Michael Jackson: How Long Can You Survive Without Sleep?

A doctor told a courtroom this week in Los Angeles that Michael Jackson went without "real" sleep for 60 days leading up to his death. The testimony raises questions about how long a person can survive without shut-eye, and whether it matters what type of sleep a person slips into when they snooze.

Jackson had been receiving nightly infusions of propofol, a surgical anesthetic, for two months to treat his insomnia as he prepared for a series of comeback shows.

Even if the drug made Jackson feel well rested, it would have sent him into a rather superficial slumber each night, said Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard sleep scientist who testified at the trial against the pop star's concert promoter this week, according to CNN. [Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders]

Czeisler reportedly told the courtroom that propofol suppresses rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. If Jackson hadn't died primarily of an overdose of the anesthetic (and another sedative) on June 25, 2009, the lack of REM sleep may have eventually killed him, Czeisler said.

"It would be like eating some sort of cellulose pellets instead of dinner," Czeisler was quoted as saying by CNN. "Your stomach would be full, and you would not be hungry, but it would be zero calories and not fulfill any of your nutrition needs."

Is REM sleep important?

While sleep deprivation over time has been linked to obesity and chronic diseases, such as diabetes and breast cancer, it's difficult to pin those side effects on a specific aspect of sleep, and not all scientists agree that REM sleep has crucial restorative powers in itself.

"There's no evidence that REM sleep deprivation by itself will kill anyone," Dr. Jerome Siegel, professor of psychiatry at UCLA, told LiveScience.

REM sleep is characterized by heightened brain activity and is the state when dreams are at their most intense. The phase is thought to originate in the area at the base of the brain called the pons. Oftentimes damage to this critical part of the brain spells death. However, there are some cases of people who have survived an injury to this region and are living normal lives, but without ever experiencing REM sleep again, said Siegel, who is also affiliated with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

Israeli researcher Peretz Lavie followed a patient who had lost REM sleep after a brain injury. The man went to law school and became the puzzle editor for Tel Aviv newspaper.

And if it's true that a lack of REM sleep can kill you, then no one should be taking MAOIs and SSRIs, common classes of antidepressants, Siegel said; these drugs have been known to inhibit the dream-making state of slumber.

The Jackson case does underscore what little scientists know about the purpose of sleep, let alone a specific phase. One thing researchers do know is that people are more alert when they wake up from REM sleep.

"You can see an evolutionary advantage for having this state that allows you to be alert when you're awakened," Siegel said.

How long can you stay awake?

Randy Gardner holds the record for the longest a person has ever voluntarily gone without sleep, staying awake for 264 hours (about 11 days) when he was 17 for a school science fair project in 1965.

No person has ever definitively died from lack of sleep alone, and it's ethically dicey to explore those boundaries in the lab. Last year, a 26-year-old Chinese man attempting to watch every game of the European Cup reportedly died after staying awake for 11 days. Reports at the time suggested he was drinking alcohol and smoking throughout the sleepless soccer-watching binge, making it difficult to rule sleep deprivation the primary cause of death.

In famous experiments in the 1980s at the University of Chicago, scientists kept rats from sleeping by jolting them awake every time they nodded off. The animals consistently died within two weeks, but Siegel thinks their deaths may have had more to do with the surge of the stress hormone cortisol and increase in blood pressure every time they were woken up than the sleep deprivation.

"What they're dying of is being repeatedly awakened which is quite different from sleep deprivation," Siegel said. "If you stay up all night, none of this happens."

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitterand Google+.Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/michael-jackson-long-survive-without-sleep-143543141.html

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UK Ministry of Defence's UFO department was disbanded three years ago, had 'no defense purpose'

National Archive documents recently released show that the UK government's very own UFO department, which had reported on sightings for over 50 years, was shut down three years ago. The department apparently never revealed any "potential threats" to the country, so the Ministry of Defence closed both the hotline and email address that fielded the public's sightings of UFOs. A civil servant briefed the current defence minister, Bob Ainsworth, saying: "The level of resources diverted to this task is increasing in response to a recent upsurge in reported sightings, diverting staff from more valuable defence-related activities." The recently released files also covered some of the sightings reported from across the UK in 2009, which included, perhaps unsurprisingly, Stonehenge.

