorporating a vibrator into sexual activities.
* Of men who have used vibrators, 10 percent had done so in the past month, about 14 percent in the past year and about 21 percent more than one year ago.
* Men who reported having used vibrators, particularly those with more recent use, were more likely to report participation in sexual health promoting behaviors, such as testicular self-exam.
* Men who had used vibrators recently also scored themselves higher on four of the five factors used to measure sexual function (erectile function, intercourse satisfaction, orgasmic function and sexual desire).
Saturday, June 13, 2009
New Chemical Element In The Periodic Table
The element 112, discovered at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, has been officially recognized as a new element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). IUPAC confirmed the recognition of element 112 in an official letter to the head of the discovering team, Professor Sigurd Hofmann. The letter furthermore asks the discoverers to propose a name for the new element.
Their suggestion will be submitted within the next weeks. In about 6 months, after the proposed name has been thoroughly assessed by IUPAC, the element will receive its official name. The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table.
“We are delighted that now the sixth element – and thus all of the elements discovered at GSI during the past 30 years – has been officially recognized. During the next few weeks, the scientists of the discovering team will deliberate on a name for the new element”, says Sigurd Hofmann. 21 scientists from Germany, Finland, Russia and Slovakia were involved in the experiments around the discovery of the new element 112.
Already in 1996, Professor Sigurd Hofmann’s international team created the first atom of element 112 with the accelerator at GSI. In 2002, they were able to produce another atom. Subsequent accelerator experiments at the Japanese RIKEN accelerator facility produced more atoms of element 112, unequivocally confirming GSI’s discovery.
To produce element 112 atoms, scientists accelerate charged zinc atoms – zinc ions for short – with the help of the 120 m long particle accelerator at GSI and “fire” them onto a lead target. The zinc and lead nuclei merge in a nuclear fusion to form the nucleus of the new element. Its so-called atomic number 112, hence the provisional name “element 112”, is the sum of the atomic numbers of the two initial elements: zinc has the atomic number 30 and lead the atomic number 82. An element’s atomic number indicates the number of protons in its nucleus. The neutrons that are also located in the nucleus have no effect on the classification of the element. It is the 112 electrons, which orbit the nucleus, that determine the new element’s chemical properties.
Since 1981, GSI accelerator experiments have yielded the discovery of six chemical elements, which carry the atomic numbers 107 to 112. GSI has already named their officially recognized elements 107 to 111: element 107 is called Bohrium, element 108 Hassium, element 109 Meitnerium, element 110 Darmstadtium, and element 111 is named Roentgenium.
Their suggestion will be submitted within the next weeks. In about 6 months, after the proposed name has been thoroughly assessed by IUPAC, the element will receive its official name. The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table.
“We are delighted that now the sixth element – and thus all of the elements discovered at GSI during the past 30 years – has been officially recognized. During the next few weeks, the scientists of the discovering team will deliberate on a name for the new element”, says Sigurd Hofmann. 21 scientists from Germany, Finland, Russia and Slovakia were involved in the experiments around the discovery of the new element 112.
Already in 1996, Professor Sigurd Hofmann’s international team created the first atom of element 112 with the accelerator at GSI. In 2002, they were able to produce another atom. Subsequent accelerator experiments at the Japanese RIKEN accelerator facility produced more atoms of element 112, unequivocally confirming GSI’s discovery.
To produce element 112 atoms, scientists accelerate charged zinc atoms – zinc ions for short – with the help of the 120 m long particle accelerator at GSI and “fire” them onto a lead target. The zinc and lead nuclei merge in a nuclear fusion to form the nucleus of the new element. Its so-called atomic number 112, hence the provisional name “element 112”, is the sum of the atomic numbers of the two initial elements: zinc has the atomic number 30 and lead the atomic number 82. An element’s atomic number indicates the number of protons in its nucleus. The neutrons that are also located in the nucleus have no effect on the classification of the element. It is the 112 electrons, which orbit the nucleus, that determine the new element’s chemical properties.
