Can You Live To Age 99?

When Teddy Roosevelt was president, the average American lived to their mid-forties. Today we live nearly twice that long. Stem cells, cloning, nanotechnology and other “high-tech” methods are expected to bring life expectancy to “science fiction” levels.

According to the U .S. Department of Health and Human Services, the leading causes of death are “aging diseases” such as heart disease (31%), cancer (23%) and strokes (7%). If these causes were eliminated, according to the journal Science, the average life expectancy would rise to 99.4 years. Ronald M. Klatz, M.D., D.O., President of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, offers these life extension tips:

”Gain 13 years protecting your cardiovascular system by keeping your total cholesterol below 200, LDL (bad cholesterol) below 150 and HDL (good cholesterol) above 45. Perform a half-hour of aerobic exercise and 15 minutes of strength training 3-4 times/week. Have yearly cardiovascular screening tests after 40 and take antioxidants on a daily basis.”

Dr. Klatz’s personal daily antioxidant regimen consists of 90 mg. of CoEnzyme Q-10, 10,000 mg. of beta carotene, 2,000 mg. of vitamin C, 800 mg. of vitamin E and 400 mcg. Of selenium, as well as magnesium, B6, and pantothenic acid.

However, the American Dietetic Association believes that “People should get their daily requirements of vitamins and minerals from the food they eat.” The recommended daily allowance may be met by “consuming 2-3 servings of dairy, 3-5 servings of vegetables, 2-3 servings of meat, poultry fish, eggs and nuts, 6-11 servings of breads, rice and pasta and 2-4 servings of fruit per day.” They caution that this may not be sufficient for those who are too busy to eat properly, ill, elderly, and those on restricted diets (e.g. vegetarians, and those who avoid dairy). In fact, “40% of females are deficient in calcium and many in folate.”

Gail Frank, PhD., spokesman for the American Dietetics Association, feels that most Americans taking supplements are “worried well,” swallowing supplements needlessly. She’s concerned about their upper tolerable limits, although she’s never personally seen these negative effects. According to the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Klatz’s recommendations are within the safety guidelines. In fact, both spokespeople for the American Dietetic Association take a multivitamin/minerals in spite of their best efforts to eat properly.

Dr. Klatz further advises to, “Gain 3 years with early cancer detection, since 90% of cancer is curable in its earliest stage” (e.g. PSA testing, fecal blood analysis, PAP smears…).

”Gain 1.4 years preventing adult-onset diabetes by maintaining ideal body weight, exercising…” and eating properly.

Drive a car weighing over 3500 pounds and buckle-up every time.

Protect yours body from stress by meditation, owning a dog, prayer, daily exercise, and consuming the nutrients already described.

Get adequate sleep by setting a regular sleep schedule, avoiding alcohol or drugs before bedtime, darkening your bedroom, and using eye shades (light disrupts natural Melatonin production).

Build new mental circuits–Play chess, answer questions on Jeopardy, volunteer, and take adult classes.

Drink 6-10 glasses of distilled non-tap water per day since water makes up 60% our body. The U.S. government has reported that 53 million Americans drink water containing potentially dangerous chemicals. A mineral supplement may be necessary, however, since they are not present in this type of water.

These tips may help you stay around to see the truly great longevity advances 10-30 years away. Scheduling an appointment to discuss these and other longevity ideas with your doctor may be the best hour you’ve ever spent.

Originally published in: Investor’s Business Daily

With support, graphene still a superior thermal conductor

With support, graphene still a superior thermal conductor
The single-atom thick material graphene maintains its high thermal conductivity when supported by a substrate, a critical step to advancing the material from a laboratory phenomenon to a useful component in a range of nano-electronic devices, researchers report in the April 9 issue of the journal Science.

Read more on PhysOrg

Nanowires key to future transistors, electronics

A new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips using tiny structures called semiconducting nanowires are closer to reality after a key discovery by researchers at IBM, Purdue University and the University of California at Los Angeles.

