Features

By Edward C. Baig 

Google is trying to help you not be a password weakling.

After all, you have more than two dozen online accounts, yet use the same password across most — if not all — of them. And because it is so darn difficult to remember a complex sequence of letters, numbers and special characters, the passwords that you do drum up are too easy to guess.

You’re not alone. According to a recently released poll by Harris Poll and Google, 75 per cent of Americans are frustrated with trying to keep track of their passwords.

So, Google is adding a new “Password Checkup” feature to the Chrome browser and the existing Google Account Password Manager that with a single click can warn you if your passwords are too weak or too often used in multiple places. The tool can also let you know if Google discovers passwords that have been compromised through a third-party breach.

Google timed its announcement to coincide with Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Previously, you had to add the Password Checkup tool as an extension to Chrome.

The move comes as Google’s privacy practices have been under the scrutiny of lawmakers, along with other tech giants Amazon and Facebook. Google also added new privacy tools for YouTube, Google Maps and the Google Assistant.

If a potential password vulnerability is flagged, you can update or change any at risk passwords by going to the website or app and saving it to your password manager when Google prompts you to do so.

The problem Google is trying to address obvious: If a malicious hacker is able to crack your password at single site, the attacker may very likely be able to break into numerous accounts with that identical password.

People are too lax with passwords.

And those passwords are way too often far from secure.

In the Harris/Google poll, 24 per cent of Americans have used such common passwords or variations on, “abc123”, “Password”, “123456”, and “Iloveyou”, among others. And 59 per cent have incorporated a name or birthday into an online account password, and 33 per cent a pet’s name.

What’s more, 27 per cent have attempted to guess someone’s else’s password, and of those people 17 per cent guessed right. The poll also revealed that about 10 per cent of Californians still have access to a password used by an ex-partner or roommate.

Google plans to integrate its password checkup technology into Chrome later in the year. The company says that if one of your usernames and passwords has been compromised in a known data breach, Google will show an automatic warning and suggest that you change your password.

Google also announced a series of other privacy and security-related measures.

It is rolling an “Incognito mode” feature into Google Maps that promises to keep the searches within Maps private. Such searches won’t be saved to your Google Account and won’t be used to personalise your Maps experience. And yes, you can turn the mode off if you do want, say, tailored restaurant recommendations based on earlier searches or your commute. Incognito mode will start rolling out on Android this month, with iOS availability to follow later on.

Google is also expanding on an auto-delete feature by bringing it to YouTube. You can set the time frame in which to keep or discard your YouTube data — 3 months, 18 months, or until you choose to delete. It is similar to controls that were previously introduced for your web and app activity.

You can also use your voice to control privacy when engaging with the Google Assistant. If you ask questions such as “Hey Google, how do you keep my data safe?” the Assistant will respond with information about how the company attempts to do just that.

In the coming weeks, you’ll be able to delete the last thing you said to Google merely by asking. Or you might say, “Hey Google, delete everything I said to you last week.”

If you ask to delete more than a week’s worth of data from your account, the Assistant will direct you to the page in your account settings to complete the deletion.

Google is rolling out this voice feature in English next week, and in all other languages next month.

By now most of those who are above say 45 or 50 have digitised the music and the photos they used to collect and keep in older, analogue formats such as audio cassettes, vinyl records and print photos from the days of film. Indeed, digital is the only way to go today. As for the younger generation, they know nothing else and need not worry about digitising anything — they were born with the technology.

If doing it for music is relatively fast and easy, digitising print photos is another story. The equipment required and the knowledge, the basic skills for doing it right are a little more demanding and trickier than what it takes to turn analogue music into handy MP3 files.

Not surprisingly, you find that many people have not yet taken the bold step to scan their photos, essentially for fear of not doing it right, of losing something along the way. And yet, it is certainly not rocket science. There are just a couple of pitfalls to be aware of and to avoid.

It all starts with a good scanner. As it is the case for printers, Hewlett-Packard and Epson are in the lead. Any scanner above the JD150 price mark, and made by these two manufacturers, will more than do. Less expensive models are mainly made to scan general purpose printed matter like text and office documents, and may not be able to extract all the details that are in photos. I found Epson Perfection Photo scanners series to be an excellent choice for demanding photo collectors.

The ability to scan details is called the density and is expressed with a number. It should ideally be 4.0 and possibly above that number. If your scanner has a lower density or if its manufacturer just has “omitted” mentioning this number in the device user manual or in specs sheet, your scanner may not qualify for good photo scanning.

