Quirks & Quarks for May 13, 2000

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LINKS

Exercise induced asthma






Beetles tricking bees
Nature - May 4, 2000, Vol.405








High fibre and colon cancer

Soot in the atmosphere
Science - May 12, 2000, Vol.288











Asthma linked to spit
Press release on the discovery
















Question of the week: rotting driftwood

Exercise induced asthma

A surprisingly high number of elite athletes suffer from asthma. It seems their asthma, may be triggered by the very activities in which they participate. Their condition is often referred to as "exercise-induced asthma."

Kathryn O'Hara was at this week's international convention of the American Thoracic Society in Toronto. She spoke with Dr. Louis-Philippe Boulet, a thoracic specialist at Laval University and Dr. Don Mackenzie, professor of sports medicine at UBC. Then she came to tell us more about athletes and asthma.

Kathryn O'Hara is a freelance science journalist living in Toronto.

Beetles tricking bees

Springtime is a time for mating. The familiar dance of the birds and the bees is being played out around us. But what happens when your mate isn't exactly who you thought they were?

One type of beetle has figured out a way to trick a male bee into thinking its larvae are actually a female bee. Dr. John Hafernik discovered this dastardly deception and came to share the tale with us at Quirks. Dr. Hafernik is the chair of the biology department at San Francisco State University.

Dietary column: Colon cancer and high fibre

For almost thirty years, doctors and health specialists have been telling us that eating a high-fibre diet would reduce our chances of getting colon cancer.

Now, two major studies have turned that wisdom on its ear - and created confusion and controversy.
Dr. Carol Greenwood, our occasional columnist on dietary matters came to help us make some sense of the matter. Dr. Greenwood is a professor of nutrition at the University of Toronto and at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care.

Soot in the atmosphere

For years it was suggested that airborne particles like soot might actually help prevent global warming. These particles can float high up in the atmosphere, providing places for water vapour to condense and help clouds to form.

That was the theory anyway.

It turns out it's more complicated than that. Researchers in the U.S. think their latest study of how soot works in the atmosphere might be bad news for climate change. Dr. Andy Ackerman of NASA's Ames Research Centre in Mountain View, California, led the study.

Asthma and spit

Asthmatics who aren't athletes, like the ones in our first item, have attacks triggered by different factors. These stresses can be emotional or physical, but no one knew exactly how the brain 'talked' to the lungs and triggered the asthma attack.

Researchers in Edmonton found a common thread in spit - or at least a hormone produced in the salivary gland. Dr. Dean Befus is a professor of medicine at the University of Alberta, and director of the Alberta Asthma Centre in Edmonton. He came in to tell us a bit about the salivary link to asthma.

Question of the week: rotting driftwood

One of our listeners wanted to know why driftwood never seems to rot. For the answer we consulted Dwight Yochim, Manager of Forestry and Communications at the Association of BC Professional Foresters.

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