CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Polypill could become a reality in 5 years.

The Polypill has been hailed as the magic bullet to heart problems. A cheap five-in-one pill can guard against heart attacks and stroke, research suggests.
A trial in India shows such a pill has the desired effects and is safe and well-tolerated by those who take it.

The polypill used in the latest study combines five active pharmacological ingredients widely available separately - aspirin, a statin to lower cholesterol and three blood pressure-lowering drugs including an ACE inhibitor, Diuretic and a Beta-blocker - as well as folic acid.

Folic acid is used to reduce the level of homocysteine in the blood which is another risk factor for heart disease

The researchers believe that the combined action of all the components in their "Polycap" capsule made by Cadila Pharmaceuticals, could potentially halve strokes and heart attacks in average, middle-aged people. On a global scale, this would save tens of millions of lives.

Researchers in the UK have been testing a four-in-one Ppolypill called the Red Heart Pill, with the backing of the Wellcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation, which could cost as little as $20 per person per year.

One researcher said it would be at least five years before there was enough data to convince drug regulators to approve a polypill.

So sit back on the couch, have a milk shake and a steak and hope the FDA approves the PolyPill before all your arteries clog up on their own.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has a huge collection of heart and pharmaceutical images available for license. Contact CMSP via email at research@cmsp.com or phone 773-267-3100.

CMSP Cool Image of the Day Blog

Who says playing video games are bad for your eyesight? Researchers are saying Video games can improve vision. Researchers found playing action video games improved the ability to notice even very small changes in shades of gray against a uniform background.

"Contrast sensitivity" is important in situations such as driving at night, or in conditions of poor visibility. Contrast sensitivity is often one of the first aspects of vision to be affected by aging.

A team from the University of Rochester studied expert video game players and found that they had better contrast sensitivity when compared with players who played non-action video games. The study suggests time spent in front of a computer screen is not necessarily harmful for vision, as has sometimes been suggested.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has an interesting image collection of kids playing video games. To contact CMSP call 773-267-3100 or email research@cmsp.com

CMSP Cool Image of the Day Blog

This is CMSP's cool ad in the PictureHouse Show Guide.

PictureHouse will be held at the fabulous River East Art Center in Chicago on April 16, 2009.

For more information visit PictureHouse' website.

Stop by CMSP's Cool Image of the Day Blog Monday for another cool image!!!

CMSP's HOT Image of the Day

Drinking steaming hot tea has been linked with an increased risk of oesophageal cancer, Iranian scientists have found.

The British Medical Journal study found that drinking black tea at temperatures of 158 F (70C) or higher increased the risk. Adding milk, as most tea drinkers in Western countries do, cools the drink enough to eliminate the risk.

The oesophagus is the muscular tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.
Oesophagus cancers kill more than 500,000 people worldwide each year and oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common type.

But it has not been clear why other populations around the world have high rates of the disease although there has been a theory that regularly drinking very hot drinks damages the lining of the gullet.

So let your hot beverage seep a few minutes. Do you think Starbucks should put signs up in their restaurants saying drinking hot beverages may be hazardous to you esophagus?

Custom Medical Stock Photo has photos you can use in your blogs, newsletters and publications. Call CMSP at 773-267-3100 or email research@cmsp.com.

It is Friday, March 27. Have a great weekend!

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Children's sweet tooth explained. Kids like sugar. Today's Cool Image is a scanning electron micrograph (SEM) or sugar crystals. The original magnification was x20.

Sugar. Children appear to love sugar more when they are aged 10 - 15 years old, when they are growing. A compulsion for sweets is a well-known part of childhood, and research could have now explained why children love sugar quite so much.

The study, carried out in the US, found a direct link between children's growth and their preference for sugary drinks.

It showed that youngsters who preferred the sweetest drinks were the ones that were growing the fastest.

Kids love sweets. They'll put sugar on frosted flakes. But that love seems to decline with age, said Susan Coldwell from the University of Washington, who led the study. "We wanted to see what was going on as that shift happens - at around the age of 16. More than 140 11-15 year-olds took part in the test. They were given six drinks to taste, each containing an increasing concentration of sugar.

The scientists tested urine samples from the children for a chemical associated with bone growth in children and adolescents. "We tested for a [breakdown product] of bone," said professor Coldwell.

"It's found in the urine either when bones are growing or in older people with osteoporosis, when their bones are being destroyed."