Then there is the (in)famous question of the scanning resolution. Virtually all scanners made today can work at 600dpi (dots per inch) and even higher. Understandably resolution affects the size of the scanned picture and therefore the resulting file on your computer disk. In practice you rarely need to scan at higher than 300dpi, unless the photo is really small, like an ID mugshot for example.

Scanning at too high a resolution may produce a very large file on disk, often uselessly. Since the scanned picture will be mainly viewed on a computer monitor, a smartphone, a tablet or a TV screen, 300dpi will perfectly do the job.

With the resolution comes what is called technically the bit-depth. The possible choices 8-bit and 16-bit for black and white shots, 24-bit and 48-bit for colour prints. This figure is about the number of possible colours to get in the end. The recommendation is 16-bit for B&W and 24-bit for colour photos. This values combines with the dpi resolution, and it directly impacts on the final file size on disk.

If for example you choose to scan a 15x10cm photo print at 600 dpi, at 48-bit, and decide to save it in uncompressed “tif” format (as opposed to compressed jpg), you will end up with a file that is about 50 megabytes big! There is no law against doing it this way, of course, you just have to know that you are overdoing it a bit. Unless you happen to be a professional photographer and want your scan to be reused to be reprinted in large poster format.

In the overwhelming number of cases, jpg compressed format is fine for storing your scan, especially that scanners will usually let you select the quality of the jpg, from 1 (worst) up to 10 (best) with a simple slider.

Another point to keep in mind when shopping for a scanner: if you used to collect slides (positive transparencies, 24x36mm), make sure the scanner has the optional hardware adapter to scan these beautiful Kodachrome or Ektachrome photos from yesteryear. Most photo scanners come with this accessory included.

In the end, and just like all tasks that have to do with computers and digital technology: start by doing tests and by practising, before settling for the best approach. Memorise the resolution, the bit-depth and the file saving format that work best for you, and that generate good scanned photos on your screen while keeping files at reasonable size. Remember that files that are excessively large will not only fill up your hard disk too quickly, but will also take longer to open and to view, and will be harder to attach to e-mails.

Do I exist? Do you exist? How do I know you exist?

These ancient questions have been given new urgency by 21st century science. Some of San Diego’s top researchers met recently in La Jolla , California, to discuss them.

The topic was so-called mini-brains, pea-sized structures of human neurons grown from stem cells. Called human brain organoids by scientists, they are yielding important discoveries about autism, brain damage from Zika and other neurological conditions.

These mini-brains enable scientists to probe brain functioning in a way that’s not ethical in healthy humans. said Dr Alysson Muotri, a UC San Diego brain organoid researcher and a meeting leader.

But the mini-brains are becoming more complicated, giving rise to the theoretical possibility they might eventually acquire minds of their own, he said.

These mini-brains show no signs of consciousness at present, he said. And existing technological limitations make that very unlikely.

Muotri said mini-brain are limited in size because they don’t develop blood vessels. That means that as the organoids grow in their cultures, the inner ones begin to die. They also don’t develop all the types of cells found in a human brain.

But Muotri and colleagues recently demonstrated that these organoids can make brain waves similar to those of premature babies — something never done before. And as for the future, it’s impossible to say.

So while a self-aware human brain in a vat of nutrients is science fiction today, the scientists said it’s important to be thinking seriously about these issues, and how to discuss them with the public.

Patricia Churchland is a Salk Institute professor emerita who studies the linkage between philosophy and neuroscience. She said the possibility that human brain organoids could eventually become self-aware should be considered.

“We don’t really know actually where this is all going,” Churchland said. “It’s very, very difficult to predict the future in science, as in baseball.”

Citing the late Nobel Prize winner and Salk Institute researcher Francis Crick, Churchland said meaningful scientific predictions can be made about five years out, or 10 years if the science is especially strong.

“After that, it’s just speculation,” she said.

“Some panpsychists want to say that everything is conscious to some degree, even my toenails, even my toenail clippings,” she said. “It kinda flies in the face of common sense at this stage.”

To avoid speculation, she said discussions need to be grounded in what science has already discovered about consciousness.

We take it for granted that other humans possess self-awareness or self-consciousness, Churchland said. And that consciousness is known to be linked to the activity of structures such as the brain stem and thalamus. These exist in other mammals that also demonstrate outward signs of purposeful behaviour.

