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Evidence is accumulating to support the theory that vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy, caused by a lack of sunlight, can alter the development of a child’s brain in the womb.

The role of vitamin D in building healthy brains was ignored until researchers began to notice some strange trends. People who develop schizophrenia in Europe and North America are more likely to be born in the spring, and they are roughly four times more likely to be born to Afro-Caribbean immigrants living in northern countries.
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Marian Burros, in the February 10 issue of the New York Times, reports that the poultry industry has quietly cut back on its use of antibiotics in chicken feed. Public health and consumer groups have been demanding this for years, since it contributes to the growing resistance to antibiotics that fight disease-causing bacteria in humans.
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Kraft Foods is the biggest U.S. food maker, with brands that include Oscar Mayer meats and Philadelphia cream cheese. The company has become the target of Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a Washington-based group which opposes the use of genetically engineered ingredients in commercial foods.

This group was responsible for the research that led to Kraft?s recall in 2000 of taco shells containing StarLink corn, which has been approved for animals but not humans. ?That was a clear instance of an ingredient that was not confirmed for use,? says Kraft spokesman Michael Mudd. ?Once we confirmed it was present in the product, we immediately recalled it.? Other companies also recalled products that contained the GM corn.
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Doctors are developing artificial wombs in which embryos can grow outside a woman?s body. Scientists have created prototype wombs made out of cells extracted from women?s bodies. Embryos successfully attached themselves to the walls of these laboratory wombs and began to grow. Experiments had to be terminated after a few days to comply with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) regulations.

?We hope to create complete artificial wombs using these techniques in a few years,? says Dr. Hung-Ching Liu of Cornell University?s Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility. ?Women with damaged uteruses and wombs will be able to have babies for the first time.?
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