Children with a high preference for sugar also had higher levels of this chemical.

"This gives us the first link between sweet preference and biological need," said Danielle Reed, one of the researchers and study's authors.

"When markers of bone growth decline as children age, so does their preference for highly sweet solutions."

Pass me the chocolate milk.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has an extensive file of healthy and unhealthy foods available for license and use. Contact CMSP for FREE research at requests@cmsp.com or call 773-267-3100.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is a treasure of diverse natural resources located within an urban setting. The national lakeshore features communities that have both scientific and historic significance to the field of ecology. In addition, four National Natural Landmarks and one National Historical Landmark are located within its boundaries.

The park is comprised of over 15,000 acres of dunes, oak savannas, swamps, bogs, marshes, prairies, rivers, and forests. It contains 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline spanning the distance from Gary to Michigan City. Lake Michigan is part of the largest complex of freshwater lakes in the world. The national lakeshore's beaches are the park's most significant recreational resource.

Immediately inland from the beaches, sand dunes rise to almost 200 feet in a series of ridges, blowouts, and valleys. Extensive wetlands fill many depressions between the dune ridges. The national lakeshore preserves an important remnant of a once vast and unique environment, resulting from the retreat of the last great continental glacier some 14,000 years ago. The park landscape represents at least four major successive stages of historic Lake Michigan shorelines, making it one of the most extensive geologic records of one of the world’s largest, fresh water bodies.

Thanks again to CMSP photog Todd Bannor for his keen insight and concern for the environment.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has an extensive file of ecology and environment images available for license and use. Contact CMSP for FREE research at requests@cmsp.com or call 773-267-3100.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Scientists have produced new evidence suggesting eating lots of red and processed meat damages health. They found big meat eaters had a raised risk of death from all causes over a 10-year period. The US study, featured in Archives of Internal Medicine, was based on more than 500,000 people.

People eating the most meat were eating about 160g of red or processed meat per day - approximately a 6oz steak. Those who ate the least were only getting about 25g per day - approximately a small portion of bacon. Researchers said cancer-causing compounds were formed during high-temperature cooking of meat.

No one's saying that people should avoid bacon or burgers completely, but evidence tells us that cutting down on these foods can reduce the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases.

Meat is a major source of saturated fat, which has been associated with breast and colorectal cancer. In addition, lower meat intake has been linked to a reduction in risk factors for heart disease, including lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Dr Mark Wahlqvist, a nutrition expert from Australia's Monash University, said eating small amounts of red meat - around 30g a day - provided a good source of key nutrients. He said: "Fresh, lean red meat of these amounts is likely to be of more benefit than harm."

Can you pass me the peas (see yesterday's blog).

Custom Medical Stock Photo has an extensive file of heart disease images. Contact CMSP for FREE research at requests@cmsp.com or call 773-267-3100.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Protein From Yellow Peas May Lower Blood Pressure.

Finding in rats holds promise against kidney disease, too, experts say.

"What we seem to have here is sort of a natural approach to treating this disease, as opposed to the normal pharmacological approach," said the study's lead author, Rotimi E. Aluko, an associate professor in the department of human nutritional sciences at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. "We're talking about an edible product, not a drug, which can help to reduce blood pressure and, at the same time, reduce the severely negative impact of kidney disease."

Kidney disease affects an estimated 13 percent of American adults, the authors noted, and is a notoriously difficult disease to treat, with most people eventually succumbing to cardiovascular complications from high blood pressure linked to kidney malfunction.

After purifying a mix of yellow garden pea proteins, collectively called "pea protein hydrolysate," the researchers spent eight weeks feeding the derivative to rats that had kidney disease. They found that blood pressure dropped 20 percent in the rats treated with the pea protein mixture, compared with the blood pressure of untreated rats. They also found that urine production, which can be severely curtailed by kidney function breakdown, improved by upwards of 30 percent among the treated rats.

Despite the positive findings, the researchers do not advocate the ad hoc consumption of yellow green peas. They explained that a complex protein purification process is needed to activate what is otherwise a dormant vegetable benefit.

The pea protein would need to be mixed with certain enzymes into a food additive or nutritional supplement in liquid or pill form. In that form, Aluko said, it might be easier to tolerate than blood pressure drugs, given the pea protein's natural sourcing. A natural treatment, he said, would also eliminate the risk for overdosing.

