Rare Animal that resemble Famous Mythical Animal

Thai Man Marries Dead Girlfriends It’s a Tragic Love Story

If in France there’s a  woman who marries her dead boyfriends, then in Thailand there’s a man who marries her dead girlfriends. both of them was a great example of the tragic love story and show us how a true love could do, a man decided to go ahead with the wedding he and his girlfriend had planned, But sadly a day before the wedding, her girlfriends died in a car crash.

29-year old Sarinya Kamsook and her 28-year-old boyfriend, Chadil Deffy, were to be married this year. A wedding is considered the most special event of a woman’s life and it was no different for Sarinya. She was eagerly counting the days to the moment when she would finally say ‘I do’, along with the love of her life, but fate had other plans for them. Just 1 days before the wedding, Sarinya was involved in a car crash, leaving her severely injured. She still could have been saved with timely medical attention. However, the doctors made her wait for 6 hours due to an overcrowded ICU instead of transferring her to another hospital. During this time, she succumbed to her injuries and passed away.

Deffy and Sarinya had been together for 10 years, before they finally decided to get married and build a family. They had postponed the wedding several times, due to busy schedules and the fact that Deffy wanted to complete his education before he got married. However, after Sarinya’s untimely death, he couldn’t let her go without fulfilling her deepest desire. So, he decided to marry her anyway. On the 4th of January, in Buddhist ceremony, Deffy married the corpse of his girlfriend Sarinya. The event took place in Surin, a city in northern Thailand. During the ceremony, he expressed his devotion and deep love for Sarinya. Several friends and relatives attended the wedding, and it was even aired on national television in Thailand. The story, along with pictures from the wedding have now become an internet sensation, sparking several debates. You can watch their wedding procession below. It’s really a sad wedding ceremony where a man marries her dead girlfriends just to fulfill their deepest desire.

The images show Deffy kissing the forehead of his girlfriend’s corpse and placing a wedding ring on her finger. Hopefully her soul now rests in peace, having received her final wish. As a tribute to their immense love, Thai Youtube users have created various video collages, like the one below. A Facebook page dedicated to the two has so far been “liked” by over 30,000 people.

Crazy World

Mesodinium chamaeleon Unique Half Plant and Half Animal Organism

Mesodinium chamaeleon is an unusual new species that discovered recently at Beach Niva, Denmark. This organism shocks many scientist due to their characteristics. Mesodinium chamaeleon has both characteristics of plant and animal. until now there’s still so many debates about what is Mesodinium chamaeleon, Scientists previously thought that no creature may exist between animals and plants but now they had to think again.

Mesodinium chamaeleon is actually a single cell organism that lives at seawater around Scandinavia and North America, chowing down on a new generation of slaves. The characteristics that make it can be said of animals is the presence of cilia, the organs that are used to move cells. The existence of organ enables this species move actively looking for food like animals.

Meanwhile,it also absorbs algae cells that can then give it extra energy through photosynthesis. Mesodinium chamaeleon also bring the algae move and change her appearance like color of algae, ie, red or green. That’s the characteristics of plant

Ojvin Mooestrap, researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who discovered the species as quoted by New Scientist, Friday (01/13/2012), stated, “The division between animals and plants does not really exist.” Mooestrap revealed, many organisms may be a combination in between.

Mesodinium chamaeleon found in the Beach Niva, Denmark. Other specimens are also found off the coast of Finland and Rhode Island. Findings half plant and half animal organisms are rare. Besides Mesodinium chamaeleon, organisms that have similar characteristics is Mesodinium rubrum.

Mesodinium chamaeleon is an animal that forms a symbiotic relationship with the algal plants called cryptonomads. The resulting organism is just one of several hybrids that muddy the supposedly ironclad boundaries between the plant and animal kingdoms. And, as New Scientist explains, M. chamaeleon actually holds onto its symbiotic partners for so long that it’s questionable whether it’s even really a hybrid anymore:

Mesodinium chamaeleon reflects how endosymbiosis evolved. His discovery was published in the Journal of eukaryotic Microbiology recently. This is truly a rare organism. I never thought if there’s a half animal and half plant organism exist.

