Tag: bbc news
Lungs ‘magically’ heal damage from smoking
Your lungs have an almost “magical” ability to repair some of the damage caused by smoking – but only if you stop, say scientists.
The mutations that lead to lung cancer had been considered to be permanent, and to persist even after quitting.
But the surprise findings, published in Nature, show the few cells that escape damage can repair the lungs.
The effect has been seen even in patients who had smoked a pack a day for 40 years before giving up.
The thousands of chemicals in tobacco smoke corrupt and mutate the DNA in your lung cells – slowly transforming them from healthy to cancerous.
The study uncovered that happening on a massive scale in a smoker’s lungs even before they had cancer.
The overwhelming majority of cells taken from a smoker’s airways had been mutated by tobacco, with cells containing up to 10,000 genetic alterations.
“These can be thought of as mini time bombs, waiting for the next hit that causes them to progress to cancer,” said Dr Kate Gowers, one of the researchers at UCL.
But a small proportion of cells went unscathed.
Exactly how they avoid the genetic devastation caused by smoking is unclear, but the researchers said they appeared to “exist in a nuclear bunker”.
However, after someone quits smoking, it is these cells that grow and replace the damaged cells in the lungs.
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In people who quit, up to 40% of their cells looked just like those from people who had never smoked.
“We were totally unprepared for the finding,” Dr Peter Campbell, from the Sanger Institute, told BBC News.
He added: “There is a population of cells that, kind of, magically replenish the lining of the airways.
“One of the remarkable things was patients who had quit, even after 40 years of smoking, had regeneration of cells that were totally unscathed by the exposure to tobacco.”
Motivation to quit
The researchers still need to assess how much of the lungs are repaired. The study focused on the major airways rather than the small structures called alveoli, where oxygen crosses from the air we breathe into our lungs.
There are about 47,000 cases of lung cancer in the UK each year. Nearly three-quarters of them are caused by smoking.
Studies have already shown that people cut their risk of lung cancer almost from the day they quit.
The assumption had been that this was simply because any further mutations caused by smoking were avoided.
Dr Rachel Orritt, from Cancer Research UK, said: “It’s a really motivating idea that people who stop smoking might reap the benefits twice over – by preventing more tobacco-related damage to lung cells, and by giving their lungs the chance to balance out some of the existing damage with healthier cells.”
Article via BBC
Kanye West’s Sunday Service playing Coachella
Article via BBC
Kanye West has spent the last year making headlines for everything except his music.
But fans of the artist have been treated to something special each Sunday over the past few months.
Tune into Kim Kardashian’s Instagram Stories and there you’ll find Kanye and a choir belting out renditions of some of his most famous songs – as well as bits of music that seem to be brand new.
Known as Kanye West’s Sunday Service, it’s been announced the act is heading to Coachella Festival in California to perform on Easter Sunday.
But what is it?
Religion has always been important to Kanye West’s music.
And he’s got a famously big ego.
So when he debuted Sunday Service at the beginning of 2019, and it looked like he was starting his own church, people weren’t that surprised.
A lot of what goes on at Sunday Service remains pretty secretive – people are even reportedly made to sign non-disclosure agreements.
But from the snapshots we’re shown it all seems to centre around the choir/live orchestra.
Whether it’s Jesus Walks, Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1 or Lift Off, Sunday Service often seems to showcase a reinterpretation of Kanye’s tracks.
And music seems to be the main aspect to the service that makes it spiritual.
The congregation
Unsurprisingly, with Kanye and the Kardashians involved, Sunday Service has become a bit of a celeb hot spot.
A Sunday Service invitation is the “most prestigious, highly-coveted” invitation possible for musicians in LA, according to Variety – which describes it as “where spirituality and exclusivity meet”.
Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom are among the A-listers who’ve been spotted there.
But Sunday Service has also led to a whole host of new fans for five year old North West – Kim and Kanye’s oldest child – because of videos like this.
There’s speculation that Kanye West’s Sunday Service could be leading up to another gospel album from the rapper – a few years after the gospel-influenced The Life of Pablo came out.
Kanye had promised an album at the end of last year – called Yandhi – which was delayed.
Whatever is happening with new music, one thing is definite: the people at Coachella look like they’re definitely in for a treat.
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Florida schoolgirls arrested for ‘satanic murder plot’
Two Florida schoolgirls have been arrested and accused of plotting to kill classmates in a satanic rite.
Police say the pair, 11 and 12, told officers they were Satan worshippers and planned to kill at least 15 students at Bartow Middle School.
On Tuesday they were searched by police who found weapons including a butcher’s knife, pizza cutter and scissors.
They told investigators they planned to drink the blood of their victims and “possibly eat their flesh”.
The search took place after a student informed a teacher about a possible attack in a school building.
The two girls were waiting in the toilet for younger students that they could “overpower to be their victims”, police said.
In a statement, Bartow police chief Joe Hall said a search of the girls’ mobile phones revealed text messages plotting the attack, and officers had also found a handwritten note saying: “Go to bathroom to kill.”
Article via BBCNews
US mid-terms latest: How handwriting could affect your vote
The US mid-term elections in just under two weeks’ time will help define the rest of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Americans will vote for members of both chambers of Congress, as well as for governors in 36 out of 50 states.
Between now and then, we’ll bring you updates and all the best analysis every weekday in this round-up.
Today we look at a court battle over absentee ballots in Georgia, a new Trump law on opioids and different views at political rallies.
One court case
How good is your handwriting? A federal judge has ruled Georgia must stop throwing out absentee ballots when a voter’s signature doesn’t match their voter registration card.
“This ruling protects the people of Georgia from those who seek to undermine their right to vote,” American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) staff attorney Sophia Lakin said, calling the court’s decision a huge victory.
Judge Leigh Martin May issued a temporary restraining order, saying the state must notify voters first before they can reject their ballots or their applications.
“The court does not understand how assuring that all eligible voters are permitted to vote undermines the integrity of the election process,” she said.
Not all signatures are created equal
The ACLU argued Georgia election officials aren’t required to be trained in spotting differences in your signature, and there’s no rule or law defining differences between one person’s handwriting and another’s.
Georgia has until noon on Thursday to comment on the ruling, Judge May said.
The rules for absentee ballots differ across the country – 27 states and the District of Columbia allow absentee ballots from any qualified voter, but 20 states need an excuse from the applicant.
A Northern Illinois University study has drawn up a Cost of Voting Index, to measure how easy it is to vote across the US.
One law
“Together we are going to end the scourge of drug addiction in America,” President Trump said as he signed a sweeping new law on opioids.
The bill expanded access to substance disorder treatments for Medicaid users and aims to boost research efforts to find non-addictive pain killers.
In a rare show of bipartisan action, the Senate passed the legislation 98-1 earlier in the month. The House voted 393-8 in favour.
Last year, 72,000 died from drug overdoses, and both parties are focusing on the issue in their mid-term campaigns.
The Wall Street Journal reports that political ads about opioids have aired more than 50,000 times across 25 states in the run-up to the midterms.
One video
Remember Barack Obama? The former Democratic president is back on the campaign trail, trying to boost support for his party’s platform.
Donald Trump is also criss-crossing the nation, rallying the Republicans ahead of the midterms.
Both men are loved and loathed – so the BBC’s Rajini Vaidyanathan went to a rally on each side to ask people their thoughts.
Choose the outcome
Write your own future with our signature mid-term elections game, showing all the possible outcomes of the vote. Only 12 days to go.