"Of course, we have to see what the human studies show, but if the results are as compelling as they were in animals, then this would potentially be a very reassuring, exciting and positive development as it is certainly very difficult to control blood pressure in people with kidney disease."

OK, let's see a show of hands. Who is stopping by the grocery store to pick up a bag of peas?

Custom Medical Stock Photo has a wonderful file of genetically modified foods and food science images. Contact CMSP for FREE research at requests@cmsp.com or call 773-267-3100.

Have a great week.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

This is CMSP's cool ad in the PictureHouse Show Guide.

PictureHouse will be held at the fabulous River East Art Center in Chicago on April 16, 2009.

For more information visit PictureHouse' website.

Stop by CMSP's Cool Image of the Day Blog tomorrow (Monday) for another cool image!!!

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Teenagers not getting good sleep, A common problem.

Getting by on just a few hours, then catching up at the weekend - it's a tried and tested sleep habit for lots of people. It's also something that doctors say isn't great for people's health and, for teenagers, could actually be quite damaging.

More and more young people aren't getting enough shut eye, and it's making them fat, grumpy and even unpopular. Doctors say texting, gaming, the internet and online messaging are some of the main reasons why more young people are staying up late.

Scientists have made links made between sleep deprivation and obesity and mental health problems.

Research shows that teenagers' body clocks are different from adults and children, and that wanting to stay up late and then not being able to get up in the morning isn't just laziness. It's something that's controlled by hormones and a chemical called melatonin.

In humans, melatonin is produced by the pineal gland, a gland about the size of a pea, located in the center of the brain but outside of the blood-brain barrier. The melatonin signal forms part of the system that regulates the circadian cycle by chemically causing drowsiness and lowering the body temperature, but it is the central nervous system (more specifically, the suprachiasmatic nucleus) that controls the daily cycle in most components of the paracrine and endocrine systems rather than the melatonin signal (as was once postulated).

Custom Medical Stock Photo has many images available for license of MELATONIN, sleep disorders and brain functions. Visit www.cmsp.com or email CMSP at FREE RESEARCH.

Have a great weekend. And don't forget to catch up on your sleep!

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Strive for 100 steps per minute.

You should be taking 100 steps each minute for half an hour a day if you want to achieve "moderate" exercise by walking, a study shows.

A US team reached the figure after measuring the body's oxygen demand in some 100 people walking on a treadmill. They wrote in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that a pedometer alone was not enough to gauge exercise as it gave no data on intensity.

Try to accumulate 1000 steps in 10 minutes, before building up to 3000 steps in 30 minutes, says Simon Marshall of the San Diego State University. Researchers based their conclusions on exercise tests given to 97 healthy adults who had an average age of 32.

In general, men needed to walk at a pace of 92 to 102 steps per minute to achieve a moderately intense workout for their hearts. The range for women was between 91 and 115 steps per minute.

"We should note that the study was conducted on healthy young adults. People who are overweight or obese - which is the majority of middle to older adults - are working harder in order to carry their weight for any walking speed. They will need to down grade their speeds accordingly."

Custom Medical Stock Photo has several walking and excerising photos to help illustrate articles on healthy habits. Visit www.cmsp.com or email CMSP at FREE RESEARCH.

Have a healthy day.

CMSP’s Cool Image of the Day

During the 1940s, scientists were on the cusp of a revolutionary scientific breakthrough. In the preceding decades, researchers had had some success transplanting organs in animals, and there had even been a few failed attempts at human organ transplants. Numerous studies showed that human organ transplantation was feasible, and that it would be enormously beneficial to thousands of patients, but nobody had been able to make it work.

Success finally came in the early 1950s, when several kidney transplants within a few years gave new life to ailing patients. In the following decades, doctors learned how to transplant other organs successfully, and they dramatically improved recovery rates. Today, most organ transplants are relatively safe, routine procedures, and transplantation is considered to be the best treatment option for thousands of patients every year.

Unfortunately, doctors and patients now face a new obstacle: The demand for transplants has far surpassed the supply of donated organs. Simply put, there aren't enough organ donors, so patients must wait months, even years, for their chance at recovery.

According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), in the United States there are 100,978 candidates on a waiting list to receive organs as of March 6, 2009.

To become an organ donor, visit this site then click on your state. Outside of the US, I am sure you can figure out where to sign up.

Each organ and tissue donor saves or improves the lives of as many as 50 people.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has spectacular images of organ transplants. Call us at 773-267-3100 or email requests@cmsp.com for help with FREE research.

