毎日、英語を学習する！！

 

20161219

Woman has baby using ovary frozen in childhood

A woman has given birth in London after doctors restored her fertility using frozen ovarian tissue removed when she was a young child.
The 24-year-old is thought to be the first in the world to have a baby after having an ovary frozen before the onset of puberty.
Moaza Al Matrooshi, whose son was delivered at the privately-run Portland Hospital yesterday, told the BBC: "It's like a miracle.
"We've been waiting so long for this result - a healthy baby."
Her doctor, Sara Matthews, a consultant in gynaecology and fertility, said she was overjoyed for the family - and delighted by the hope it offered to others too.
fertility【名】《生物》受胎
"This is a huge step forward. We know that ovarian tissue transplantation works for older women, but we've never known if we could take tissue from a child, freeze it and make it work again."
Doctors say it will give hope to many other girls and young women who risk losing the chance of motherhood as a result of treatment for cancer, blood or immune disorders.
Moaza Al Matrooshi, who is from Dubai, was born with beta thalassaemia, an inherited blood disorder that is fatal if untreated.
beta thalassemia《医》β［ベータ］サラセミア
New Latin, from Greek thalassa sea + -aemia, from it being esp prevalent round the eastern Mediterranean Sea
She needed chemotherapy, which damages the ovaries, before receiving a bone marrow transplant from her brother at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
So, prior to treatment, when she was nine years old, she had her right ovary removed in an operation in Leeds, where the tissue was frozen.
Fragments of her ovarian tissue were mixed with cryo-protective agents and slowly reduced in temperature to minus 196C, before being stored under liquid nitrogen.
cryoprotective agent凍結防止剤、耐凍剤

Last year, surgeons in Denmark transplanted five slivers of the ovarian tissue back into her body - four were stitched on to her failed left ovary and one on to the side of her uterus.

sliver【名】〔裂けたり切り取られたりした〕薄片

Moaza had been going through the menopause. But after the transplant, her hormone levels began returning to normal, she began ovulating and her fertility was restored.
In order to maximise the chances of having a child, Moaza and her husband Ahmed underwent IVF treatment.
From the eight eggs that were collected, three embryos were produced, two of which were implanted earlier this year.
Moaza said: "I always believed that I would be a mum and that I would have a baby.
"I didn't stop hoping and now I have this baby - it is a perfect feeling."
She also thanked her mother, whose idea it was to save her young daughter's ovarian tissue so that she might be able to have a family in the future.
Dr Sara Matthews, who conducted the fertility treatment, said: "Within three months of re-implanting her ovarian tissue, Moaza went from being menopausal to having regular periods again.
"She basically became a normal woman in her 20s with normal ovary function."
Prof Helen Picton, who leads the division of reproduction and early development at the University of Leeds, carried out the ovary freezing.
She told me: "This is incredibly encouraging. Moaza is a pioneer and was one of the first patients we helped back in 2001, before any baby had been born from ovary tissue preservation.helped back
"Worldwide more than 60 babies have been born from women who had their fertility restored, but Moaza is the first case from pre-pubertal freezing and the first from a patient who had treatment for beta thalassaemia."
Researchers in Leeds have been at the forefront of ovarian tissue freezing.
forefront industry先端産業
In 1999 scientists from Leeds were instrumental in performing the world's first transplant of frozen ovarian tissue.
叙述的用法の形容詞 〔…の〕手段になって，助けになって 〔in〕.
His father was instrumental in getting him the job. 彼がその職を見つけるのには父親の助けがあった.
Prof Picton said that in Europe alone, several thousand girls and young women now had frozen ovarian tissue in storage.
This is usually done prior to patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatment, both of which damage fertility.
Moaza still has one embryo in storage as well as two remaining pieces of ovarian tissue.
She told me she definitely plans to have another baby in the future.
Earlier this year a cancer patient from Edinburgh became the first UK woman to give birth following a transplant of her frozen ovary tissue.
The mother, who conceived naturally, wished to remain anonymous.
Last year a woman in Belgium gave birth using ovarian tissue frozen when she was 13.
Unlike Moaza, she had begun going through puberty when her ovary was removed.
The first woman in the world to give birth following the transplantation of her own ovarian tissue was in Belgium in 2004.
 

20161218

Heimlich manoeuvre inventor dies aged 96
US doctor Henry Heimlich, who invented the manoeuvre used to help victims of choking, has died aged 96.
Dr Heimlich died at a hospital in the US city of Cincinnati early on Saturday following complications from a heart attack he suffered on Monday, his family says.
Dr Heimlich invented the lifesaving technique, which uses abdominal thrusts to clear a person's airway, in 1974.
In May he used the technique himself to save a woman at his retirement home.
He dislodged a piece of meat with a bone in it from the airway of an 87-year-old woman, telling the BBC: "I didn't know I really could do it until the other day."
the other day先日
Dr Heimlich was director of surgery at the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati when he devised the technique.
In a statement released to the media, Dr Heimlich's family said he had been "a hero to many people around the world".
"From the time Dad began his medical career in New York City, to the time he practised as a thoracic surgeon in Cincinnati, he was committed to coming up with simple, effective ideas that helped save lives and significantly improved people's quality of life," it said.

thoracic【形】《解剖》胸の、胸郭の
be committed to《be ～》コミットしている、～に熱心である、～に傾倒している
受け身ではないのか
committed【形】〔主義や行動などに対して〕傾倒した、情熱を注いだ、熱心に取り組む
come up with【句動】〈話〉〔アイデアなどを〕思い付く、考え付く、考え出す

The anti-choking manoeuvre was not Dr Heimlich's only success. In 1962 he developed the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve which was credited with saving many soldiers' lives in the Vietnam War and is still used for patients undergoing chest surgery.
Heimlich Chest Drain Valve
胸腔ドレーンに接続し、胸腔から血液、空気、膿状分泌物を除去するために用いる。
credited with
《be ～》～で高い評価を得る、～の功績［効果・資質］があると信じられている［思われている・考えられる］
credit【他動】～を信用する、信じる〔功績などが人にあると〕認める
creditedは形容詞ではないので、この場合は受け身
Since the technique was introduced in 1974 it is believed to have saved the lives of more than 100,000 people in the US alone.
They include former President Ronald Reagan, pop star Cher, former New York mayor Edward Koch and Hollywood actors Elizabeth Taylor, Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau, Carrie Fisher, Jack Lemmon and Marlene Dietrich.
In 2014 actor Clint Eastwood was credited with saving the life of a golf tournament director in California who was choking on a piece of cheese.
In the UK, celebrity promoter Simon Cowell was reportedly saved by comedian David Walliams, who carried out the Heimlich manoeuvre on him after a mint became stuck in his throat.
mint【名】《植物》ミント、《菓子》ミント菓子、ミント・キャンディ（mint candy）、ハッカ菓子
 

