Bear in Israel undergoes surgery to repair herniated disc

May 7, 2014: Mango, a 19-year-old male Syrian brown bear, rests on a bed as zoo veterinarians and staff prepare him for surgery in the Ramat Gan Zoological Center's animal hospital near Tel Aviv, Israel.AP

RAMAT GAN, Israel –  Surgery can be a real bear. Even for a bear.

In Israel, a 19-year-old Syria brown bear named Mango underwent surgery Wednesday to repair a herniated disc, said Sagit Horowitz, a spokeswoman for the Ramat Gan Zoological Center near Tel Aviv.

Zoologists first noticed Mango had a problem when he started to show signs of paralysis in his hind legs in the last few weeks, said Dr. Merav Shamir, who led the surgery on the furry patient.

"It started acutely," she said. "He wasn't able to move his right hind limb and it progressively deteriorated over the following 48 hours to become completely paralyzed on the hind limbs."

Horowitz said veterinarians discovered the 550-pound bear had the injured disc during an X-ray taken after noticing his worsening paralysis. That disc compressed Mango's spinal cord and caused the paralysis he had been suffering through, Shamir said.

Veterinarians shaved parts of the bear's furry back to prepare him for surgery Wednesday, as well as intubated him. They propped his head up on a pillow wrapped in a trash bag and put an IV through his snout. They also wrapped a blood-pressure cuff around his right paw.

Such unique procedures aren't uncommon at the Ramat Gan Zoological Center, the premier zoo of Israel. Last year, veterinarians there used acupuncture to cure the chronic ear infection of a 14-year-old Sumatran tiger named Pedang.

Shamir said other bears with a similar disc problem like Mango had been euthanized and that the surgery he underwent was novel for bears — though often performed on small dogs.

"I'm nervous now — I'll be happier in a few hours," Shamir said before the hourslong surgery began. "I wish him luck."

Veterinarians will know in the coming weeks whether Mango makes a full recovery.

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1 in 5 women will undergo pelvic surgery in her lifetime, study says

About 1 in 5 women now will undergo certain pelvic surgeries during her lifetime, nearly double the risk of having one of these surgeries in the 1990s, according to a recent study.

Researchers looked at women's likelihood of undergoing surgery before age 80 for either stress urinary incontinence (a condition that can cause urine to leak during sneezing or laughing), or pelvic organ prolapse (in which pelvic organs begin to droop within a woman's body).

"Surgeries for both of these conditions have increased substantially," said Dr. Jennifer M. Wu, associate professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's department of obstetrics and gynecology, an author of the study. "The 20 percent figure is nearly double that of earlier U.S. studies, which reported rates of 11.1 percent and 11.8 percent," for stress urinary incontinence surgery and pelvic organ prolapse surgery, respectively, she said.

Wu said she is not surprised by the results of this study, because stress incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse are very common conditions, which 1 in 3 women will experience in her lifetime. Many women, however, are embarrassed discussing symptoms such as involuntary urine leakage with their doctors, she said. [7 Embarrassing Health Problems (And How to Treat Them)]

"It's often not talked about until they are referred to a sub-specialist," Wu told Live Science. "Many women have suffered in silence for years with problems such as 'accidents' in public places. This can lead to social isolation for many of them."

Stress incontinence can be triggered by any sudden pressure increase within the abdomen. Pelvic organ prolapse occurs when a pelvic organ, such as the bladder, drops (prolapses) from its normal spot in the lower belly and pushes against the sides of the vagina, causing bulging, pressure or urine leakage during intercourse. This can happen when the muscles that hold the pelvic organs in place get weak or stretched from childbirth or surgery.

In the study, researchers used 10 years of data from a database of U.S. health plan claims and doctors' visits that included more than 10 million women from ages 18 to 89. Previous studies on this topic had small sample sizes, or were limited to one geographic region, Wu said.

The study appears today (May 7) in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

"Many women believe these conditions are a normal part of the aging process," Wu said. "They're not."

However, surgery is not the only option. "With prolapse, one treatment option is no treatment at all," she said. "We just watch and wait if it's not affecting a woman's quality of life."

