Mum's birth age may be key to long life: "People are more likely to see their 100th birthday if they were born to young mothers, research hints. The age at which a mother gives birth has a major impact on how long her child will live, two researchers from the University of Chicago's Centre on Aging told the Chicago Actuarial Association meeting this spring. The chances of living to the ripe old age of 100 - and beyond - nearly double for a child born to a woman before her 25th birthday, Drs. Leonid Gavrilov and Natalia Gavrilova reported. The father's age is less important to longevity, according to their research. In a previous study, the husband and wife research team of Gavrilov and Gavrilova identified birth order as a possible predictor of an exceptionally long life. They observed that first-born children, especially daughters, are much more likely to live to age 100. But their latest research suggests that it is the young age of the mother, rather than birth order, which is significant to longevity."



A slimming ice-cream!: "A fish that lives in the North Atlantic is being used to create ice-cream that can be eaten without fear of putting on weight. Using GM technology, the blood of the ocean pout, an eel-like fish, has been used to create a protein that will cut the fat and calories in some leading brands of ice-cream. Unilever, which owns Wall's, Magnum, Carte D'Or and Ben & Jerry's, has applied to the Food Standards Agency for permission to use the protein in a range of ice-creams and frozen fruit-ices. It may be 2008, however, before lovers of ice-cream can devour the food without piling on the pounds. The protein is not the GM "Frankenstein food" that has been heavily criticised by environmental and health campaigners. This technology leaves no edible traces of GM material in the finished process - rather like the use of vegetarian rennet in cheese. The gene used in the yeast protein has been developed through GM technology but there is no yeast in the final product."