New advice on car seats
Kids should use rear-facing car seats for as long as possible to protect their heads, necks, and spines in the event of a crash, according to updated guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP had previously advised that children could begin facing forward at age 2. But now it says they should ride rear-facing until they reach the maximum height or weight limit listed on their car seat. The change came after a scientific journal retracted the research on which the organization’s previous advice had been based. The authors of the new guidelines say there isn’t enough data to recommend an exact age to transition to a forward-facing seat, but note that most modern car seats can remain rearfacing until the child reaches 40 pounds— generally well beyond the second birthday. Placing a child in a car seat correctly can reduce the risk of death or serious injury in an accident by more than 70 percent, reports ABCNews.com. “Every month that a child rides rear-facing gives more time for the head, neck, and spine to develop,” says Kerry Chausmer of the nonprofit Safe Kids Worldwide. “That’s why we want kids to ride rear-facing.”
dystrophy in dogs—a major breakthrough that raises hopes the same procedure could be used to cure the disease in humans. The most common fatal genetic condition in children, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, is caused by a genetic mutation that prevents the body from producing dystrophin, a protein essential for strong muscle fibers. If the gene is mutated, muscles—including the heart and diaphragm—waste away, reports The Guardian (U.K.). For this study, researchers used the gene-editing technology CRISPR to restore dystrophin production in four dogs. Within weeks of receiving the injection-administered treatment, the dogs had significantly improved levels of dystrophin: a 92 percent correction in the heart and a 58 percent change in the diaphragm. The researchers estimate that as little as 15 percent improvement could dramatically help people with Duchenne. They are now planning more extensive studies on dogs. “If everything were to continue smoothly,” says lead researcher Eric Olson, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, “we might be able to anticipate moving into a human trial in a few years.”
layer of coral. But on closer inspection, they discovered that the “mountains”— some of them more than 300 feet high— were made entirely of live reef or coral rubble that had built up over thousands of years. “We couldn’t find a place that didn’t have corals,” expedition chief scientist Erik Cordes tells HuffingtonPost.com. “It’s incredible that it stayed hidden off the East Coast for so long.” The reef is mostly white lophelia, a stony variety of coral. Other lophelia reefs have previously been discovered off Florida and North Carolina—but never so deep or so far from the coast.