Other options, she said, include treatment with a pessary device, which is used to lift the bladder or apply compression to the urethra during activities certain activities, or pelvic floor physical therapy (Kegel exercises) designed to improve muscle tone.

For women with bladder incontinence, she said, nonsurgical treatments include lifestyle changes such as weight loss for those who are overweight or obese, dietary changes, anti-spasmodic medications, a pessary, Kegel exercises and nerve stimulation.

Copyright 2014 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Stonehenge-area inhabited thousands of years prior to building of monument

Visitors take photographs of the world heritage site of Stonehenge, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013.AP Photo/Alastair Grant

The ancient monument of Stonehenge dates back to between 2500 BC and 3000 BC—but when it was built, people had already been living in the area for millennia, researchers found after a dig.

Artifacts from what is now Amesbury, the nearest settlement to Stonehenge, dated to 8820 BC. It's been inhabited ever since, the BBC notes, making it Britain's oldest settlement, something the Guinness Book of Records has now officially recognized.

(As such, Thatcham has lost the honor.) The year was established after burnt flints and large animal bones were unearthed; they point to feasts held there, Smithsonian reports.

"The site blows the lid off the Neolithic Revolution in a number of ways," says researcher David Jacques, who notes that it provides evidence of "people staying put, clearing land, building, and presumably worshiping, monuments." Experts had believed the stones were erected by European immigrants, notes Culture24, but in fact the area was a hub for people in the region, says Jacques.

It "was a forerunner for what later went on at Stonehenge itself," he says. "The first monuments at Stonehenge were built by these people. For years, people have been asking why is Stonehenge where it is; now at last, we have found the answers." Giant pine posts were placed in the area long before Stonehenge was there, sometime before 6590 BC, reports the Guardian; the study offers a "missing link" between the posts and the stone monuments.

(Click to read about Stonehenge's sonic secret.)

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British space scientist Colin Pillinger dies at 70

Dec. 19, 2003: A photo from files showing The Beagle2 spacecraft projects leading scientist Professor Colin Pillinger, in London.AP

LONDON –  Colin Pillinger, an ebullient space scientist who captured the popular imagination with his failed attempt to land a British probe on Mars, has died. He was 70.

Pillinger's family said Thursday that he died at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge after suffering a brain hemorrhage while sitting in his garden.

Pillinger, a professor of interplanetary science at the Open University, was the driving force behind the largely privately funded Beagle 2 space mission.

The tiny craft -- named for the ship that took naturalist Charles Darwin on his 19th-century voyage of discovery -- was supposed to land on Mars on Christmas Day in 2003 and search for signs of life. But contact with the probe was lost soon after it separated from its European Space Agency Mars Express mother ship on Dec. 19. An investigation found that it may have burned up in the planet's atmosphere.

The loss of the probe, which cost the government more than $40 million and the private sector another $80 million, prompted questions in Britain about Europe's ability to participate in the race to Mars.

Pillinger, who had become famous with his bushy sideburns and enthusiastic delivery of frequent media updates on the mission, was bitterly disappointed but held out hope of a second attempt.

"We have unfinished business on Mars," he said in 2005. "The science is more important now than it ever was."

A new European Mars mission, ExoMars, is due to launch in 2018.

Britain's astronomer royal, Martin Rees, said Pillinger was "an archetype eccentric professor" who had done a great deal to communicate and popularize science.

Rees said the Beagle mission "was a failure, but a heroic failure. Several far more expensive and elaborate Mars missions failed, and he deserves huge admiration for the way he cobbled together the funds for this project against all the odds, inspiring interest and enthusiasm along the way."

Pillinger gained a PhD from Swansea University in 1968 and began his career at NASA, analyzing samples of moon rock. He worked at Cambridge and the Open University, a pioneer of distance learning.

PIllinger, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2005, is survived by his wife Judith, daughter Shusanah and son Nicolas.

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Fla. marine scientists blocked from Cuba research

TAMPA, Fla. –  Marine biologists who study the Gulf of Mexico have a joke: The FBI, the DEA, the CIA -- none of them have anything on scientists when it comes to tracking the flow of secretive traffic between Cuba and the United States.