In dealing with the public and the press, scientists should communicate these issues and the current state of knowledge as honestly as possible, she said.

If scientists don’t discuss these issues with the public, they’ll become vulnerable to political activists who exploit a lack of knowledge, Churchland said.

“Those highfalutin scientists who have the moral arrogance to play God are a favourite target,” she said. “And you do not want to be that target.”

The public’s confidence in science could be lost in that confrontation, she said. And that would undermine efforts of scientists and doctors to develop better ways to treat and prevent diseases.

By Bradley J. Fikes

By Jeremy Olson

MINNEAPOLIS — New Mayo Clinic research suggests that the nation’s outbreak of vaping-related lung injuries is due to people inhaling toxic substances — akin to workers who breathe fumes from chemical spills, or World War I soldiers exposed to mustard gas.

The finding by Mayo’s pathology lab in Arizona is based on a first-ever examination of 17 biopsies of patients with vaping-associated lung injuries. While the role of chemical inhalation might sound obvious, Dr Brandon Larsen, a surgical pathologist at Mayo Clinic Arizona, said the finding is important because it contradicts a popular theory that these cases were due to oil or lipid contamination in the lungs.

“It seems to be some kind of direct chemical injury, similar to what one might see with exposures to toxic chemical fumes, poisonous gases and toxic agents,” said Larsen, who reported the findings on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

While the 17 biopsies found macrophages — white blood cells that are dispatched to eat harmful contaminants — they found no presence of large deposits of oil or lipids (a kind of fatty organic compound) in the lungs.

The national outbreak of vaping-related illnesses now includes 805 severe lung injuries and 12 deaths this year, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In Minnesota, state health officials have reported one death and 59 confirmed or probable injuries, with another 32 cases under review. Many of the cases involved otherwise healthy teens and young adults who required hospital intensive care and respirators to maintain breathing.

Mayo doctors have contacted the CDC about whether their pathology findings will lead to an updated diagnostic definition of the vaping-associated lung injuries. Larsen stressed that the finding does not absolve any particular chemical or culprit, including the oils, vitamin E or other substances that are used to thicken vaping juice.

“Everything is still on the table,” Larsen said. “I am sceptical that vitamin E is the sole culprit, if even the culprit at all. Maybe it’s important, but I think we can’t stop looking.”

Mayo’s findings also don’t pin blame on vaping of illicit marijuana or its psychoactive component, THC, instead of legal nicotine e-cigarette products. Twelve of the cases in the report involved vapers who inhaled marijuana products. Two cases in the Mayo review involved deaths.

Minnesota’s investigation has been unique, in that interviews with several injured patients found that all of them vaped marijuana-based products, either exclusively or in addition to nicotine.

However, state public health officials aren’t absolving legal nicotine products. Citing new survey data about rising e-cigarette use by Minnesota high school students, Governor Tim Walz on Wednesday proposed heightened public education on the dangers of vaping in general, and said his administration will consider legislation to raise the smoking age or ban the sale of flavoured tobacco.

The 2019 Minnesota Student Survey found a sharp increase in vaping, with 26.4 per cent of 11th graders saying they had vaped at least once in the prior month, up from 17.1 per cent in 2016.

Mayo operates a pathology lab at its Scottsdale campus that has long consulted with doctors and provided second opinions about biopsy and test results. Larsen said it has actually received reports of vaping-associated lung injuries over the past two years, even though the current outbreak was only identified earlier this year. The existence of earlier cases casts doubt on a new ingredient or type of vaping product or delivery device being the problem.

“Its probably a more complex problem,” Larsen said. “It goes beyond one bad batch.”

The theory that oils or lipids caused these injuries has persisted because biopsies aren’t commonly ordered for these lung injury cases, Larsen said. It also takes a review of multiple biopsies to detect a pattern.

Pneumonia or lung injury caused by lipid oil contamination is somewhat rare — with some cases being reported among entertainers who perform fire-breathing and accidentally swallow kerosene. It has also been reported among seniors who use oily substances to clear their sinuses, Larsen said.

“Like they’ll put a bunch of Vaseline in their noses and then they’ll lie down to sleep,” he said, “and the Vaseline will gurgle into their lungs.”

Mayo is continuing to gather biopsies from lung-injury cases. Larsen said he hopes these findings will guide public policy that governs or restricts e-cigarettes, and the ongoing federal and state searches for the cause of the outbreak.