Via : io9.com, Newscientist.com and Scitechdaily

Amazing Pictures Transform Artist into “Disappearing Woman”

By Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger | At Home – Wed, Jan 25, 2012 4:59 PM EST

http://shine.yahoo.com/at-home/amazing-pictures-transform-artist-8220-disappearing-woman-8221-175900745.html

Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Nocturne, 2009

Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Paradise Hands, 2011

Siren in the Sea of Roses, 2011

Tutti Frutti, 2009     Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Meditative Mermaid, 2011  Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Transition, 2011       Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Chrysanthemum, 2009       Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Spirit of the East, 2008   Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Rhythmic Garland, 2009      Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Art Nouveau, 2009        Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Flow, 2010         Photo by: Cecilia Parades

Artist Cecilia Parades’s work is about exploring the meaning of origins and boundaries. “I ‘transform’ myself into elements of nature, my surroundings, landscapes, and other images that form the world around me,” Parades told Yahoo! Shine. “I’m trying to tell a story about relations with space and location.”

Related: How a Photographer Captures the Joyful Spirit of Kids With Special Needs

Parades was born in Lima, Peru, but has lived outside of her home country for 35 years. Much of her career has centered on investigating themes of migration, adaptation, and relocation. She says her work is “also about longing.” Parades uses body paint, make up, and costumes to achieve her remarkable transformations.

Unlike Chinese artist Liu Bolin (“The Invisible Man”), who has assistants paint him to completely vanish into his surroundings, Parades offers viewers a visual clue such as an open eye or a lock of hair to express the paradox of being an individual who is also part of a larger cosmos.

Photos courtesy of the Diana Lowenstein Gallery

Ajanta Caves

The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi: अजिंठा लेणी) in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra,India are 29 rock-cut cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE. The caves include paintings and sculptures considered to be masterpieces of both Buddhist religious art (which depict the Jataka tales) as well as frescos which are reminiscent of the Sigiriyapaintings in Sri Lanka.The caves were built in two phases starting around 200 BCE, with the second group of caves built around 600 CE.

Since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon, just outside the village of Ajinṭhā(20°31′56″N 75°44′44″E). Caves are only about 59 kilometers from Jalgaon Railway station (on Delhi – Mumbai, Rail line of the Central railways, India); and 104 kilometers from Aurangabad (from Ellora Caves 100 Kilometers).

Ajanta Caves *
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Country	India
Type	Cultural 1
Criteria	i, ii, iii, vi
Reference	242
Region **	Asia-Pacific
Coordinates	20°33′09″N 75°42′02″ECoordinates: 20°33′09″N 75°42′02″E
Inscription history
Inscription	1983 (7th Session)
Location of Ajanta Caves in India
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO

First period

According to Spink (2006), the first phase was the construction of Hinayana Buddhistsanctuaries (known as chaytia-grihas) built during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) in the canyons of the Waghora River. The caves 9, 10, 12 and 15A were constructed during this period. Murals preserved from this time belong to the oldest monuments of painted art in India.

Second period

Ajanta Caves, map

Scholars disagree about the date of the Ajanta Caves’ second period. For a time it was thought that the work was done over a long period from the fourth to the 7th century AD, but recently long-time researcher Walter M. Spink declared that most of the work took place over short time period, from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of theVakataka dynasty. Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, for the most part viharas: monasteries with a sanctuary in the structure’s rear centre. Each of cave temples seem to be patronised by influential authority, numerous best available artists have been involved in the work with fruitful rivalry between the neighbouring construction sites.

According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned shortly after the fall of Harishena c. 480 CE. Since then, these temples have been abandoned and gradually forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed.

Rediscovery by Europeans

On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to one of the cave temples (Cave No. 10) deep within the tangled undergrowth. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other, larger, animals, Captain Smith scratched his name in on one of the pillars. Still faintly visible, it records his name and the date, April 1819. Since he stood on a five foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult. Shortly after this discovery, the Ajanta Caves became renowned for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, historic artwork, and long-forgotten history.

Cave One

Cave 1

The first cave was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp. According to Spink, it is one of the latest caves to have begun on site and brought to near-completion in the Vākāţaka phase.Although there is no epigraphic evidence, it has been proposed that the Vākāţaka kingHarisena may have been the benefactor of this better-preserved cave. A dominant reason for this is that Harisena was not involved initially in patronizing Ajanta.

Painting of  Vajrapani

This cave has one of the most elaborate carvings on its facade with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillared vestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggest that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessity and norm. Most areas of the porch were once covered with murals, of which many fragments remain. There are three doorways: a central doorway and two side doorways. Two square windows were carved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.

Painting of Padmapani

Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 40 feet (12 m) long and 20 feet (6.1 m) high. Twelve pillars make a square colonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spacious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved on the rear wall to house an impressive seated image of the Buddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartana mudra. There are four cells on each of the left, rear, and the right walls. The walls are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental. The themes are from the Jataka stories (the stories of the Buddha’s former existences as Bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration.

Cave Two

Painting, cave no. 2.

Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation.

The facade

Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Even the facade carvings seem to be different. The cave is supported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs. The size and ground plan have many things in common with the first cave.

The porch

The front porch consists of cells supported by pillared vestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously “wasted areas” were needed to meet the greater housing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became a trend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple single cells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or were planned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.

The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch have been widely published. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha’s life in former existences as Bodhisattva. The porch’s rear wall has a doorway in the center, which allows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is a square-shaped window to brighten the interior.

The hall

The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the respective walls of the hall, making an aisle in between. The colonnades have rock-beams above and below them. The capitals are carved and painted with various decorative themes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegetative, and semi-divine forms.

The paintings

Lord buddha in preaching pose flanked by Bodhisattvas, Cave 4, Ajanta

Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places the art work has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha’s teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and ‘read’ the narratives depicted in various episodes. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research since the site’s rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff’s identifications have updated our knowledge on the subject.

Entrance of cave no. 9.

Some believe that the art work has erroneously been alluded to as “fresco“, rather than mural, and assert that the technique and process used to produce this kind of artwork is unlike any other artwork found in the art history of other civilizations, including within the history of South Asian art.

Cave Four

http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/South%20India/Ajanta/AjantaCaves65.jpg

The Archeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4 : “This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished.An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha’s image mentions that it was a gift from a person named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6 th century A.D. It consists of a verandah , a hypostylar hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells.The sanctum houses a colossal image of Lord buddha in preaching pose flanked byBodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above.The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of Avalokiteśvara“

Antechamber ceiling

Cave 4 sculptures

Cave 4 tempera

Scenes form Jataka tales

Fragment of a painting

Dark Buddha

Miracle of Sarasvati

Buddha in padmasana

Buddha’s attendants

Cave 7 Miracle of Sarasvati

Cave 9

Cave 10 stupa

Cave 10 pillar and wall

Cave 10 tempera

See more Images on http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/South%20India/Ajanta/Ajanta.htm

By Robert T. Gonzalez

Newt Gingrich is right: We need a permanent Moonbase

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has promised us a permanent Moon base by 2020. Many people have been calling Newt’s vow a publicity stunt, while others have chimed in by attacking the idea of a lunar base in and of itself, with assertions like “real scientists know [a Moon base] is fantasy.”

We won’t speak to Newt’s political maneuverings, but we’re sure as hell not going to sit idly by while people bash the feasibility or scientific potential of a lunar settlement. In fact, we’ve got 185 reasons we should set a course straight away.

The Moon is a Stepping Stone to Mars

NASA has expressed that all technologies developed for getting us to the Moon and keeping us there should, whenever possible, “be designed with maximum extensibility to Mars.”

Setting up a base on the Moon is in many ways one step removed from sending an astronaut to the Red Planet — and doing that puts us one step closer to us getting off this rock and out into our galaxy and beyond. One hundred, five-hundred, a thousand years from now, when our descendants look back on our first days of space travel, they’ll remember that putting a permanent base on the Moon was the first, indispensable step.

An Off-World Energy Source

We spoke to astrophysicist Michael Shara — curator of the astrophysics department at the American Museum of Natural History — about the scientific potential of a permanent Moon base, and one of the first things to come up was lunar resource utilization.

“Lunar geology is in its infancy,” he explained. “Helium 3 and rare earth element mining would be a major industry.”

What is Helium-3? Remember the stuff they were mining in Duncan Jones’ Moon? That was helium-3 — a non-radioactive isotope of helium with huge potential in nuclear fusion research and alternative energy applications. Yes it really exists, yes it really is rare on Earth, and yes it really could make a one-way-trip to the Moon totally worth it. Not only would it make for a great off-world alternative energy source, it would also provide on-site support for expansion and development on the Moon itself.

Unprecedented Imaging Capabilities

Have you heard about liquid mirror telescopes? They’re elegant in their simplicity, economically affordable to construct, and harness incredible imaging potential. “It’s so simple,”explains Ermanno F. Borra, a physics professor at the Optics Laboratory of Laval University inQuebec,Canada. “Isaac Newton knew that any liquid, if put into a shallow container and set spinning, naturally assumes a parabolic shape-the same shape needed by a telescope mirror to bring starlight to a focus.”

And to top it off, the Moon’s temperatures and open space make it the perfect place to build one. “Huge liquid mirror telescopes, operating in the ultraviolet and infrared range, would have 1000x the light-gathering power of Keck,” Shara told io9. As a point of reference, the Keck Observatory‘s two main telescopes are the second-largest optical telescopes on Earth.

