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March 31, 2011

Cellphone Radiation May Alter Your Brain.

Cellphone Radiation May Alter Your Brain. Let’s Talk. - NYTimes.com
In a culture where people cradle their cellphones next to their heads with the same constancy and affection that toddlers hold their security blankets, it was unsettling last month when a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that doing so could alter brain activity.

The report said it was unclear whether the changes in the brain — an increase in glucose metabolism after using the phone for less than an hour — had any negative health or behavioral effects. But it has many people wondering what they can do to protect themselves short of (gasp) using a landline.

Catching cancer with carbon nanotubes: New device to test blood can spot cancer cells, HIV on the fly

Catching cancer with carbon nanotubes: New device to test blood can spot cancer cells, HIV on the fly
"A Harvard bioengineer and an MIT aeronautical engineer have created a new device that can detect single cancer cells in a blood sample, potentially allowing doctors to quickly determine whether cancer has spread from its original site."

The microfluidic device, described in the March 17 online edition of the journal Small, is about the size of a dime, and could also detect viruses such as HIV. It could eventually be developed into low-cost tests for doctors to use in developing countries where expensive diagnostic equipment is hard to come by, says Mehmet Toner, professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Does Your Name Determine Your Destiny?

Does Your Name Determine Your Destiny? - Yahoo! News
The idea that our names are intertwined with our destinies goes at least as far back as the book of Genesis in the Bible, when Abram saw his name changed to Abraham, which means "father of multitudes" in Hebrew.

In more recent years, social psychology research has connected people's names to decisions they make in whom to marry, what street to live on and what they do for a living — all based on how similar the names were to a person’s own name.

But University of Pennsylvania researcher Uri Simonsohn is stirring controversy by questioning how much our names really matter in making life's more important decisions. Simonsohn examined whether people are likely to choose their workplaces based on how similar the company names are to their own.

March 30, 2011

A Green City Rises in the Desert | Alternative Energy

#93: A Green City Rises in the Desert | Alternative Energy | DISCOVER Magazine
In September residents began moving into Masdar City, a 2.7-square-mile experiment in ultragreen living taking shape in the desert outside Abu Dhabi. The $20 billion city aims to be the world’s most sustainable: a community of 40,000 residents and 50,000 commuters that is completely carbon-neutral. Masdar has already lost some sparkle, though. Designers scrapped plans to produce the city’s renewable-only energy supply on-site. A fleet of self-driving cars zooming through underground tunnels is planned, but for now there will just be street-level electric vehicles. Still, the city will serve as a test lab for technologies that could be deployed less dramatically, but more meaningfully, in conventional cities.

Astronomers Say Milky Way Has Around 2 Billion “Earth Analog” Planets (That’s the Bad News)

Astronomers Say Milky Way Has Around 2 Billion “Earth Analog” Planets (That’s the Bad News) | 80beats | Discover Magazine
Based on early Kepler data, astronomers say that the Milky Way galaxy may house at least two billion Earth-like planets—one for every several dozen sun-like stars. As NASA researcher Joseph Catanzarite told Space.com, “With that large a number, there’s a good chance life and maybe even intelligent life might exist on some of those planets. And that’s just our galaxy alone — there are 50 billion other galaxies.” But while 2 billion sounds like a lot, it’s actually far below many scientists’ expectation; Catanzarite says his teams’ findings actually show that Earth-like planets are “relatively scarce.”

Made in China: Our Toxic, Imported Air Pollution

Made in China: Our Toxic, Imported Air Pollution | Pollution | DISCOVER Magazine
Mercury, sulfates, ozone, black carbon, flu-laced desert dust. Even as America 
tightens emission standards, the 
fast-growing economies of Asia 
are filling the air with hazardous components that 
circumnavigate the globe. 


“There is no place called away.” It is a statement worthy of 
Gertrude Stein, but University of Washington atmospheric chemist 
Dan Jaffe says it with conviction: None of the contamination we pump into the air just disappears. It might get diluted, blended, or chemically transformed, but it has to go somewhere. And when it comes to pollutants produced by the booming economies of East Asia, that somewhere often means right here, the mainland of the United States.

Low levels of radiation found in US milk

Low levels of radiation found in US milk - Yahoo! News
Very low levels of radiation turned up in a sample of milk from Washington state, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday, but federal officials assured consumers not to worry.

The FDA said such findings were to be expected in the coming days because of the nuclear crisis in Japan, and that the levels were expected to drop relatively quickly.

Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power complex began leaking radiation after it was damaged by a devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this month.

Ice on Mercury? NASA Probe May Solve That Mystery and Others

Ice on Mercury? NASA Probe May Solve That Mystery and Others - Yahoo! News
A NASA spacecraft now circling Mercury is set to tackle some big mysteries of the scorched, tiny world – including whether or not water ice lurks in its shadowy craters.

NASA's Messenger probe became the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury when it arrived at the planet on March 17. While the spacecraft won't officially start its yearlong science mission until April 4, the observations it's already made hint at many discoveries to come, researchers said.

"We're really seeing Mercury now with new eyes," Messenger principal investigator Sean Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, told reporters today (March 30). "As a result, an entire global perspective is unfolding, and will continue to unfold over the next few months."

UFO Rattles Colorado Town - Triangle of lights hovers, then vanishes

UFO Rattles Colorado Town - Triangle of lights hovers, then vanishes
ET, phone Colorado. Lafayette residents are still scratching their heads after seeing three red lights in a triangular shape hover in the sky last week, move off, then vanish. A father videotaped the lights that were spotted by his son at work, as well as by a number of townies. "It was completely quiet—no noise at all," said dad Leroy van der Vegt. A neighbor insisted the lights resembled the small bright alien ships from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Another witness said the lights emitted a "weird" energy that evoked in him a "hyper need to move." His "mind started racing, my body started shaking, I freaked out," he told ABC News. Local speculation is that the UFO was sent by aliens, the government—or both. (Click for a tale of UFOs, the UN, and the British government...)

54 beneficial compounds discovered in pure maple syrup

54 beneficial compounds discovered in pure maple syrup
University of Rhode Island researcher Navindra Seeram has discovered 34 new beneficial compounds in pure maple syrup and confirmed that 20 compounds discovered last year in preliminary research play a key role in human health.

On March 30 at the 241st American Chemical Society's National Meeting in Anaheim, Calif. the URI assistant pharmacy professor is telling scientists from around the world that his URI team has now isolated and identified 54 beneficial compounds in pure maple syrup from Quebec, five of which have never been seen in nature.

"I continue to say that nature is the best chemist, and that maple syrup is becoming a champion food when it comes to the number and variety of beneficial compounds found in it," Seeram said. "It's important to note that in our laboratory research we found that several of these compounds possess anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which have been shown to fight cancer, diabetes and bacterial illnesses."

Food Packaging Harbors Harmful Chemicals

Food Packaging Harbors Harmful Chemicals : Discovery News
Plastic wrappers, food cans and storage tubs deposit at least two potentially harmful chemicals into our food, confirmed a new study. By cutting out containers, people can dramatically reduce their exposures to these toxins.

The chemicals -- bisphenol A, or BPA, and a phthalate called DEHP -- are known to disrupt hormonal systems in the bodies of both animals and people, leading to developmental and reproductive problems, as well as cancers, heart disease and brain disorders. And both appear in a wide variety of food packaging materials.

But when people in the new study avoided plastic and ate mostly fresh foods for just three days, the levels of these chemicals in their bodies dropped by more than 50 percent, and sometimes much more.

Our Big Pig Problem: Scientific American

Our Big Pig Problem: Scientific American
For more than 50 years microbiologists have warned against using antibiotics to fatten up farm animals. The practice, they argue, threatens human health by turning farms into breeding grounds of drug-resistant bacteria. Farmers responded that restricting antibiotics in livestock would devastate the industry and significantly raise costs to consumers. We now have empirical data that should resolve this debate. Since 1995 Denmark has enforced progressively tighter rules on the use of antibiotics in the raising of pigs, poultry and other livestock. In the process, it has shown that it is possible to protect human health without hurting farmers.

