What damage does alcohol do to our bodies? 2 October 2011Last updated at 00:08 By Philippa Roxby Health reporter, BBC News We know that drinking too much alcohol is bad for us. It gives us hangovers, makes us feel tired and does little for our appearance - and that is just the morning afterwards. Long term, it increases the risk of developing a long list of health conditions including breast cancer, oral cancers, heart disease, strokes and cirrhosis of the liver. Research shows that a high alcohol intake can also damage our mental health, impair memory skills and reduce fertility. The direct link between alcohol and the liver is well understood - but what about the impact of alcohol on other organs? Numerous heart studies suggest that moderate alcohol consumption helps protect against heart disease by raising good cholesterol and stopping the formation of blood clots in the arteries. Toxic However, drinking more than three drinks a day has been found to have a direct and damaging effect on the heart. Continue reading the main story
Slice of Life If I dismiss the ordinary — waiting for the special, the extreme, the extraordinary to happen — I may just miss my life.–Dani Shapiro in Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life (2013, 123) In February 2008, Stacey was reading one of her student’s writer’s notebooks and came across a piece of writing about his sister’s lost necklace. That experience gave Stacey an idea: she could use “slice of life” stories to inspire her fourth graders who weren’t writing in their writer’s notebooks with the same gusto as Christian. The individual challenge began on Two Writing Teachers in 2008 and has grown each year. Every Tuesday there will be a post on the Two Writing Teachers main page where you can link your Slice of Life story post and read other people’s Slice of Life stories. FAQ’S for the Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge How do I start? Are you wondering what a slice of life story is? Take it step-by-step: Start a blog. Comment: Your next step is to start a blog. 1. 2. 3.
Germans Manufacture Artificial Blood Vessels With a 3-D Printer From intestines to tracheas, tissue engineers are building a handful of new body parts — but progress on larger organs has been slow. This is mainly because tissues need nutrients to stay alive, and they need blood vessels to deliver those nutrients. It's difficult to build those vascular networks, but now a team from Germany may have a solution: Print some capillaries with a 3-D printer. Engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB developed special printer inks containing synthetic polymers, as well as biomolecules that will prevent the artificial tissue from being rejected. Chemical reactions turn the printed material into an elastic solid, allowing the researchers to build highly precise three-dimensional structures. Though 3-D printing can be quite detailed, the researchers needed an extra layer of precision to build the fine, feathery structures to serve as capillaries. [via BBC]
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Eyeball squeezing could correct sight - 21 March 2002 A light tap on the side of your head could one day restore your eyesight, believe scientists. The tap would tighten a band of artificial muscle wrapped round your eyeballs, changing their shape and bringing blurry images into focus. While the idea has a high 'yuk' factor, the people behind it are confident it will be a safe and effective way to improve vision. Mohsen Shahinpoor and his team at the University of New Mexico call their artificial muscle a "smart eye band". It will be stitched to the sclera, the tough white outer part of the eyeball, and activated by an electromagnet in a hearing-aid-sized unit fitted behind one ear. Most of the eye's focusing is done by the cornea, the hard transparent surface that covers both the pupil and the iris; the lens is responsible only for fine-tuning. If the cornea or lens do not focus strongly enough or the eyeball is too short, the light will focus behind the retina, blurring images of close-up objects. Elongated eyeball Click and read
13 juegos para fomentar la autoestima en el aula Cada vez más centros, y profesores a título particular, piden herramientas para trabajar las emociones y la autoestima en el aula, como parte de la formación integral de sus alumnos. Puede ayudar a prevenir males mayores, conflictos, casos de bullying y acoso escolar, en ocasiones con un final dramático. Las educadoras de la escuela infantil Arlequín, en Fuenlabrada (Madrid), han realizado cursos para iniciar un programa de inteligencia emocional este año. “Hacemos asambleas donde decimos si estamos contentos o tristes, enfadados o aburridos; trabajamos la empatía y la asertividad”, enumera la directora, Laura Santana. La escuela de desarrollo emocional y social Afectiva organiza una extraescolar en el colegio público Francisco Arranz a instancias de la asociación de padres y madres de alumnos (AMPA). “Lo fundamental es pensar lo que decimos a los demás, lo que nos dicen y lo que sentimos”, dice una psicóloga Infantil Carteles con autoconceptos. La silla caliente. Juego de las estatuas.
A team of scientists hopes to improve the sight of blind people by implanting proteins from spinach leaves into their eyes. When light falls on the proteins, it creates an electrical voltage, which could stimulate healthy regions of the retina and produce meaningful images, they say. "The idea is to insert these proteins into cells in the retina," says Elias Greenbaum of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, US. "If we can do that, we know light can make them produce voltages high enough to stimulate the optic nerve." Greenbaum, who is working on the project with Mark Humayun of the University of Southern California's Doheny Eye Institute, Los Angeles, says the spinach proteins - known as photo-reaction centres - perform a similar task to photoreceptor cells in the retina. Fatty spheres The two now hope to use the photo-reaction centres to replace damaged or diseased photoreceptor cells in blind or partially-sighted people. More From New Scientist More from the web Recommended by
Welcome To The Web | Teaching Ideas "Welcome to the Web" is an interactive set of web pages which can be used to teach children (and adults) about the Internet. They can be used in the classroom / computer room and children are welcome to explore them as they wish (although they have been designed to use in sequence). The resources are in split into seven sections: The Beginning - explains how to use the site. When visitors complete the challenge, they are able to print a personalised certificate to show their competence in using the Internet. Each section (except the Challenge) has worksheets which, although not compulsory, can be used to direct children's attention to important parts of the resources and to test their knowledge. The answers are not included with the worksheets. The Welcome to the Web resources can be found at: www.w2tw.uk The Welcome to the Web resources have taken a very long time to create. Comments can be sent to mark@teachingideas.com. Additional Resources: