November 8, 2012
Conservation Efforts Needed For Declining Shark Numbers – The Daily Orbit
Want to add years to your life? We’ll tell you how!
NASA’s changing the clock from Martian time.
And cleaning up sharks‘ public image.
All that and more coming up on the Daily Orbit!
Hello and welcome to the Daily Orbit. I’m Emerald Robinson.
“Get up off that thing and dance til you feel better”—or live longer! A new study says that regular physical activity during leisure time can increase overall life expectancy by as much as four and a half years. The findings were consistent for people from normal weight to obese. Data showed that life expectancy was 3.4 years longer for those who got the recommended amount of weekly exercise of 2.5 hours of moderate and 1.5 hours of vigorous exercise per week. People who doubled up on the standard activity gained 4.2 years to their life. Add a 75 minute brisk walking routine to your week and get another 1.8 years. The study also found that regular physical activity mitigates some of the risk imposed by obesity. How many times do we need to hear the same message people? Get out and move! I need to start my salsa dancing again.
And NASA’s Curiosity team is making the move from “Mars time” to Earth time. The average day, or “sol” as it is called on Mars is 40 minutes longer than the Earth day. The team’s daily start time has been creeping a few hours later each week causing them many overnight shifts. With the crazy changing schedule, the team decided it would more productive to switch back to Earth time within the bounds of 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Fortunately for the engineers and scientists, they have been able to cut back the initial 16 hour day following the launch — down to just 12 hours—still pretty long. I love that a day on Mars is called a “sol.” Mars got sol!
And scientists are saying that modern humans may have first evolved in the coastal regions of South Africa. Why do they think this? Because of the advanced killing technologies they found of course. Scientists found evidence of an advanced stone technology that dates back 71,000 years ago at Pinnacle Point near Mossel. This technology consisted of long, thin blades of stone that were blunted on one edge so they could be set in wood or bone to create light armaments like for bows and arrows. This semi-modern technology disappeared between 60,000-65,000 years ago, possibly because of small populations struggling during harsh climate phases.
Ok, are sharks just getting a bad rep or what? Well that bad rep might be affecting their survival. According to scientists, the shark population is in sharp decline with many species nearing extinction. They say media in the U.S. and Australia are more likely to focus on negative reports and shark attacks rather than conservation efforts. Sixty percent of coverage regarding sharks is negative with only 10% of coverage featuring conservation efforts and only 7% talking about shark biology and ecology. The shark population is falling prey to overfishing, pollution, habitat loss and climate change with slow-growth rates, late age of maturity, long gestation period and low reproduction output making sharks even more vulnerable. Researchers say that a balance in media coverage between the positive and the negative could help shark conservation efforts. I don’t know if you’ve seen Soul Surfer but let’s just say I’d personally rather keep sharks at a distance myself. Maybe I’m jaded by media.
Want a better night’s sleep? Then shed that belly fat! Nearly every day on The Daily Orbit we talk about how important diet and exercise is for lifespan—but shedding those pounds will not only add years to your life and lower your risk of death from disease, BUT it could also give you more restful zzz’s. Researcher’s explained that belly fat is “like a living organ—it produces proteins that cause inflammation.” They said that by losing belly fat in particular, “the level of those substances go way down, and the inflammatory response is much less than it was before.” When there is a lot of belly fat, the lungs can’t expand as well, making it much harder to breathe when you’re sleeping increasing the chance of sleep apnea which causes you to wake up more in the middle of the night and leads to daytime fatigue and sleepiness. I keep telling Dad to shed the belly fat but he says it’s just one big ab muscle!
That’s it for the Daily Orbit. See you tomorrow!