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Obama to seek return for investment in Africa

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's upcoming weeklong trip to Africa will mark his most significant personal investment in the developing region since taking office.

The White House is hoping the return on that investment will be an increased foothold for U.S. businesses on a continent where China and other emerging economies are already major players.

Casting a shadow over Obama's trip will be the health of beloved former South African President Nelson Mandela, who has been hospitalized for two weeks. Family and government officials say the 94-year-old's condition is improving, but the White House said it would defer to Mandela's family for decisions on whether the anti-apartheid leader will be able to meet with Obama.

"We want whatever is in the best interest of his health," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.

Obama's two-day visit to South Africa will be bookended by stops in Senegal and Tanzania. The trip was structured to give Obama a footprint in East, West and South Africa and to highlight stable democracies on a continent where corruption and authoritarian rule are still common.

The president, along with wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha, is scheduled to depart Washington Wednesday morning.

While Obama has devoted significant time to emerging economies in Asia and Latin America, he's spent just one day in sub-Saharan Africa since taking office ? a 24-hour visit to Ghana in 2009. Meanwhile, countries like China, Malaysia, Brazil and Turkey have been upping their investments in Africa.

"There are other countries getting in the game," Rhodes said. "If the United States is not leading in Africa, we're going to fall behind in a very important region in the world."

China in particular has poured significant resources into the region in recent years. Official figures from Beijing put China's trade with Africa at nearly $200 billion last year, up from $10 billion in 2000. The rapid increase has been driven largely by Chinese demand for oil and investments in infrastructure, including telecommunications grids.

According to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, U.S. exports to sub-Saharan Africa totaled about $95 billion in 2011.

Despite China's robust investments, African countries increasingly have criticized Beijing for exploiting the continent's mineral wealth and doing little to invest in the local communities. Obama is likely to try to make the case that the U.S. will not only be looking out for its own interests in Africa, but also those of the African people.

"China has a mixed record in Africa but gets criticized for kind of lack of transparency, bringing its own workers, bringing its own materials, not engaging with the communities around them," said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "And I think the president will want to make that distinction of why the U.S. is a good partner in this regard."

American business executives and top Obama economic advisers, including newly confirmed U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, will travel with the president. Among the president's events will be a CEO and business leader forum in Tanzania.

The president will also spend a significant portion of his trip reaching out to African youth, including a speech at the University of Cape Town. One in three Africans is between the ages of 10 and 24, according to the White House.

Obama's stops in South Africa also include a visit to Robben Island, where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison. In Senegal, he'll visit Goree Island and its "Door of No Return," a memorial to the Atlantic slave trade.

Mrs. Obama will also have a full slate of solo appearances in Africa, including a first ladies summit in Tanzania. The event with be hosted by former American first lady Laura Bush, who has been active on women's issues in Africa.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-seek-return-investment-africa-220130477.html

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Driver dies in 24 Hours of Le Mans race

LE MANS, France (AP) ? Danish driver Allan Simonsen has died following a crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, race organizers said.

The 34-year-old Simonsen was taken to the hospital Saturday after his Aston Martin No. 95 crashed out about 10 minutes after the start of the race. He died at the hospital soon after arrival "due to his injuries," organizers said.

Simonsen was participating for the seventh time in the endurance race.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/driver-dies-24-hours-le-mans-race-163235405.html

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Light and nanoprobes detect early signs of infection

June 20, 2013 ? Duke University biomedical engineers and genome researchers have developed a proof-of-principle approach using light to detect infections before patients show symptoms.