Spreading Fat Stigma Around the Globe

Spreading Fat Stigma Around the Globe - NYTimes.com
Signs of American culture, ranging from fast food to Hollywood movies, can be seen around the world. But now anthropologists have discovered a far more troubling cultural export from the United States: stigma against fat people.

Negative perceptions about people who are overweight are becoming the cultural norm in many countries, including places where plumper, larger bodies traditionally have been viewed as attractive, according to a new report in the journal Current Anthropology. Although some of the shift in thinking most likely is explained by idealized slim body images promoted in Western advertising and movies, the emergence of fat stigma around the world may also result from public health efforts to promote obesity as a disease and a worrisome threat to a nation’s health.

Micro-motor runs on bacteria power

Micro-motor runs on bacteria power - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience - msnbc.com
Scientists have yoked bacteria to power rotary motors, the first microscopic mechanical devices to successfully incorporate living microbes together with inorganic parts.

"In far future plans, we would like to make micro-robots driven by biological motors," researcher Yuichi Hiratsuka, a nanobiotechnologist now at the University of Tokyo, told LiveScience.

While at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology near Tokyo, Hiratsuka and his colleagues experimented with one of the most rapid crawling bacteria, Mycoplasma mobile.

Breast-Feeding Fuels Babies' Big Brains

Breast-Feeding Fuels Babies' Big Brains - Yahoo! News
Why some animals, like humans, have bigger brains than others has long puzzled scientists. Now a new study adds weight to the idea that such brainy brawn in mammals is determined by the amount of maternal investment.

The longer the pregnancy and breast-feeding lasts, the bigger the species' average brain size and the longer they live, the researchers say.

"We were interested in the link between the mother's energy input into the offspring and the offspring's development," study researcher Robert Barton, of Durham University in the United Kingdom, told LiveScience.

March 29, 2011

China leads challenge to scientific superpowers

China leads challenge to scientific superpowers | Reuters
China and other emerging nations such as Brazil and India are becoming leaders in science to rival traditional "scientific superpowers" like the United States, Europe and Japan, a top British academy said on Monday.

A report by the Royal Society science academy also found some rapidly emerging scientific nations not usually associated with a strong science base, including Iran, Tunisia and Turkey.

The report, entitled Knowledge, Networks and Nations: Global scientific collaboration in the 21st century, stressed the growing importance of international cooperation in the conduct and impact of science, and its ability to tackle global problems like energy security, climate change and loss of biodiversity.

Can Cavities Be Contagious?

Can Cavities Be Contagious? - NYTimes.com
Everyone knows you can catch a cold or the flu. But can you catch a cavity?

Researchers have found that not only is it possible, but it occurs all the time.

While candy and sugar get all the blame, cavities are caused primarily by bacteria that cling to teeth and feast on particles of food from your last meal. One of the byproducts they create is acid, which destroys teeth.

Just as a cold virus can be passed from one person to the next, so can these cavity-causing bacteria. One of the most common is Streptococcus mutans. Infants and children are particularly vulnerable to it, and studies have shown that most pick it up from their caregivers — for example, when a mother tastes a child’s food to make sure it’s not too hot, said Dr. Margaret Mitchell, a cosmetic dentist in Chicago.

A new spin on superconductivity?

A new spin on superconductivity?
MIT scientists have synthesized, for the first time, a crystal they believe to be a two-dimensional quantum spin liquid: a solid material whose atomic spins continue to have motion, even at absolute zero temperature.

The crystal, known as herbertsmithite, is part of a family of crystals called Zn-paratacamites, which were first discovered in 1906. Physicists started paying more attention to quantum spin liquids in 1987, when Nobel laureate Philip W. Anderson theorized that quantum spin liquid theory may relate to the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity, which allows materials to conduct electricity with no resistance at temperatures above 20 degrees Kelvin (-253 degrees Celsius).

The First Man to Be Cured of AIDS

The First Man to Be Cured of AIDS: An Update on the Amazing Story -- This Month in HIV - The Body
Up until now, we've never been able to say that a person infected with HIV/AIDS has been cured. As I said, up until now.

You see, in 2006, something incredible happened in a hospital in Berlin. It was there, thanks to a unique and risky stem cell transplant, that a man may have become the very first person ever to be fully cured of HIV/AIDS.

This man's name has not been released; he's only known as the Berlin patient. But we know he's an HIV-positive American in his 40s who has been working in Berlin. In 2006, he was diagnosed with acute leukemia. In an attempt to treat his leukemia AND his HIV, the man's doctor -- Dr. Gero Hütter -- arranged for him to receive a stem cell transplant from a very

March 28, 2011

Walnuts are the healthiest nut, say scientists

BBC News - Walnuts are the healthiest nut, say scientists
Walnuts are the healthiest of all the nuts and should be eaten more as part of a healthy diet, US scientists say.

Scientists from Pennsylvania told the American Chemical Society that walnuts contain the highest level of antioxidants compared to other nuts.

Antioxidants are known to help protect the body against disease.

Debut of the first practical 'artificial leaf'

Debut of the first practical 'artificial leaf'
Scientists have claimed one of the milestones in the drive for sustainable energy -- development of the first practical artificial leaf. Speaking in Anaheim, California at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, they described an advanced solar cell the size of a poker card that mimics the process, called photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert sunlight and water into energy.

"A practical artificial leaf has been one of the Holy Grails of science for decades," said Daniel Nocera, Ph.D., who led the research team. "We believe we have done it. The artificial leaf shows particular promise as an inexpensive source of electricity for homes of the poor in developing countries. Our goal is to make each home its own power station," he said. "One can envision villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology."

'Green' cars could be made from pineapples and bananas

'Green' cars could be made from pineapples and bananas
Your next new car hopefully won't be a lemon. But it could be a pineapple or a banana. That's because scientists in Brazil have developed a more effective way to use fibers from these and other plants in a new generation of automotive plastics that are stronger, lighter, and more eco-friendly than plastics now in use. They described the work, which could lead to stronger, lighter, and more sustainable materials for cars and other products, at the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Study leader Alcides Leão, Ph.D., said the fibers used to reinforce the new plastics may come from delicate fruits like bananas and pineapples, but they are super strong. Some of these so-called nano-cellulose fibers are almost as stiff as Kevlar, the renowned super-strong material used in armor and bulletproof vests. Unlike Kevlar and other traditional plastics, which are made from petroleum or natural gas, nano-cellulose fibers are completely renewable.

Natural aphrodisiacs: 'Spicing' up your love life possible, finds study of ginseng and saffron

Natural aphrodisiacs: 'Spicing' up your love life possible, finds study of ginseng and saffron
Looking to spice up your sex life? Try adding ginseng and saffron to your diet. Both are proven performance boosters, according to a new scientific review of natural aphrodisiacs conducted by University of Guelph researchers.

Indulge in wine and chocolate, too, but know that their amorous effects are likely all in your head. Stay away from the more obscure Spanish fly and Bufo toad. While purported to be sexually enhancing, they produced the opposite result and can even be toxic.

Those are among the findings of the study by Massimo Marcone, a professor in Guelph's Department of Food Science, and master's student John Melnyk. The results will appear in the journal Food Research International but are available online now.

March 24, 2011

'Space-Time' -Could It Be a Mirage? New Theory Says "Yes"

'Space-Time' -Could It Be a Mirage? New Theory Says "Yes" (Today's Most Popular)
Space-time - that plastic fabric whose geometry can be changed by the gravity of stars, planets and matter - may be no more than a mirage, according to Peter Horava. Horava, who is at the University of California, Berkeley, wants to rip this fabric apart and set time and space free from one another in order to come up with a unified theory that reconciles the disparate worlds of quantum mechanics and gravity. The focus of last year's Nobel Prize for Physics, graphene, may unlock the solution.

Quantum physics explanation for smell gains traction

BBC News - Quantum physics explanation for smell gains traction
The theory that our sense of smell has its basis in quantum physics events is gaining traction, say researchers.