​

20161217

Squid may become favourite UK meal as seas become warmer
The traditional British fish supper could be replaced by the likes of squid as the waters around the UK's shores grow warmer, say government scientists.

could【助動】〔条件が合えば〕～ということもあり得る

Squid and fish that thrive in warmer waters, such as sardines and anchovies, are flourishing around the North Sea, according to fisheries data.

thrive【自動】繁栄する

Squid are now being caught at 60% of survey stations in the North Sea, compared with 20% in the 1980s.
But the likes of cod are heading north, away from British waters.

like【名】同類、同等のもの、～のような物

Dr John Pinnegar, of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), which has been monitoring North Sea fish populations for more than 100 years, said models for 2025 and beyond suggested that seawater temperatures off the UK may continue to rise.
Fishing boats are now catching species that have not been caught in the area before.
"Twenty or 30 years ago we hardly saw squid in our surveys," he told BBC News.
Dr Pinnegar, programme director for marine climate change at Cefas, said summer squid fisheries had expanded around the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland, as part of efforts to reduce over-fishing of more traditional species such as haddock and cod.

haddock【名】《魚》コダラ
"A lot of the things we see increasing in abundance around the UK are marine animals that would probably originally [be] thought of as being Mediterranean or characteristic of the Bay of Biscay, or around Portugal or Spain," he added.

characteristic of～に特有の

"They're now increasing in UK waters because the waters are getting more conducive for those sorts of species, whereas other species are shifting the centre of their distribution towards the north of the UK."

conducive【形】〔良い結果をもたらす〕助けとなる
conducive environment《a ～》良い結果を導くような環境
distribution【名】分布

Cod numbers have been slow to recover after overfishing, meaning much of the cod we eat in the UK is imported
Long-term data shows the centre of distribution of cod has moved north towards Norway, whereas plaice is moving across the North Sea from the Netherlands towards Scotland.

plaice【名】《魚》（ヨーロッパ・）プレイス◆西ヨーロッパの海域に分布するカレイ科ツノガレイ属の食用魚。

Currently, squid catches off the UK tend to be exported to other countries, but Dr Pinnegar, who is presenting data on trends in stocks at the British Ecological Society's annual meeting in Liverpool on Monday, believes that may change.
"Maybe consumers might like to choose species that are distributed in our own waters rather than importing some of this," he said.
"There are quite a lot of species that seem to be increasing - things like red mullet, anchovies, sardines, John Dory, squid - all of these are quite nice to eat but they are the kind of thing you would have normally have eaten on your holiday to Spain or Portugal."
A study earlier this year found that squid appeared to be benefiting from climate change, at the expense of finned fish, and they have been identified as a valuable alternative fishing target, particularly in the North Sea.
Worldwide catches of squid, octopus and cuttlefish (cephalopods) have increased considerably over the last two decades.

cuttlefish【名】《動物》コウイカ、甲烏賊◆頭足綱（Cephalopoda）

Efforts are under way to understand more about the sustainability of populations before they become the target of large-scale fisheries.
Figures show that the annual mean sea surface temperature in the North Sea has risen from about 10 degrees Celsius in the early 1980s to a record 11.7 degree Celsius in 2014.
 

 

 

20161211

Cryogenic storage offers hope for renewable energy

cryo-
a combining form meaning “icy cold,” “frost,” used in the formation of compound words:

The world's largest cold energy storage plant is being commissioned at a site near Manchester.

commission【他動】〔機械を〕作動させる

The cryogenic energy facility stores power from renewables or off-peak generation by chilling air into liquid form.
When the liquid air warms up it expands and can drive a turbine to make electricity.
The 5MW plant near Manchester can power up to 5,000 homes for around three hours.
The company behind the scheme, Highview Power Storage, believes that the technology has great potential to be scaled up for long-term use with green energy sources.

scale up【句動】～を率に応じて増やす、拡大する、〔機能を〕高める

Electricity demand varies, influenced by factors like time of day and season. The National Grid is prepared for surges in demand, with power stations on stand-by ready to crank up the power.

national grid〈英〉全国高圧送電線網

However, dealing with these peaks and troughs will become increasingly difficult as coal-fired power stations close down and more intermittent renewable energy like wind and solar comes online. In 2015 renewables provided almost a quarter of UK electricity.

come online〔工場・発電所などが〕操業［稼働］を開始する

The intermittent nature of green sources has seen researchers focus on trying to improve energy storage.
Pumped hydropower can provide large amounts of energy for long durations, and lithium-ion batteries can respond to demand in milliseconds making them ideal for portable electronic devices and electric vehicles.
But hydropower depends on specific geographies as water has to be pumped uphill, and batteries currently cannot be scaled in a cost effective way to store energy for a town or city.
"Our technology is a bit like a locatable version of a pumped hydro system. Anywhere that needs large scale long-duration storage, that might be to help integrate an offshore wind farm, a system like ours can help achieve that," Gareth Brett from Highview Power explained, during a visit to the Manchester cryogenic site.
"5MW is a bit small for this technology; anything from 10MW and up is the sort of scale we're talking about.
"We've already designed a plant that can do 200MW /1200MWh, that's enough to keep a city going for 6 hours."
Cryogenic storage works by using renewable or off-peak electricity to cool air down to -190 degrees C, which turns it into a liquid.
It's then stored in an insulated tank, similar to a large thermos flask. To release the stored energy, the liquid air is exposed to ambient conditions causing it to expand back into a gas. 

ambient【形】〔音・光などについて〕周囲の、ぐるりと取り巻く、辺り一面の
環境の自然放熱する

The volume increase is huge, about 700 times, which is used to drive a turbine to generate electricity.
Highview Power's demonstrator plant is next to Pilsworth landfill gas generation site. The large insulated tanks sit across the road from a collection of gas engines. These engines burn methane gas produced from decomposing rubbish to generate electricity. The waste heat from this process is captured and used to increase the efficiency of the cryogenic process.
Dr Sheridan Few, Research Associate at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, described a phenomenon unique to this technology.
"There's the storage of the energy, and the generating of the energy. You can make use of waste cold and waste heat... because you're putting both electrical and thermal energy in, the amount of electrical energy you get out, can in some cases end up being more than the electrical energy you put in."
Alongside the provision of energy storage, this technology can tackle the issues of waste heat which is a by-product of many industrial process. Waste cold, as an example, can be found at liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.
While cryogenic storage may be one of the solutions to help the future supply of electricity, there are also new approaches to controlling demand.
"One of the most current issues is understanding the demand side," Dr Jenifer Baxter, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, told the BBC.
"We tend to just produce electricity to meet the demand. Once we understand demand, we will have more confidence in deploying technologies."
Demand side response, the concept of adjusting usage in response to the available supply of electricity, could work easily alongside other innovations like cryogenic energy storage.
 

 

20161203

Human evolution 'not over yet'
The regular use of Caesarean sections is having an impact on human evolution, say scientists.
More mothers now need surgery to deliver a baby due to their narrow pelvis size, according to a study.
Researchers estimate cases where the baby cannot fit down the birth canal have increased from 30 in 1,000 in the 1960s to 36 in 1,000 births today.
Historically, these genes would not have been passed from mother to child as both would have died in labour.

in labor分娩中で

Researchers in Austria say the trend is likely to continue, but not to the extent that non-surgical births will become obsolete.

obsolete【形】使われなくなった

Dr Philipp Mitteroecker, of the department of theoretical biology at the University of Vienna, said there was a long standing question in the understanding of human evolution.
"Why is the rate of birth problems, in particular what we call fetopelvic disproportion - basically that the baby doesn't fit through the maternal birth canal - why is this rate so high?" he said.

fetopelvic disproportion《医》胎児骨盤不均衡

"Without modern medical intervention such problems often were lethal and this is, from an evolutionary perspective, selection.
"Women with a very narrow pelvis would not have survived birth 100 years ago. They do now and pass on their genes encoding for a narrow pelvis to their daughters."

It has been a long standing evolutionary question why the human pelvis has not grown wider over the years.
The head of a human baby is large compared with other primates, meaning animals such as chimps can give birth relatively easily.
The researchers devised a mathematical model using data from the World Health Organization and other large birth studies.
They found opposing evolutionary forces.
One is a trend towards larger newborns, which are more healthy.
However, if they grow too large, they get stuck during labour, which historically would have proved disastrous for mother and baby, and their genes would not be passed on.
"One side of this selective force - namely the trend towards smaller babies - has vanished due to Caesarean sections," said Dr Mitteroecker.
"Our intent is not to criticise medical intervention," he said. "But it's had an evolutionary effect. "

The researchers estimated that the global rate of cases where the baby could not fit through the maternal birth canal was 3%, or 30 in 1,000 births.
Over the past 50 or 60 years, this rate has increased to about 3.3-3.6%, so up to 36 in 1,000 births.
That is about a 10-20% increase of the original rate, due to the evolutionary effect.
"The pressing question is what's going to happen in the future?" Dr Mitteroecker said.
"I expect that this evolutionary trend will continue but perhaps only slightly and slowly.
"There are limits to that. So I don't expect that one day the majority of children will have to be born by [Caesarean] sections."
The research is published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

20161130

Predatory bacteria can wipe out superbugs, says study

predatory bacteria捕食性細菌

Predatory bacteria - that eat others of their kind - could be a new weapon in the fight against superbugs, say UK researchers.

superbug【名】〔従来の薬剤では死滅しない〕超強力な細菌、スーパー耐性菌

Experiments showed a dose of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus acted like a "living antibiotic" to help clear an otherwise lethal infection.
The animal studies, published in Current Biology, suggested there would be no side effects.
Experts said the approach was unusual, but should not be overlooked.
Fear of an antibiotic apocalypse, caused by growing levels of bacteria resisting the drugs, has led to scientists trying other approaches.

apocalypse【名】〔ユダヤ教およびキリスト教の〕啓示書〔一般的な〕啓示
equivalent to apokalyp (tein) to uncover, reveal ( apo- apo- + kalyptein to cover, conceal) + -sis -sis

Bdellovibrio is a fast-swimming bacterium that works its way inside other bacteria where it devours its hosts' insides and swells in size.

work its way into～の中に入り込む

Once it has finished feeding it replicates and bursts out of its now dead host.
The team at Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham tried using Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus to kill a common cause of food poisoning.
Shigella bacteria make 160 million people ill each year, and more than a million die, largely through contaminated food.
Tests in a laboratory dish showed the predatory bacteria caused the population of superbug Shigella to collapse 4,000-fold.
Further tests in fish larvae showed a deadly dose of the superbug led to only 25% surviving for three days.
But when the fish larvae were also "infected" with the predator, survival soared to 60%.
Dr Serge Mostowy, from Imperial College London, told the BBC: "It is definitely a creative approach and what is special is the inability of the host to develop resistance."
He added: "It's an important milestone in research into the use of a living antibiotic that could be used in animals and humans."
However, the researchers believe Bdellovibrio could be more useful in treating infected wounds, rather than those that have spread through the body, as the predatory bacteria can be easily injected into the site.
Far more safety testing is needed before using Bdellovibrio therapeutically could be attempted.
The researchers noticed the predatory bacterium worked best in conjunction with the fish's immune system.
Prof Liz Sockett, from the University of Nottingham, said: "It seems that the Shigella pathogens are evading the immune system, but when Bdellovibrio is there it is releasing broken parts of Shigella and that is giving extra signals to the fish that it should be dealt with."

evade【他動】～を逃れる、避ける、回避する

Bdellovibrio has been shown to kill a range of bacteria including E. coli and Salmonella.
The researchers said there were no signs of side effects and that the fish could tolerate very high levels of Bdellovibrio. The predatory bacteria have been found naturally living in our bodies by other researchers.

tolerate【他動】～を大目に見る、我慢する、耐える

Dr Michael Chew, from the Wellcome Trust medical research body, said: "It may be unusual to use a bacterium to get rid of another, but in the light of the looming threat from drug-resistant infections the potential of beneficial bacteria-animal interactions should not be overlooked.
"We are increasingly relying on last-line antibiotics, and this innovative study demonstrates how predatory bacteria could be an important additional tool to drugs in the fight against resistance."

last line of defense最後のとりで
 

 

 

