• Scientists have long believed that the ability of disease-causing bacteria to outwit antibiotic medicines was a man-made phenomenon, said Eileen Choffnes, director of the Institute of Medicine's forum on microbial threats.
• The growing use of antibiotics derived from plants and synthesized in laboratories was thought to have spurred adaptations that made many of these bacterial pathogens less vulnerable to drugs used to fight tuberculosis, malaria, gonorrhea, influenza, pneumonia and AIDS.
• But the new research demonstrates that antibiotic resistance emerged millions of years before those medicines were used — and in an environment far too forbidding for the bacteria to have come into any contact with the drugs, Choffnes said.

• The findings make it clear that humans will always have to contend with the problem of antibiotic resistance, no matter what steps are taken to prevent it, said Dr. Brad Spellberg, an infectious disease researcher at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center: "There's never going to be a point where we can say, 'OK, we're up, we're ahead, they're done.' " » The full Los Angeles Times article - By Melissa Healy - April 11, 2012.

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Antibiotics are a bedrock of modern medicine.

But in the very near future, we're going to have to learn to live without them once again.
"The emergence of antibiotic resistance is the most eloquent example of Darwin's principle of evolution that there ever was," says Dr David Livermore. "It is a war of attrition. It is naive to think we can win."
Dr Livermore, whose grandmother died for lack of infection-killing drugs in 1945, is director of the antibiotic resistance monitoring and reference laboratory of the Health Protection Agency. - Continued after the images....

.... People of my generation were taught a lot about washing your hands before every meal, Professor Richard James, director of the centre for healthcare associated infections at the University of Nottingham, said. It was automatic that it was done. A lot of that has gone."
There are some innovative ideas about, he says, on ways of teaching children in school to wash their hands – in the hope that they will then go home and pester their parents to do the same. » Read the full Article - By Sarah Boseley - The Guardian, Thursday 12 August 2010.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Outbreak! -
  Overview | Students reflect on and research drug-resistant bacteria and the use of antibiotics. They then use their research to make board games that focus on the microscopic interactions among bacteria, antibodies, antibiotics and the cells of the immune system. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - It Might Come in Handy -
  Overview | Students will learn about the latest study on routine hand washing practices. They will then research some of the possible communicable diseases that can be transmitted by having lax hygiene. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• Nurses using the new procedure, developed by experts at the Johns Hopkins medical school in the 1990s and endorsed last year by the World Health Organization, brush vinegar on a woman’s cervix.
• It makes precancerous spots turn white. They can then be immediately frozen off with a metal probe cooled by a tank of carbon dioxide, available from any Coca-Cola bottling plant. » The full New York Times article - By Donald G. McNeil.Jr. - Published: September 26, 2011.

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The Cervical cancer vaccine - who needs it, and how it works:

• The cervical cancer vaccine is the first vaccine ever designed to prevent a cancer. In the United States - where cervical cancer strikes about 10,000 women a year and causes up to 4,000 deaths - the impact of the cervical cancer vaccine will be tremendous.
• Worldwide, the impact may be even greater. According to the World Health Organization, there were 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer in 2005. » Mayo Clinic: questions and answers article.

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The cancer vaccine could be given to girls as young as nine. - Image and article

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• Related article: HPV Virus to blame for rise in throat cancer:

• Cancer of the back of the mouth and throat is on the rise, primarily because of more cases stemming from a viral infection called human papillomavirus (HPV), according to a U.S. study.
• The number of people who were diagnosed with HPV-related oral cancer in 2004 was triple the number diagnosed in 1988 -- due largely, researchers suspect, to changes in sexual behavior that have helped spread the virus. » The full Reuters article - By Kerry Grens - October 4, 2011.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Vaccination Question:
  Overview | Students share opinions about common vaccines, then consider facts and opinions about the HPV vaccine and hold a “fishbowl” discussion. They then survey members of the community to determine their perspectives on the issue. » Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - About Birth Control: Clearing Up Misconceptions About Contraception -
  Overview | Students read about the current debate over health care coverage for birth control. They research the different options currently available for birth control, participate in a class forum on contraception, and discuss their own views regarding health care coverage for contraception. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• In the study, researchers asked 716 older individuals without dementia to wear a device called an actigraph that monitors activity for 10 days. This is one of the study's strong points, as people don't always report activity accurately.
• During about 3.5 years of follow-up, 71 people developed Alzheimer's disease. Those who were in the bottom 10% for daily physical activity were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease as those in the top 10%, the study shows.
• And it's not just walking, running, or other exercises that count. Tasks like washing dishes, cooking, playing cards, and even moving a wheelchair with a person's arms count as physical activity and can help lower risk for Alzheimer's disease. » The full WebMed report - By Denise Mann - April 19, 2012.