“What should we be looking for? What should we be focusing our efforts on?” he said. “This data says we should be looking for toxic chemical constituents in these materials.”

By Anna Almendrala 

She had been buying face cream through a friend of a friend for 12 years. This time, it was Pond’s “Rejuveness”, a version of the company’s anti-wrinkle cream that is made and sold in Mexico.

But someone in the Mexican state of Jalisco laced the cream with a toxic skin-lightening compound, and it had a devastating effect on the 47-year-old Sacramento resident.

She showed up at the emergency room this summer slurring her speech, unable to walk or feel her hands and face, public health officials said. She now lies semi-comatose in a hospital.

Authorities aren’t releasing her name, but they say she is the first known victim of methylmercury poisoning from a cosmetic in the US.

Methylmercury is a heavy metal used in things like thermometers, batteries and mirrors, and long-term exposure can cause kidney damage, loss of peripheral vision and lack of coordination.

The chemical — along with a less potent, but still toxic, form of mercury known as calomel — is also a key ingredient in skin-lightening products. A bustling market for these products is driven by immigrants who buy them from their home countries.

The face cream that sickened the Sacramento woman was tampered with after manufacture, but some other skin-lightening products made overseas intentionally contain mercury as an active ingredient, said Bhavna Shamasunder, an associate professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles who studies skin-lightening cosmetics. While mercury removes skin pigmentation, Shamasunder said, the side effects are toxic.

Pond’s, owned by the international consumer products giant Unilever, said it doesn’t use mercury in its products. It encourages consumers to buy their products only from authorised retailers to avoid tampering. The company said it is working with authorities to investigate the Sacramento woman’s case.

In the past nine years, there have been more than 60 poisonings in California linked to “foreign brand, unlabeled, and/or homemade skin creams” that contained calomel, Sacramento County officials said.

While it is illegal to sell cosmetics in the US with more than 1 part per million (ppm) of mercury — except eye products, which can have up to 65 — the Food and Drug Administration (FAD) can’t keep up with the imports, whether they’re shipped, tucked into suitcases or purchased online.

Nor does it have the regulatory power to enforce recalls or require preapproval of cosmetic products and ingredients before they’re sold, Shamasunder said.

“The FDA has extremely poor oversight over our beauty products,” she said. “The burden of proof is on the consumer to get sick first.”

The FDA declined to comment for this story.

Skin-lightening products are popular throughout the world, and the market is projected to grow to $31.2 billion by 2024, according to Global Industry Analysts, a publisher of market research.

Products made outside the US aren’t subject to the same standards as American-made ones and may contain poisonous chemicals, like mercury, or have higher proportions of potentially dangerous ingredients, such as steroids.

Skin-lightening products are advertised for their ability to even out blemishes and skin tone, but some consumers feel pressure to use them on their whole face or body in cultures that tend to confer more money and social status on people with lighter skin.

Nearly 40 per cent of women surveyed in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines and Korea said they used skin lighteners, while 77 per cent of women in Nigeria and 25 per cent in Mali said they did so, according to the World Health Organisation.

In the US, potentially hazardous skin-lightening products can be purchased in some ethnic beauty stores, in ethnic supermarkets and at swap meets. They can even be found online at sites like Amazon and eBay.

It’s difficult to estimate how many people have been affected by mercury poisoning from cosmetics because screening for the heavy metal is not routine, said Tracey Woodruff, a professor of reproductive sciences at the University of California-San Francisco.

But the problem appears to be concentrated among certain ethnic groups. A recent Minnesota study measuring mercury in the urine of 396 pregnant women from 2015 to 2017 revealed that nine had elevated levels, mostly linked to skin-lightening product use among Hmong and Latina women. Ongoing testing is revealing even more cases, said Jessica Nelson, programme director for the state’s biomonitoring project.

Often, poisoning victims get their spiked products from people they trust, Woodruff said.

Woodruff co-authored a report about a pregnant woman in San Francisco who had unusually high levels of mercury in her blood. The source was a jar of Pond’s face cream that had been adulterated in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

“A family member gave it to her, so it was a trusted source of information,” Woodruff said.

A 2013 study that sampled 367 skin-lightening products purchased in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Phoenix turned up at least a dozen products with exceptionally high levels of mercury, ranging from 1,729 ppm to 38,535 ppm.

In the Sacramento woman’s case, the contaminated face cream contained a methylmercury concentration of over 12,000 ppm. The level of methylmercury in her blood was 2,630 micrograms per litre, according to Sacramento County Public Health. Normal values are less than 5.

It’s unclear whether the FDA could have done anything to prevent her poisoning, said Melanie Benesh, legislative attorney for the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organisation.

While the FDA has been able to intercept some high-mercury imports and turn them away, the agency lacks the authority to require companies to register their products and ingredients with the agency. That would make it easier to screen shipments that have a higher risk of being poisonous, Benesh said.

In a 2017 letter to Congress, the agency said it had six full-time inspectors to monitor 3 million cosmetics shipments annually.

“Right now, the FDA is really flying blind,” she said.

So it’s up to public health officials to catch poisoning cases as they happen and then trace their way back to the source.

In California, state public health officials are developing a campaign to educate shopkeepers and consumers. They also train volunteer community health workers like Sandra Garcia, 63, to meet with families to discuss the symptoms of mercury poisoning.

Garcia, who lives in Tulare County and picks and packs grapes for a living, estimates that she has purchased creams from 40 stores to send to public health officials for testing since March. And she has visited 60 homes to hand out brochures and help residents identify poisonous products.

Back with a vengeance, the Renault Megane R.S. reclaimed the hotly contested front-wheel-drive Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record from the Honda Civic Type R by a 3.7-second margin last May in its more powerful and lighter Trophy-R guise. 

A faster and more focused track weapon than ever even in standard version the Megane R.S. lived up to expectations when first driven on the Dubai Autodrome late last year. However, a recent extended road drive revealed it to be a practical, engaging, efficient, highly equipped and easily manoeuvrable daily driver.

A better track car and better road car, RenaultSport’s new Megane receives a more powerful downsized engine, additional two doors, optional automated gearbox and much more safety and convenience technology. 

Design-wise, it has a more mature look with greater emphasis on width and more intricate fascia detail and sculpted skin. Sportier and more urgent in demeanour, it features a more aggressive front assembly with a bigger diamond emblem and F1-inspired blade, and functional side vents, central exhaust tip and bigger rear air diffuser to generate more downforce.

Prodigious and punchy

Though losing 0.2-litres in displacement, the new Megane R.S.’ output rises from 261BHP and 266lb/ft to 276BHP delivered at a peaky 6,000rpm and
287lb/ft on tap throughout a wider and more accessible 2,400-4,800rpm, courtesy of its new turbocharged 1.8-litre 4-cyinder engine, which it shares in slightly re-tuned guise with Renault’s Alpine sub-brand A110 sports car. Acceleration through 0-100km/h is also down from 6-seconds to 5.8-seconds, while fuel consumption is reduced from 8.2l/100km to 7l/100km, despite slight weight gain to 1,430kg in the 6-speed automated dual clutch version driven. 

Brutally swift reaching for its top-end on track and flexible as it digs deep and pulls hard in mid-range, the Megane R.S.’ performance translates well for road use. A quick spooling turbo provides good stop/start response in traffic, while its generously broad torque band provides effortlessly versatile acceleration when cruising, overtaking and on inclines. Its automated gearbox shifts slick and smooth, but can be configured for swifter, more decisively quick shifts through the drive mode menu, through which a throatier engine note and other driving parameters can be tailored.

Road racer

Capable of 250km/h, the Megane R.S. is stable, smooth and settled at speed on track or highway, with plenty of downforce through fast sweeping corners and flat body control through tighter bends. Riding on modified MacPherson strut front suspension with an independent steering axis pivot to minimise torque-steer often associated with powerful front-drivers, it well channels power in a focused manner through corners as its low profile 245/35R19 tyres grip hard. Meanwhile, damper-embedded hydraulic compressions provide improved tyre contact with the ground for better traction, cornering grip and braking.

Settled, composed and committed through corners, over imperfections and on rebound with its rally-inspired dampers, the Megane R.S. is a confident and comfortable daily driver, but can be somewhat firm over sharp car park speed bumps. The ace up the R.S.’ sleeve is, however, its 4Control four-wheel-steering, which turns the rear wheels 2.7 degree in the opposite direction at moderate speeds to effectively shorten the wheelbase for improved agility and manoeuvrability, and alternately turn them 1 degree in the same direction as the front at speed for enhanced responsiveness and stability.