20161128

Fidel Castro: Dodging exploding seashells, poison pens and ex-lovers

The exploding cigar plot to assassinate Fidel Castro is well known - but what about the other reported 637 plots against his life?
The outlandish projects included exploding seashells, a poisoned diving suit and poison pills hidden in face cream, according to a former bodyguard who wrote a book on the subject and a TV documentary.

outlandish【形】外国風の、異国風の風変わりな、異様な

The CIA and US-based Cuban exiles spent nearly half a century conspiring to do away with a leader whose country had the same effect on the US as "the full moon has on werewolves", according to former US Havana diplomat Wayne Smith.
The Cuban leader himself once remarked: "If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal."

do away with〔不要な物を〕処分する、捨てる、排除する
werewolf【名】オオカミ人間
werewolf＝someone who, in stories, changes into a wolf at the time of the full moon (= when the moon is a complete circle)→物語で、満月の夜に狼に変身する人
The CIA  spent a century conspiring to do away with a leader whose country had the same effect on the US as "the full moon has the effect on werewolves",
An inspiration to some, Castro and Cuba were like a "full moon to werewolves" for the US

 

However most of the ideas were never put into practice, former bodyguard Fabian Escalante said.
Documents released during the administration of President Bill Clinton showed that the CIA at one point began researching Caribbean molluscs.

mollusc【名】〈英〉軟体動物

Ex-lover Marita Lorenz was sent to kill him, but she couldn't go through with it

go through with【句動】〔困難なことを〕やり抜く

The plan was to pack a particularly spectacular one full of explosives to attract Castro, a keen diver, and to detonate it when he picked it up.
Another scuba-related idea was to create a diving suit infected with fungus that would cause a debilitating disease. 

equivalent to debilit-, stem of debilis weak 

Both plans were dropped.
Decades earlier in 1975, the US Senate Church Commission revealed details of at least eight plots on Castro's life, using devices which, the commission report said, "strain the imagination".

strainピンと張る、研ぎ澄ます、緊張させる

One plot using underworld figures twice progressed to the point of sending poison pills to Cuba and dispatching teams to "do the deed", it said.
At almost the exact moment that President Kennedy - who had authorised the failed Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Castro in 1961 - was assassinated, a CIA operative was apparently handing a poison pen equipped with a very fine needle to a Cuban agent.
The agent however was disappointed and asked for something "more sophisticated", the report said.
One of Castro's former lovers, Marita Lorenz, was also recruited. She was given poison pills to put in Castro's drink.
But Castro found out about the attempt and is said to have handed her his gun to use instead.
"You can't kill me. Nobody can kill me," he said, Ms Lorenz told the New York Daily News. "And he kind of smiled and chewed on his cigar. 

kind ofやや、多少、ちょっと◆断定を避けるため、表現を和らげるために使う。

I felt deflated. He was so sure of me. He just grabbed me. We made love."

The most recent known attempt on Castro's life was in 2000, when a plan was hatched to put a large quantity of explosives under a podium he was due to speak on in Panama. The plot was foiled by Castro's security team.
Four men, including veteran Cuban exile and CIA agent Luis Posada, were jailed but later pardoned.
There were also plots to make Castro, also known as "The Beard", an object of ridicule rather than kill him.
One was to sprinkle thallium salt on Castro's shoes during an overseas trip in the hope that his famous beard would fall out. But it was foiled when Castro cancelled the visit.
Another involved spraying an aerosol of LSD close to him as he was about to make a TV broadcast in the hope that he would become hysterical on air.
Castro took myriad precautions to evade would-be assassins. But in 1979 as he flew to New York to address the UN he could not resist a bit of grandstanding.
Asked by journalists on the plane whether he wore a bulletproof vest, he pulled open his shirt and exposed his chest.
"I have a moral vest," he said.
grandstanding【名】〔主に軽蔑的・批判的に〕スタンドプレー、存在を誇示する［これ見よがしの］行動
myriad【名】無数〈古〉1万◆【語源】ギリシャ語よりmy?riad- (stem of my?rias) ten thousand
 

 

 

20161128

'Thunderstorm asthma' deaths in Melbourne rise to six

asthma a panting (akin to aazein to breathe hard); 

The number of people dying in the Australian city of Melbourne from a rare phenomenon called thunderstorm asthma has risen to six.
Three others are in a critical condition.
Heavy rains and winds on Monday triggered thousands of pollen allergy asthma attacks in the state of Victoria.
Paramedics and hospitals were stretched to their limits as thousands phoned to report breathing problems.

stretch someone's ability to the limit（人）の能力を限界まで伸ばす

Thunderstorm asthma occurs in the spring when rye grass pollen gets wet, breaks into smaller pieces and enters people's lungs, causing them breathing problems.
More than 8,000 people were treated in hospital.
About one in 10 people has asthma in Australia, with about 80% of those sufferers experiencing allergies, particularly to rye pollen.
Melbourne's current spring season has been particularly wet, creating havoc for asthma and hay fever sufferers.

havoc great destruction or devastation
 

 

20161121

Bagged salad is Salmonella risk, study finds
Bagged salad can fuel the growth of food-poisoning bugs like Salmonella and make them more dangerous, a study says.
University of Leicester scientists said the moist environment combined with nutrients leaching out of chopped leaves created the perfect breeding ground for bacteria.

leach【自動】浸出する、にじみ出るleak

The researchers said they were shocked at the way the bacteria thrived, even in the fridge.
They advised people to eat bagged salad on the day they bought it.
Despite their wholesome nature, fresh green leaves and salad foods are often involved in food poisoning.

wholesome【形】健全な、健康に良い

An outbreak that affected more than 2,000 people across Europe in 2011 was traced back to bean sprouts and this year, officials in England traced an outbreak that killed two people back to bags of rocket leaves.

trace back to～に遡る

Washing salad and vegetables: What is the best technique?
Studies have shown that salad can carry bacteria, but the research team showed the bag made things much worse.
Bags are often moist to help keep the salad crisp and fresh and the plants have often been chopped into individual leaves for convenience.
The study showed sugars, proteins and minerals escaped from the cut leaves into the water in the bag.
"That's a reasonable amount of nutrients if you're a bacterium," said researcher Dr Primrose Freestone.