The idea remains controversial, but scientists reporting at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, are slowly unpicking how it could work.

The key, they say, is tiny packets of energy, or quanta, lost by electrons.

NASA's 100-Year Starship Project Sets Sights on Interstellar Travel

NASA's 100-Year Starship Project Sets Sights on Interstellar Travel - Yahoo! News
Shooting for the stars will first require a lot of down-to-Earth elbow grease, as NASA's new 100-Year Starship project illustrates. The effort, to journey between stars in the 2100s, began with a workshop and now is in the study phase.

NASA's Ames Research Center and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are collaborating on the $1 million 100-Year Starship Study, an effort to take the first step in the next era of space exploration.

The study will scrutinize the business model needed to develop and mature technologies needed to enable long-haul human space treks a century from now. Kick-started by a strategic planning workshop in January, the project has brought together more than two dozen farsighted futurists, NASA specialists, science fiction writers, foundation aficionados and educators.

Urban Gardens Tainted With Lead, Arsenic

Urban Gardens Tainted With Lead, Arsenic
With remnants of once-legal lead paint, leaded gasoline and other pollutants from the nation's industrial past tainting land in U.S. cities, soil researchers warn that the growing number of urban farmers and community gardeners need to test their dirt and take steps to make sure it's safe.

They point to cities like Indianapolis, where nine out of 10 urban gardens tested by one researcher had problems with lead in the soil. Or the Boston area, where a recent study suggests that even clean, trucked-in soil can end up contaminated, perhaps by windblown dust or dirt splatted by rain, in a few short years.

Antibiotics have 'little effect' on cough and phlegm

BBC News - Antibiotics have 'little effect' on cough and phlegm
Taking antibiotics for a bad cough which produces green or yellow phlegm is of little benefit, says Cardiff University research.

A study of over 3,000 adults from across Europe found that patients producing coloured phlegm are more likely to be prescribed antibiotics by their GP.

Yet the antibiotic treatment did not appear to speed up their recovery.

Manhattan Federal Judge Kimba Wood Calls Record Companies' Request for $75 Trillion in Damages 'Absurd' in Lime Wire Copyright Case

Manhattan Federal Judge Kimba Wood Calls Record Companies' Request for $75 Trillion in Damages 'Absurd' in Lime Wire Copyright Case
Does $75 trillion even exist? The thirteen record companies that are suing file-sharing company Lime Wire for copyright infringement certainly thought so. When they won a summary judgment ruling last May they demanded damages that could reach this mind-boggling amount, which is more than five times the national debt.

Manhattan federal district court judge Kimba Wood, however, saw things differently. She labeled the record companies' damages request "absurd" and contrary to copyright laws in a 14-page opinion.

Are Earthlings From Mars? New Tool May Reveal Your Alien Ancestry

Are Earthlings From Mars? New Tool May Reveal Your Alien Ancestry - Yahoo! News
It's possible that the family tree of all life on Earth has its roots on Mars — and a new device could put that theory to the test in a few years, researchers say.

Researchers are developing an instrument that would search through samples of Martian dirt, isolating any genetic material from microbes that might be present — bugs that are living or that died relatively recently, within the last million years or so. Scientists could then use standard biochemical techniques to analyze any resulting genetic sequences, comparing them to what we find on Earth.

Diamond Could Store Quantum Information

Diamond Could Store Quantum Information - Science News

Could be that diamonds are a geek’s best friend.

Scientists have developed a new way to manipulate atoms inside diamond crystals so that they store information long enough to function as quantum memory, which encodes information not as the 0s and 1s crunched by conventional computers but in states that are both 0 and 1 at the same time. Physicists use such quantum data to send information securely, and hope to eventually build quantum computers capable of solving problems beyond the reach of today's technology.

For those developing this quantum memory, the perfect diamonds don’t come from Tiffany & Co. — or Harry Winston, for that matter. Impurities are the key to the technology.

“Oddly enough, perfection may not be the way to go,” said David Awschalom of the University of California, Santa Barbara. “We want to build in defects.”

Wind, solar becoming cost competitive

Wind, solar becoming cost competitive: Chu - Yahoo! News
Clean sources of energy such as wind and solar will be no more expensive than oil and gas projects by the end of the decade, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday.

President Barack Obama's administration has been encouraging companies to invest in green growth, calling it a new source of jobs and fearing that other nations -- led by China -- are stealing the march.

"Before maybe the end of this decade, I see wind and solar being cost-competitive without subsidy with new fossil fuel," Chu told an event at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

March 23, 2011

Drilling deeper into the Earth than ever before

Drilling deeper into the Earth than ever before - Technology & science - Science - OurAmazingPlanet - msnbc.com
A journey to dig down to the Earth's mantle layer could begin within the next decade, drilling deeper into the planet than anyone has ever delved before.

The Earth-shattering project is aiming to be the first to pull samples up directly from the mantle — the layer of solid but hot rock that flows below the planet's crust — potentially unearthing a trove of insights into the origins and evolution of our planet.

Understanding the overall dynamics of the Earth is essential, as its workings can have devastating consequences on humanity — "the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami is the best illustration," geologist Benoit Ildefonse at Montpellier 2 University in France told OurAmazingPlanet.

Facial Expressions, Weight May Sway Kids' Eating

Facial Expressions, Weight May Sway Kids' Eating - FoxNews.com
If you want your kids to eat their broccoli, you might try smiling when you eat your own veggies, a small study suggests.

The French research team asked 120 adults and children to look at various photos of people eating. In the kids, the effect of the photos was much more complicated than in the adults.

In general, adults paid attention to body weight. That is, they were less likely to want a given food when the photo depicted an obese person eating it, versus a normal-weight diner.

Mouse Sperm Successfully Grown in Lab, Researchers Say

Mouse Sperm Successfully Grown in Lab, Researchers Say - Yahoo! News
Researchers report that they've grown mouse sperm from testicular tissue in the laboratory, a development that could advance the field of infertility in human males.

Although the findings only apply to mice, "this is a small but important step in understanding how sperm are formed, which may, in time, lead to us being able to grow human sperm in the laboratory," said Dr. Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield in England, who is familiar with the study results.

Sperm production is highly complex, the authors explained in background information in the study. Sperm previously created in a laboratory from mammal tissue didn't fulfill its purpose, Pacey said, noting offspring produced from it soon died.

Is dirt really such a Bad Thing?

Is dirt really such a Bad Thing? - Telegraph
This week the Wellcome Collection is putting on a filthy exhibition. It celebrates dirt in all its variety and our attempts to keep it at bay. Just a few hundred yards from its miscellany of objects once towered the dust heaps of Kings Cross, scene of Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend and a reminder of the capital’s proud boast, as revealed by a recent poll, to be the dirtiest city in Europe. We could soon win another plaudit. My own office is across the street from the Wellcome. I have been cleaning it out and have left each day black with filth from the tiny (and noxious) particles that belch from lorry exhausts on Euston Road and which, unless a plan to control them emerges soon from the Mayor, may merit a huge fine from Brussels.

Scientists create animals that are part-human

Scientists create animals that are part-human - Health - Cloning and stem cells - msnbc.com
On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs.

The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can’t wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus’ brain about two months ago.

New health hazards at salons and spas

New health hazards at salons and spas - CNN.com
When Alexandra Spunt went for a keratin hair treatment at a Los Angeles salon two years ago, she hoped to walk out with two months' worth of silky-straight locks.

What she didn't expect: two hours of burning eyes and a sore throat.

"The stylist offered me goggles because my eyes stung and I couldn't stop coughing," says Spunt, 32.

She was shocked to learn that the treatment likely contained formaldehyde -- deemed a possible human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Chinese Boy, 3, Weighs a Whopping 132 Pounds

Chinese Boy, 3, Weighs a Whopping 132 Pounds - FoxNews.com
The desperate parents of a severely overweight 3-year-old boy said they cannot make the giant toddler diet because they are scared of him, The Sun reported Wednesday.