Nimble on its feet

Pouncing swiftly and crisply through chicanes and technical corners on track, the R.S.’ agility is reflected on road where slices the tightest of bends with stunning poise and stability, seeming to turn on the proverbial dime. With the manoeuvrability of a smaller car and stability of a larger car, one feels the Megane’s four-wheel-steering at work as it dispatches corners and darts through traffic with urgently nimble focus. Meanwhile, it easily manoeuvres narrow roads and tight parking spots, also aided by its rear view camera and parking assistance system.

Refined and sporty inside with Alcantara seats and contrasting stitching, the Megane R.S. features excellent front sports seats with the right space, support and ergonomics for sideways track action and long-distance commutes alike. Layouts are user-friendly while a portrait tablet-like infotainment screen features additional G-force, steering angle and other gauges. Numerous safety and convenience systems include directional lights and blindspot warning. Rear space is adequate in class, but the bigger air diffuser reduces under-floor boot space, as the spare tyre is strapped down above-floor and reduces otherwise generous boot volume.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.8-litre, transverse, turbocharged 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 79.7 x 90.1mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed dual clutch automated, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 276 (280) [205] @6,000rpm

Specific power: 153.5BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 193BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 287 (390) @2,400-4,800rpm

Specific torque: 216Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 272.7Nm/tonne

0-100 km/h: 5.8-seconds

Top speed: 250km/h

Fuel capacity: 50-litres

Fuel economy, urban/extra-urban/combined: 8.5-/6.1-
/7-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 158g/km

Length: 4,372mm

Width: 1,874mm

Height: 1,445mm

Wheelbase: 2,699mm

Track, F/R: 1,615/1,596mm

Overhang, F/R: 916/786mm

Ground clearance: 101mm

Cabin width, F/R: 1,418/1,420mm

Unladen weight: 1,430kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion, four-wheel-steering

Turning radius: 10.3-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts, independent steering axis pivot/H-beam

Brakes, F/R: 355mm ventilated discs/290mm discs

Stopping time, from 400-/1,000-metres: 14-/25-seconds

Tyres: 245/35R19

Rooibos tea (popularly known as African Red Bush tea) is a nutritional powerhouse with an earthy floral flavour. Grown in the mountain region of Cape of Good Hope, the leaves and the stems are both harvested to create this nutrient-dense herbal tea.

Rustic realm

Rooibos tea has been used in South Africa for centuries. Caffeine-free, it falls under the category of a herb and not a tea though it’s popularly used as a tea. Each blossom produces a legume pod that has a single seed; when ripe, the seed pops out of the pod and falls to the ground. It is known to ferment, get deeper in colour and intensify in flavour if left longer to steep.

Clinical contribution

A goldmine ofantioxidants, Rooibos tea contains two flavonoids and active minerals like vitamin C, iron, potassium, copper, calcium, zinc, manganese and sodium. It improves bone density, boosts the immune system and enhances liver function besides calming the nerves. It is also known to relieve infant colic, regulate hypertension, promote hydration, improve memory and prevent blood clots. Rich in polyphenols (micronutrients derived from plant-based foods), it helps improve digestion and also serves as a blood glucose regulator. Its antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-depressant properties have also helped in the treatment of Alzheimer and Parkinson disease.

Beauty booster

The zinc in the tea has skincare benefits, including the treatment of acne. The antioxidants are known to repair damaged skin, hair and bones. Its anti-ageing property has shown to inhibit or delay the appearance of wrinkles. The leptin in the tea helps prevent new fat cells from forming.

Culinary craze

Its rich amber colour when steeped in tea creates a versatile drink. Rooibos tea has been my favourite and its entry into my pantry has added flavour and sensation to my cooking. I use one tea bag or one teaspoon per three quarters cup of boiling water for flavouring soups and sauces. It could also be used as a tenderiser and for marinades. For that zesty flavour add lemon rind to the mixture. When steeped longer, it ferments and loses its flavour but turns amber red.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

By Ryan W. Miller

Should you stop eating red meat for health reasons?

That’s the question rocking the nutrition and scientific community after guidelines published in a peer-reviewed journal said people should continue eating red meat, running counter to what many scientific and health organisations have said for years.

The paper’s authors say the existing evidence is not strong enough to back a guideline that urges people to avoid eating red meat.

Groups like American Heart Association and World Cancer Research Fund recommend people reduce red meat consumption, and the World Health Organisation in 2015 even classified processed red meat as a human carcinogen and said all red meat consumption was probably carcinogenic.

However, the study’s authors reject these sweeping public health claims.