"They have not gotten the memo," quipped David Vaughan, with Sarasota-based Mote Marine Laboratory, whose international criminals are not spies but spiny lobsters -- as well as sharks and dolphins. "They are constantly breaking the travel embargo."

But one group of scientists isn't laughing any more, instead watching helplessly as they become the next punch line in marine biology.

Like all employees of Florida's public universities, scientists are prohibited by a law passed in 2006 from using state money for travel to Cuba.

More than most scientists, though, marine biologists see access to the communist island nation just 90 miles of Florida's shores as the difference between success and failure in their field.

'It is more difficult for us in Florida than any other state in the US to work with Cuba.'

- Donald Behringer, an assistant professor at University of Florida

Now, they're being left further behind as researchers from other states and from private institutions in Florida scramble to take advantage of new signs that Cuba relations are improving: an easing of travel restrictions by the White House, an agreement to cooperate in oil spills, even a tour by the University of Tampa baseball team.

Scientists already have begun collaborating with their counterparts in Cuba on research that could reverse the deterioration of coral reefs, prevent overfishing, and lead to better understanding of the gulf ecosystem.

They're doing work that could benefit Florida. They're just not from USF, the University of Florida or Florida State University.

"We are connected," said Donald Behringer, an assistant professor at UF's School of Forest Resources and Conservation & Emerging Pathogens Institute. "In order to understand our own ecosystem we also have to understand Cuba's.

"Unfortunately, it is more difficult for us in Florida than any other state in the United States to work with Cuba."

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Senate Bill 2434, titled "Travel To Terrorist State," forbids money that flows through a state university -- including grants from private foundations -- to be used for travel to a nation on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba is on the list.

Sponsored by former Senate President Mike Haridopolos, the bill was passed in 2006 without a single no vote in either the Florida House or Senate then signed into law by Gov. Jeb Bush.

Florida is the only state in the country with such a prohibition.

Professors can use their own money to travel to Cuba for research, but only on personal time. And it's an expensive trip.

"I've been able to cobble together money for a plane ticket and go to Cuba a few times," said Behringer, "but it's hard. Faculty members from other states can use research money to pay their way. This puts Florida schools at a disadvantage."

An American who worked on a new oil spill cleanup protocol involving five gulf nations, including the U.S. and Cuba, said he is confident this agreement will pave the way for future collaboration on environmental issues between the U.S. and Cuba.

When that day comes, said Dan Whittle of the Environmental Defense Fund, protocols will be based on research projects already under way.

The oil spill agreement, brokered and advanced through meetings in Tampa, awaits publication by the Coast Guard before it becomes official.

"There is so much expertise at public universities in Florida," said Whittle, who directs the fund's work on marine and coastal ecosystems in Cuba. "It's a shame their hands are so tied."

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Researcher Vaughan, director of tropical research with the private Mote Marine Laboratory, said new agreements and protocols will be an opportunity for U.S. scientists to make contributions to the environment they once thought impossible because of politics. Vaughan specializes in coral reefs and works with Cuban scientists.

Shut out of these new opportunities, Florida's public school professors fear losing out on more than a role in new discoveries. Florida may also lose out on attracting the brightest marine biology students.

The University of North Carolina, for example, has an annual student summer expedition to Cuba to study the coral reefs off its shores. The University of Tampa has a marine biology department and though it has no plans to visit Cuba, other departments at the private school and the baseball team have.

"Obtaining knowledge is always important," said Frank Muller-Karger, a professor at the USF College of Marine Science. "Sure, we can learn what another researcher discovered in Cuba. But top students want to develop knowledge."

Proponents of the 2006 act said at the time that any travel to Cuba financially supports an oppressive regime.

Gov. Rick Scott, asked about the lingering impact on Florida universities, echoed that sentiment in a statement to the Tribune last week.

"Governor Scott is committed to growing opportunities so Florida families can succeed and live the American Dream," said John Tupps, Scott's deputy press secretary, "and he is firmly opposed to the Castro regime that works to oppress such opportunity and freedom."

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State Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat whose district includes the University of South Florida, was part of the unanimous vote in 2006 but says now that times have changed.

"It's a different world today," Joyner said. "We need to acknowledge that."

There are no signs today of efforts to overturn the law, even at the university level.