Lu Hao, from China, weighs 132 pounds, which is five times as heavy as other boys his age.

March 22, 2011

Experts worry suicide will rise among baby boomers

Experts worry suicide will rise among baby boomers - Healthzone.ca
Joan Seabrook felt “absolute devastation” when she first found out that her 68-year-old mother and 69-year-old father had died by suicide.

“It was a suicide pact,” Seabrook, who lives in London, Ont., said in a recent interview. She still remembers the moment 20 years ago when her sister called to pass on the shocking news about their parents’ deaths from police in Victoria, B.C.

“They weren’t ill, they had no medical issues,” she added. “They lived in British Columbia and everybody else in the family lived in other cities.”

"Other" Compound In Marijuana Shows Promise Fighting Cancer - Toke of the Town

"Other" Compound In Marijuana Shows Promise Fighting Cancer - Toke of the Town
Two of the major compounds in marijuana -- THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol) have cancer-fighting properties, according to scientists researching them. But while the biological mechanisms THC uses are well documented, there are still mysteries surrounding the lesser-known CBD.

Clinical trials prove that CBD eases pain and inflammation, reports Dana M. Nichols at the Stockton Record. Sean McAllister, a scientist at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco, has, along with his research associates, used CBD to shrink cancerous tumors.

Quantum computing device hints at powerful future

BBC News - Quantum computing device hints at powerful future
One of the most complex efforts toward a quantum computer has been shown off at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas in the US.

It uses the strange "quantum states" of matter to perform calculations in a way that, if scaled up, could vastly outperform conventional computers.

The 6cm-by-6cm chip holds nine quantum devices, among them four "quantum bits" that do the calculations.

The team said further scaling up to 10 qubits should be possible this year.

Large Hadron Collider Could Be World'S First Time Machine

Large Hadron Collider Could Be World'S First Time Machine
If the latest theory of Tom Weiler and Chui Man Ho is right, the Large Hadron Collider - the world's largest atom smasher that started regular operation last year - could be the first machine capable of causing matter to travel backwards in time.

"Our theory is a long shot," admitted Weiler, who is a physics professor at Vanderbilt University, "but it doesn't violate any laws of physics or experimental constraints."

One of the major goals of the collider is to find the elusive Higgs boson: the particle that physicists invoke to explain why particles like protons, neutrons and electrons have mass. If the collider succeeds in producing the Higgs boson, some scientists predict that it will create a second particle, called the Higgs singlet, at the same time.

March 18, 2011

Human Gender Roles Influence Research on Animals, Swedish Biologists Argue

In a recent study published in Animal Behaviour, biology researchers Kristina Karlsson Green and Josefin Madjidian at Lund University in Sweden have shown that animals' and plants' traits and behaviour in sexual conflicts are coloured by a human viewpoint. They want to raise awareness of the issue and provoke discussion among their colleagues in order to promote objectivity and broaden the research field.

Lund researchers Kristina Karlsson Green and Josefin Madjidian have studied and measured how male and female traits and behaviour in animals' and plants' sexual conflicts are described in academic literature and also what parameters are incorporated for each sex in mathematical models of sexual conflict.

"We have found evidence of choices and interpretations that may build on researchers' own, possibly subconscious, perception of male and female. We have now identified and quantified terms used to describe male and female in sexual conflict research and seen that different terms are used depending on the sex being described. It is not just something we think and suppose," says Kristina Karlsson Green from the Department of Biology at Lund University.

Computer chips wired with nerve cells

Nerve cell tendrils readily thread their way through tiny semiconductor tubes, researchers find, forming a crisscrossed network like vines twining towards the sun. The discovery that offshoots from nascent mouse nerve cells explore the specially designed tubes could lead to tricks for studying nervous system diseases or testing the effects of potential drugs. Such a system may even bring researchers closer to brain-computer interfaces that seamlessly integrate artificial limbs or other prosthetic devices.

“This is quite innovative and interesting,” says nanomaterials expert Nicholas Kotov of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “There is a great need for interfaces between electronic and neuronal tissues.”

To lay the groundwork for a nerve-electronic hybrid, graduate student Minrui Yu of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his colleagues created tubes of layered silicon and germanium, materials that could insulate electric signals sent by a nerve cell. The tubes were various sizes and shapes and big enough for a nerve cell’s extensions to crawl through but too small for the cell’s main body to get inside.

Spintronics: Enhancing the Magnetism

The nation that controls magnetism will control the universe," famed fictional detective Dick Tracy predicted back in 1935. Probably an overstatement, but there's little doubt the nation that leads the development of advanced magnetoelectronic or "spintronic" devices is going to have a serious leg-up on its Information Age competition. A smaller, faster and cheaper way to store and transfer information is the spintronic grand prize and a key to winning this prize is understanding and controlling a multiferroic property known as "spontaneous magnetization.

Now, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been able to enhance spontaneous magnetization in special versions of the popular multiferroic material bismuth ferrite. What's more, they can turn this magnetization "on/off" through the application of an external electric field, a critical ability for the advancement of spintronic technology.

"Taking a novel approach, we've created a new magnetic state in bismuth ferrite along with the ability to electrically control this magnetism at room temperature," says Ramamoorthy Ramesh, a materials scientist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, who led this research. "An enhanced magnetization arises in the rhombohedral phases of our bismuth ferrite self-assembled nanostructures. This magnetization is strain-confined between the tetragonal phases of the material and can be erased by the application of an electric field. The magnetization is restored when the polarity of the electric field is reversed."

March 17, 2011

Dumbing Down the American Population

Dumbing Down the American Population
“Given that human capital is a prerequisite for success in the global economy, U.S. economic competitiveness is unsustainable with poorly prepared students feeding into the workforce.” Kirsch, 2007

There are ways to wage war on a people without employing armies of weapons and soldiers. Devastating economic failure can be very effective OR the spread of lethargy and inertia through the body of a society can act as a cancer destroying the brains of a people. It is not a new story and many once powerful nations can boast of an equally spectacular decline.

Wave Energy Prototype, 'SeaRay,' Exceeds Expectations (VIDEO)

Wave Energy Prototype, 'SeaRay,' Exceeds Expectations (VIDEO)
“The SeaRay is performing beyond our expectations and tracking well with modeling predictions,” said Reenst Lesemann, CEO of Columbia Power Technologies. “Our task is to demonstrate to utilities and independent power producers that we can help them deliver power predictably, reliably, and at a cost that is competitive. At this stage, we are making this happen in a very rapid and capital-efficient manner.”

According to Columbia Power Technologies, the SeaRay’s design allows it to extract up to twice the energy from ocean waves as other developing technologies. By employing what the company refers to as a “heave and surge” energy capture design, the SeaRay is able to reportedly tap the full energy potential from passing waves. Its design also looks to make it uniquely conditioned to survive a harsh battering about at sea.

Can atom smasher double as time machine?

The Large Hadron Collider as a time machine? According to a physics professor and his assistant, the world's largest atom smasher could indeed allow people to travel back in time.

Theoretical? To be sure. But they say it's theoretically possible.

"Our theory is a long shot, but it doesn't violate any laws of physics or experimental constraints," said Vanderbilt University physicist, Tom Weiler, in a statement.

Weiler and Vanderbilt graduate fellow Chui Man Ho, outline their theory in a paper on a site operated by Cornell.

March 16, 2011

A Revolutionary Idea in Economics

A Revolutionary Idea in Economics
Article about the disruptive theory of an independent price scale made of "units of price" and its impact on the world economy

Example of global reference price to implement a price scale in units of price: 1 glass of mineral water = 1 unit of price (might vary, it is just a starting point for each market).

This article describes the idea launched by the twitter account @NobelEconomics. I believe the idea is a disruptive innovation for attaining a better world economy. Although it is a quite simple idea, it is a conceptual shift on how we use prices and money, that is, on how the price system relates to the monetary system.