Money

Yes, getting back to the Moon will be expensive. Yes, setting up shop there permanently will be veryexpensive. But you have to think of it as an investment, because the potential for monetary return is huge. Think of the payback you’d see fromspace tourism, alone… then realize that every time a new resource is tapped, every time a new technology is developed, every time a new system is successfully demonstrated, it will be a boon for those who have contributed towards making Man’s presence on the Moon a reality.

New map for what to plant reflects global warming

By SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated Press – Wed, Jan 25,2012

http://news.yahoo.com/map-plant-reflects-global-warming-193939113.html

Map shows the USDA’s new plant zone map

WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.

It’s the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised the official guide for the nation’s 80 million gardeners, and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.

The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, arrives just as many home gardeners are receiving their seed catalogs and dreaming of lush flower beds in the spring.

It reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn’t as cold as it used to be, so some plants and trees can now survive farther north.

“People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the wintertime,” said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. “There’s a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn’t grow before.”

He stand the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard stands as an example: “People don’t think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now.”

The new guide also uses better weather data and offers more interactive technology. For example, gardeners using the online version can enter their ZIP code and get the exact average coldesttemperature.

Also, for the first time, calculations include more detailed factors such as prevailing winds, the presence of nearby bodies of water, the slope of the land, and the way cities are hotter than suburbs and rural areas.

The map carves up the U.S. into 26 zones based on five-degree temperature increments. The old 1990 map mentions 34 U.S. cities in its key. On the 2012 map, 18 of those, including Honolulu, St. Louis, Des Moines, Iowa, St. Paul, Minn., and even Fairbanks, Alaska, are in newer, warmer zones.

Those differences matter in deciding what to plant.

Photo By Charlie Neibergall

In this Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 photo, Manager Jerry Holub looks at seed packages on display at the Earl May Nursery and Garden Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The USDA announced Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century. In changing Des Moines, Holub doesn’t think the warmer zone will have much of an impact on gardeners. But he said this may mean local residents can even try passion flowers. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

For example, Des Moines used to be in zone 5a, meaning the lowest temperature on average was between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees. Now it’s 5b, which has a lowest temperature of 10 to 15 degrees below zero. Jerry Holub, manager of a Des Moines plant nursery, said folks there might now be able to safely grow passion flowers.

Griffin, Ga., used to be in zone 7b, where the coldest day would average between 5 and 10 degrees. But the city is now in zone 8a, averaging a coldest day of 10 to 15 degrees. So growing bay laurel becomes possible. It wasn’t recommended on the old map.

“It is great that the federal government is catching up with what the plants themselves have known for years now: The globe is warming and it is greatly influencing plants (and animals),” Stanford University biology professor Terry Root wrote in an email.

The changes come too late to make this year’s seed packets, but they will be in next year’s, said George Ball, chairman and CEO of the seed company W. Atlee Burpee, which puts the maps on packages of perennials, not annuals. But Ball said many of his customers already know what can grow in their own climate and how it has warmed.

“Climate change, which has been in the air for a long time, is not big news to gardeners,” he said.

Mark Kaplan, a New York meteorologist who helped create the 1990 map, said the latest version clearly shows warmer zones migrating north. Other experts agreed.

The 1990 map was based on temperatures from 1974 to 1986, the new map from 1976 to 2005. The nation’s average temperature from 1976 to 2005 was two-thirds of a degree higher than it was during the old time period, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

USDA spokeswoman Kim Kaplan, who was part of the map team, repeatedly tried to distance the new zones on the map from global warming. She said that while much of the country is in warmer zones, the map “is simply not a good instrument” to demonstrate climate change because it is based on just the coldest days of the year.

David W. Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell University, said that the USDA is being too cautious and that the map plainly reflects warming.

The revised map “gives us a clear picture of the ‘new normal’ and will be an essential tool for gardeners, farmers and natural resource managers as they begin to cope with rapid climate change,” Wolfe said in an email.

The Arbor Day Foundation issued its own hardiness guide six years ago, and the new government map is very similar, said Woodrow Nelson, a vice president at the plant-loving organization.

“We got a lot of comments that the 1990 map wasn’t accurate anymore,” Nelson said. “I look forward to (the new map). It’s been a long time coming.”

Nelson lives in Lincoln, Neb., where the zone warmed to a 5b. Nelson said he used to be in a “solid 4,” but now he has Japanese maples and Fraser firs in his yard — trees that shouldn’t survive in a zone 4.

Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, said he has seen redbud trees, one of the earliest blooming trees, a little farther north in recent years.