Since 1981, GSI accelerator experiments have yielded the discovery of six chemical elements, which carry the atomic numbers 107 to 112. GSI has already named their officially recognized elements 107 to 111: element 107 is called Bohrium, element 108 Hassium, element 109 Meitnerium, element 110 Darmstadtium, and element 111 is named Roentgenium.
Human anatomy a 'mystery' to most with only 50pc of people know where their heart is
A study published in the medical journal BMC Family Practice said that despite better access to information many people did not know where the major organs were found.
Only a third were able to pinpoint the lungs, and the 722 people questioned only got half the answers right on average.
This was true even if they had a medical problem with the organ they were trying to identify.
Researchers from King's College London questioned patients at Kings, Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in the capital, as well as members of the public.
A similar survey was carried out in 1970, but the results of the latest poll were no better than nearly forty years ago.
John Weinman, who led the study, said: "We thought that the improvements in education seen since then, coupled with an increased media focus on medical and health related topics, and growing access to the internet as a source of medical information, might have led to an increase in patients' anatomical knowledge. As it turns out, there has been no significant improvement in the intervening years."
The people questioned were shown drawings of a male or female body with organs shown in different positions, one of which was correct.
Some were easy, 85.9% could find the intestines and 80.7% knew where the bladder was. Women also performed better when looking at a female body.
Our lack of knowledge has implications for the way doctors should speak to patients, the researchers said.
The conclusion of the study said: "Health care professionals still need to take care in providing organ specific information to patients and should not assume that patients have this information, even for those organs in which their medical problem is located. The consultation may offer many opportunities for both checking and improving patients' knowledge."
Only a third were able to pinpoint the lungs, and the 722 people questioned only got half the answers right on average.
This was true even if they had a medical problem with the organ they were trying to identify.
Researchers from King's College London questioned patients at Kings, Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals in the capital, as well as members of the public.
A similar survey was carried out in 1970, but the results of the latest poll were no better than nearly forty years ago.
John Weinman, who led the study, said: "We thought that the improvements in education seen since then, coupled with an increased media focus on medical and health related topics, and growing access to the internet as a source of medical information, might have led to an increase in patients' anatomical knowledge. As it turns out, there has been no significant improvement in the intervening years."
The people questioned were shown drawings of a male or female body with organs shown in different positions, one of which was correct.
Some were easy, 85.9% could find the intestines and 80.7% knew where the bladder was. Women also performed better when looking at a female body.
Our lack of knowledge has implications for the way doctors should speak to patients, the researchers said.
The conclusion of the study said: "Health care professionals still need to take care in providing organ specific information to patients and should not assume that patients have this information, even for those organs in which their medical problem is located. The consultation may offer many opportunities for both checking and improving patients' knowledge."
14-year-old hit by 30,000 mph space meteorite
Gerrit Blank, 14, was on his way to school when he saw "ball of light" heading straight towards him from the sky.
A red hot, pea-sized piece of rock then hit his hand before bouncing off and causing a foot wide crater in the ground.
The teenager survived the strike, the chances of which are just 1 in a million - but with a nasty three-inch long scar on his hand.
He said: "At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand.
"Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder."
"The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards.
"When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road," he explained.
Scientists are now studying the pea-sized meteorite which crashed to Earth in Essen, Germany.
"I am really keen on science and my teachers discovered that the fragment is really magnetic," said Gerrit.
Chemical tests on the rock have proved it had fallen from space.
Ansgar Kortem, director of Germany's Walter Hohmann Observatory, said: "It's a real meteorite, therefore it is very valuable to collectors and scientists.
"Most don't actually make it to ground level because they evaporate in the atmosphere. Of those that do get through, about six out of every seven of them land in water," he added.
The only other known example of a human being surviving a meteor strike happened in Alabama, USA, in November 1954 when a grapefruit-sized fragment crashed through the roof of a house, bounced off furniture and landed on a sleeping woman.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Brains of gay men show similarities to those of heterosexual women, study reports
The brains of gay men resemble those of straight women, according to research being published Tuesday that provides more evidence of the role of biology in sexual orientation.
Using brain scanning equipment, researchers said they discovered similarities in the brain circuits that deal with language, perhaps explaining why homosexual men tend to outperform straight men on verbal skills tests -- as do heterosexual women.