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Image source

• The New York Times - Learning Network - If Memory Serves -
  Overview | Students will reflect on their opinions about intelligence, discover ways intelligence can increase through memory training and develop some of their own effective exercises. Then they create posters to share this information with the school community. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Science of Aging -
  Overview | Student reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. (Related NYT article: » Even more reason to get moving - By Jane E. Brody) Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Do You Know Your Health I.Q.? -
  Overview | In this lesson, students offer definitions for common medical terms and determine those that are most accurate. They then prepare quizzes on health-related topics to administer to peers and adults, and write analysis papers based on their findings. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Overdiagnosed

Tai Chi Makes Parkinson’s Patients More Steady on Their Feet, Study Shows

• Tai chi, a Chinese martial art of precise, gentle movements, helps patients with mild-to-moderate Parkinson’s disease improve their balance, a study found.
• Andrew Feigin, a neurologist specializing in Parkinson’s disease at the North Shore-LIJ Medical Group in Great Neck, New York, said the findings give scientific backing to doctor recommendations that patients try exercises like tai chi to improve balance.

• “Balance and gait are problems that people with Parkinson’s disease have,” said Feigin, who wasn’t an author of today’s paper, in a Feb. 6 telephone interview. “Things like stretching and resistance aren’t really working on balance. Tai chi really focuses on improvements in balance. It’s nice to get some actual data that shows doing those things can be helpful.” » The full Bloomberg article - By Nicole Ostrow - February 9, 2012.

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Skeleton image source // Yoga posture Image.

Bone is built of two basic components: flexible fibers of collagen and brittle chains of the calcium-rich mineral hydroxyapatite. But those relatively simple ingredients, the springy and the salty, are woven together into such a complex cat’s cradle of interdigitating layers that the result is an engineering masterpiece of tensile, compressive and elastic strength. “We only wish we could mimic it,” Dr. Ritchie said. Read the full New York Times article - By Natalie Angier.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes -
  Overview | Students gain a greater understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the muscular system, the skeletal system and connective tissue by researching joints in the body. They also reflect on the effects of injuries on their joints and learn about new treatment methods. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Investigating the Complex Significance of Bones -
  Overview | Students examine the literal, physiological and figurative significance of bones through experimentation, then create their own skeleton-related exhibits for a "Bone and Skeleton Museum." Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• First, nowhere but in Hollywood does medicine, even in its most catastrophic form, unfold with the sustained hysteria that requires the beat of this unnerving, tympanitic score.

• The real horror of most disease is that it all moves so slowly, leaving everyone involved all too much time to think. The worse the illness, the more time seems to drag. » The full New York Times article - By Abigail Zuger, M.D. - Published: September 12, 2011.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Fear Factor “Contagion” can veer far from the reality of a viral pandemic. -
  Overview | In this lesson, students consider the movie “Contagion” in the context of public health and epidemics. They then learn more about the nature of disease outbreaks and experiment with using social media and other digital tools to track and map seasonal flu in their communities. » Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Pandemic Panic -
  Overview of Lesson Plan: In this lesson, students engage in an inquiry into influenza A (H1N1), considering the virus and the pandemic from multiple perspectives and acting as advisers to share factual information they learn with their classmates and school communities. Click here for a companion lesson for Grades 3-5.Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• FACE
  Ask the person to smile.
  Does one side of the face droop? 
• ARMS
  Ask the person to raise both arms.
  Does one arm drift downward?
• SPEECH
  Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence.
  Are the words slurred?  Can he/she repeat the sentence correctly?