Thanks to CMSP photographer Michelle Del Guercio for providing us with today's cool image.

CMSP's Green Image of the Day

St. Patrick used the clover as a symbol of the Trinity of Christianity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost were represented in its three leaves. But long before that, the Celts held the rare four leafed clover as a charm of good fortune. They assumed that finding something so rare meant rare luck for the finder and possessor.

Additional beliefs include:

One leaf is for FAITH... The second for HOPE... The third for LOVE... And the fourth for LUCK!

In Irish tradition the Shamrock or Three-leaf Clover represents the Holy Trinity: one leaf for the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit. When a Shamrock is found with the fourth leaf, it represents God's Grace.

The four leaf clover is a universally accepted symbol of good luck with its origin ages old. According to legend, Eve carried a four leaf clover from the Garden of Eden.

The clovers also occupied a position in the cultural life of early peoples. White clover (T. repens L.) in particular was held in high esteem by the early Celts of Wales as a charm against evil spirits.

Druids held the 4 leaf clover in high esteem and considered them a sign of luck. In 1620, Sir John Melton wrote: "If a man walking in the fields find any four-leaved grass, he shall in a small while after find some good thing.

The mystique of the four leaf clover continues today, since finding a real four leaf clover is still a rare occurrence and omen of good luck. Perhaps one in ten thousand clovers has four leaves.

Custom Medical Stock Photo's image library includes the four leaf clover above. Have a nice day and enjoy.

CMSP's Cold Image of the Day

Cool x-ray image of the sun by Skylab.

Large bright areas represent coronal gases with temperatures exceeding 2 million degrees Fahrenheit. The smaller bright points or Sunspots - each approximately the size of Earth were revealed in great abundance. About 1500 bright points are thought to appear daily, each lasting for about eight hours. The dark area in the upper left portion of the Sun shows a hole in the corona. These holes have lower temperatures and may be the source of solar winds.

What is a Sunspot? According to George Fischer, a solar astronomer at the University of California, "A sunspot is a dark part of the sun's surface that is cooler than the surrounding area. It turns out it is cooler because of a strong magnetic field there that inhibits the transport of heat via convective motion in the sun. The magnetic field is formed below the sun's surface, and extends out into the sun's corona."

In the last few decades, the forces behind sunspots are becoming better understood, but we've known for over a 150 years that sunspots appear in cycles. The average number of visible sunspots varies over time, increasing and decreasing on a regular cycle of between 9.5 to 11 years, on average about 10.8 years. An amateur astronomer, Heinrich Schwabe, was the first to note this cycle, in 1843. The part of the cycle with low sunspot activity is referred to as "solar minimum" while the portion of the cycle with high activity is known as "solar maximum."

Both the flow of electric current in wires and the transmission of radio waves through the air can be interfered with by the energetic magnetic radiation from the sun. Often, these storms produce surges in the power grid and static on the radio, and if the waves of energetic particles are strong enough, power grids can be overloaded, and radio signals drowned out. They produce a lot of radio interference, which at the lower radio frequencies can be so loud that you have difficulty broadcasting."

The 100+ ton Skylab station had problems caused by the interference of sunspots. Launched in 1973, the station was supposed to remain in orbit until the 1980s. The purpose of Skylab was, among other things, to study the sun. Ironically, due to increased solar activity, Skylab re-entered earth's atmosphere in 1979 - raining debris over the Indian Ocean and parts of Western Australia.

Today is the warmest day of the year here in Chicago. Thanks Sun. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has a wonderful selection of Astronomy pictures available for educational, editorial and commercial use. Call or email CMSP for help or search cmsp.com using keywords astronomy, planets, space, moon, astronauts and NASA.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

It seems just about any image of DNA is a cool image. Today's cool image is from the monitor of a DNA sequencer machine, photographed by Todd Bannor.

Automated deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing reduces the volume of low-level radioactive waste, while providing a suitable alternative to manual DNA sequencing.

Traditional methods of manual DNA sequencing utilize radioactive isotopes to label the DNA. Automated DNA sequencing utilizes fluorescent tracers instead of radioisotopes to label the DNA, thereby eliminating or significantly reducing the use of radioactive materials in some research laboratories.

