• 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

Image source

Image source

“The thing that’s killing people is inaction,” said Dr. Michael Sayre of Ohio State University, who headed the association’s team that drafted the new recommendations.
Sayre said people not trained in CPR should do two things when they encounter an adult who has suddenly collapsed: first, call emergency services; and second, begin pushing “hard and fast” in the center of the person’s chest.
This is necessary to maintain vital blood flow, according to experts. Chest compressions should continue until emergency medical services responders arrive, Sayre said. Read Article » By Will Dunham – Reuters

• 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.

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.

Original image – Luis Escobar
Arnulfo Quimare, a Tarahumara Indian who is a champion distance runner, laces up his sandals for a 50-mile race on canyon trails.

The scientific evidence supports the notion that humans evolved to be runners. In a 2007 paper in the journal Sports Medicine, Daniel E. Lieberman, a Harvard evolutionary biologist, and Dennis M. Bramble, a biologist at the University of Utah, wrote that several characteristics unique to humans suggested endurance running played an important role in our evolution.
Most mammals can sprint faster than humans — having four legs gives them the advantage. But when it comes to long distances, humans can outrun almost any animal. Because we cool by sweating rather than panting, we can stay cool at speeds and distances that would overheat other animals. On a hot day, the two scientists wrote, a human could even outrun a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon. Read the full New York Times article – By Tara Parker-Pope.

• 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.”

  New research, led by Harvard scientists and published today, shows that people who run barefoot or with minimal shoes – as people have done for millions of years – often land on their feet in a way that avoids a jarring impact. That’s very different from most shoe-clad runners, who crash down on their heels with every bound. The full Boston Globe article » By Carolyn Y. Johnson

  Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times – Learning Network – Learning How the Body’s Skeletal Muscle Groups Work -
  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 and Discussing Darwinism … (Explaining Life’s Complexities)
  Overview | learn about theories of ‘intelligent design’ in evolutionary science…  Go to this Science Lesson.

A Swine flu sufferer in Santiago – The original AFP image source.
Swine Flu Peaked in Most Southern Countries The full Bloomberg article » By Phil Serafino.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan has said the H1N1 virus is stable and there were no signs of it mixing with other more dangerous types of influenza such as the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain.
At present, patients with mild symptoms generally do not need any medicines to recover, and Chan has stressed hospital visits are not necessary unless those infected with flu have certain warning signs.
These include long-lasting high fever in adults and a lack of alertness in children. Pregnant women and people with health problems including diabetes are also vulnerable to more severe effects from the new flu strain. The full Reuters article »(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn and Laura MacInnis; writing by Ben Hirschler)

• The New York Times – Learning Network – Researching the 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) Pandemic –
  Overview: 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. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.
• The New York Times – Learning Network – Understanding the History of Twentieth Century Pandemic Flu Outbreaks –
  Overview: Students will examine the different types of pandemic flu viruses and virus “scares” that have occurred over the past hundred years by creating a master chart that displays the origins, transmission, symptoms, and socio-historical impact of each virus. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.