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Spinal cord work is unexpected shocker 'This is
a breakthrough'
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• Neuroscientist, Susan Harkema of the University
  of Louisville, has been conducting a study to
  learn the effects of sending electrical
  stimulation to broken spinal cords. This
  Tuesday, her findings will be published in the
  science journal Brain. Over the past five years
  Harkema and her research team have studied four
  paralyzed men and had breakthrough results. All
  four developed movement, and not just small
  movements. In addition to wiggling their big
  toes, they can lift and swing their legs, move
  their ankles and sit up without support. One
  patient can even do a sit-up. The purpose of her
  study was to learn more about nerve pathways, not
  to actually make patients move. "If you can
  change health and wellness and life expectancy
  for paralyzed patients, that's a home run,"
  Green says. "Remember, Christopher Reeve died
  from complications of immobility. The study is
  being funded in part by the Christopher Dana
  Reeve Foundation.

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In Other News

• Chili's on Monday canceled a fundraiser with the
  National Autism Association, a group that links
  autism to vaccinations, after the restaurant
  chain's Facebook page was barraged by a heated
  debate on the issue. "The intent of this
  fundraiser was not to express a view on this
  matter, but rather to support the families
  affected by autism," wrote a spokeswoman for
  Chili's Grill Bar Restaurant. In recent decades
  the decision of whether or not parents should
  vaccinate their children has become controversial
  because some have linked vaccinations to autism.
• One Japanese island has swallowed another. NASA's
  Earth Observatory reports that Niijima island, a
  volcano which broke through the ocean's surface
  last November, has now merged with a nearby
  island that formed from a volcano which last
  erupted 40 years ago. Niijima emerged about 500
  meters (550 yards) from the older Nishinoshima in
  November. Now, according to observations taken at
  the end of March, they are one, measuring about a
  kilometer (six-tenths of a mile) across. And at
  its highest point, the new island is 60 meters
  (almost 200 feet) above sea level. That's triple
  the highest point observed in December, according
  to the NASA report.