The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| A surprising way owning a dog may be good for you Posted: 26 May 2013 12:41 AM PDT
A new US study from North Carolina State University and the University of Colorado shows that households with canines are home to more types of bacteria than dog-free dwellings. You'll find particularly high concentrations of dog-related microbes on television screens and pillows. "We wanted to know what variables influence the microbial ecosystems in our homes, and the biggest difference we've found so far is whether you own a dog," says Dr. Rob Dunn, co-author of the study. "For example, there are bacteria normally found in soil that are 700 times more common in dog-owning households than in those without dogs." The researchers gave 40 families a home-sampling kit and asked them to swab nine locations within the home: a kitchen cutting board, a kitchen counter, a refrigerator shelf, a toilet seat, a pillowcase, a television screen, the main door's exterior handle and the upper trim on both an interior door and an exterior door. The researchers then collected DNA to see which organisms were present. All told, the 40 homes harboured 7,726 different types of bacteria, with each location harbouring its own unique bacteria. "We leave a microbial 'fingerprint' on everything we touch," Dunn says. "Sometimes those microbes come from our skin, sometimes they're oral bacteria and — as often as not — they're human faecal bacteria." Dunn and his colleagues then looked for variables that would alter bacterial communities from home to home, such as cats or children. The only one they found that made any difference was whether or not the family had a dog. According to the findings, pillowcases and TV screens of dog-owners had 42 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively, more microbial groups compared to those of non-dog-owners. But all those extra microbes may be good for your health, the scientists say. Prior research has found that women who have a dog in the home when pregnant are less likely to have children with allergies. Researchers suspect this is likely to due to the boost the immune system gets from being exposed to greater numbers of microbes. — AFP/Relaxnews |
| 150 years after Gettysburg, drummer to recreate reunion march Posted: 25 May 2013 11:56 PM PDT
Today, another veteran, Jim Smith, 70, of Hempfield, Pennsylvania, will start out on the same trek as part of the observation of Memorial Day, when Americans honour their war dead. By a stroke of luck, Smith will be carrying the same drum — a throaty field snare — played by his spiritual forebear, Union Army veteran Peter Guibert. "Getting Peter's drum was a fortuitous happening," said Smith, a US Navy veteran of the Vietnam War and a retired mechanical engineer. Smith, a drummer and hobbyist who restores musical instruments, was profiled by a Pennsylvania newspaper about 30 years ago when he started a fife and drum crops in western Pennsylvania. That story caught the attention of Betty Mower, now 87, whose uncle, Otto Guibert, had recently died. Mower had inherited a relic from her uncle's attic, which she knew only as "Grandpa Peter's army drum," she recalled at a Friday memorial service for Peter Guibert. Mower had considered throwing away the drum, which she had not been allowed to touch as a child, but thought it would interest Smith and got in touch with him. "When it had been up in the attic, it got encrusted with coal dust and it looked pretty decrepit," Smith said. "It sat for quite a while, but I eventually got around to restoring it." Smith became curious about the drum's owner, and after scouring military and civilian records, learned about Guibert's journey to Gettysburg. He plans to recreate the march with Ray Zimmerman, 65, another Vietnam veteran. The men aim to arrive in Gettysburg in time for ceremonies to mark the 150th anniversary of the battle, which was fought from July 1-3, 1863. Some 50,000 soldiers from the North and South died at Gettysburg, which is regarded as a turning point in the war that preserved the United States as a single country and also led to the abolition of slavery. — Reuters |
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