reasonable amount十分な量

The study, published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, showed that an initial contamination of 100 Salmonella bacteria would increase to 100,000 within five days.
"That's more than an infectious dose," Dr Freestone said.
She said she was also "shocked" that the bugs did so well in the chilled environment in the fridge.
The studies showed that Salmonella did especially well in bags containing spinach, while E. coli loved rocket leaves.
Dr Freestone told the BBC News website: "Juices that naturally leach from the leaves have the potential to increase the growth of any pathogen that might be present and establish them so strongly that washing wouldn't be enough to eradicate them.
"Don't be alarmed, we still eat bagged salad, but don't keep bagged salad any longer than you need to, we normally buy it on the day we eat it.
"Buy the bag with the best sell-by date, avoid lots of mushed leaves and if it's inflated then don't use it."
There are also suggestions that the bacteria become more dangerous in the bags.
A genetic analysis of the Salmonella showed they had gained the mutations that would help them to infect people.
Dr Freestone told the BBC: "We did see bacteria whose behaviour had turned more to virulence.
"I think the bacteria are making a molecular mistake and mistaking chemicals in the salad leaf for ones in the host."
Dr Jeri Barak, from the Food Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: "It would be fair to conclude that if Salmonella is present in salads, it might grow to infectious doses.
"The rates of produce that have been found to be contaminated are between 0%-3%.
"Consumers should treat bagged salads as temperature-sensitive food products, like milk and ice-cream."
Dr Kimon Karatzas, from the University of Reading, said: "Avoiding fresh produce is not a solution, but if possible, it would be preferable to buy uncut fresh produce over chopped, and to always wash it before you eat - even the ones that are already washed.
"Furthermore, keeping these foods in the refrigerator is important."
 

 

20161120

Asteroid strike made 'instant Himalayas'
Scientists say they can now describe in detail how the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs produced its huge crater.
The reconstruction of the event 66 million years ago was made possible by drilling into the remnant bowl and analysing its rocks.
These show how the space impactor made the hard surface of the planet slosh back and forth like a fluid.

slosh perhaps blend of slop and slush
slush apparently cognate with Norwegian slusk slops, Swedish slask mud, slops

At one stage, a mountain higher than Everest was thrown up before collapsing back into a smaller range of peaks.
"And this all happens on the scale of minutes, which is quite amazing," Prof Joanna Morgan from Imperial College London, UK, told BBC News.
The researchers report their account in this week's edition of Science Magazine.
Their study confirms a very dynamic, very energetic model for crater formation, and will go a long way to explaining the resulting cataclysmic environmental changes.
go a long way遠くまで行く大いに［とても・非常に］役立つ［効果がある］、大きな役割を果たす
cataclysmic【形】地殻変動の
equivalent to kata- cata- + klysmos a washing
cata- a prefix meaning “down,” “against,” “back,” occurring originally in loanwords from Greek ( cataclysm; catalog; catalepsy); on this model, used in the formation of other compound words ( catagenesis; cataphyll).

The debris thrown into the atmosphere likely saw the skies darken and the global climate cool for months, perhaps even years, driving many creatures into extinction, not just the dinosaurs.
The team spent May to June this year drilling a core through the so-called Chicxulub Crater, now buried under ocean sediments off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

A 15km-wide object dug a hole in the crust 100km across and 30km deep
This bowl then collapsed, leaving a crater 200km across and a few km deep
Its central zone rebounded and relaxed, producing an inner "peak ring"
Today, much of the crater is offshore, buried under 600m of sediments
On land, it is covered by limestone deposits, but its outline is visible
It is evident in an arc of famous sinkholes referred to as cenotes

The researchers targeted a particular zone in the 200km-wide bowl known as the "peak ring", which - if earlier ideas were correct - should have contained the rocks that moved the greatest distance in the impact. These would have been dense granites lifted from almost 10km down.
And that is precisely what the team found.
"Once we got through the impact melt on top, we recovered pink granite. It was so obvious to the eye - like what you would expect to see in a kitchen countertop," recalled Prof Sean Gulick from the University of Texas at Austin, US.
But these were not normal granites, of course. They were deformed and fractured at every scale - visibly in the hand and even down at the level of the rock's individual mineral crystals. Evidence of enormous stress, of having experienced colossal pressures.
The analysis of the core materials now fits an astonishing narrative.
This describes the roughly 15km-wide stony asteroid instantly punching a cavity in the Earth's surface some 30km deep and 80-100km across.
Unstable, and under the pull of gravity, the sides of this depression promptly started to collapse inwards.
At the same time, the centre of the bowl rebounded, briefly lifting rock higher than the Himalayas, before also falling down to cover the inward-rushing sides of the initial hole.
"If this deep-rebound model is correct (it's called the dynamic collapse model), then our peak ring rocks should be the rocks that have travelled farthest in the impact - first, outwards by kilometres, then up in the air by over 10km, and back down and outwards by another, say, 10km. So their total travel path is something like 30km, and they do that in under 10 minutes," Prof Gulick told the BBC's Science in Action programme.
Imagine a sugar cube dropped into a cup of tea. The drink's liquid first gets out of the way of the cube, moves back in and up, before finally slopping down.
When the asteroid struck the Earth, the rocks it hit also behaved like a fluid.
"These rocks must have lost their strength and cohesion, and very dramatically had their friction reduced," said Prof Morgan. "So, yes, temporarily, they behave like a fluid. It's the only way you can make a crater like this."
One of the important outcomes of the research is that it provides a useful template also to understand the surfaces of other planets.
All the terrestrial worlds and even Earth's Moon are scarred with craters just like Chicxulub.
And knowing how rocks can move vertically and horizontally in an impact will assist scientists as they attempt to interpret similar crustal features seen elsewhere in the Solar System.
The project to drill into Chicxulub Crater was conducted by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) as part of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). The expedition was also supported by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP).
 

 

20161119

SpaceX aims to launch internet from space
Private rocket firm SpaceX has applied for government permission to launch satellites that will provide global broadband internet access.
In a filing to the US Federal Communications Commission (FFC), it laid out details about its plans for a 4,425-strong satellite network.
It is one of several companies aiming to deploy satellite-based internet services over the next few years.
SpaceX suffered a setback in September when a rocket exploded.
In a statement, the firm said: "Once fully deployed, the SpaceX system will pass over virtually all parts of the Earth's surface and therefore, in principle, have the ability to provide ubiquitous global service."
The satellites would orbit the planet at altitudes ranging from 714 to 823 miles (1,150 to 1,325 km). That is above the International Space Station but below geostationary satellites.
SpaceX has talked about its telecoms ambitions for a while.
Now, under a deadline to file interest with the FFC, the company has given a more technical glimpse of its proposal.
Some 4,425 satellites (plus spares), operating in 83 orbital planes, at altitudes ranging from 689 miles to 823 miles (1,110 km to 1,325 km).
It is understood SpaceX has some prototype satellites it will launch next year, but the actual constellation will not see the light of day until the turn of the decade.

see the light of day日の目を見る

SpaceX is by no means the only group looking to make a pitch in this market.
make a pitch〔自分を〕言葉巧みに売り込む、宣伝する 

Established satellite communcations big-hitters such as Intelsat (OneWeb), SES (O3B), Telesat and Boeing are at various stages in their own development plans.
It used to be that "constellation" was a dirty word after the initial attempts at building sat phone networks in the 1990s filed for bankruptcy, unable to pay back huge loans. But the wind has changed.