The idea is here: Separation of the scale with which prices are expressed from the scale with which amount of currency is expressed and such separation accomplished by (1) the use of an international independent (from any currency scale) price scale and (2) variable conversion rates to relate currency amount to that independent price scale. The result is the creation of an independent unit for prices, independent from currency units.

Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste: Scientific American

Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste: Scientific American
The popular conception of nuclear power is straight out of The Simpsons: Springfield abounds with signs of radioactivity, from the strange glow surrounding Mr. Burn's nuclear power plant workers to Homer's low sperm count. Then there's the local superhero, Radioactive Man, who fires beams of "nuclear heat" from his eyes. Nuclear power, many people think, is inseparable from a volatile, invariably lime-green, mutant-making radioactivity.

Coal, meanwhile, is believed responsible for a host of more quotidian problems, such as mining accidents, acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions. But it isn't supposed to spawn three-eyed fish like Blinky.

NASA Considers Shooting Space Junk With Lasers

NASA Considers Shooting Space Junk With Lasers
The growing cloud of space junk surrounding the Earth is a hazard to spaceflight, and will only get worse as large pieces of debris collide and fragment. NASA space scientists have hit on a new way to manage the mess: Use mid-powered lasers to nudge space junk off collision courses.

The U.S. military currently tracks about 20,000 pieces of junk in low-Earth orbit, most of which are discarded bits of spacecraft or debris from collisions in orbit.

The atmosphere naturally drags a portion of this refuse down to Earth every year. But in 1978, NASA astronomer Don Kessler predicted a doomsday scenario: As collisions drive up the debris, we’ll hit a point where the amount of trash is growing faster than it can fall out of the sky. The Earth will end up with a permanent junk belt that could make space too dangerous to fly in, a situation now called “Kessler syndrome.”

Why corporations are psychotic | Psychology Today

Why corporations are psychotic | Psychology Today
Senator Bernie Sanders echoed the sentiments of many last week when he called for a constitutional amendment to repeal the notion of corporate personhood. This issue jumped into public consciousness last year after the Supreme Court, in its Citizens United decision, effectively allowed unrestrained corporate influence in American politics, based partially on the idea that corporations are legally "persons" with constitutional rights. Sanders, in calling for the constitutional amendment, declared: "This is an enormously important issue, and how it is resolved will determine, to a significant degree, the future of American democracy."

Keys to long life? Not what you might expect

Keys to long life? Not what you might expect
Cheer up. Stop worrying. Don’t work so hard. Good advice for a long life? As it turns out, no. In a groundbreaking study of personality as a predictor of longevity, University of California, Riverside researchers found just the opposite.

"It's surprising just how often common assumptions -- by both scientists and the media -- are wrong," said Howard S. Friedman, distinguished professor of psychology who led the 20-year study.

Friedman and Leslie R. Martin , a 1996 UCR alumna (Ph.D.) and staff researchers, have published those findings in "The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study" (Hudson Street Press, March 2011).

March 15, 2011

Describing humor with an equation

Describing humor with an equation
A new theory suggests an equation for identifying the cause and level of our responses to any humorous stimuli: h = m x s.

The theory argues that human beings are more reliant for their behavioural instruction on culturally inherited information than any other species, and that the accuracy of that information is therefore of unparalleled importance. Yet the individual is exposed to the continual threats of error and deception, which can seriously affect their chances of survival and success.

To compensate, humour rewards us for seeing through misinformation that has come close to taking us in. The pleasure we get (h) is calculated by multiplying the degree of misinformation perceived (m) by the extent to which the individual is susceptible to taking it seriously (s).

NASA's Hubble rules out one alternative to dark energy

NASA's Hubble rules out one alternative to dark energy
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have ruled out an alternate theory on the nature of dark energy after recalculating the expansion rate of the universe to unprecedented accuracy.

The universe appears to be expanding at an increasing rate. Some believe that is because the universe is filled with a dark energy that works in the opposite way of gravity. One alternative to that hypothesis is that an enormous bubble of relatively empty space eight billion light-years across surrounds our galactic neighborhood. If we lived near the center of this void, observations of galaxies being pushed away from each other at accelerating speeds would be an illusion.

Impact of a bad job on mental health as harmful as no job at all

Impact of a bad job on mental health as harmful as no job at all
The impact on mental health of a badly paid, poorly supported, or short term job can be as harmful as no job at all, indicates research published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Because being in work is associated with better mental health than unemployment, government policies have tended to focus on the risks posed by joblessness, without necessarily considering the impact the quality of a job may have, say the authors.

They base their findings on seven waves of data from more than 7000 people of working age, drawn from a representative national household survey conducted every year in Australia (HILDA).

A Supermoon Cycle is Approaching Beware!

A Supermoon Cycle is Approaching Beware!
As of this minute there are 621 earthquakes happening in the world. Another 5.5 just hit Japan. On March 19th a “Supermoon” will occur. A “Supermoon,” also known as a lunar perigee is a new or full moon at 90% closest to earth as it orbits. Next week it will be at 100%. The first time in 18 years!

Richard Nolle who titled this occurrence a “Supermoon,” warns of increase in tidal surges, earthquakes and volcanic activity. According to the USGS website and Nolle, the Christchurch earthquake happened on the last day of a “Supermoon” window. The Haiti earthquake also in a “Supermoon.” Past super moons have been connected to the Indonesian earthquake in 2005 and a massive flood in Australia in 1954. None of them were as powerful as this one. The window for this is March 16th – 22nd.

'Ivory wave' may be new legal high after 'miaow miaow' (mephedrone) ban

'Ivory wave' may be new legal high after 'miaow miaow' (mephedrone) ban
A new legal high has emerged that seems to be replacing the banned substance mephedrone or "miaow miaow," warns a critical care paramedic in Emergency Medicine Journal.

Mephedrone was banned in England, when it was reclassified as a class B drug in April 2010.

The new drug in circulation is "ivory wave," also known as "purple wave," "ivory coast," or "vanilla sky." And its use has already been implicated in hospital admissions and deaths in various parts of England, says the author.

March 14, 2011

Poker Bots Invade Online Gambling

Bryan Taylor, 36, could not shake the feeling that something funny was going on. Three of his most frequent opponents on an online poker site were acting oddly, playing in ways that were so similar it was suspicious.

Mr. Taylor, who started playing poker professionally in 2008, suspected that he was competing against computers — specifically bots, short for robots — that had been programmed to play poker and beat the odds.

And he was right. After an investigation, the site Mr. Taylor frequented, PokerStars, determined that his opponents had been computers masquerading as people and shut them down.

Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs

Hyperactivity. Fidgeting. Inattention. Impulsivity. If your child has one or more of these qualities on a regular basis, you may be told that he or she has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. If so, they'd be among about 10 percent of children in the United States.

Kids with ADHD can be restless and difficult to handle. Many of them are treated with drugs, but a new study says food may be the key. Published in The Lancet journal, the study suggests that with a very restrictive diet, kids with ADHD could experience a significant reduction in symptoms.

Teens from wealthier families may drink more

While poverty is usually associated with greater health risks, a study published Monday suggests that young teens from middle- to higher-income families may be somewhat more likely than their less affluent peers to use alcohol.

UK researchers found that among 5,837 thirteen-year-olds, those from the poorest families were the least likely to have tried liquor.

When the researchers divided the teens into five income groups, those in the lowest bracket were 22 percent less likely than the middle bracket to have had a drink in the past 6 months. They were similarly less likely to admit to binge-drinking.

German scientists put Earth back on track! NASA claim of axis tilt "ludicrous"

Top German scientists have said NASA's claim that the quake in Chile moved the Earth's axis and shortened the length of a day is ludicrous.

The monster tremor killed at least 800 people and supposedly moved gigantic masses around the planet. NASA had reported that the catastrophe shifted the Earth's axis and made a day shorter by a fraction.

But now German researchers have said that the claims are completely without basis.

Gender Stereotypes About Math Develop as Early as Second Grade

Children express the stereotype that mathematics is for boys, not for girls, as early as second grade, according to a new study by University of Washington researchers. And the children applied the stereotype to themselves: boys identified themselves with math whereas girls did not.