• TIME
  If the person shows any of these symptoms, time is important. 
  Call 911 or get to the hospital fast. Brain cells are dying.
  More from - Stroke.org

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Hospitals beating deadline for treating heart attacks

• In a spectacular turnabout, hospitals are treating almost all major heart attack patients within the recommended 90 minutes of arrival, a new study finds. Just five years ago, less than half of them got the patients’ clogged arteries opened that fast. » The full Boston Globe article - By Marilynn Marchione - Published: August 23, 2011.

Image source

Image source

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding Medical Responses to Emergencies -
  Overview | Students review their understanding of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They then learn about other types of medical responses to common emergency situations and evaluate the importance of CPR. » Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - To the Rescue! -
  Overview | Students learn about the trial of an automated cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) machine. They then investigate and role play first aid responses to a variety of emergency scenarios. » Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• As a pediatrician, I was baffled by scientifically baseless attacks on the substances that have tamed smallpox, polio and a host of other deadly and disfiguring diseases, at least in the developed world.
• But as a historian, I found it even more bewildering to hear speakers claim that government-sponsored vaccines were a violation of the founding fathers’ design.
• Benjamin Franklin died in 1790 — six years before Jenner’s discovery and 190 years before the World Health Organization announced that vaccination efforts had succeeded in eradicating smallpox from the globe. Yet while composing the final portion of his “Autobiography” in 1788, Franklin reminded his readers about the importance of immunizing their children. His advice is especially useful today when so few Americans have firsthand knowledge of the panoply of once common killers now preventable thanks to safe, reliable vaccines.
• “In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way,” he wrote. “I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. » More in this New York Times article - By Howard Markel, M.D. - Published: February 28, 2011.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Fighting Disease: Researching the History and Biology of Vaccines -
  Overview | What is a vaccine, and why do we need them? How do vaccines work, and how were they developed? In this lesson, students gauge their previous knowledge about vaccines. They then explore the history and biology of vaccines and create educational posters on the nature of vaccines and public opinions about them. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Vaccination Question:
  Overview | Students share opinions about common vaccines, then consider facts and opinions about the HPV vaccine and hold a “fishbowl” discussion. They then survey members of the community to determine their perspectives on the issue. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week found that one in five American teenagers now has some hearing loss. This is a 30 percent increase from just 15 years ago.
Adolescent hearing loss is not well understood. But sustained exposure to iPods and other MP3 music players may be a major factor, though the research is quite new.
How much do we know about the effect of the constant use of portable music devices on hearing, particularly in young people? Are other factors, like louder ambient noise in general, as much cause for worry? » More in this New York Times article and discussion.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Hearing the Warning Bells -
  Overview | Students explore hearing loss and ways in which technology can help the hearing impaired by experiencing a simulation of hearing impairment and by researching and presenting related topics. Students then investigate and evaluate possible dangers to their own hearing over the course of a week. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Sense-itive Issues -
  Overview | Students consider the difficulties of adapting to the loss of different senses. They then work in small groups, each developing a fictional superhero who experiences a loss of one of sense and must learn to compensate for it with his or her other senses. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - "Loud Music" - A Simplified Mock Trial - Go to this Simplified Mock Trial.

The new technique involves making them in advance by using random donor cells from human tissue to grow collagen on a biodegradable "scaffold" tube or mould made from a polymer.
When the scaffold dissolves away, fully formed blood vessels are left behind.
These are then "washed" of the original human cells so that they were completely benign and unlikely to cause any rejection in the body of a recipient. » The full Telegraph.co.uk article - By Richard Alleyne - Published February 2, 2011

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Learning About Cell Renewal Throughout the Body -
  Overview | Students learn about the latest research on cell and tissue renewal. They then explore the various internal body parts and systems examined in these studies. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

It turns out that the bitter compounds work the opposite way from what we thought. They all opened the airway more profoundly than any known drug that we have for treatment of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Senior author Dr Stephen Liggett said: “Based on our research we think that the best drugs wold be chemical modifications of bitter compounds which would be aerosolised and then inhaled into the lungs in an inhaler.”

