The pick of the science news
Mothers disrupted but not deprived
Researchers in West Virginia University claim that first-time mothers do not suffer sleep deprivation, as is popularly believed.
Instead, their study of 24 mothers indicates that exhaustion is triggered by sleep fragmentation.
“We found that although our participants are quite fatigued, and their sleep at night is highly interrupted, first-time mothers of newborns go to sleep at night and awaken in the morning at the times they report are their preferred sleep and wake times,” said researcher Megan Clegg-Kraynok.
Wine taste boxed
Wine boxes may lack the style of bottles, but they could provide better options for taste, according to new research from Canada. The study examined how packaging can affect levels of alkyl-methoxypyrazines (MPs), traces of which can mask the desirable flavours in wine.
Researchers added MPs to differently packaged red and white wines and monitored levels over 18 months. Natural cork was associated with the highest MP levels, while levels fell by 26 to
45 per cent in “multilayer aseptic cartons”, or boxes.
"The greatest decrease was evident in Tetrapak cartons," researchers reported in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
A tablet a day to keep ageing at bay?
Taking multivitamins could help slow signs of ageing, at least in DNA, according to new research. A US study, published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,looks at telomeres, the protective caps of DNA which shorten as cells divide and age.
Of 586 women aged between 35 and 74, those who took multivitamins every day had telomeres that were on average 5.1 per cent longer. However, other factors could also be at play in this finding. "Regular multivitamin users tend to follow a healthy lifestyle and have a higher intake of micronutrients, which sometimes makes it difficult to interpret epidemiologic observations on multivitamin use," write the study's authors, adding that further investigations are needed.
By numbers
2
The number of minutes it takes a DNA-binding synthetic compound to kill bacteria, prompting its development as a novel antibiotic at the University of Warwick
37
The percentage increase in the risk of developing high blood pressure if you miss out on sleep in middle age, according to a University of Chicago study
Claire O’Connell
e-mail: 1000.claire@gmail.com