Laptop WiFi may affect sperm
CORDOBA, Argentina, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Male exposure to a wireless Internet-connected laptop decreased motility and induced DNA fragmentation in sperm, researchers in Argentina found.
Conrado Avendano of Nascentis Medicina Reproductiva in Cordoba and colleagues said the study involved semen samples from 29 healthy donors that were divided into half.
One-half of the sperm was exposed in the laboratory to an Internet-connected laptop by WiFi for 4 hours; the other half was used as a control without being exposed to the laptop, Avendano said.
The study, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, found the sperm samples exposed to laptop WiFi showed a significant decrease in progressive sperm motility -- the ability to move spontaneously and actively, consuming energy in the process -- and an increase in sperm DNA fragmentation.
However, levels of dead sperm showed no significant differences between the two groups, Avendano said.
"To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the direct impact of laptop use on human spermatozoa. Ex vivo exposure of human spermatozoa to a wireless Internet-connected laptop decreased motility and induced DNA fragmentation by a non-thermal effect," Avendano and colleagues said in the study. "We speculate that keeping a laptop connected wirelessly to the Internet on the lap near the testes may result in decreased male fertility. Further in vitro and in vivo studies are needed to prove this contention."
Soft robot inspired by starfish
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they've created a soft robot inspired by animals without internal skeletons such as starfish, squid and worms.
The robot, described in a report published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is composed of elastomeric polymers and uses five actuators, along with a pneumatic valving system that operates at low pressures, to give it motion. PNAS said a combination of crawling and undulation gaits allow the robot to navigate over and under obstacles.
"Instead of basing this and other designs on highly evolved animals as models, we are using simpler organisms for inspiration," a team led by Harvard University chemistry professor George M. Whitesides said in the journal article, which was quoted on Nature.com. "These organisms, ones without internal skeletons, suggest designs that are simpler to make and are less expensive than conventional hard robots, and that may, in some respects, be more capable of complex motions and functions."
U.N. report: Warm temps despite La Nina
NEW YORK, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Global temperatures are the 10th-highest on record despite this year's La Nina, which is supposed to cool Earth's atmosphere, a U.N. report said.
The U.N. World Meteorological Organization report, released Tuesday at the organization's Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, said the 13 warmest years on record since 1850 have all occurred since 1997, with the period between 2002 and 2011 the warmest-ever decade.
WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud, at a press briefing in Geneva, said concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rapidly approaching levels consistent with a rise in average global temperatures that some scientists say could trigger irreversible climate changes, the United Nations said in a release.
The report said this year's weather was heavily influenced by a strong La Nina event that developed in the tropical Pacific at the end of 2010 and continued until May 2011. The La Nina was linked to droughts in East Africa, the central equatorial Pacific and the southern part of the United States. The La Nina was also associated with the floods in Southern Africa, Southern Asia, eastern Australia and Central and South America.
UNESCO to guide Pompeii restoration
POMPEII, Italy, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The United Nations says it will work with Italy to restore Pompeii, which was damaged by heavy rains last year.
Several key buildings at the famed Roman-era archeological site collapsed in November 2010, sparking concerns about the future conservation of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage site.
In an agreement signed Tuesday, UNESCO said it would collaborate with Italian authorities during the next nine months on the restoration and ways to improve the conservation of the site. Italy will finance the restoration.
The site contains the vestiges of two cities and numerous villas that were buried in lava and ashes when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79 -- and were only discovered after excavations in the 18th century.
Francesco Bandarin, UNESCO assistant director general for culture, described the safeguarding of the Pompeii site as a "complex endeavor."