Human lungs can detect bitter tastes in the same way as the tongue can and respond to the sensation in a particular way.
The discovery was made by accident when the team were studying muscle receptors that cause contraction and relaxation in the lungs. » The full Telegraph Uk article - By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor (Published: 25 Oct 2010)

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Allergies Acting Up? Dramatizing the Body’s Responses to Allergens
  Overview | How does the immune system react to allergens, causing allergy symptoms in some people? How can children, parents, doctors and communities respond to allergies, both mild to severe? In this lesson, students conduct a one-question interview to gather data on how much their classmates know about and are affected by allergies. Then, they work in groups to create a play to teach other, and others in the school community, about allergies, including how the immune system works in people with and without allergies. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Chocolate may be loaded with calories, but it also may be good for your heart if it's eaten in moderation and
is also of high quality, new research suggests.
Researchers in Boston examined data from a nine-year study of 31,823 women in Sweden to determine the effect of eating
chocolate on heart disease and found that eating some of the sweet stuff may reduce the risk of heart failure.
The key findings:
Women who ate an average of one to two servings of high-quality chocolate per week had a 32% lower risk of developing
heart failure.
Women who had one to three servings per month had a 26% reduced risk. » More in this WebMED news article - By Bill Hendrick - Published Aug. 16, 2010

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Fantastic Foods -
  Overview | Students learn about the health benefits of dark chocolate. They research other foods which they consider to be both healthy and delicious for a “classroom pantry.” Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Weight Training -
  Overview | Students conduct a class-wide survey collecting, compiling, and analyzing data about fitness, weight loss, and body image issues. Go to this Health and ESL Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - What Will You Do With Your Life?
  Overview: Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Life's Lesson.

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- A case of the deadly, waterborne disease
cholera has been confirmed in Pakistan's flood-ravaged northwest,
and aid workers expect there to be more, the U.N. said Saturday.
The discovery came as new flood surges hit the south and the prime
minister said 20 million people had been left homeless by the
deluge. The full AP article Published: August 14, 2010

- WHO image source

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - Life in the Time of Cholera -
  Overview | Student learn about the way the 1832 cholera epidemic in New York affected urban life and reflected issues such as immigration and social class in the growing city. They then take part in a collaborative writing exercise in which they have a “conversation on paper” about various documents related to urban life during the Industrial Revolution. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Pestilence and Plague -
  Overview | Students investigate various disease epidemics that have devastated the world population at different points in history and examine the diseases’ effects on the countries they impacted. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

The definition of Alzheimer’s is plaque plus memory loss and other symptoms of mental decline. But what is not known because no one could follow the development of plaque before a person died, was whether people with plaque and normal memories were developing Alzheimer’s.
Brain scans that showed plaque could help with some fundamental questions — who has or is getting Alzheimer’s, whether the disease ever stops or slows down on its own and even whether plaque is the main culprit causing brain cell death. » » continued after the image

Daniel Skovronsky - Image source
Top, images from the brain of a cognitively normal volunteer; bottom, results from an Alzheimer’s patient. Plaque buildup is shown in red.

Dr. Daniel Skovronsky thought he had a way to make scans work. He and his team had developed a dye that could get into the brain and stick to plaque. They labeled the dye with a commonly used radioactive tracer and used a PET scanner to directly see plaque in a living person’s brain. But the technology and the dye itself were so new they had to be rigorously tested.
The Avid study was complete, and the full data will be presented at the meeting next month. Other companies, still doing their studies, did not yet have data to examine.
“This is going to have a big impact on Alzheimer’s disease, guys,” he told his staff that day. » The full New York Times article - By Gina Kolata, Published: June 23, 2010

