Wildlife.

AGRIBUSINESS : Parks and recreation.

AGRIBUSINESS : Parks and recreation.

Reverse zoonosis: Can you make your pet sick?

Reverse zoonosis: Can you make your pet sick? Swine and bird flu are two of the most recent and startling examples of animals passing diseases to humans.

Other unpleasant pet-to-human medical problems include ringworm, roundworm, and hookworm, as well as beaver fever, toxoplasmosis, and rabies.

 Although these animal-to-human transmissions are relatively well described, pathogenic traffic in the opposite direction is much less well understood.

 Reverse zoonosis is not just an interesting concept; it is an important global issue. Animals bred for food are transported far and wide, interacting with wild species that they would never naturally have encountered.

With a rapid growth in animal production and an increase in the movement of both animals and people, a human pathogen within an animal could potentially move thousands of miles in just 24 hours.

 For instance, during the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009, the virus was able to travel the breadth of the planet and from pigs to humans in a matter of months.

Eczema and family history linked to severe hospitalization for children with asthma.

Eczema and family history linked to severe hospitalization for children with asthma. Asthma and allergies are related, and many people who suffer from asthma have allergies that trigger their asthma. Research being presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology's (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting examines the relationship between medical history and allergic reactions in children, and how long they stayed in the hospital after an asthma attack. Children in the study had been tested for allergies to dust, grass, mold, ragweed, dog, cat, cockroach and other common allergens. "There was no significant association between the number of things a child might be allergic to and the level of treatment received for their asthma in the hospital," says Mona Liu, MD, lead author of the study. "However, we found a family history of asthma and the patient's own history of eczema were significantly associated with a more severe hospital experience." The more severe hospital experience included admission to the intensive care unit, longer length of stay, increased oxygen and more hours of continuous use of albuterol, an asthma rescue medication.

Dogs may protect against childhood eczema and asthma.

Dogs may protect against childhood eczema and asthma. Two studies being presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting show there may be even more reason to love your dog. The first study shows babies born in a home with a dog during pregnancy receive protection from allergic eczema, though the protective effect goes down by age 10. A second study shows dogs may provide a protective effect against asthma, even in children allergic to dogs. "Although eczema is commonly found in infants, many people don't know there is a progression from eczema to food allergies to nasal allergies and asthma," says allergist Gagandeep Cheema, MD, ACAAI member and lead author. "We wanted to know if there was a protective effect in having a dog that slowed down that progress." The study examined mother-child pairs exposed to a dog. "Exposure" was defined as keeping one or more dogs indoors for at least one hour daily. "We found a mother's exposure to dogs before the birth of a child is significantly associated with lower risk of eczema by age 2 years, but this protective effect goes down at age 10," Dogs may protect against childhood eczema and asthma.

Protein can be switched on to conduct electricity like a metal.

Protein can be switched on to conduct electricity like a metal.When pushing the boundaries of discovery, sometimes even the most experienced of scientists can get a surprise jolt from a completely unpredictable result. About four years ago, Stuart Lindsay's research team got a lab result that even he couldn't quite believe. As with most scientific surprises, it goes against all conventional wisdom: the first evidence of a protein that could conduct electricity like a metal. Lindsay's research team has learned a thing or two about how single molecules behave when tethered between a pair of electrodes, which is the foundation for how his DNA readers work.The technology, called recognition tunneling, threads single molecules down a nanopore like a thread through the eye of a needle.

Charge your phone by SHOUTING at it.

Charge your phone by SHOUTING at it. Gadget converts sound waves from speech into five volts of energy for your mobile phone.Researchers in London have created a new technology that uses sound, such as chants at a football ground or chatter in a coffee shop, to charge up mobile phones. Their prototype device, which is about the size of a mobile phone, uses zinc oxide to convert vibrations caused by sound into electricity