Centenrian plays the markets
CHU Tuya has lived a quiet life over the past 99 years, but when she took up day trading in Shanghai in 1999, she made history.
Countdown to the hot season
TO aid in the countdown to warm summer weather, famous Swiss watchmaker Swatch has released its Spring/Summer series for 2000.
Electric impulses help treat tremors
BOSTON - When the tremors of people with Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis can't be controlled with drugs, doctors sometimes destroy a small portion of the brain in an effort to relieve the quivering.
Magic needles and magnetism
ALLOWING someone to stick a bunch of needles in you in the name of medical science may not, on the face of it, be very appealing. But acupuncture, believed to have been practised in China for several thousand years, has the proven power to cure many chronic diseases, strengthen the immune system and to increase the body's overall health.
High fashion hits the bag time
ACCORDING to ancient Chinese wisdom, when drawing a dragon it is most important to highlight the eyes. This optical detail may be the smallest part of the creature's anatomy, but it can still be the most eyecatching.
China's big cities go for brandname suits
WHICH are the most popular labels for casual suits in China? BALENO, JEANSWEST and GIORDANO are the favourites according to a survey conducted by Donghua University, originally China Textile University.
Pilots prone to skin cancer
LONDON - Airline pilots have up to 25 times the normal rate of skin cancer and scientists in Iceland suspect it could be due partly to disturbed sleep patterns. Cosmic radiation and lifestyle factors, such as more frequent sunbathing, could also be involved, but scientists at the University of Reykjavik said pilots who flew over five or more time zones had 25 times as many cases of malignant melanoma as the general population. Malignant melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. "The excess of malignant melanoma among those flying over five time zones suggests that the importance of disturbance of the circadian rhythm should be taken into consideration in future studies," said Dr Vilhjalmur Rafnsson. Circadian rhythms regulate sleep patterns and the hormone melatonin, a chemical naturally released by the brain to induce sleep. "Melatonin is something that inhibits the growth of cancer cells in experimental models. It has recently been tried in the treatment of malignant melanoma," Rafnsson said in a telephone interview. He stressed that the role of melatonin in the high incidence of the disease among the long-haul pilots was just speculation and said more research still needs to be done. "It could be a combination of bad habits (such as sunbathing) and melatonin. The next thing to do is to study larger groups of pilots and whether they are sunbathing all the time," he said. Rafnsson and his colleagues looked at the skin cancer rates of 265 pilots who worked for Icelandic airlines and compared them with rates expected to develop in the general population based on data from the national cancer registry of people of the same age. Their research is published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. (Agencies via Xinhua)
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