‘Eating dirt could make kids smarter’
Here’s some good news for parents who constantly worry about their kids’ hygiene after they spend time in the play ground — eating dirt could actually make your child smarter. A new study has shown the positive side of soil-borne bacteria that is likely to be inhaled when children are playing outside.
Scientists discovered that mice that were fed the dirt bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae navigated complex mazes twice as fast as those which were not. The research was welcomed by Kidsafe NSW Playground Advisory Unit programme manager Kate Fraser as another reason kids should be encouraged to get outside and get dirty.
“Over the past few years terms like ‘’cotton wool kids’’ and “helicopter parents’’ are becoming really common,” the Courier Mail quoted Fraser as saying. “So we thought it was time to air the laundry on what’s happening with our play spaces and make sure we are offering kids challenges. We need to make playgrounds safe, but also offer a certain amount of risk and controlled risk. It’s a real balancing act.”
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Is wireless radiation killing trees?
London: Radiation generated by wireless networks that enable our ever increasing online communications has a detrimental effect on trees, a new study has claimed. The research by a team from Wageningen University in the Net-herlands found that trees planted close to a wireless, or wi-fi, router had bleeding bark and dying leaves.
The revelation will raise fears that wi-fi radiation may also be having an effect on the human body and supports parents who have campaigned to stop wireless routers being installed in schools, the Daily Mail reported.
The Dutch city of Alphen aan den Rijn had ordered the new study after officials found unexplained abnormalities on trees. The Wageningen University team took 20 ash trees and for three months exposed them to six sources of radiation. Trees placed closest to the wi-fi source developed a “lead-like shine” on their leaves that was caused by the upper and lower epidermis — the leaf’s skin — dying. It was also found that wi-fi radiation could slow the growth of corn cobs. In the Netherlands, 70 per cent of all trees in urban areas show the same symptoms, compared with 10 per cent five years ago, the study found. —PTI
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