It used to be that ....「意味」以前は．．．だった。昔は．．．だった。
dirty word〈俗〉ひわいな言葉、禁句

Connectivity drives the global economy and with the coming "internet of things", there is a feeling that these mega-networks in the sky will prove profitable. Not for all, but perhaps for those able to move quick enough and get their constellations launched. And SpaceX's main business is launching satellites.
Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, announced last year that the service would be "larger than anything that has been talked about to date" adding that it would take about $10bn (￡8bn) to get it off the ground.
The latest documents did not include costs.
It suggested that the first 800 satellites would be used to expand internet access in the US, including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin islands.
Each satellite, about the size of an average car, not including solar panels, would weigh 850 pounds (386kg), the firm said.
SpaceX rocket launches have been on hold since September following an accident that destroyed a $62m Falcon 9 booster and a $200m Israeli communication satellite. The firm hopes to resume flights next month.

 

20161118

Terminally ill teen won historic ruling to freeze body

A 14-year-old girl who wanted her body to be frozen so she could be brought back to life, won an historic legal fight shortly before her death.
The girl, who was terminally ill with a rare cancer, was supported in her wish to be cryogenically preserved by her mother - but not by her father.
A High Court judge ruled that the girl's mother should be allowed to decide what happened to the body.

cryogenically from cryo- "freezing"

The girl, who died in October, has now been taken to the US and frozen.
The details of her case have just been released.
The teenager - who cannot be named - and who lived in the London area, used the internet to investigate cryonics during the last months of her life.
Cryonics is the process of freezing and preserving a whole body in the hope that resuscitation and a cure are possible in the distant future.
She wrote to the judge explaining that she wanted "to live longer" and did not want "to be buried underground".
She wrote: "I think being cryopreserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up - even in hundreds of years' time."
The judge, Mr Justice Peter Jackson, visited the girl in hospital and said he was moved by "the valiant way in which she was facing her predicament".

valiant【形】〔人が〕勇気ある、勇敢な、勇猛な
predicament【名】苦境

His ruling, he said, was not about the rights or wrongs of cryonics but about a dispute between parents over the disposal of their daughter's body.
Cryonics is a controversial procedure and no-one yet knows if it is possible to revive people once their bodies are frozen.
There are facilities in the US and Russia where bodies can be preserved in liquid nitrogen at very low temperatures (less than -130C) - but not in the UK.
The cost of freezing a body for an infinite amount of time is estimated to be around ￡37,000.
The teenager's letter to the judge
"I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done.
"I am only 14 years old and I don't want to die but I know I am going to die.
"I think being cryopreserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up - even in hundreds of years' time.
"I don't want to be buried underground.
"I want to live and live longer and I think that in the future they may find a cure for my cancer and wake me up.
"I want to have this chance.
"This is my wish."
The girls' parents were divorced and the girl had not had any contact with her father for six years before she became ill.
While the girl's mother supported her wishes to have her body frozen, her father was against it.
He said: "Even if the treatment is successful and she is brought back to life in let's say 200 years, she may not find any relative and she might not remember things and she may be left in a desperate situation given that she is only 14 years old and will be in the United States of America."
Although he then changed his mind, saying he respected his daughter's decision, he subsequently wanted to see his daughter's body after her death - something to which she would not agree.
The judge said the girl's application was the only one of its kind to have come before a court in England and Wales - and probably anywhere else.
Need for regulation
Mr Justice Jackson said the case was an example of science posing new questions to lawyers.
The girl died peacefully in October knowing that her remains would be frozen, but the judge said there had been problems on the day she died.
He said hospital staff and bosses had expressed concerns about the way the process of preparing her body for cryogenic preservation had been handled.
This was carried out by a voluntary group in the UK before her body was flown to the US for storage.
He suggested that ministers should consider "proper regulation" of cryonic preservation for the future.

 

 

20161116

Dino-bird fossil had sparkly feathers 'to attract mate '

The fossil, Bohaiornithidae, is exceptionally well preserved
An extinct bird that lived about 120 million years ago had iridescent feathers that it may have used to attract a mate, fossil evidence shows.
iridescent【形】玉虫色の、虹色のIris rainbow
The prehistoric bird, which was found recently in China, may have puffed up its feathers like a peacock.
puff up膨れる、得意になる、威張る
The bird's feathers are "remarkably preserved", including the chemical that gave them sparkle.
The animal belongs to a group of early birds known as enantiornithines, which lived during the Age of the Dinosaurs.
All known specimens come from rocks in Liaoning, China, which have yielded numerous fossils of feathered dinosaurs, primitive birds and pterosaurs.
"Many enantiornithine birds possessed ornate feathers," said lead researcher Dr Jennifer Peteya of the University of Akron, Ohio, US.
"This new specimen shows that some enantiornithines also had iridescent feathers and unlike most modern birds, these flashy ornaments developed before the animal was fully grown."
Scientists have limited knowledge of the plumage of birds from the time of the dinosaurs.
Latin plume soft feather
Melanosomes can be seen in the fossil - microscopic structures that give rise to a broad range of colours in modern birds.
They also produce iridescent effects, according to the way they reflect light.
This is the first time evidence for iridescence has been found in enantiornithines, said Dr Stig Walsh, senior curator of vertebrate palaeobiology at National Museums Scotland.
The colouration is used by birds today mostly for sexual selection.
"Although this particular individual was a very young adult, its tail feathers were already long and formed a kind of streamer," said Dr Walsh, who is not connected with the research.
streamer吹き流し
"Again, this kind of extravagant feather array, like the tail feathers of peacocks, is usually used for mate attraction.
"It seems this bird was an adolescent out on its first attempt to 'pull', so to speak."
out on 乗り出して
The research is published in the journal Palaeontology.
 