“They always said redbuds don’t go beyond U.S. Highway 30,” he said, “but I’m seeing them near Roland,” 10 miles to the north.

___

AP Writer Michael J. Crumb contributed to this report from Des Moines.

Business Insider: Meet SEAL Team 6, the badasses who rescued Jessica Buchanan last night

Team 6 became front page news following the May 2 raid at Osama bin Laden’s compound. Here, US soldiers from 703rd EOD Company, 2nd Platoon, Team 6, return with their armored vehicles following a controlled detonation of munitions outside Camp Clark in Mandozai district, Khost province, eastern Afghanistan on July 4, 2011.

More Men Than Women Have Oral HPV Infection

By Rachael Rettner | LiveScience.com – 6 hrs ago

About 7 percent of adults and teens in the United States are orally infected with the human papillomavirus, or HPV, a new study says. This represents about 14.9 million people.

More men are affected than women: About 10 percent of men ages 14 to 69 have an oral HPV infection, compared with 3.6 percent of women, the study showed.

Oral HPV infections cause some oropharyngeal cancers, or cancers of the tongue, the tonsils or back of the mouth. People who are infected with the strain HPV 16 are 14 times more likely to develop these cancers compared with those not infected with the virus.

The new findings were “reassuring,” according to study researcher Dr. Maura Gillison, chair of cancer research at The Ohio State University , because they show that while oral infection with the virus is common, cancer cases as a result of these infections are rare. In other words, most infected people don’t get cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be about 40,000 new cases of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx in 2012.

The findings also show oral HPV infections are, for the most part, sexually transmitted. People who reported engaging in oral sex were twice as likely to have an oral HPV infection as those who did not engage in oral sex. People who had had sex of any kind, including vaginal sex or oral sex, were eight times more likely to have an oral HPV infection than those who had not had sex. Among those who’d had 20 or more sexual partners, one in five had an oral HPV infection.

“Taken together, these data indicate that transmission by casual, nonsexual contact is likely to be unusual,” the researchers wrote in their study.

However, there are clues HPV may also spread by kissing. Oral HPV infections were more common among sexually experienced people who had not engaged in oral sex than among sexually inexperienced individuals, a finding that is “consistent with transmission by other sexually associated contact (eg, deep kissing),” the researchers wrote in their study.

“This study of oral HPV infection is the critical first step toward developing potential oropharyngeal cancer prevention strategies,” Gillison said. “This is clearly important, because HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer is poised to overtake cervical cancer as the leading type of HPV-caused cancers in the U.S.”

More studies are needed to know whether the HPV vaccine effectively prevents oral HPV infections, the researchers said. Currently, the vaccine is recommended to prevent cervical cancer, anal cancer and genital warts.

How common is oral HPV?

Between 1998 and 2004, incidence of new cases of oropharyngeal cancer in the United States more than tripled (from 0.8 cancers per 100,000 people to 2.6 cancers per 100,000 people).

Despite the rise, little was known about the prevalence of oral HPV infection, and the characteristics of those who have it.

In the new study, Gillison and colleagues analyzed data from more than 5,500 men and women in the United States. Participants answered questions about their sexual behavior and substance use. They were also asked to gargle mouthwash for 30 seconds, and cells that were exfoliated into the rinse were analyzed for evidence of HPV infection.

The researchers found HPV in the cells of 6.9 percent of the participants, and HPV 16 in 1 percent.

The infection was most common among those ages 60 to 64 years, (at 11.4 percent), and those ages 30 to 34 (at 7.3 percent).

Physicians should encourage their patients who engage in oral sex to use barrier protection, Dr. Hans P. Schlecht, of the Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.

Smokers and alcohol users also had a high prevalence of HPV. About 20 percent of those who said they smoke 20 or more cigarettes per day had oral HPV infection.

More research

It’s not clear why oral HPV infection was more common among men than women. It could be that HPV is more likely to be transmitted through oral sex on women versus men, the researchers said. Differences in hormone levels between the sexes could also affect the duration of an infection.

Smoking may suppress the immune system, leading to longer infections with the virus, the researchers said.

The researchers noted their findings are based on study participant’s reports of their sexual behavior and smoking, which may not be completely accurate.

Researchers need to follow people over time to better understand the effects of age, gender, sexual behavior and smoking on the incidence and duration of oral HPV infections, the researchers said.

The study will be presented this week at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Phoenix. The study and editorial are published online today (Jan. 26) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Pass it on: Oral HPV infections affect about 7 percent of adults in teen in the United States, and are more common in men than women.

This story was provided by MyHealhNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner. Find us onFacebook.