Low vitamin D levels may be common in otherwise healthy children

bianjie submitted, created time 1 year 5 months (www.eurekalert.org)

Many otherwise healthy children and adolescents have low vitamin D levels, which may put them at risk for bone diseases such as rickets. African American children, children above age nine and with low dietary vitamin D intake were the most likely to have low levels of vitamin D in their blood, according to researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

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spiders like to leave the lights on

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (www.sciam.com)

Interesting. I was just reading Amanda's post about the troglobites -- spider-like cave animals that die when exposed to UV light -- and then I came across this. When humans are deprived of sunlight, we lose vitamin D and the calcium that it lets us absorb. It seems that spiders have a reaction to UV deprivation too ...though I wouldn't call it similar.

Celibacy or rickets? Decisions, decisions...

This ties in with Amanda's post.
(http://www.discover8.com/article/Tiny_blind_animal_halts_billion_dollar_Aussie_mine_0)

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