The area of the brain that processes emotions also looked very much the same in gay men and straight women -- and both groups have higher rates of depressive disorders than heterosexual men, researchers said.
The study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, found the brain similarities were not as close in the case of gay women and straight men.
Previous studies have found evidence that sexual orientation is hard-wired. More than a decade ago, neurobiologist Simon LeVay reported that a key area of the hypothalamus, a brain structure linked to sexual behavior, was smaller in homosexual men compared to heterosexual men.
The latest study, led by Ivanka Savic of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was significant in that it looked at areas of the brain that have nothing to do with sexual behavior, suggesting there was a basic biological link between sexual orientation and a range of brain functions.
"The question is -- how far does it go?" said Dr. Eric Vilain, who studies human sexual development at UCLA and was not involved in the study. "In gay men, the brain is feminized. Is that limited to particular areas or is the entire brain female-like?"
Vilain said his hunch was the entire brain was not feminized because "gay men have a number of masculine traits that are not present in women."
Savic and colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain volumes of two groups, each divided evenly between men and women: 50 heterosexuals and 40 homosexuals. They knew going into the study that in men the right cerebral hemisphere is largest but in women the left and right hemispheres are of equal size.
The results showed that gay men had symmetrical brains like those of straight women, and homosexual women had slightly asymmetrical brains like those of heterosexual men. Language circuits are thought to be more symmetrical in straight women than in heterosexual men, the report said.
The differences were pronounced. For example, the right cerebral hemisphere in heterosexual men was 624 cubic centimeters -- 12 greater than their left side. In homosexual men, the right hemisphere was 608 cubic centimeters -- 1 cubic centimeter smaller than the left.
In heterosexual women, there was no volume difference between right and left hemispheres. But in homosexual women, their right hemisphere was 5 cubic centimeters larger than the left.
Next, researchers used positron emission topography to measure blood flow in the amygdala, a brain area involved in processing emotions. The wiring of the amygdala in gay men more closely resembled that of straight women than straight men, researchers said. The amygdala of gay women looked more like those of straight men, according to the report.
Savic said she believed the brain differences were forged in the womb or infancy, probably as a result of genetic or hormonal factors. She said she could not explain why the differences were more pronounced in homosexual men than in homosexual women.
Marc Breedlove, a neuroscientist who studies sexual development at Michigan State University, said that in his studies with rats, changes in prenatal levels of testosterone caused the sort of brain alterations Savic observed in her study.
Using brain scanning equipment, researchers said they discovered similarities in the brain circuits that deal with language, perhaps explaining why homosexual men tend to outperform straight men on verbal skills tests -- as do heterosexual women.
The area of the brain that processes emotions also looked very much the same in gay men and straight women -- and both groups have higher rates of depressive disorders than heterosexual men, researchers said.
The study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, found the brain similarities were not as close in the case of gay women and straight men.
Previous studies have found evidence that sexual orientation is hard-wired. More than a decade ago, neurobiologist Simon LeVay reported that a key area of the hypothalamus, a brain structure linked to sexual behavior, was smaller in homosexual men compared to heterosexual men.
The latest study, led by Ivanka Savic of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was significant in that it looked at areas of the brain that have nothing to do with sexual behavior, suggesting there was a basic biological link between sexual orientation and a range of brain functions.
"The question is -- how far does it go?" said Dr. Eric Vilain, who studies human sexual development at UCLA and was not involved in the study. "In gay men, the brain is feminized. Is that limited to particular areas or is the entire brain female-like?"
Vilain said his hunch was the entire brain was not feminized because "gay men have a number of masculine traits that are not present in women."
Savic and colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain volumes of two groups, each divided evenly between men and women: 50 heterosexuals and 40 homosexuals. They knew going into the study that in men the right cerebral hemisphere is largest but in women the left and right hemispheres are of equal size.
The results showed that gay men had symmetrical brains like those of straight women, and homosexual women had slightly asymmetrical brains like those of heterosexual men. Language circuits are thought to be more symmetrical in straight women than in heterosexual men, the report said.