The "math is for boys" stereotype has been used as part of the explanation for why so few women pursue science, mathematics and engineering careers. The cultural stereotype may nudge girls to think that "math is not for me," which can affect what activities they engage in and their career aspirations.

March 12, 2011

A final goodbye to Superpower America?

Sombre analyses of America’s decline come in waves and the latest seems to be gathering strength. “AMERICAN DECLINE. This Time It’s Real” proclaims a recent magazine cover. “Yes, America is in Decline,” echoes another. Time to prepare obituaries for the world’s remaining superpower?

How long will it take for the U.S. to follow the example of the Roman Empire and end up as Italy? That’s a question the prognosticators of America’s waning power and influence (also known as declinists) tend to sidestep, perhaps because so many past predictions of doom have been so wrong.

The “This Time It’s Real” assertion is on the cover of Foreign Policy, a magazine closely read by the foreign policy community. Inside, the British commentator Gideon Rachman lays out a well-argued case for saying the U.S. will never again enjoy the dominance it had in the 17 years between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the global financial crisis of 2008.

Bee deaths may signal wider pollination threat: U.N.

Mass deaths of bee colonies in many parts of the world may be part of a wider, hidden threat to wild insect pollinators vital to human food supplies, a U.N. study indicated on Thursday.

Declines in flowering plants, a spread of parasites, use of pesticides or air pollution were among more than a dozen factors behind recent collapses of bee colonies mainly in North America and Europe, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) said.

That cocktail of problems -- rather than a single cause killing bees in hives that might be easier to fix -- may also threaten wild bees and other insects vital to pollinate crops such as soybeans, potatoes or apple trees

Scientists: Earthquakes can be caused by global warming

I get really annoyed whenever there’s an earthquake and people say “it’s all because of global warming”. There is no doubt that climate change influences hurricanes and droughts, but earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes are all down to Earth’s natural processes.

Well at least that’s what I used to think, up until now. New research suggests that maybe I shouldn’t have been getting so annoyed with those people after all, because there may actually be a direct link between climate change and earthquakes. How on Earth is that possible, because what has the atmosphere – which causes global warming – got to do with the inner workings of our planet (which cause earthquakes)?

The science behind it is surprisingly simple. Because ice sheets become so huge, they ‘glue’ the land underneath them together. This prevents earthquakes happening because the power of the earthquake would not be enough to overpower the force of the ice which is holding the land together.

Lost city of Atlantis, swamped by tsunami, may be found

A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

"This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

"It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

Food allergies increasing in U.S. children

Food allergies in American children seem to be on the rise, now affecting about 3 million kids, according to the first federal study of the problem.

Experts said that might be because parents are more aware and quicker to have their kids checked out by a doctor.

About 1 in 26 children had food allergies last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. That’s up from 1 in 29 kids in 1997.

Superhuman or super sleepy: Short sleepers function on four hours

For most of us, setting the clock forward in the spring is a sad occasion, a sign that we're losing an hour of sleep.

Daylight saving time begins Sunday at 2 a.m. in most of the U.S. -- except for Hawaii and Arizona.

But for some genetically blessed people, a loss of one hour of sleep is not a problem. In fact, sleeping fewer than the recommended seven or eight hours is the norm. They naturally feel refreshed and ready to go -- at 4 a.m.

New U.S. Spy Satellite Blasts Off On Secret Mission

A new U.S. spy satellite soared into the sunset sky above Florida today (March 11) on a clandestine mission to preserve national security.
The satellite launched into space atop an unmanned Delta 4 rocket that lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:38 p.m. EST (2338 GMT). High-altitude winds above the Air Force station's Launch Complex 37 delayed the satellite's launch by nearly a half hour, but cleared in time for a dazzling twilight blastoff.
Rocket launch provider United Launch Alliance orchestrated the satellite's trip to orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office. The Chantilly, Va.-based NRO is responsible for the design, construction and operation of the country's network of intelligence-gathering spy satellites.

The 'Supermoon' Did Not Cause the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan early today (March 11) were "completely unrelated" to the approaching "supermoon," despite a news report that tied the earthquake to the upcoming lunar event, according to U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist John Bellini.

The supermoon will occur on March 19, when the moon is at or near its point of closest orbit — lunar perigee — and is also full. As we explained in our previous coverage of the upcoming supermoon, seismologists have found no evidence to believe that lunar perigees heighten seismic activity.

The best evidence that this earthquake was not caused by a supermoon is that it happened now — exactly a week away from the date the moon will be full, and almost a week after it was new, the two times that the moon exerts its greatest pull on the planet.

March 10, 2011

Animal Study May Explain Low Birth Weight-Obesity Link - Yahoo! News

Animal Study May Explain Low Birth Weight-Obesity Link
Newborns with a low birth weight due to their mother's poor nutrition during pregnancy may be "programmed" to eat more, research in animals suggests.

The finding may help explain the connection between low birth weight and obesity later in life, and also highlights the importance of good nutrition for pregnant women, according to researchers at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed).

Their work with laboratory animals found that newborns with low birth weight had fewer neurons in the area of the brain that controls food intake than those with a normal birth weight.

Poor Diet in Pregnancy Tied to Disease in Offspring: Rat Study - Yahoo! News

Poor Diet in Pregnancy Tied to Disease in Offspring: Rat Study
You may have a higher long-term risk of disease if your mother ate poorly during pregnancy, a new study in rats suggests.

U.K. researchers found that rats were more vulnerable to the effects of aging if their mothers were malnourished while they were pregnant. The study was published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the study, a rodent mother's diet appeared to affect her offspring's expression later in life of a gene called Hnf4a, which plays a major role in the development of the pancreas and later in the production of insulin. Mothers with poor diets had offspring who expressed less of the Hnf4a gene, something that appeared to increase their risk of type 2 diabetes, a significant contributing factor to both heart disease and cancer.

A Little Alcohol May Stave Off Alzheimer's

A Little Alcohol May Stave Off Alzheimer's
Drinking light to moderate amounts of alcohol may actually lower the risk for developing both Alzheimer's and some forms of age-related dementia, new German research suggests.

Though noting that full-fledged alcohol abuse accounts for about 10 percent of all dementia cases, the researchers reported that consumption of just one to two drinks a day appears to protect against the overall incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

They caution, however, that the study found no evidence of a lower risk for either vascular dementia or general cognitive decline. Nor was it clear whether the risk varied by the type of alcohol consumed.

Day of invisibility cloak nears

Day of invisibility cloak nears | Homeland Security News Wire
In physics, the Doppler Effect describes the change in frequency of light or sound waves whenever there is a relative movement between an observer and a wave's source; thus, when an object and an observer move closer together, light frequency increases from red wavelengths to blue ones; when they move further apart, light frequency decreases from blue to red; researchers have for the first time ever demonstrated a reversal of the optical Doppler Effect -- a promising sign for the future development of science fiction-inspired technology such as invisibility cloaks; this technology, which has already been demonstrated on a micro-scale by U.S. researchers, may be closer to becoming a reality than most people think

Researchers from Swinburne University and the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology have for the first time ever demonstrated a reversal of the optical Doppler Effect — an advance that could one day lead to the development of invisibility cloak technology.

Playability: What a video game needs to be successful

Playability: What a video game needs to be successful
Researchers at the University of Granada have created a video game that will serve as a model to assess all aspects related to video games; it has also established a conceptual framework that will allow experts to assess players' experiences. The researchers based their study on their own experiences in previous projects where they developed educational resources and video games aimed at educational environments.

March 9, 2011

More reasons to be nice: It's less work for everyone

More reasons to be nice: It's less work for everyone
A polite act shows respect. But a new study of a common etiquette -- holding a door for someone -- suggests that courtesy may have a more practical, though unconscious, shared motivation: to reduce the work for those involved. The research, by Joseph P. Santamaria and David A. Rosenbaum of Pennsylvania State University, is among the first to combine two fields of study ordinarily considered unrelated: altruism and motor control.

