Whenever you come in contact with anything, your picking up a plethora of possibly dangerous germs. From the obvious like using the rest room to everyday activities like taking money out of the ATM, shaking hands, or riding the subway your putting yourself, and everyone you come in contact with at potential risk.

For all of you health conscience people out there, we’ve compiled a list of the most common germs found on your hands. Pick them up and take a look, what you don’t see is what can be so dangerous. Including:

• Shigella flexneri. Causes vomiting, headache, diarrhea
• Staphylococcus aureus. Staph Infection
• Pseudomonus aeruginosa. “Hot tub rash” severe, potentially fatal, respiratory disease in cystic fibrosis and elderly
• Streptococcus pyrogens. Causes tonsilitis, sore throats, scarlet fever,impetigo
• Salmonella. Causes severe diarrhea, stomach pain, dizziness, fever
• Rhino virus. Over 200 strains of the common cold
• Proteus vulgaris. Urinary tract infections
• Hepatitis A.Vomiting, liver disorders, jaundice
• Escherichia coli. Kidney failure, uncontrollable fever, death
• Rotavirus. The leading cause of severe, dehydrating diarrhea in infants and young children.
• Echovirus. Meningitis, encephalitis, neonatal sepsis, myocarditis, and chronic infection
• Coxsackie virus. Sore throat, abdominal discomfort, or nausea

And this is only some of the Germs that you could possibly have on your hands right now. Multiplying on the keyboard your typing on and on the door knob that you entered in from, germs are everywhere.

To be fair to the little micro organisms, most of these germs won’t end up hurting you. Your immune system will fight them off and you’ll never even know they were there. But in some cases they do over power, and thats where prevention comes into play.

It’s estimated that 50% of people don’t wash their hands after using the rest room and almost 90% before eating. (snacks count too!) They then touch things you touch, and you touch things someone else touches, and so on. So you can see the importance of proper hand washing.

When to Wash Your Hands

Always wash your hands before:

• Preparing food
• Eating
• Treating wounds or giving medicine
• Touching a sick or injured person
• Inserting or removing contact lenses
• Using the rest room
• Touching your eyes, nose or mouth

Always wash your hands after:

• Preparing food, especially raw meat or poultry
• Using the toilet
• Changing a diaper
• Touching an animal or animal toys, leashes or waste
• Blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing into your hands
• Treating wounds
• Touching a sick or injured person
• Handling garbage or something that could be contaminated, such as a cleaning cloth or soiled shoes

How to Wash Your Hands

• Wet your hands with warm water (as warm as whats comfortable)
• Apply soap or anti-bacterial wash
• Lather for at least 20 seconds (studies have shown that the longer you lather the more germs are killed)
• Make sure to wash under nails, between fingers, on the back of your hands, and up past your wrists
• Scrub while rinsing your hands and rinse for at least 10 seconds
• Dry your hands thoroughly.

By washing regularly and correctly you can decrease your chance of infection greatly and help stop the spread of germs to other people.

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In the pursuit of medical science Elizabeth Blackburn winner of  the Nobel prize for medicine together with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak have been duley noted for their work in  the existence and nature of telomerase, an enzyme that helps prevent the fraying of chromosomes and is the key to work on preventing and curing types of cancers.

A professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, Elizabeth  Blackburn was working on a federal grant that funded the ground breaking research.

“I was just following my nose,” she told a news conference after the announcement of her prize by the Nobel committee in Stockholm. “That would look pretty bad in a business plan,” she said, noting that basic research is long and costly.

Blackburn has been working in the field for almost thirty years and it has finally paid off big. Although this is only the beginning stages, it will most likely lead the way to a cancer fighting drug like non we have seen.

Biotech firms Merck and Geron have jumped on board to start trials for therapy based on the enzyme but there is still a long road ahead.

Funding for the project is running out fast but a new $5 billion grant from President Obama may be the key that can unlock the chest needed to push the research to the next level. Bio companies are in business to make money which is fine but we need long term cash flow to get the ball rolling and keep it rolling.

Whether any of the grant money, that was part of President Obama’s Stimulus plan, will reach Blackburn and her team is unknown as of yet, but everyone is hopeful that the research will continue at full speed.

“The old paradigm needs to be revamped,” said Sam Hawgood, dean of the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, who says star researchers may be able to attract corporate backing even for basic science. This can be hard to do however when the research may not lead to profit and stockholders start getting frustrated.

There is a lot of work to do but with grants like the Presidents stimulus money it is possible. We all just need to keep pushing forward.

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Autism spectrum disorders are a group of neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism, Asperger, and pervasive developmental disorder. Symptoms including poor social interaction, difficulty with communication and repetitive behaviors.

The new study indicates that 110 of every 10,000 U.S.children will be diagnosed with autism. That translates to about 673,000 American children with the condition. While previously researchers thought the numbers were about 1 in 150 the new study suggests it’s a much higher number up to 1 in 91 meaning a long road ahead for these children and parents with estimated lifetime health care costs being around $1.5 million.

“I think this is a very important study that says the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders may be even higher than we suspected previously,” said Geraldine Dawson, chief scientific officer of Autism Speaks.

“Autism is a major public health challenge, and this study is another call to action that we need to be able to provide care across the lifespan,” she said.

The study also showed that autism diagnoses caseses  were four times higher for boys than girls, and that non-Hispanic black and multiracial children were less likely to have an autism disorder than white children with little evidence as to why.

“This is more data that adds to what’s already in existence that shows autism spectrum disorders are common,” Johnson said.

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“Very long lives are not the distant privilege of remote future generations – very long lives are the probable destiny of most people alive now in developed countries,” Kaare Christensen of the Danish Ageing Research Centre wrote in a study in the Lancet medical journal.

It’s rare enough right now to turn on the news and occasionally see a person celebrating their one hundredth birthday, being asked questions like what their secret to living so long is and what they think of all the advances we’ve made as society, but in the not to distant future most people will fall into the same catagory.

With increasing medical advancements and awarness of health risks it’s really not that far fetched. In the twentyth century alone we’ve seen an increase in life expectancy of up to thirty years.

According to their analysis of data from more than 30 developed countries, death rates are dropping among people over 80. And three quarters of babies born in these nations over the past decade can expect to live to 75. The researchers also hypothesized that we can live longer by extending our working lives and shortening our work weeks—say, by making a four-day workweek the norm.

It will however increase the need for longer medical treatment and increase this cost. But if people work longer hopefully more money will be put towards theses needs and may end up working out in everyone’s benefit. With such a long life the human race is sure to see even more advances in all fields making a better world for us all.

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