The approach was demonstrated in human samples, and researchers are now developing the technique for placement on a chip, which could provide fast, simple and reliable information about a patient. A diagnostic device based on this chip also could be made portable.

The researchers developed a silver-based nanoparticle that homes in on a specific molecular marker that spills into the bloodstream at the first stages of an infection. When light is aimed at the sample, the nanoparticle attached to a molecular marker will reflect a distinct optical fingerprint.

"We have demonstrated for the first time that the use of these nanoprobes can detect specific genetic materials taken from human samples," said Tuan Vo-Dinh, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke' Pratt School of Engineering and director of The Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics at Duke. He is also a professor of chemistry.

The results of the Duke experiments appear online in the journal Analytica Chimica Acta. Hsin-Neng Wang, a post-doctoral fellow in Vo-Dinh's laboratory, was the first author of the paper.

In this interdisciplinary project, the Vo-Dinh team collaborated closely with scientists at Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) who have developed a method of measuring the host's response to infection through RNA profiling.

The research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Projects Agency, the Department of Defense and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.

In the Duke experiments, the nanoprobes are used in conjunction with a phenomenon first described in the 1970s known as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). When light, usually from a laser, is shined on a sample, the target molecule vibrates and scatters back in its own unique light, often referred to as the Raman scatter. However, this Raman response is extremely weak.

"When the target molecule is coupled with a metal nanoparticle or nanostructure, the Raman response is greatly enhanced by the SERS effect -- often by more than a million times," said Vo-Dinh, who has been studying the potential applications of SERS for decades.

"This important proof-of-concept study now paves the way for the development of devices that measure multiple genome-derived markers that will assist with more accurate and rapid diagnosis of infectious disease at the point of care," said Geoffrey Ginsburg, director of genomic medicine at the IGSP, executive director of the Center for Personalized Medicine at Duke Medicine, and a professor of medicine and pathology.

"This would guide care decisions that will lead to more effective treatment and improved outcomes of antimicrobial therapy," Ginsburg said. "Point-of-care diagnostics holds great promise to accelerate precision medicine and, more importantly, help patients in limited-resource settings gain access to molecular testing."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/bB4VZQVAqos/130620162846.htm

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'Unfinished Song' Review: Stamp and Redgrave Tune Up a Flat Melody

By Alonso Duralde

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Stockholm Syndrome" is a phenomenon in which kidnappers mentally overpower their victims, eventually making the hostages side with their captors. "Stepmom Syndrome," named for the shameless 1998 tear-jerker starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts, occurs when manipulative movies pummel their audiences with so much emotional chicanery that viewers wind up reaching for their hankies, all the while knowing full well they've been played by a flimflamming director.

"Unfinished Song," a new British import from writer-director Paul Andrew Williams, delivers "Stepmom Syndrome" in spades. You roll your eyes at its obvious and repeated assaults on your tear ducts, and then a cancer-stricken Vanessa Redgrave plaintively sings "True Colors," and resistance becomes futile.

Redgrave stars as Marion, a loving wife and mother with late-stage cancer; despite her physical frailty, she still enjoys gathering with a group of singing senior citizens, under the direction of the endlessly perky Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton), who guides her older charges through a repertoire that includes Salt-N-Pepa's "Let's Talk About Sex" and Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."

(Any resemblance to the real-life septuagenarian singers in the 2007 documentary "Young@Heart," who tackled less matinee-friendly artists like Sonic Youth and Talking Heads, is no doubt purely intentional.)

Taking care of Marion is her cranky husband Arthur (Terence Stamp), who has no affection for his wife's musical pals and who wishes she would rest instead of traipsing about singing vintage hip-hop. (It's to him that Redgrave sings the moving cover of the Cyndi Lauper hit.)

Marion, it's no spoiler to reveal, dies, leaving Arthur even more bitter and more alone, particularly since Marion was the only one keeping the peace between Arthur and their son James (Christohper Eccleston), who has an adorable daughter (played by Orla Hill) because, of course, movies like this always need a cute kid who can zero in on a crusty old man's sweet spot.