USF issued this statement to The Tampa Tribune last week: "The University of South Florida stands for the core values of academic freedom and the open exchange of knowledge and ideas in the least restrictive environment possible. The current restrictions were enacted in the political process and we recognize that is where they will be resolved."

Of the six marine biology professors from state universities who were asked for comment on the issue, all agreed the law hurts their institutions, but only Behringer from UF and USF's Muller-Karger would speak on the record against it.

The others said they were concerned about getting involved in politics.

Muller-Karger had this response: "The reaction you describe shows that people are actually quite worried about how the state may interpret their interest in working these issues, or just worried stiff about speaking about a binding Florida law."

He added, "This has nothing to do with politics. It is about knowledge, managing our resources and doing what is best for our environment."

The law forbidding state money from funding trips to Cuba affects other disciplines.

Those studying Latin American art, music, language, politics, geology and history could benefit from visiting the Communist nation. But marine biology stands out as a field where advances in research stand to directly benefit the state of Florida more than any other region on earth.

"So no one else is as affected by what goes on in Cuban waters than Florida" said Muller-Karger.

Marine biologists call it "connectivity."

------------------------------

For instance, spiny lobsters served in Tampa restaurants could have hatched from eggs laid in Cuba and made their way to Florida in the Gulf's currents. Much of the snapper and grouper that supports Florida's fish industry could also originate in or pass through Cuban waters.

To better understand this marine life, scientists track their travels between the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, Florida and Cuba. Learning where each species originates can help in reaching agreements on fishing limits and other protective measures.

Still, coral reefs are the top priority for U.S. marine biologists working with Cuba.

Scientists predict that by 2050, all coral reefs will be in danger from pollution and changes in water temperature and sea levels.

Natural reefs in Martin, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties generate an estimated $3.4 billion in income a year through recreation, education and science.

More importantly, reefs protect coasts by reducing wave energy from storms and hurricanes. And as home to more than 4,000 species of fish and countless species of plants, coral reefs support some 25 percent of all known marine species.

Whether a coral reef is off the shores of Cuba or the U.S., the waters they share suffers from its degradation. In addition, coral larvae from Cuba finds its way to reefs in Florida and vice versa.

So if a reef in Cuba disappears, it has a ripple effect, said John Bruno, a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of North Carolina.

"If the coral babies in Florida come from Cuba," Bruno said, "then that would be a big problem for the state."

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Bruno's students travel annually to Cuba and the reef they seek out most is the pristine "Gardens of the Queen," or Jardines de la Reina.

Most of Cuba's reefs are in decline, said Vaughan of Mote Marine, but "la Reina" remains healthy.

He believes U.S. researchers can help other reefs by learning its secret to survival.

Cuba, in turn, can benefit from more advanced U.S. technology, said Whittle with the Environmental Defense Fund.

A forum was established in 2007 to formalize this kind of cooperation -- the Tri-National Workshop, attended by top marine biologists from Mexico, Cuba and the U.S.

They meet at least once a year on issues affecting turtles, sharks, dolphins, coral reefs, fisheries and marine protected areas.

"We can learn more by working with other country's scientists," Whittle said. "We share their knowledge, we share ours, and we work together to find out how we can help one another."

Mote Marine, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Nature Conservancy are private, U.S.-based participants.

Florida's public universities are not at the table. Neither is U.S., making it the only of the three nations without government involvement.

"We're working together," Vaughan said, "to find out answers to things we could not know as individuals."

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Energy ribbon at solar system's edge a 'cosmic roadmap'

A model of the interstellar magnetic fields which would otherwise be straight -- warping around the outside of our heliosphere, based on data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer. The red arrow shows the direction in which the solar system moves through the galaxy.NASA/IBEX/UNH

Cosmic ray intensities (left) compared with predictions (right) from NASA's IBEX spacecraft. The similarity between these observations and predictions supports the local galactic magnetic field direction determined from IBEX observations made from particles at vastly lower energies than the cosmic ray observations shown here. The blue area represents regions of lower fluxes of cosmic rays. The gray and white lines separate regions of different energiesâlower energies above the lines, high energies below.Nathan Schwadron/UNH-EOS

A strange ribbon of energy and particles at the edge of the solar system first spotted by a NASA spacecraft appears to serve as a sort of "roadmap in the sky" for the interstellar magnetic field, scientists say.