“It’s a form of patriarchy if we just tell people they should eliminate or reduce their meat consumption,” said Bradley Johnston, the lead study author. “We don’t believe that there should be broad public health recommendations, almost like scare tactics, for the population as a whole.”

However, the paper has drawn sharp criticisms from doctors who say the methodology used to grade the existing research misrepresents the vast data that shows red meat’s ties to adverse health outcomes, like heart disease, cancer or type 2 diabetes.

What did the research find?

Published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the guideline “suggests that adults continue current unprocessed red meat … [and] processed meat consumption”.

The recommendations were based on five analyses of existing research: four on the health effects of eating red meat and one on people’s health-related preferences on red meat, meaning how much they value meat and its effects on their health.

Johnston, a professor of community health and epidemiology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said his group used the GRADE standard of analysing scientific evidence to make a determination about existing research.

GRADE is one method to review existing scientific evidence and make a recommendation based on its strength, and it gives higher weight to randomised controlled trials than to observational studies, which many nutrition studies are.

“Based on these reviews, we cannot say with any certainty that reducing red meat or processed meat will prevent cancer, diabetes or heart disease,” Johnston said.

Why are people criticising the research?

The Annals’ paper has drawn sharp criticism from some researchers in the scientific community who say evidence does show the link between eating red meat and health problems.

“Nothing new is coming out of the study,” said Dr Frank Hu, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “There was no breakthrough. It just confirmed previous findings.”

Dr Neal Barnard, a professor of internal medicine at George Washington University who is also critical of the guidelines, said the Johnston group’s analyses show “clear evidence that if you do reduce red meat that your risk of stroke, diabetes, heart attack and cancer not only goes down, but that it’s statistically significant”.

The issue, the doctors say, is that the guidelines published in Annals do not match up with the analyses Johnston’s group did.

Barnard, also president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, has since filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission through his group, saying the Annals of Internal Medicine misrepresented the new guidelines as definitive and did not accurately describe the risks of red meat.

What much of the difference comes down to is whether the use of the GRADE system to rate the quality of existing data was appropriate.

Dr Christine Laine, editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine, said the reviews and guidelines are valuable because they provide a transparent and independent look at existing data and make a recommendation based on the clear methodology of the GRADE system.

She and study author Johnston, head of the independent research group NutriRECS, say that existing recommendations from international health groups are not transparent in how they create the standards for their guideline.

However, critics of the Annals’ research say that GRADE is more applicable for analysing evidence like a drug trial.

“The premise is that the implementation of nutritional research and the interpretation of nutritional research should be held to the same standard as drug or other medical research. That’s simply not the case. You have a lot of complicated interactions in diet,” says Dr Jeffrey Mechanick, medical director of the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Centre for Cardiovascular Health at Mount Sinai Heart.

Hu, of Harvard, acknowledged the limitations with observational studies — they don’t show causation because a variety of compounding factors like a person’s lifestyle or other dietary choices could be causing the adverse health effects.

However, when nutrition data is replicated across demographics, age and geography — as was the case with the more than 6 million participants from more than 100 large studies in the Annals’ analyses — it should be taken seriously, Hu said.

Should I eat less red meat?

The guidelines published in the Annals are not an official statement from a health organisation and haven’t changed existing international guidelines.

But some doctors say it’s another reminder that diet is complex and personal part of our lives.

“If you really want to look at the bottom line, nutrition is more about eating patterns and lifestyle than it is about a single, particular food,” Mount Sinai’s Mechanick said.

For some, eating red meat is a fact of life. But how the meat is prepared and what it is served with also matters, Mechanick said. Meat cooked in heavy grease or served with foods high in sodium and saturated fats should not be over consumed, he said.

While there may be a fear that these findings could encourage people to disregard the potential risks of eating red meat, he also said that he sees it as a positive because it can spark a conversation with a patient.

“What we want is a conversation with patients and open and frank discussion with patients,” he said. “There could be room [in a diet] for a filet without the fat once a week or once every two weeks. Just make sure you have steamed veggies, pulses, salads and berries, too.”

By Amélie Baubeau and Patrick Galey

PARIS — A French man paralysed in a night club accident can walk again thanks to a brain-controlled exoskeleton in what scientists say is a breakthrough providing hope to tetraplegics seeking to regain movement.

The patient trained for months, harnessing his brain signals to control a computer-simulated avatar to perform basic movements before using the robot device to walk.

Doctors who conducted the trial cautioned that the device is years away from being publicly available but stressed that it had “the potential to improve patients’ quality of life and autonomy”.