​

20161115

Chernobyl disaster: Giant shield begins move towards reactor
The concrete and steel arch will eventually cover the remains of the reactor which lost its roof in a catastrophic explosion in 1986.
The blast sent a plume of radioactive material into the air, triggering a public health emergency across Europe.
The shield is designed to prevent further radioactive material leaking out over the next century.
It measures 275m (900ft) wide and 108m (354ft) tall and has cost $1.6bn (￡1.3bn) to construct.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is leading the project, describes the arch as the largest moveable land-based structure ever built.
It began moving on Monday using a system of hydraulic jacks and will take about five days to be put in its final position.
Work will then begin to safely dismantle the reactor, which has been sealed inside a so-called sarcophagus, and to secure the huge amount of radioactive material still inside.
sarcophagus
ギリシャ語「肉を食べるもの」の意; 死体を急速に分解すると考えられたある種の石灰岩で石棺を作ったことから
語源は、ギリシャ語の sarx（肉体）+ phagein（食べる）で、つまりサルコファガスは「肉体を食べるもの」という意味である。
 a kind of stone thought to consume the flesh of corpses, used for coffins.

Experts fear that if parts of the reactor collapse inside the sarcophagus, further radioactive material could be released.
The shield, known as the New Safe Confinement, had to be built away from the scene of the accident as the radiation immediately above the reactor is still too intense.
Most of those who died were workers at the nuclear plant
Ukraine's ecology minister, Ostap Semerak, said the start of the operation to cover the reactor was "the beginning of the end of a 30-year long fight with the consequences of the 1986 accident".
"The credit for construction of this one-of-a-kind technological structure goes to an expert team of engineers and builders," he said.
The meltdown and explosion at the Soviet-era plant was the worst nuclear disaster in history, spewing a cloud of radioactive material that drifted into other parts of the then-USSR, including Russia and Belarus, and northern Europe.
The number of people killed remains disputed. A 2005 report by the UN-backed Chernobyl Forum said that fewer than 50 people had died as a result of exposure to radiation, most of them workers killed immediately after the disaster, but some survived until as late as 2004.
The forum estimated that up to 9,000 people could eventually die from radiation exposure, although Greenpeace claims the figure could be as high as 93,000.
 

 

20161106

Ebola adapted to easily infect people
Ebola dramatically adapted to infect human tissues with ease in the first few months of the 2014-15 outbreak, research suggests.
Two studies, in the journal Cell, found a mutation increased the virus' ability to infect human cells fourfold.
Scientists have argued the mutation may have been "pivotal" in the outbreak becoming the largest in recorded history.
There were 28,616 Ebola cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
And 11,310 people died during the outbreak.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham and the University of Massachusetts analysed the genetic code of nearly 2,000 Ebola virus samples.
What they noticed was a change on the surface of the virus that allowed it to lock on to human cells more easily.
Prof Jeremy Luban, University of Massachusetts Medical School, told BBC World Service's Science in Action: "The mutation makes the virus more infectious.
"It arose early in the outbreak, perhaps three or four months in."
Prof Jonathan Ball, from the University of Nottingham, said an up to fourfold increase in infectivity was "not trivial".
up to～に至るまで、最大［最高］で～まで
trivial【形】ささいな、取るに足りない
He told the BBC News website: "When a virus is introduced into a new environment, a new niche, it will try to adapt to that new environment.
niche【名】《生態》生態的地位◆自然環境の中である生物が他の生物との競争などを経て獲得した、生存を可能にする条件がそろっている場所。
"That just happened to coincide with widescale spread of the virus - this was a mutation that appeared when the virus took off."
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was not just the biggest of all time, but it was bigger than all other outbreaks combined.
One reason for Ebola's explosive spread was that the virus managed to get into dense urban cities such as Monrovia in Liberia.
But Prof Luban added: "One possibility is this mutation, which has never been seen before, in some way contributed to the severity of the outbreak and answering that question conclusively is probably something we cannot do.

severity【名】厳しさ、苛酷さ重大度
conclusively【副】最終的に
一つの可能性はこの変異である。このような変異は以前にはなかった。この変異は今回のアウトブレイクの重大さの原因になった。その質問に答えること？最終的に変異が原因だったの？との質問に間違いなくそうだと言い切るのは恐らく私たちには今のところできない。

"[But] it is hard to imagine the mutation was not relevant."
The research provided other insights into the changes taking place in the Ebola virus.
As the virus adapted to more readily infected people it became less able to infect its likely natural host species - fruit bats.
And the people infected with the mutant form of the virus were more likely to die than those infected with the original version.
This runs slightly contrary to the prevailing thought that as Ebola spent more time in people it would evolve to become less deadly in order to help it spread.
run contrary to～に反する
ウイルスが人に簡単に感染するようになると、フルーツバットのような元々の宿主に感染できなくなってくる。変異したウイルスに感染した人は変異前のウイルスに感染した人より死亡率が上昇する。
Dr Ed Wright, from the University of Westminster, commented: "One of these changes occurred around the time when the number of cases started to dramatically increase.
"This gives rise to the possibility that this change could have been pivotal in the virus' ability to infect humans and ultimately the scale of the outbreak.
"However, these studies do not definitively answer the latter question."

20160425

Seed clue to how birds survived mass extinction

Some groups of beaked birds may have been able to survive the extinction
Modern birds owe their survival to ancestors who were able to peck on seeds after the meteor that wiped out most dinosaurs, say scientists.

beaked【形】くちばしのある、くちばし状の、突き出ている

Bird-like dinosaurs with toothless beaks survived the "nuclear winter" that followed the meteor strike, because of their diet, a study says.
The impact altered the climate of the Earth and blotted out sunlight.
The loss of vegetation would have deprived plant-eating dinosaurs of food. In turn, meat-eaters suffered.

blot out【句動】消し去る

But seeds still in the ground may have sustained small toothless bird ancestors until the planet began to recover.
The theory, outlined in the journal Current Biology, could explain why no modern bird has a beak lined with teeth.
"After this meteor, you're left with essentially a nuclear winter where really not much is growing, the plants aren't able to grow to provide nourishment for plant-eaters and then meat-eaters aren't able to access plant-eaters if they've all perished," said lead researcher Derek Larson, from the University of Toronto.
"We think that the survival of birds had something to do with the presence of their beak."
The researchers studied more than 3,000 fossilised teeth from bird-like dinosaurs known as maniraptorans.
These dinosaurs are some of the closest relatives of modern birds - but, at the end of the Cretaceous period, many disappeared, including the toothed birds.
The team suspected diet might have played a part in the survival of the ancestors of modern birds.

