i am tired of this CRAP!!!

I do not understand why most of the science research news that can be found in some major mainstream broadcasters' websites are absolute crap. In a world where people are working on endogenous retroviruses, artificial life, stem cell research, and trying to assess and conserve biodiversity...all they are able to come up with in their breaking news is something related to the magical properties of tomato paste.

Maybe I am exaggerating, and I am sure that the study done on the...effects of 5 spoonful of tomato paste and olive oil given out to participants might be groundbreaking. Maybe, regardless of the fact that I am quite skeptical about whether testing tomato paste is a good use for research money (which is hard to come by these days), the science behind the study presented at the annual meeting of the British Society for Investigative Dermatology is sound and valid. But I still cannot see how this deserves a prime spot in the BBC Health section. Here is the summary of the report.

Pizza and spaghetti bolognese could become new tools in the fight against sunburn and wrinkles, a study suggests. A team found adding five tablespoons of tomato paste to the daily diet of 10 volunteers improved the skin's ability to protect against harmful UV rays. Damage from these rays can lead to premature ageing and even skin cancer. The study, presented at the British Society for Investigative Dermatology, suggested the antioxidant lycopene was behind the apparent benefit.
This component of tomatoes - found at its highest concentration when the fruit has been cooked - has already been linked to a reduction in the risk of prostate cancer.
Now researchers at the universities of Manchester and Newcastle have suggested it may also help ward off skin damage by providing some protection against the effects of UV rays.

That's right. Forget the considerable amount of cholesterol that you can possibly find in pizza and spaghetti alla bolognese - go ahead and chug it down, because it might even make your skin look better!

Anti-ageing paste?

They gave 10 volunteers around 55g of standard tomato paste - which contains high levels of cooked tomatoes - and 10g of olive oil daily. A further 10 participants received just the olive oil.

After three months, skin samples from the tomato group showed they had 33% more protection against sunburn - the equivalent of a very low factor sun cream - and much higher levels of procollagen, a molecule which gives the skin its structure and keeps its firm.

"The tomato diet boosted the level of procollagen in the skin significantly. These increasing levels suggest potential reversal of the skin ageing process," said Professor Lesley Rhodes, a dermatologist at the University of Manchester.

Nice. I think I just got a new business idea - injecting tomato paste extracts, you know, for cosmetic purposes. I will call it the ForeverRipe(c) treatment, all rights reserved. Not joking, I am dead serious.

I am tired of Nisbet and Mooney and the other SciBlings arguing. Can somebody please do us a favor, and start writing a few decent articles for main broadcasters, send them out, and get hired part-time? Somebody who possibly knows better than to write about tomato paste, when we are in a time of fabulous advances in system biology, proteomics, synthetic biology, genomics, stem cell and regenerative research?

Please?


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