The researchers have learned how to create nanowires with layers of different materials that are sharply defined at the atomic level, which is a critical requirement for making efficient transistors out of the structures.

“Having sharply defined layers of materials enables you to improve and control the flow of electrons and to switch this flow on and off,” said Eric Stach, an associate professor of materials engineering at Purdue.

Electronic devices are often made of “heterostructures,” meaning they contain sharply defined layers of different semiconducting materials, such as silicon and germanium. Until now, however, researchers have been unable to produce nanowires with sharply defined silicon and germanium layers. Instead, this transition from one layer to the next has been too gradual for the devices to perform optimally as transistors.

The new findings point to a method for creating nanowire transistors.

The findings are detailed in a research paper appearing Friday (Nov. 27) in the journal Science. The paper was written by Purdue postdoctoral researcher Cheng-Yen Wen, Stach, IBM materials scientists Frances Ross, Jerry Tersoff and Mark Reuter at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y, and Suneel Kodambaka, an assistant professor at UCLA’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Whereas conventional transistors are made on flat, horizontal pieces of silicon, the silicon nanowires are “grown” vertically. Because of this vertical structure, they have a smaller footprint, which could make it possible to fit more transistors on an integrated circuit, or chip, Stach said.

“But first we need to learn how to manufacture nanowires to exacting standards before industry can start using them to produce transistors,” he said.

Nanowires might enable engineers to solve a problem threatening to derail the electronics industry. New technologies will be needed for industry to maintain Moore’s law, an unofficial rule stating that the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles about every 18 months, resulting in rapid progress in computers and telecommunications. Doubling the number of devices that can fit on a computer chip translates into a similar increase in performance. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue shrinking electronic devices made of conventional silicon-based semiconductors.

“In something like five to, at most, 10 years, silicon transistor dimensions will have been scaled to their limit,” Stach said.

Transistors made of nanowires represent one potential way to continue the tradition of Moore’s law.

The researchers used an instrument called a transmission electron microscope to observe the nanowire formation. Tiny particles of a gold-aluminum alloy were first heated and melted inside a vacuum chamber, and then silicon gas was introduced into the chamber. As the melted gold-aluminum bead absorbed the silicon, it became “supersaturated” with silicon, causing the silicon to precipitate and form wires. Each growing wire was topped with a liquid bead of gold-aluminum so that the structure resembled a mushroom.

Then, the researchers reduced the temperature inside the chamber enough to cause the gold-aluminum cap to solidify, allowing germanium to be deposited onto the silicon precisely and making it possible to create a heterostructure of silicon and germanium.

The cycle could be repeated, switching the gases from germanium to silicon as desired to make specific types of heterostructures, Stach said.

Having a heterostructure makes it possible to create a germanium “gate” in each transistor, which enables devices to switch on and off.

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The work is based at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center and Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center in the university’s Discovery Park and is funded by the National Science Foundation through the NSF’s Electronic and Photonic Materials Program in the Division of Materials Research.

Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu

Source: Eric Stach, (765) 494-1466, eastach@purdue.edu

Related Web site:

Eric Stach: https://engineering.purdue.edu/MSE/People/ptProfile?id=12299

PHOTO CAPTION:

Researchers are closer to using tiny devices called semiconducting nanowires to create a new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips. The researchers have grown the nanowires with sharply defined layers of silicon and germanium, offering better transistor performance. As depicted in this illustration, tiny particles of a gold-aluminum alloy were alternately heated and cooled inside a vacuum chamber, and then silicon and germanium gases were alternately introduced. As the gold-aluminum bead absorbed the gases, it became “supersaturated” with silicon and germanium, causing them to precipitate and form wires. (Purdue University, Birck Nanotechnology Center/Seyet LLC)

A publication-quality image is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2009/stach-nanowires.jpg

Abstract on the research in this release is available at: http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009b/091126Stachnanowires.html