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tissues in the spinal column and a wasting of the muscles dependent upon it,” but although the doctor must have
known the facts, he said nothing of a fatal prognosis.
A.L.S. appeared off the sports page on June 26 in an article with the headline, “Gehrig Case Is Expected to
Spur Research Into Baffling Malady.” The A.P. release gave an accurate account of the illness but again
omitted to mention that it was terminal.
On March 13, 1940, The Times adopted what had already become popular usage, referring to “Lou Gehrig’s
Disease” in a report claiming “the first successful treatment” of the illness using vitamin E. “Remedy Found for
‘Gehrig Disease’ ” said the overly optimistic headline on Page 25, and the unsigned article told readers that
“amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has heretofore been considered a chronic, progressive and invariably fatal
disease.”
Gehrig died on June 2, 1941.
Really?
The Claim: Garlic Can Be Helpful in Warding Off a Cold
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
THE FACTS For centuries, garlic has been extolled not just for its versatility in the kitchen but also for its
medicinal powers.
Whatever the reason, studies seem to support an effect. In one double-blind study, published in 2001, British
scientists followed 146 healthy adults over 12 weeks from November to February. Those who had been
randomly selected to receive a daily garlic supplement came down with 24 colds during the study period,
compared with 65 colds in the placebo group. The garlic group experienced 111 days of sickness, versus 366
for those given a placebo. They also recovered faster.
Besides the odor, studies have found minimal side effects, like nausea and rash.
One possible explanation for such benefits is that a compound called allicin, the main biologically active
component of garlic, blocks enzymes that play a role in bacterial and viral infections. Or perhaps people who
consume enough garlic simply repel others, and thus steer clear of their germs.
In a report this year in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, scientists who examined the science
argued that while the evidence was good for garlic’s preventive powers, more studies were needed.
They pointed out that it was still unclear whether taking garlic at the very start of a cold, as opposed to
weeks in advance, would make any difference.
THE BOTTOM LINE Research is limited, but it suggests that garlic may indeed help ward off colds.
Cosmic pattern to UK tree growth
By Matt Walker Editor, Earth News
The growth of British trees appears to follow a cosmic pattern, with trees growing faster when high levels of
cosmic radiation arrive from space. Researchers made the discovery studying how growth rings of spruce trees
have varied over the past half a century.
As yet, they cannot explain the pattern, but variation in cosmic rays impacted tree growth more than changes
in temperature or precipitation. The study is published in the scientific journal New Phytologist.
"We were originally interested in a different topic, the climatological factors influencing forest growth," says
Ms Sigrid Dengel a postgraduate researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Science at the
University of Edinburgh.
To do this, Ms Dengel and University of Edinburgh colleagues Mr Dominik Aeby and Professor John Grace
obtained slices of spruce tree trunks.
These had been freshly-felled from the Forest of Ae in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, by Forest Research, the
research branch of the UK's Forestry Commission. The trees had been planted in 1953 and felled in 2006.
The researchers froze the trunk slices, to prevent the wood shrinking, then scanned them on to a computer
and used software to count the number and width of the growth rings.
As the trees aged, they showed a usual decline in growth. However, during a number of years, the trees'
growth also particularly slowed. These years correlated with periods when a relatively low level of cosmic rays
reached the Earth's surface.
When the intensity of cosmic rays reaching the Earth's surface was higher, the rate of tree growth was faster.
The effect is not large, but it is statistically significant.
The intensity of cosmic rays also correlates better with the changes in tree growth than any other
climatological factor, such as varying levels of temperature or precipitation over the years.
"The correlation between growth and cosmic rays was moderately high, but the correlation with the
climatological variables was barely visible," Ms Dengel told the BBC.
Here comes the Sun
2017/06/29
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