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Science of Aging -
  Overview | Student reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. Related New York Times article: » "Even more reason to get moving" - By Jane E. Brody - Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Learning About Cell Renewal Throughout the Body -
  Overview | Students learn about the latest research on cell and tissue renewal. They then explore the various internal body parts and systems examined in these studies. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Weight Training -
  Overview | Students conduct a class-wide survey collecting, compiling, and analyzing data about fitness, weight loss, and body image issues. Go to this Health and ESL Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Supporting Friends (and parents of kids) with Eating Disorders -
  Overview | Students role-play scenarios in which they encounter a friend or acquaintance who may have an eating disorder. Students brainstorm ways to help the friend...Go to this Health and ESL Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Science of Aging -
  Overview | Student reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. (Related NYT article: » Even more reason to get moving -By Jane E. Brody) Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Investigating the Mind-Body -
  Overview | Students learn about baseball players who incorporate yoga and meditation into their pre-season training. They then investigate a number of mind-body techniques to present and demonstrate to the class. Go to this Health Lesson
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Learning About Cell Renewal Throughout the Body -
  Overview | Students learn about the latest research on cell and tissue renewal. They then explore the various internal body parts and systems examined in these studies. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Care and Feeding of Kids: Finding Information on Nutrition and Fitness -
  Overview | How healthy are children in America? Why did first lady Michelle Obama introduce a new health initiative aimed at reducing childhood obesity? In this lesson, students reflect on their knowledge of health, nutrition and exercise. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Supporting Friends (and parents of kids) with Eating Disorders -
  Overview | Students role-play scenarios in which they encounter a friend or acquaintance who may have an eating disorder. Students brainstorm ways to help the friend...Go to this Health and ESL Lesson.

The Lindners share a defective copy of a gene known as BRCA1 (for breast cancer gene 1) that raises their risk of developing breast cancer sometime in their lives to between 60 percent and 90 percent.
Deborah Lindner began to seek support elsewhere, (and contacted) Bright Pink, a group of young women who have tested positive for the BRCA genes.
Lindsay Avner, its founder, lived in Chicago, and their meeting over coffee in the hospital lounge one evening in March lasted four hours. Avner, 24, had had a prophylactic mastectomy last year.
"You've got to see my breasts," she told Deborah Lindner, escorting her into the bathroom.
Avner's surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan had used a technique that preserved the breast skin and nipples, leaving a scar only under the breast. Deborah, still in her scrubs, said, "Wow."
Deborah scheduled the double mastectomy with Dr. D.J. Winchester at Evanston Northwestern hospital for the last weekend in June, three days after her medical board exams.

The surgery and reconstruction took seven and a half hours, twice as long as the doctors had expected. The incisions were small, Winchester explained when he came out, and hidden under the breast, so it had taken a long time to scrape out all the breast tissue. - The full IHT article - By Amy Harmon.

The New York Times - Learning Network - Talking about Breast Cancer:
Overview | Students share words and associations related to cancer. They then investigate and participate in dialogues about the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Go to this Health, Science and Life's Lesson.

Kenneth Ebron, 70, has been walking the halls of the intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Mr. Ebron, who has lung and heart disease, chatted with Dr. Dale Needham.
Dr. Needham said, “I meet some doctors and nurses who just shake their heads.” But, he tells them, “What you think is impossible actually happens in my I.C.U.” And, he said, “Patients like it.”
Dr. Morris found in a pilot study that the patients also seem to recover faster, spending less time in intensive care and the hospital. The full Jan. 2009 New York Times article » By Gina Kolata

• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Beat Goes On -
  Overview | In this lesson, students take their own pulse before and after exercise as they learn about how the heart works. They then research various ways that heart disease is treated and suggest specific treatment methods for their own imaginary patients. Go to this Health Lesson.
  Extend the Lesson:

  A provocative new study published this year in the journal Heart and Circulatory Physiology suggests, however, that there may be a novel way to test at least one element of your heart’s health right in your own living room, right in the middle of the holidays. Sit on the floor with your legs stretched straight out in front of you, toes pointing up. Reach forward from the hips. Are you flexible enough to touch your toes? If so, then your cardiac arteries probably are also flexible. The full New York Times article » By Gretchen Reynolds

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Healthy Hearts -
  Overview | In this lesson, students focus on advanced technologies used to treat disease impacting the cardiopulmonary system; they then reflect on the experiences of having and overcoming illnesses. Go to this Health Lesson.