Arthur begrudgingly opens up to Elizabeth, and joins the group, and goes to the big singing competition, and ... well, let's just say "Unfinished Song" isn't out to surprise anyone. It's a comfy tea cozy of a grandma movie - not that there's anything wrong with that, but why be "Calendar Girls" when you can be "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"?

Williams fills his screenplay with nails that he can then hammer for the rest of the running time, so whether it's dying wife/mum/grandma or strained father-son relations that bring you to tears, the movie keeps pummeling you until you produce them. If you can get through Redgrave and Stamp's solo numbers with dry eyes, you're made of sterner stuff than I am.

Both actors elevate the material; watching them turn these old-folks clich?s into living, breathing, singing people is akin to seeing four-star chefs make chateaubriand out of Spam. That alchemy alone may make "Unfinished Song" worth a look; just know up front that you're committing to an album that's only got one or two worthwhile singles.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/unfinished-song-review-stamp-redgrave-tune-flat-melody-185019306.html

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Pirelli, Mercedes in dock over F1 tire tests

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain backs to the pits as FIA members watch at the end of the second practice session at the Gilles Villeneuve racetrack, in Montreal, Canada, Friday, June 7, 2013. A tire testing session involving Mercedes and Pirelli that was criticized by rival Formula One teams will be referred to the FIA's international tribunal as a possible breach of the sport's rules. The Formula one race will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain backs to the pits as FIA members watch at the end of the second practice session at the Gilles Villeneuve racetrack, in Montreal, Canada, Friday, June 7, 2013. A tire testing session involving Mercedes and Pirelli that was criticized by rival Formula One teams will be referred to the FIA's international tribunal as a possible breach of the sport's rules. The Formula one race will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A Mercedes mechanic holds a tire in the pit, at the Gilles Villeneuve racetrack, in Montreal, Canada, Thursday, June 6, 2013. A tire testing session involving Mercedes and Pirelli that was criticized by rival Formula One teams will be referred to the FIA's international tribunal as a possible breach of the sport's rules. The Formula one race will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

PARIS (AP) ? The hearing to determine whether Mercedes and Pirelli broke Formula One rules by holding in-season tire tests has opened in Paris.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) convened the international tribunal hearing to determine whether Mercedes gained a competitive advantage from the testing session in Barcelona last month.

Laying out the case for the FIA, lawyer Mark Howard said Pirelli tried out a variety of tires in the test using Mercedes' 2013 cars, driven by current drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

Pirelli organized the tests and paid for the Barcelona circuit where they were held, Howard said. But he argued that the testing could still have provided Mercedes with potentially valuable information about its cars and their reliability.

"Clearly there was data that was available to Mercedes," he told the panel of judges. "It is difficult to say that Mercedes gained no benefits from the test."

He said none of the other F1 teams were invited to the testing and none were aware that it was taking place.

"There is in fact very little factual dispute in this case," he said.

F1 rules ban the use of current-season cars for track tests.

Red Bull and Ferrari protested about the testing.

Pirelli has denied any rules-breach and said the 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of testing offered no advantages to Mercedes.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery has previously said the tire compounds tested are not going to be used in the 2013 season.

"The focus was on 2014," Hembery said. "These tests were actually performed blind. Mercedes had no idea and has still no idea what was being tested. There was no benefit to them. The benefit was for Pirelli and F1 in general."

The FIA also looked into another Pirelli tire test involving Ferrari in Barcelona in April. But FIA President Jean Todt, who worked for Ferrari from 1993 to 2009, closed that case. The FIA said the Italian team used its 2011 car for the test, breaching no rules.

The FIA said the tribunal ruling "will be published as soon as possible after the hearing."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-20-CAR-F1-Tire-Test-Hearing/id-2eb349e392584c7da84caf70e2acd8ee

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