Web-crawling the brain

Web-crawling the brain
The brain is a black box. A complex circuitry of neurons fires information through channels, much like the inner workings of a computer chip. But while computer processors are regimented with the deft economy of an assembly line, neural circuits are impenetrable masses. Think tumbleweed.

Researchers in Harvard Medical School's Department of Neurobiology have developed a technique for unraveling these masses. Through a combination of microscopy platforms, researchers can crawl through the individual connections composing a neural network, much as Google crawls Web links.

Newly identified spider toxin may help uncover novel ways of treating pain and human diseases

Newly identified spider toxin may help uncover novel ways of treating pain and human diseases
Spider venom toxins are useful tools for exploring how ion channels operate in the body. These channels control the flow of ions across cell membranes, and are key components in a wide variety of biological processes and human diseases.

A newly identified toxin from the American funnel web spider acts on T-type and N-type calcium channels, researchers from the University of California at Riverside have discovered. The toxin offers a new target for studying T-type channels, which play a role in congestive heart failure, hypertension, epilepsy and pain.

Facebook Enhances Self-Esteem, Study Finds

Facebook Enhances Self-Esteem, Study Finds
Feeling down in the dumps and want to feel better? Log into Facebook and view your profile. Want to feel even better? Try editing your profile. A new study published in the February issue of Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking found that viewing and editing your Facebook profile could boost your self-esteem.

New molecular robot can be programmed to follow instructions

New molecular robot can be programmed to follow instructions
Scientists have developed a programmable "molecular robot" -- a sub-microscopic molecular machine made of synthetic DNA that moves between track locations separated by 6nm. The robot, a short strand of DNA, follows instructions programmed into a set of fuel molecules determining its destination, for example, to turn left or right at a junction in the track. The report, which represents a step toward futuristic nanomachines and nanofactories, appears in ACS's Nano Letters.

Printing A Kidney: A Glimpse At The Future

Printing A Kidney: A Glimpse At The Future
Health reporters were aflutter last week with reports that Dr. Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest's Institute of Regenerative Medicine, printed a real, working kidney at a recent TED talk.

Headlines claiming things like, "Surgeon Creates A New Kidney By 'Printing' It" and "Need A Kidney? Just Hit Print..." compelled Wake Forest was compelled to issue a statement on its website calling the media reports "completely inaccurate."

So what's really going on? Is organ printing an immediate reality or still the stuff of science fiction?

Brazilian Spider May Become Next Viagra

Brazilian Spider May Become Next Viagra
Who would imagine that a poisonous, eight-legged creature from Brazil could boost your sex life?

Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia say venom from a spider native to Central and South America gives people four-hour erections, and could possibly cure some of the worst cases of impotence – cases not even Viagra could adequately treat.

The Plot to Keep You Sick

The Plot to Keep You Sick
What would you do if you learned there was a concerted effort to keep you sick? And what would you do if you learned that the way they could do that was by the food that you ate? Would that upset you? Well, be prepared.

The best way for me to explain this is to put it in the vernacular of the street, relating to it all as pimps, hookers, and tricks.

If you were looking at it this way, who do you think the pimps might be? The number one pimp on my list is the pharmaceutical industry. Why is that? First of all they are all publicly traded companies and the first and foremost goal of a publicly traded company is to increase profits. And the best way to increase profits is by increasing earnings per share. The best way to do that is to sell tons of the product you sell.

The pharmaceutical industry, first and foremost, is in the business of selling drugs. In order to sell drugs, people have to be sick. They have to be sick either through natural causes or by inventing diseases. We’ll get to the natural causes down the road.

When Exercise Is Too Much of a Good Thing

When Exercise Is Too Much of a Good Thing
Recently, researchers in Britain set out to study the heart health of a group of dauntingly fit older athletes. Uninterested in sluggards, the scientists recruited only men who had been part of a British national or Olympic team in distance running or rowing, as well as members of the extremely selective 100 Marathon club, which admits runners who, as you might have guessed, have completed at least a hundred marathons.

All of the men had trained and competed throughout their adult lives and continued to work out strenuously. Twelve were age 50 or older, with the oldest age 67; another 17 were relative striplings, ages 26 to 40. The scientists also gathered a group of 20 healthy men over 50, none of them endurance athletes, for comparison. The different groups underwent a new type of magnetic resonance imaging of their hearts that identifies very early signs of fibrosis, or scarring, within the heart muscle. Fibrosis, if it becomes severe, can lead to stiffening or thickening of portions of the heart, which can contribute to irregular heart function and, eventually, heart failure.

The 7-year itch is now the 3-year glitch

The 7-year itch is now the 3-year glitch
The "three-year glitch" has replaced the "seven-year itch" as the tipping point where couples start to take each other for granted, according to a new survey.

Weight gain, stinginess, toe-nail clippings on the bathroom floor and snoring are a few of the passion-killers that have led to a swifter decline in relationships in the fast-paced 21st century, said the study commissioned by Warner Brothers to promote the release of comedy film "Hall Pass" in UK cinemas.

Cooler Body Temperature May Not Feed Obesity

Cooler Body Temperature May Not Feed Obesity
Contrary to one theory on obesity, people with extra body fat may not have a lower body temperature than thinner folks, a new study finds.

Many factors, from super-sized fast-food portions to increasing time in front of computers, have been blamed for the rising rates of obesity worldwide.

But physiological factors also may make some people more vulnerable to becoming obese than others. One theory is that people with a relatively lower core body temperature might be predisposed to weight gain, while those with a slightly higher core temperature pack on pounds less easily.

Sunlight can influence the breakdown of medicines in the body

Sunlight can influence the breakdown of medicines in the body
A study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet has shown that the body's ability to break down medicines may be closely related to exposure to sunlight, and thus may vary with the seasons. The findings offer a completely new model to explain individual differences in the effects of drugs, and how the surroundings can influence the body's ability to deal with toxins.

A more detailed analysis showed that the concentrations of drugs such as tacrolimus and sirolimus, which are used to prevent rejection following transplantation, vary throughout the year in a manner that closely reflects changes in the level of vitamin D in the body. The ability of the body to form vitamin D depends on sunlight, and the highest levels in the patients taking part in the study were reached during that part of the year when the levels of the drugs were lowest.

March 8, 2011

Right-handers, but not left-handers, are biased to select their dominant hand

Right-handers, but not left-handers, are biased to select their dominant hand
The vast majority of humans -- over 90% -- prefer to use their right hand for most skilled tasks. For decades, researchers have been trying to understand why this asymmetry exists. Why, with our two cerebral hemispheres and motor cortices, are we not equally skilled with both hands?

Why Naps Make You Smarter

Why Naps Make You Smarter
A good night's sleep is crucial to storing knowledge learned earlier in the day — that much was known. Now, a new study finds that getting shut-eye before you learn is important, too.

Volunteers who took a 100-minute nap before launching into an evening memorization task scored an average of 20 percentage points higher on the memory test compared with people who did the memorization without snoozing first.

"It really seems to be the first evidence that we're aware of that indicates a proactive benefit of sleep," study co-author Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, told LiveScience.

"It's not simply enough to sleep after learning," Walker said. "It turns out you also need to sleep before learning."

Cerebellum provides clues to the nature of human intelligence

Cerebellum provides clues to the nature of human intelligence
Research suggests that intelligence in humans is controlled by the part of the brain known as the 'cortex', and most theories of age-related cognitive decline focus on cortical dysfunction. However, a new study of Scottish older adults, reported in the April 2011 issue of Elsevier's Cortex, suggests that grey matter volume in the 'cerebellum' at the back of the brain predicts cognitive ability, and keeping those cerebellar networks active may be the key to keeping cognitive decline at bay.

UCLA Surgeons Complete First Hand Transplant in California

UCLA Surgeons Complete First Hand Transplant in California
It took a team of 17 surgeons and 14 hours in the operating room, but doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in California, were able to successfully complete the state’s first hand transplant, myFOXla.com reported.

