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SOUTH AFRICA - What kind of world will our children and grandchildren wake up to a few decades from now?

For starters, they could be sweltering in temperatures up to eight degrees hotter than today, according to a new series of government fact sheets aimed at preparing the country for a gradual but significant shift in global climate patterns.

The green hills of the Drakensberg will look a lot different, covered mostly in thorn trees instead of rolling grasslands. Even the birdsong in our gardens will change as several species disappear or flee to cooler, higher ground. There will probably be fewer Jersey cows and Angus bulls – which will be replaced by Nguni and Bonsmara cattle that cope better with drought and heat.

Hospitals and clinics will be treating more patients for malaria, cholera or yellow fever as mosquitoes, ticks and other pests expand into places which were once too cold for them to breed.

Hotter temperatures were expected to reduce crop yields, leading to food shortages and higher prices as maize, wheat and sunflower production drops by as much as 25 percent. More hungry people will flock to the growing shanty towns around the cities.

These are some of the sobering but "credible" scenarios sketched in a series of documents published by the Department of Environmental Affairs as part of the government's Long-Term Adaptation Scenarios research programme. They cover the short term (2015-2035) and medium to long term (2050-2090) based on climate change research by local scientists, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other expert bodies.

The department acknowledges it is hard to make accurate projections because of the many uncertainties and inherent complexity of climate change. Nevertheless, it projects that if governments fail to pull the handbrake on soaring levels of industrial greenhouse gases quickly, there will be "significant warming, as high as five to eight degrees centigrade, over the South African interior" from 2050 to 2090.

This warming would be somewhat reduced in coastal zones. In general, the western and southern parts of the country would become drier and eastern regions, such as KZN, would be wetter.

But, if world governments reduced carbon emissions swiftly, temperature increases could be halved and the risk of high regional temperature rises and extreme changes in rainfall could be reduced.

Source: The Mercury

WASHINGTON – Africa is facing a new malaria risk: A common type of malaria that used to be powerless to infect certain groups of Africans is becoming more potent, putting tens of millions of people at risk, scientists said. Caused by a mosquito-borne parasite called Plasmodium vivax, the infection is rarely fatal but can lay dormant in the liver and cause chronic recurrences if left untreated.

"If this is on the move into continental Africa, it is going to complicate all the efforts of malaria elimination that have begun to make some progress there," said Peter Zimmerman, professor of international health, biology and genetics at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

The Malaria Atlas Project has estimated that 2.5 billion people worldwide are at risk for P. vivax malaria. P. vivax is growing increasingly resistant to current drug treatments, according to the Malaria Vaccine Initiative.

Genomic studies have since shown that a duplication of a gene known to enable the parasite to infect red blood cells could be aiding the evolution of P. vivax. But more research is needed to gain an understanding of how it is changing and what can be done to stop it.

Source: Sapa-AFP

LONDON - British scientists have achieved a breakthrough in the fight against cancer that could lead to new treatments and possibly even its prevention. They have unlocked the DNA secrets of 30 of the most common forms of the disease, bringing us closer to understanding their causes.

Despite significant advances in medicine, remarkably little is known about what triggers cancer, which kills half the 325 000 Britons diagnosed with it each year. In the biggest analysis of its kind, the researchers compared DNA from more than 7 000 cancer patients around the world. The cases included the most common cancers, including breast, bowel, lung and prostate, which account for more than half of those diagnosed in Britain.

The researchers looked for patterns in the genetic code of the tumours that were made by these mutations. Analysis of the 7 000 DNA samples revealed 21 patterns that between them were responsible for 30 cancers. Although some were caused by tobacco, sunlight or ageing, the causes of many are unknown.

Working out which food, drink, habit or other external factor causes such changes in the DNA could lead to new ways of preventing the disease. Knowing more about the genetics of cancer should also speed the search for new treatments. Some existing drugs might also work better in those whose tumours are caused by particular patterns.

Certain patterns in the DNA of tumours were expected, such as the one caused by smoking. But others were surprises, including one believed to be caused by a protein that helps us fight infections, according to the research published in the journal Nature.

Source: Daily Mail

LONDON - Scientists have created an "intelligent" surgical knife that can detect in seconds whether tissue being cut is cancerous, promising more effective and accurate surgery in future. The device, built by researchers at London's Imperial College, could allow doctors to cut back on additional operations to remove further pieces of cancerous tumours.

Surgeons often find it impossible to tell by sight where tumours end and healthy tissue begins, so some cancer cells are often left behind. A fifth of breast cancer patients who have lumpectomy surgery need a second operation. The new "iKnife" is designed to get round the problem by instantly sampling the smoke given off as tissue is cut through using an electric current to see if it is cancerous.

Currently, removed tissue can be sent for laboratory analysis while the patient remains under general anaesthetic - but each test takes around half an hour, while the iKnife provides feedback in less than three seconds. It does this by analysing biological information given off from burning tissue and comparing the findings to a database of biological fingerprints from tumours and healthy tissue.

The iKnife may also have a place beyond cancer, since it can identify tissue with an inadequate blood supply, as well as types of bacteria present in tissue.

Source: www.livescience.com