This week our activists, Junichi and Toru, spent two very long and intense days in court, defending the honourable actions they took to expose the corruption within Japan’s whaling industry. As the prosecution fumbled its desperate attempt to cast the ‘Tokyo Two’ as criminals, it became obvious that whaling really is on trial in Aomori.     Full Story…

A bad day for your ego is a great day for your soul. -Jillian Michaels

One of the most popular exercises at the gym is the treadmill. And why wouldn’t it be? Whether you’re running or walking, it’s a great way to get your heart rate up, get your body moving, and for many people, a great way to burn calories.

But however you use a treadmill, there’s one extremely simple thing you can do to dramatically intensify your workout: incline it!

If you’re an outdoor walker/runner, this is the equivalent of going uphill instead of over level ground. There are many physiological differences in walking along an incline versus on level ground, but what does physics have to say about it?

Normally, if you’re on level ground (or a level treadmill), you stay at the same level in the Earth’s gravitational field.

But if you walk uphill (or on an inclined treadmill), you not only need to move forward at whatever pace you were moving at, you also need to climb — a little with every step — out of the Earth’s gravitational field!

The Earth’s gravitational field is no slouch, either. I’m an 80 kg individual, and for me to raise my elevation by just 5.3 meters (about 17 feet) costs me 4,200 Joules of energy, also known as one food calorie.

Now, if I actually exercise, I burn significantly more than one calorie by raising myself those 5.3 meters. Why? The two most significant reasons are as follows:

1. I am not a perfect engine. This means, in order for me to do 4,200 Joules of physical work, I need to burn about three times as much in food energy in order to get that much useful energy out. Alas, our bodies are inefficient in that manner.
2. When you exercise and then stop, your body doesn’t know that it’s okay for your heart to slow down for quite some time. So spending an hour walking uphill will elevate my metabolic rate for a lot longer than an hour!

Ahh, the power of exercising. But I’m not a physiologist; I deal in terms of physical work alone. So, just looking at the extra amount of energy you’d have to spend to climb up an incline rather than level ground, what are we talking about?

Let’s make a helpful table. We’ll just look at the total distance you travel (e.g., if you walk at three miles-per-hour for one hour, you go three miles), put in the incline, and see how much extra physical work you need to do!

This is all for a person with a mass of 80 kg (about 176 pounds). Isn’t that a spectacular difference? In other words, if you make a long-term change from walking on a flat ground (or treadmill) to walking up inclined ground (or an inclined treadmill), you burn extra energy with every step you take!

And what’s with the Jillian Michaels quote? Well, I’m no longer the fittest guy on scienceblogs; say hello to Travis and Peter over at Obesity Panacea, our newest ScienceBlog! But whatever you’re doing, don’t forget to take the time to get out there and do something active; you’ll feel better and you’ll be healthier. And who doesn’t want a higher quality of life?

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Well, that didn’t take long.

Remember when the grande dame of the anti-vaccine movement, Barbara Loe Fisher, decided that she would try to harass, intimidate, and silence Paul Offit through the filing of a frivolous libel suit against Dr. Offit, Amy Wallace (the journalist who interviewed Offit for an excellent article last year), and Condé Nast, the publisher of WIRED, which ran the article? Well, the judge has ruled, and that ruling is…dismissed!

The text of the ruling can be found here.

There are some awesomely awesome passages in this ruling, which is a slapdown that, while not as epic as, for instance, the slapdown that Judge John E. Jones III delivered to creationists in Kitzmiller v. Dover, is nonetheless very satisfying to read–with one exception. The judge in this case makes some truly annoying statements like:

Moreover, in the context of the Wired article, the statement “she lies” lacks the provably false content that is required to support a defamation action.=

So far, so good. Then, not so good:

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The Swiss Parliament has just extended its ban on the cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) plants for three more years. Originally enacted in 2005, Switzerland will stay GE-free until at least 2013.     Full Story…

Check out this great post by Mary M on biofortifed. In it she reviews a new research paper that describes how the use of Bt could potentially save the lives of millions.

You can download a video about the researchers and their work here.

From Mary’s post: “For some people, a great deal of the conflama around genetically-engineered (GE) crops has to do with the presence of a pesticide in the plant material–mainly the Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt protein–rather than coating the surface of the plant as organic Bt sprays or chemical-style pesticides would. No matter how many times I explain that there are benefits to this strategy (such as reduced impact on non-target species and on improvements in farm family health among others), it doesn’t seem to help. No matter how many times I explain that pesticides aren’t the only modification to plants (as we see at Biofortified regularly), it doesn’t matter to critics of GE. The fact that plants make their own pesticides? Not interested. And no matter how many times I explain how the Bt proteins work only on species that have the specific receptor for that interaction–and therefore does not affect humans as it would the corn borer pest–it doesn’t seem to have any impact. The misplaced fear continues to be used by the critics.ResearchBlogging.org

So when I saw this paper that suggested the Bt protein may be a powerful strategy for improving the lives of impoverished children around the world, all I could do was wonder if that might finally register with those who make unsupported claims of the effects of Bt on humans.”

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I’m a bit preoccupied with my recent injury and not blogging about much else, so I might as well update you on The Knee and all it entails. Warning: Self referential commentary and icky stuff below the fold. Friends, you already know much of this. People who don’t know me, you don’t want to read this. This is for the in between people. There will be no discussion of needles, because I’m done with the needles, so E.W., you’re cleared to proceed if you wish.

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The Tokyo Two trial continued today as a former whaler took to the stand and cast serious doubt on the veracity of the official investigation into our allegations of institutional embezzlement within Japan’s whaling industry. He further revealed how the whaling crew kept for themselves the meat from baby whales caught in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.     Full Story…

Go say Hello to Travis Saunders and Peter Janiszewski, the newest bloggers on the Scienceblogs.com network at Obesity Panacea.

They cover health, physiology, nutrition and exercise - something we did not have here on the network before, at least not in such a concentrated form. Check out the archives of their old blog and then bookmark the new Obesity Panacea.

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Go entertain yourself with the Obesity Panacea blog (previously here).

If you don’t laugh at the Ten Most Annoying Gym Personalities you need to, well, hit the gym.

Welcome Peter and Travis!

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