Cretaceous【名】《the ～》《地学》白亜紀◆中生代（the Mesozoic）のジュラ紀（the Jurassic）に続く最後の時代区分（1億4千5百万年前～6,550万年前）。翼竜やティラノサウルスなどが現れ、恐竜が最も発達した時代である。胎生の小型の哺乳類も出現する。大隕石の衝突によると考えられるK-T境界により白亜紀が終わる。

"We came up with a hypothesis that it had something to do with diet," Mr Larson said.
"Looking at the diet of modern birds, we were able to reconstruct a hypothetical ancestral bird and what its likely diet would have been," he told the BBC's Science in Action programme.
"What we're envisaging is a seed-eating bird, so you'd have a relatively short and robust strong beak, which would be able to crush these seeds."
Mr Larson said most of today's birds would not be around if it were not for their seed-eating ancestors, although a handful of other birds might have survived the impact, perhaps through eating insects.
"We might be looking at a very different picture of bird diversity had certain groups not evolved the ability to eat seed material," he said.
The dust in the atmosphere from the strike of the huge comet or asteroid would have obscured sunlight and blocked photosynthesis.
However, seeds that had already built up in the ground would have still been available as a food source for anything with a beak capable of eating them.

 

 

20160417

E-skin 'can monitor body's oxygen level'
16 April 2016
Researchers are working ways to create displays that light up to signal the health of the wearer
Scientists say they have developed ultra-thin electronic "skin" that can measure oxygen levels when stuck to the body.
The goal is to develop such "skin" to monitor oxygen levels in organs during surgery, say researchers in Japan.
Tests on volunteers found the "skin" provided stable measurements of oxygen concentration in blood.
The device contains micro-electronic components that light up in red, blue and green on the surface of the body.
Scientists at the University of Tokyo are working on ways to display numbers and letters on the skin for health monitoring purposes.

work on ways together to manage力を合わせて～を管理する方法を編み出す

Wearable electronics are a future growth area in research, with interest in medical applications such as contact lenses that monitor glucose levels, or smart glasses.
The latest findings are revealed in Science Advances.
"The device unobtrusively measures the oxygen concentration of blood when laminated on a finger," said lead researcher Tomoyuki Yokota and colleagues.

obtrude【自動】出しゃばる、〔自分を〕押し付ける 侵害する、侵犯する
thrust against, equivalent to ob- ob- + trdere to thrust
非侵襲の【形】non-invasive《医》
not obtrusive; inconspicuous, unassertive, or reticent.
目立たないのか非侵襲なのかどっちなのかなー。

He added: "Ultimately, flexible organic optical sensors may be directly laminated on organs to monitor the blood oxygen level during and after surgery."20

 

 

 

20160412

John Kerry makes historic visit to Hiroshima memorial
11 April 2016
The US Secretary of State said his visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima was a "gut-wrenching" reminder of the need to get rid of nuclear weapons.

reminder of ancient times当時をしのばせるもの

John Kerry made the comments at a press conference after laying a wreath at the city's atomic bomb memorial.
He is the first US secretary of state ever to visit the memorial or the city.
Around 140,000 people, most of them civilians, were killed when the US dropped its atomic bomb on the city in 1945.
Describing it as "a display that I will, personally, never forget" he said: "It reminds everybody of the extraordinary complexity of choices in war and of what war does to people, to communities, to countries, to the world."

describe【他動】〔言葉・文章で〕～を言い表す 記述するだけでなく言葉で言い表す場合もdescribeを使うのか。

Mr Kerry was joined by foreign ministers from the G7 group of nations who are holding talks in the city. They laid wreaths at the memorial and observed a minute of silence.

observeは観察するばかりでなく、silenceが後にあれば、黙祷をするの意になる。
observe a minute of silence
一分間の黙とうをする［行う・ささげる］〈儀式・祭礼を〉挙行[執行]する，祝う.

As well as the Hiroshima Peace Park memorial, the ministers also visited the Bomb Dome, over which the A-bomb exploded, and the nearby Hiroshima museum, which tells the personal stories of people who died.
Philip Hammond, alongside Mr Kerry, was also the first UK foreign secretary to visit the site
What happened in Hiroshima?
At 08:10 local time on 6 August 1945, the US B-29 bomber the Enola Gay dropped a uranium bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. It exploded 600m (1,800ft) above what is now the Hiroshima Peace Dome.
About 70,000 people died immediately. At least 140,000 people had died by the end of the year through injury and the effects of radiation.
The bombing, and a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later, forced Japan to surrender, initiating the end of World War Two.

initiateは…を始める、起こす、創始する。終戦につながったかな。

Why is Mr Kerry's visit significant?
The US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Hiroshima in 2008, but US diplomats have largely avoided official visits.
Many in the US believe the bombing was necessary to end the war, and do not want their leaders to take any action which might be seen as an apology.

Mr Kerry previously said his time in Hiroshima would "revisit the past and honour those who perished" but stressed that his trip was "about the present and the future".
It also comes amid efforts to strengthen the relationship between the US and Japan, particularly with growing concern about China's assertiveness in territorial disputes in Asia, affecting Japan and other US allies.
Could it lead to further visits?
President Barack Obama is attending a G7 leaders' summit elsewhere in Japan in May, and there are reports he is considering a stop in Hiroshima.
If it happens, it will be the first time a sitting US president visits Hiroshima.

 

 

2016/03/28

While foams like these are a long way from hitting the clinic, they could eventually help patients with infected wounds and burns, by providing support and protection for healing tissue and delivering drugs at the same time, said Dr Hoskisson.

 

long way from《be a ～》程遠い
hit【他動】～に達する、～に着く、～に到る
クリニックを打つって何と思ったけれど、～に到るの意味があった。つまり、クリニックなどの医療現場で使われるにはまだほど遠く臨床実験が必要とされるの意か。

 

2016/03/27

A crowdfunding campaign to buy a New Zealand beach has had its bid accepted after reaching its funding target.

Nearly 40,000 people donated almost NZ$2.3m (£1m, $1.5m) to buy the Awaroa beach in the Abel Tasman National Park, on the north coast of South Island, which went on sale last year.