A leading academic believes workers and schoolchildren are being subjected to sleep deprivation that it ‘tantamount to torture’ by being made to start work before 10am, reports the The Independent this morning.
Dr Paul Kelly, from the Oxford University Sleep and Circadian Institute said people’s body clocks don’t fit with a ‘9 to 5’ cycle until later in life.
Apparently he told the Bradford Science Festival that the problem is causing people to become exhausted and seriously ill.
The BBC meanwhile has news of a new ‘sponge-like’ implant that could help stop tumours from spreading – by mopping up cancer cells.
In early experiments in mice, US researchers have reported that inserting the implant in abdominal fat or under the skin ‘sucked up’ cancer cells that had started to circulate in the body.
According to the report, the process mimicks what happens when tumour cells metastasise, whereby cells break loose from a tumour and are attracted to other areas by immune cells.
Lastly a warning from another group of US researchers that e-cigarettes may make teens four times more likely to take up smoking tobacco later in life, according to the Daily Mail.
Apparently their study showed 30% of teenage e-cigarette users went on to start smoking real cigarettes within a year compared with 10% of those who had not tried e-cigarettes – and the scientists said this raises concerns at the way e-cigarettes are being marketed at young people.