The differences were pronounced. For example, the right cerebral hemisphere in heterosexual men was 624 cubic centimeters -- 12 greater than their left side. In homosexual men, the right hemisphere was 608 cubic centimeters -- 1 cubic centimeter smaller than the left.
In heterosexual women, there was no volume difference between right and left hemispheres. But in homosexual women, their right hemisphere was 5 cubic centimeters larger than the left.
Next, researchers used positron emission topography to measure blood flow in the amygdala, a brain area involved in processing emotions. The wiring of the amygdala in gay men more closely resembled that of straight women than straight men, researchers said. The amygdala of gay women looked more like those of straight men, according to the report.
Savic said she believed the brain differences were forged in the womb or infancy, probably as a result of genetic or hormonal factors. She said she could not explain why the differences were more pronounced in homosexual men than in homosexual women.
Marc Breedlove, a neuroscientist who studies sexual development at Michigan State University, said that in his studies with rats, changes in prenatal levels of testosterone caused the sort of brain alterations Savic observed in her study.
Why White Men Get Paid More
Despite advances in parity in recent decades, white men in America on average still get paid more than women and minorities for doing the same work, by some accounts about 20 to 25 percent more.
A new study finds one reason: In satisfaction surveys, store customers and medical patients say they prefer white men, and managers frequently hire and set pay based on customer preferences.
In the study, researchers at four business schools showed study subjects a video featuring either a black male, a white female, or a white male actor playing the role of an employee helping a customer. Those viewing the white male were 19 percent more satisfied with the employee's performance, and they were also more satisfied with the store's cleanliness and appearance.
But the actors demonstrated the same scripted behaviors, and the store background, camera angles and lighting were identical.
"Customers, from students buying textbooks to patients in an examining room, are consistently biased in favor of white men," said David Hekman, assistant business professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. "Because customer satisfaction is critical for organizational survival, business owners and managers will hire white men when possible and will pay lower salaries to the women and minorities they do hire."
In a separate aspect of the study, Hekman and his colleagues examined more than 10,000 medical patients' ratings of their doctors. Patients who received e-mail from their doctor were more satisfied with their doctor's competence and approachability, but only if the doctor was a white man.
Changes are needed in how customer satisfaction surveys are conducted, Hekman argues.
Surveys should target specific employee behaviors. For example, don't ask customers if they would recommend a physician, he suggests. Ask them how many times the doctor asked a patient if she had additional questions or understood key medical terms.
Anonymous customer feedback surveys should not be done, Hekman said. Customers should be identifiable and therefore at least somewhat accountable for their ratings. "People may do all sorts of bad things when they are anonymous," he said. "Just check out the reader postings on any blog."
The study, announced today, will be published in the Academy of Management Journal.
A new study finds one reason: In satisfaction surveys, store customers and medical patients say they prefer white men, and managers frequently hire and set pay based on customer preferences.
In the study, researchers at four business schools showed study subjects a video featuring either a black male, a white female, or a white male actor playing the role of an employee helping a customer. Those viewing the white male were 19 percent more satisfied with the employee's performance, and they were also more satisfied with the store's cleanliness and appearance.
But the actors demonstrated the same scripted behaviors, and the store background, camera angles and lighting were identical.
"Customers, from students buying textbooks to patients in an examining room, are consistently biased in favor of white men," said David Hekman, assistant business professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. "Because customer satisfaction is critical for organizational survival, business owners and managers will hire white men when possible and will pay lower salaries to the women and minorities they do hire."
In a separate aspect of the study, Hekman and his colleagues examined more than 10,000 medical patients' ratings of their doctors. Patients who received e-mail from their doctor were more satisfied with their doctor's competence and approachability, but only if the doctor was a white man.
Changes are needed in how customer satisfaction surveys are conducted, Hekman argues.
Surveys should target specific employee behaviors. For example, don't ask customers if they would recommend a physician, he suggests. Ask them how many times the doctor asked a patient if she had additional questions or understood key medical terms.
Anonymous customer feedback surveys should not be done, Hekman said. Customers should be identifiable and therefore at least somewhat accountable for their ratings. "People may do all sorts of bad things when they are anonymous," he said. "Just check out the reader postings on any blog."
The study, announced today, will be published in the Academy of Management Journal.
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