The man involved, identified only as Thibault, a 28-year-old from Lyon, said the technology had given him a new lease of life.

Four years ago that life changed forever when he fell 12 metres from a balcony while on a night out, severing his spinal chord and leaving him paralysed from the shoulders down. 

“When you’re in my position, when you can’t do anything with your body... I wanted to do something with my brain,” Thibault told AFP on Thursday.

Training on a video-game avatar system for months to acquire the skills needed to operate the exoskeleton, he said he had to “relearn” natural movements from scratch. 

“I can’t go home tomorrow in my exoskeleton, but I’ve got to a point where I can walk. I walk when I want and I stop when I want.”

Cervical spinal cord injury leaves around 20 per cent of patients paralysed in all four limbs and is the most severe injury of its kind. 

“The brain is still capable of generating commands that would normally move the arms and legs, there’s just nothing to carry them out,” said Alim-Louis Benabid, professor emeritus at Grenoble and lead author of the study published on Friday in The Lancet Neurology.

A team of experts from the Hospital of Grenoble Alpes, biomedical firm Cinatech and the CEA research centre started by implanting two recording devices either side of Thibault’s head, between the brain and the skin. 

These read his sensorimotor cortex — the area that controls motor function. 

Each decoder transmits the brain signals which are then translated by an algorithm into the movements the patient has thought about. It is this system that sends physical commands that the exoskeleton executes.

Thibault used the avatar and video game to think about performing basic physical tasks such as walking, and reaching out to touch objects. 

Using the avatar, video game and exoskeleton combined, he was able to cover the length of one and a half football pitches over the course of many sessions. 

Several previous studies have used implants to stimulate muscles in patients’ own bodies, but the Grenoble study is the first to use brain signals to control a robot exoskeleton. 

Experts involved in the research say it could potentially lead to brain-controlled wheelchairs for paralysed patients. 

“This isn’t about turning man into machine but about responding to a medical problem,” said Benabid.

“We’re talking about ‘repaired man’, not ‘augmented man’. 

In a comment piece on the study, Tom Shakespeare from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the exoskeleton system was “a long way from usable clinical possibility”.

By Bradley J. Fikes 

Salk Institute researchers say they’ve discovered a gene in plants that controls how deep their roots grow.

The discovery advances Salk’s new Harnessing Plants Initiative.

The finding also opens a new area of research in the complicated web of interactions that plants use to grow, Busch said. This could have practical agricultural implications, such as making crops more resistant to drought.

The study was published day in the journal Cell.

Roots naturally make suberin, which can last for decades under ground. Increasing suberin production would enable more carbon to be stored. The initiative’s goal is to modify a wide variety of plants, starting with farmed crops and potentially later in plants growing in low-value or non-arable regions.

For farmers, the benefit would be harder crops. For the environment, capturing carbon would sequester it so it doesn’t return into the air as carbon dioxide. Climate scientists say this could reduce global warming.

Making deeper roots is one of the three objectives in the Harnessing Plants Initiative, Busch said. The other two are making a greater proportion of suberin in the roots, and making more and more massive root systems.

“The main benefit that [deeper roots] would have in terms of carbon sequestration is that there will be more carbon deposited at an increased depth in the soil,” Busch said. “And the deeper you go in the soil, the less degradation occurs by microbial activity.

“So, in a sense, the deeper rooting alone might lead to to significant carbon sequestration in the sense that carbon present in the roots is not turned over that fast as in a shallow system.”

The concept of using plants as natural carbon sinks gained added attention last week, when the journal Science published a proposal to restore forests on a global scale

The authors of the Science article said they had calculated there’s room for an extra 900 million hectares of forest canopy. Reforesting this area, equal to the size of the United States, would reduce atmospheric carbon by 25 per cent, they said. Such an increase in forests would also provide more habitat for forest-dwelling life.

In the Salk study, scientists worked with the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Busch’s team identified a gene called EXOCYST70A3 that regulates auxin, without interfering with other pathways. This meant that the gene’s effects could be studied in isolation from other factors.

They produced a mutant version of the gene causing Arabidopsis roots, which normally grow in a shallow pattern, to grow deeply. This represents a proof of principle, Busch said. Later research will seek to fine-tune root structure, so it can be adapted for specific plants and purposes.

Deeper roots might benefit crops in a climate of periodic rain and drought, Busch said. These roots could access enough water to last until the next rain.