Rodents

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

The pilgrims flock to greater Orlando by the millions, arriving by plane and by minivan to worship the beloved rodent. But these days, another kind of rodent -- one without the fetching smile, the four-fingered gloves or the happy, yelpy little voice -- is plaguing the lives of locals. It goes by the name Rattus rattus , the black rat, and it's having a banner season in Orange County, Fla., home of Orlando, Disney World and Mickey Mouse. David Breen of the Orlando Sentinel reported that the Orange County Health Department has received 45 calls about rats since the start of February.

Keep an eye out for claims that carbs are making a comeback. A new diet book slated to hit stores this summer, "The Carb Lovers Diet," promises that eating carbohydrates is the key to weight loss and long-term health. The so-called secret: Eat not just any old carbs but a certain type of carbohydrate called resistant starch. The term "resistant starch" refers to starch that doesn't get fully digested in the small intestine, which is where refined carbohydrates, such as white bread and pasta, get broken down into glucose.

It started last month when workers at a Paso Robles wastewater treatment plant noticed what appeared to be a giant rodent roaming the facility. The creature eventually swam toward the Salinas River and disappeared from sight, but not before worker Nick Kamp had taken a few photos. He and a co-worker called the California Department of Fish and Game to report what they had seen. Responding wardens used the pictures to confirm that the animal was in fact a capybara — an adult they believe weighs 100 to 120 pounds.

They look like hamsters on growth hormones, bark like dogs and swim as fast as otters -- all reasons why chiguiros, the world's largest rodents, are an object of unending fascination for zoologists and wildlife enthusiasts. But ranchers here in northeastern Colombia fail to see the attraction. They claim that the rodents, which stand knee-high to humans and weigh as much as 120 pounds, consume valuable pasture, foul drinking water and spook their horses and cows.

A large part of Santa Monica lost power Sunday afternoon after rodents caused a short circuit in electrical switching equipment at a substation off 16th Street, a Southern California Edison spokesman said. The outage, which affected 17,000 homes and businesses, began at 12:24 p.m. and most power was restored within an hour, said Edison spokesman Paul Klein. He said it is fairly unusual for rodents--presumably rats--to be able to plunge a city into darkness.

Eight million years before the invention of cheese and running wheels, the mighty Phoberomys -- a spectacular rodent the size of a buffalo -- roamed the swamps of South America. To picture what it looked like, "think of a guinea pig and make it really big and you're getting pretty close," said zoologist Marcelo R. Sanchez-Villagra of Germany's University of Tubingen.

As the weather cools, rats and mice will start looking for ways to get into homes. Keeping these pests out of the home takes diligence. For starters, twice a year, every home needs to be inspected for cracks or openings around the perimeter. Look for holes under and behind shrubbery or any object stored against the building and around pipes or conduits. Rodents have been known to squeeze through holes the size of a nickel.

A Novato winery is the latest to try owls instead of toxic poisons to control rodents that eat grapevines. Four owl boxes are spread around Pacheco Ranch Winery's vineyards, and owners Herb and Debbie Rowland are welcoming any owls that want to move in. Alex Godbe, program director for Wildcare's Hungry Owl Project, said she and five volunteers already have put up boxes at 75 sites. Some owls found the shelters and moved in.

Re Dianne Klein's column "Trapped by a Distaste for Great Outdoors" (Jan 7): Sorry, but what I find "disgusting" is not rodents, but people like Dianne Klein. Why a human being cannot coexist with a few mice in the garage is beyond me. This inclination of humans to kill any insect or animal that has the audacity to stray onto their property is a symptom of the egocentricity and sickness which is destroying our environment. Why can't people see the interdependence of all life, or, at least--have a heart now and then?

Four in 10 kids who get a diagnosis of either depression or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) end up getting both diagnoses sometime in their young lives. That means a lot will spend some part of their adolescence taking two psychiatric medications: methylphenidate (better known by its commercial name, Ritalin) and fluoxetine (better known as Prozac, the only of the new-generation antidepressants approved for kids as young as 8 years old). A new study conducted on rats suggests that taking that combination of drugs may change the adults they will become in ways that are distinctly troubling.

Salmonella causes food poisoning in about a million Americans each year, and it shows no signs of going away. A new CDC report this week found that the number of salmonella-related illnesses has been virtually unchanged in the last 15 years. Apparently, we're going to have to learn how to avoid it as best we can on our own  --  and thoroughly cooking meat and eggs is just the beginning. The bacterium, which is shaped like a rod, makes its home in the intestinal tract of humans and animals.

Researchers have taken a big step forward in studying depression in humans because they have succeeded in improving a mouse model of the disease. Major depression is a common, debilitating illnesses. The causes of depression are many, but studies show a strong genetic component, probably accounting for 40% to 70% of the risk for developing a major depressive disorder, said the author of a new study, Dr. George Zubenko, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The mind and the gut are tightly connected. Anyone who's had a stomach ache accompany a bout of nervousness can testify to the phenomenon. A study in rodents now suggests that digestive troubles early in life may even predispose people to developing anxiety and depression. Previous studies have shown that people who have chronic stomach aches are more likely than other people to be anxious or depressed. In the new study, researchers at Stanford, UC San Francisco and the University of Kansas looked at whether the stomach ailments could causes mood disorders instead of what is presumed: that emotions cause stomach problems.

People who exercise are less likely to have a heart attack, studies show. Moreover, physically active people who do have a heart attack may not sustain as much heart damage compared to sedentary heart-attack patients. Now researchers have a better understanding of why exercise is so protective. In a recent study, scientists found that the heart is able to produce and store a natural substance called nitric oxide that helps strengthen the heart muscle. Nitric oxide is produced during exercise.

We've all had them, and scientists now know what brain glitches look like. Certain parts of the brain can briefly shut down while the rest of the brain is functioning, a new study shows. These micro naps may help explain why people sometimes do mindless things, like leaving the key in the front door. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin conducted an experiment with rats to explore the phenomenon of micro sleep. The longstanding theory has been that any momentary loss of consciousness affects the entire brain.

A long-whiskered rodent with stubby legs and a tail covered with dense hair has turned out be a previously unknown species that represents a new family of wildlife, the Wildlife Conservation Society said Wednesday. The kha-nyou, as local people call it, was seen by scientists in a market in central Laos. Based on morphological differences in the skull and bone structure, coupled with DNA analysis, researchers estimated the animal diverged from other rodents millions of years ago.

Populations of the American pika, a hamster-like rodent unable to survive in warm climates, continue to decline in the West, apparently due in part to global warming, researchers said. Local populations of pikas are extinct at more than one-third of 25 sites surveyed since the mid-1990s in the Great Basin region, according to the study conducted by a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey.

One of the mysteries of autism is why an infant who seems to be developing normally suddenly regresses after his or her first birthday. This phenomenon, which affects about 25% of children diagnosed with autism, gave rise to the now-discredited hypothesis that immunizations given around the first birthday can cause the disease. A study published Thursday in mice provides a potential explanation of what happens in the brains of these children. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston conducted experiments with mice with a mutation in the Mecp2 gene.

Drinking at a young age is simply bad for the brain, according to a growing number of studies. The latest study looks at the relationship between alcohol and the brain in mice. And the results are not pretty. Researchers gave mice alcohol daily for 10 days and later examined their brains with MRI. The mice who were drinkers in youth had smaller forebrain volume and size as adults. The study also found reduced activity in some genes that govern brain chemicals called neurotransmitters 24 hours after an alcohol binge in adolescent mice.