By comparing ground-based studies and in-space observations of solar system's mysterious energy ribbon, which was first discovered by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) in 2009, scientists are learning more details about the conditions at the solar system's edge. The study also sheds light into the sun's environment protects the solar system from high-energy cosmic rays. [Photos and Images from NASA's IBEX Spacecraft]

"What I always have been trying to do was to establish a clear connection between the very high-energy cosmic rays we're seeing [from the ground] and what IBEX is seeing," study leader Nathan Schwadron, a physicist at the University of New Hampshire, told Space.com.

Previously, maps from ground-based observatories showed researchers that clusters of cosmic rays — extremely high-energy particles that originate from supernovas — are correlated with the IBEX ribbon. The ribbon is roughly perpendicular to the interstellar magnetic field while cosmic rays stream, on average, along the interstellar magnetic field. (The particles themselves are created from interactions between the solar wind and interstellar matter.)

In the longer term, Schwadron said work like this will help scientists better understand more about the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. This is a region that only one mission — NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft — has reached so far, and scientists know little about what that environment is like.

Travelling through the transition zone
The sun's sphere of influence in the solar system is known as the heliosphere. The sun's "solar wind" of high-energy particles flows within the heliosphere and pushes back against high-energy cosmic rays originating in interstellar space. The transition zone between these two regions is called the heliosheath.

Here's where a mystery arises: Voyager 1's measurements of the magnetic field from the edge of interstellar space show a starkly different direction of the magnetic field inferred in the IBEX ribbon, Schwadron said.

"At that point, you say to yourself what’s wrong? What could possibly be the issue? It seems like we now have good independent confirmation that the IBEX ribbon is ordered by the interstellar magnetic field, and we know that Voyager 1 takes fairly good measurements," Schwadron said.

The few studies examining this issue, showing little consensus. An October paper co-authored by Schwadron in Astrophysical Journal Letters argued that Voyager 1 could be measuring interstellar plasma coming in through magnetic field lines, but may still be in the heliosheath itself. This stands in contrast to findings from NASA and other science groups saying Voyager 1 is definitively in interstellar space.

The researchers noted that Voyager 1 is picking up its information "at a specific time and place," but IBEX's data is collected and averaged across vast distances, so that could also lead to discrepancies.

"What is really missing here is our understanding of the physics," Schwadron said, adding that reconnection between magnetic field lines could be an example of something that changes the conditions of the boundary region.

The research was published Thursday in the journal Science Express and includes participation from several United States research institutions.

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We've found Amazon River's true source, scientists say

In this Oct. 4, 2005 file photo, a boat tries to make its way through a section of the Amazon River suffering from lower water levels near Uricurituba in northern Brazil.AP Photo/A Critica, Euzivaldo Queiroz,File

It's an argument that's persisted for nearly four centuries: Where does the Amazon River begin? 

The question is complicated by the number of tributaries that feed into it, with at least five Peruvian rivers grabbing the title at some point since the mid-1600s.

Now, a group of researchers write in Area that the Apurimac River has wrongly been attributed as its source since 1971, and they have a replacement: southwestern Peru's Mantaro River.

If the designation sticks, another change would follow: The Amazon would grow, with another 47 to 57 miles being tacked on to its roughly 4,000-mile length.

But it's a somewhat muddied conclusion. First, the definition of "source" isn't entirely established, but the currently accepted explainer is "the most distant point up the longest tributary in the river's drainage basin," explains National Geographic.

Using topographic maps, satellite imagery, digital hydrographic datasets, and GPS tracking data to chart the Mantaro, the team determined it was roughly 10 percent longer than the Apurimac, handing it the title.

Except the Mantaro doesn't flow year-round; a dam constructed in 1974 causes it to run dry for nearly five months. Some geographers say that means it's not a contender; the study's authors say man-made or temporary changes shouldn't factor in.

A Smithsonian geographer concedes that the Mantaro could be considered "a new source of the Amazon"—but not "the source." (It's not the only Amazon discovery made in recent months.)

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