DNA is the main carrier of genetic information in living organisms. DNA molecules are extremely long, large, and consist of repeating nucleotides. Nucleotides are the bases of DNA and consist of adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C). The structure of a DNA molecule is double stranded, consisting of two DNA strands wound around each other to form a double helix. The nucleotides of the two strands are complementary to each other such that adenine cross-links with thymine (A-T), and guanine cross-links with cytosine (G-C). The goal of DNA sequencing is to determine the order of bases for a specific piece of DNA.

Thanks for checking out the CMSP Cool Image of the Day Blog. Enjoy a new cool image everyday. and.... have a nice weekend :)

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

A hot day can spell bad news for migraine sufferers, increasing their risk of an attack the next day, US research suggests. The risk went up by 7.5% for every five degree Celsius increase in temperature revealed the study of more than 7,000 patients, published in Neurology. The same applied to people who suffer from non-migraine headaches too.

Although you can't alter the weather, people can watch the forecast and pop a pill to avert attacks, the authors say. As well as temperature, people might want to check air pressure too, as lower barometer readings over the past couple of days were also linked with migraines, although less strongly.

This does not mean that just because there is a hot day people are going to have a migraine the next day, although it is more likely, says Dr Brendan Davies of the Migraine Trust.

The study looked at people attending the emergency department of a large US hospital for advice about a headache at any point during a seven year period. Overall, 2,250 were diagnosed with migraine and 4,803 with "tension" or "unspecified" headaches.

Using meteorological and pollutant monitors, the researchers then compared measurements of a number of environmental factors during the days leading up to and again some weeks after a patient's hospital visit. When they averaged the temperature for the day, taking into consideration night time lows and midday highs, the researchers found every five degree Celsius rise in temperature was linked to a 7.5% hike in headache risk.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has a huge collection of images of people with headaches.

Call CMSP at 773-267-3100 or email requests@cmsp.com and ask for FREE RESEARCH. CMSP will help you find the perfect image you can use in your next editorial or commercial project.

Enjoy the cooler weather while you can. Have a great Thursday.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Today's cool image is a cross section of normal human skin. Did you know skin is an organ?

The skin is an organ that forms a protective barrier against germs (and other organisms) and keeps the inside of your body inside your body, and keeps what's outside of your body outside. Skin also helps maintain a constant body temperature. Human skin is only about 0.07 inches (2 mm) thick.

Skin is made up of two layers that cover a third fatty layer. The outer layer is called the epidermis; it is a tough protective layer that contains melanin (which protects against the rays of the sun and gives the skin its color). The second layer (located under the epidermis) is called the dermis; it contains nerve endings, sweat glands, oil glands, and hair follicles. Under these two skin layers is a fatty layer of subcutaneous tissue (the word subcutaneous means "under the skin").

Custom Medical Stock Photo has a huge collection of skin and dermatology images. If you can't find it, contact CMSP and ask for FREE RESEARCH. You will be amazed at the results.

Have a great Wednesday.

CMSP Cool Image of the Day Blog

Today's cool image shows the effects of a concave lens. The image was obtained with a pair of eyeglasses held in the front of a computer monitor.

Concave lenses are thinner at the edges than in the center(diverging meniscus). In eye glasses concave lenses are used for short-sighted people - they extend the focal length of the "short seeing lens" of the patient.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has educational images that can help visually explain concepts to students worldwide. Email CMSP for more info.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Today's Cool Image of the Day features an image that could illustrate STEM CELL RESEARCH. Today, President Obama signed an executive order in a major reversal of US policy, pledging to "vigorously support" new research.

Ex-President George W Bush blocked the use of any government money to fund research on human embryonic stem cell lines created after 9 August 2001.

Scientists say stem cell research will lead to medical breakthroughs, but many religious groups oppose the research. Analysts say Mr Obama's decision could also lead Congress to overturn a ban on spending tax dollars to create embryos. That ban, known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, has been in place since 1996 and renewed every year by Congress. But Democrat Congresswoman Diana DeGette told the New York Times newspaper that several anti-abortion colleagues were open to the possibility of reversing the ban if this was necessary to help research.

Before signing the executive order, Mr Obama said he hoped Congress would act on a bipartisan basis "to further support this research".

Stem cells are cells with the capacity to turn into any other type of human cell, be it bone, muscle or nerve cell. One embryo can provide a limitless supply because the cell lines can be grown indefinitely. But the use of human embryonic stem cells in research is controversial with some campaigners saying it is unethical.