Jan. 21, 2010 -- Smokers with lung cancer who have asked "Why quit now, I'm already sick?" may find new motivation in this answer: Doing so could double their odds of survival over five years.The full webmed article »

  Photo credit imageafter.com

President Obama (who signed a bill) to regulate tobacco products noted that 90 percent of smokers began on or before their 18th birthday.
“I know — I was one of those teenagers,” he said, standing beneath a punishing afternoon sun at a Rose Garden ceremony. “I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it’s been with you for a long time.” “Kids today don’t just start smoking for no reason,” he said. “They’re aggressively targeted as customers by the tobacco industry. They’re exposed to a constant and insidious barrage of advertising where they live, where they learn and where they play.”
The new law, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, allows the Food and Drug Administration not only to forbid advertising geared toward children but also to lower the amount of nicotine in tobacco products, ban sweetened cigarettes that appeal to young taste buds and prohibit labels like “light” and “low tar.” The full New York Times article » By Jeff Zeleny.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Health Conscious? -
  Overview | Students reflect on and discuss their attitudes toward health and illness. They help to educate each other by researching illnesses in small groups, creating a handbook and writing response papers. Go to this Health and ESL Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Evaluating the Changing Perceptions of Cigarette Smoking -
  Overview | Students learn about the changing public perception of cigarettes over the century. They design a survey on people's views on cigarette smoking for homework. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Eventually a simple blood test will lead to accurate "made to measure" treatments that can identify, attack and kill the causes of each patient's own individual cancer, they claim.
Professor Mike Stratton, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, a world leading research centre in Cambridge who carried the studies, said: "What you are seeing today is going to transform the way that we see cancer.
"This is a really fundamental moment in the history of cancer research."

All cancers are caused by damage or mutations to the DNA of formerly healthy cells acquired during a person’s lifetime.
This damage causes them to grow into abnormal lumps or tumours and spread around the body disrupting its normal processes and eventually – if unchecked – causing death.
In lung cancer the damage is almost entirely caused by smoking and in skin cancer or malignant melanoma by ultra violent sunlight.
The Sanger Institute studies used powerful new DNA sequencing technologies to decode completely the genome of both tumour tissue and normal tissue from a lung cancer and a malignant melanoma patient.
They then compared and contrasted the two to discover the differences and see what damage has occurred to cause the disease. The full Telegraph Uk article » By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent (Published 17 Dec 2009)

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Learning About Cell Renewal Throughout the Body -
  Overview | Students learn about the latest research on cell and tissue renewal. They then explore the various internal body parts and systems examined in these studies. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Talking about Breast Cancer:
  Overview | Students share words and associations related to cancer. They then investigate and participate in dialogues about the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Go to this Health, Science and Life's Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Evaluating the Changing Perceptions of Cigarette Smoking -
  Overview | Students learn about the changing public perception of cigarettes over the century. They design a survey on people's views on cigarette smoking for homework. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Promoting Awareness of Modern Addictions -
  Objectives: Students will: consider their understanding of addiction, brainstorm and research ’modern ’addictions, such as food, shopping, the Internet, and video games, create public service announcements promoting awareness of different modern addictions and resources available to help. Go to this Health and ESL Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - Simplified Mock Trial Case - "I really want to play!"

With its thrillerlike pacing and scenes of sexual coercion and teenage backbiting, the novel appeals to young readers, who say the book also gives them insight into peers who might consider suicide. “I think the whole message of the book is to be careful what you do to people, because you never know what they’re going through,” said Christian Harvey, a 15-year-old sophomore at Port Charlotte High School in Port Charlotte, Fla. “You can really hurt somebody, even with the littlest thing.” Read more about "Thirteen Reasons Why," - By Motoko Rich

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Reflecting on Teen Depression and Suicide
Overview: Student reflect on teen depression in the context of the bestselling book "Thirteen Reasons Why," then create proposals for improving mental health in their school community. Go to this Health and ESL Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Discussing Strategies for Coping with Emotional Stress. -
Overview: Students reflect on the increase in self-injuring, specifically "cutting," among teens and then participate in a written discussion to identify and discuss healthy methods of coping with emotional stress. Finally, they conduct further research and write a mock dialogue. Go to this Health and ESL Lesson.