Custom Medical Stock Photo (CMSP) has images of different types of stem cells available for license. Embryonic, punitive, fetal and placenta derived among them. Contact CMSP research department if you need assistance finding stem cell photos.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Pneumonia is an infection of one or both lungs which is usually caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi. Prior to the discovery of antibiotics, one-third of all people who developed pneumonia subsequently died from the infection. Currently, over 3 million people develop pneumonia each year in the United States. Over a half a million of these people are admitted to a hospital for treatment. Although most of these people recover, approximately 5% will die from pneumonia. Pneumonia is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

On a happy note, the weather is beautiful today in Chicago. 60 degrees is a treat in the beginning of March in Chicago.

Custom Medical Stock Photo has numerous pictures of pneumonia. From x-rays to people being treated. if you need help finding an image contact CMSP via email research@cmsp.com or call 773-267-3100.

Smile, its Friday!

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Adelies are the smallest and most widely distributed penguins in the Antarctic.
Named after the wife of the French explorer Admiral Durmont d' Urville, the Adelie is also the most commonly studied of all the penguin species.

In winter, Adelies stay at sea, resting on pack ice and icebergs in groups.
Adelie penguins can dive up to 500 feet for prey, but usually dives are much shallower.

There is fierce competition among penguins for nesting sites, especially on the higher well-drained ground -- stealing pebbles from neighboring birds' nests is a favorite pastime.

The Adelie penguin has the scientific name Pygoscelis adeliae.

There, now you can impress your friends with your knowledge of penguins.

Custom Medical Stock Photo hopes you have a nice day.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Alcohol on TV prompts drinking wine - study says.

Participants were offered wine, beer or soft drinks.

People are more likely to turn to alcohol while watching TV if they see drinking being portrayed in films or advertisements, a UK study suggests.

The research, led by a team from Radboud University in the Netherlands, monitored the behavior of 80 young people while they watched television. Researchers found those who saw lots of alcohol references drank twice as much as those that did not.

Lead researcher Rutger Engels said: "Our study clearly shows that alcohol portrayals in films and advertisements not only affects people's attitudes and norms on drinking in society, but it might work as a cue that affects craving and subsequent drinking."

He said the findings suggested there may be an argument for restricting advertising and introducing warnings on films. But he added there needed to be more research to establish the long-term implications on drinking habits.

Oh great, so in the future, before watching a movie there may be 5 minutes of warnings that the film includes alcohol drinking, mild violence, high fiving, uncontrolled smiling, driving without a seat belt, unprotected sex, loud music listening, gambling, rude language, credit card using, fur wearing.... whats next? Add your comments below!
Thanks for checking out today's Custom Medical Stock Photo blog.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Rainbow colors of an oil slick are caused by differences in the thickness of the layer of oil on water. A drop of oil spreads over a large area. If spread on a lake, it can kill many aquatic organisms by preventing oxygen from dissolution in the water.

By observing the thickness of the film of oil and its appearance on the surface of the water, it is possible to estimate the quantity of oil spilled. If the surface area of the spill is also known, the total volume of the oil can be calculated.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989. It is considered one of the most devastating man-made environmental disasters ever to occur at sea. As significant as the Exxon Valdez spill was, it ranks well down on the list of the world's largest oil spills in terms of volume released.

However, Prince William Sound's remote location (accessible only by helicopter and boat) made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing plans for response. The region was a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals, and seabirds. The vessel spilled 10.8 million U.S. gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude oil into the sea, and the oil eventually covered 11,000 square miles of ocean.

One tonne of crude oil is roughly equal to 308 US gallons, or 7.33 barrels.

Custom Medical Stock Photo can license this image or thousands of additional photos for editorial and commercial use. Visit www.cmsp.com and search on your term.

CMSP's Cool Image of the Day

Streptococcus is a spherical Gram-positive bacteria. Cellular division occurs along a single axis in these bacteria, and thus they grow in chains or pairs, hence the name — from Greek streptos, meaning easily bent or twisted, like a chain (twisted chain).

In addition to strep throat, certain Streptococcus species are responsible for many cases of meningitis, bacterial pneumonia, endocarditis, erysipelas and necrotizing fasciitis (the 'flesh-eating' bacterial infections). However, many streptococcal species are non-pathogenic. Streptococci are also part of the normal commensal flora of the mouth, skin, intestine, and upper respiratory tract of humans.

Speaking of endocarditis, look for the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. The March 9, 2009 features a CMSP image of endocarditis on it's cover.

Monday, March 2. Come on Spring! Have a good week.