The patient was a mother from northern California who lost her right hand in a bad car accident five years ago

Half of German doctors prescribe placebos – and they work

Half of German doctors prescribe placebos – and they work
A NEW STUDY in Germany has shown that over half of the country’s doctors prescribe placebos to their patients – and say such actions successfully treat problems like depression or stomach complaints.

The study, compiled for the German Medical Association and reported in the Guardian, said placebos – which could range from vitamin pills to homeopathic remedies, and even (in extreme cases) sham surgeries – were “highly effective” in most cases.

5 health reasons to not quit coffee

5 health reasons to not quit coffee
I really like coffee. The morning ritual of brewing a cup, the smell that perks me up before I take a sip and, of course, the flavor all make it my favorite beverage aside from water (water’s delicious!). As a registered dietitian and a nutrition editor for EatingWell Magazine, I know that coffee is fine in moderation. It has lots of antioxidants and is low in calories if you don’t load it up with cream and sugar. Nonetheless, I always feel slightly guilty about drinking it—you know, in a “it’s so good, it must be bad” kind of way.

March 3, 2011

Sex study: More teens, young adults are virgins

Sex study: More teens, young adults are virgins - USATODAY.com
A growing number of teens and young adults say they've never had sexual contact with another person, according to the largest and most in-depth federal report to date on sexual behavior, sexual attraction and sexual identity in the USA.
The study, issued today by the National Center for Health Statistics, reports that 27% of young men and 29% of young women ages 15-24 say they've never had a sexual encounter. That's up slightly from the last such survey in 2002, when 22% of both sexes reported no such contact.

The new data are from the 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth, based on responses from 13,495 people ages 15-44. It surveyed 7,356 women and 6,139 men.

Nymphomania and the brain.

Nymphomania and the brain.
If you are a materialist holding the logical belief that the human brain, with all of its buzzing neural intricacies, its pulpy, electrified, arabesque chambers and labyrinthine coves, has been carved out over countless eons by the slow-and-steady hand of natural selection, then you will grant that specific brain regions evolved because they generated behaviors that were beneficial to our ancestors. When one part of the brain is compromised—through injury, disease, or some other unfortunate event—the constellation of symptoms that result are often remarkably specific. "The brain is the physical manifestation of the personality and sense of self," writes University of Michigan neuroscientist Shelley Batts in a 2009 issue of Behavioral Sciences and the Law, "and focal damage to brain areas can result in focal changes in behavior and personality while leaving other aspects of the self unchanged."

Brain's 'autopilot' provides insight into early development of Alzheimer's disease

Brain's 'autopilot' provides insight into early development of Alzheimer's disease
Watching the brain's "autopilot" network in real time may help determine the onset of cognitive decline and potentially aid in making an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

While traditional MRI and imaging studies conducted in Alzheimer's disease have focused on the anatomy and function of individual regions of the brain, the Duke team conducted the first study to test how the integrity of an entire brain network relates to future cognitive decline. This "autopilot" network, known more formally as the default mode network, has been linked with the presence of the hallmark amyloid plaques believed to underpin Alzheimer's disease.

New findings challenge view of key part of immune defense

New findings challenge view of key part of immune defense
The natural killer cells of our immune defense are activated for an extended period after the acute infection, which challenges the prevailing view that the elevation and activation of cells quickly pass. This is shown in a study regarding vole fever that was recently published by researchers at Umeå University, Sweden in Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Using artificial, cell-like 'honey pots' to entrap deadly viruses

Using artificial, cell-like 'honey pots' to entrap deadly viruses
Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Weill Cornell Medical College have designed artificial "protocells" that can lure, entrap and inactivate a class of deadly human viruses -- think decoys with teeth. The technique offers a new research tool that can be used to study in detail the mechanism by which viruses attack cells, and might even become the basis for a new class of antiviral drugs.

Males 'Rev Up' Genes to Offset Shortcomings - Yahoo! News

Males 'Rev Up' Genes to Offset Shortcomings
Gentlemen, start your engines. To survive, male fruit flies compensate for their genetic shortcomings by revving up their genes.

Similar revving may happen in humans, and defects in the process might be related to certain neurological disorders.

Genes are carried on threadlike constructions of DNA and proteins called chromosomes. Like humans, male fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) have one X chromosome and one Y, which defines them as male. Meanwhile females have two X chromosomes.

But for males to live, they have to somehow remedy this imbalance. To do so, Erica Larschan of Brown University and her colleagues found fruit flies have a special protein that lets them magnify, or upregulate, their single X chromosome.

Tractor beam is possible with lasers, say scientists

Tractor beam; is possible with lasers, say scientists
A laser can act as a "tractor beam", drawing small objects back toward the laser's source, scientists have said.

It is known that light can provide a "push", for example in solar sails that propel spacecraft on a "wind of light".

Now, in a paper on the Arxiv server, researchers from Hong Kong and China have calculated the conditions required to create a laser-based "pull".

Could the combination of general relativity and quantum mechanics lead to spintronics?

Could the combination of general relativity and quantum mechanics lead to spintronics?
In the early 20th century, two famous discoveries about spin were made. One of them, discovered by Albert Einstein and Wander Johannes de Haas, explains a relationship between the spin of elementary particles. They found a relationship between magnetism and angular momentum. (Around that time, Einstein also put forth his theory of general relativity.) A little more than a decade later, Paul Dirac unveiled his equation dealing with a relativistic quantum mechanical wave, providing an explanation of electrons as elementary spin-1/2 particles.

Even though both of these discoveries have existed for nearly century, Sadamichi Maekawa tells PhysOrg.com, no one thought about combining them. “For nearly 100 years, people did not study putting these together. We decided to combine different ideas to come up with a fundamental Hamiltonian to investigate mechanical rotations in the Dirac equation.”

Maekawa, a scientist working with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, as well as the Japan Science and Technology Agency, worked with scientists associated with Kyoto University and Tohoku University, to come up with a new model of spin that could be helpful in the development of spintronics. Mamoru Matsuo, Jun’ichi Ieda and Eiji Saitoh were all involved in creating the new model, which is published in Physical Review Letters: “Effects of Mechanical Rotation on Spin Currents.”

Black holes: A model for superconductors?

Black holes: A model for superconductors?
Black holes are some of the heaviest objects in the universe. Electrons are some of the lightest. Now physicists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have shown how charged black holes can be used to model the behavior of interacting electrons in unconventional superconductors.

"The context of this problem is high-temperature superconductivity," said Phillips. "One of the great unsolved problems in physics is the origin of superconductivity (a conducting state with zero resistance) in the copper oxide ceramics discovered in 1986." The results of research by Phillips and his colleagues Robert G. Leigh, Mohammad Edalati, and Ka Wai Lo were published online in Physical Review Letters on March 1 and in Physical Review D on February 25.

Solving the riddle of nature’s perfect spring

Solving the riddle of nature’s perfect spring
Scientists have unravelled the shape of the protein that gives human tissues their elastic properties in what could lead to the development of new synthetic elastic polymers.

University of Manchester researchers, working with colleagues in Australia and the United States, used state-of-the-art techniques to reveal the structure of tropoelastin, the main component of elastin.
Elastin allows tissues in humans and other mammals to stretch, for example when the lungs expand and contract for respiration or when arteries widen and narrow over the course of a billion heart beats.

March 2, 2011

Giant chamber on the moon discovered, perfect for a future base

Giant chamber on the moon discovered, perfect for a future base | DVICE
The Indian Space Research Organization has discovered a massive underground chamber near the moon's equator, one that would be perfect for housing a moon base. A moon base!

Discovered by the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, this chamber is more than one mile long and 393 feet wide. There would be lots of benefits of building a moon base in there, mainly for protection from the nastiness of the surface of the moon. It'd provide a nearly constant temperature of -4 degrees Fahrenheit, unlike the surface, which fluctuates between 266 degrees and -292 degrees. And it would provide protection from radiation, micro-meteor impacts and dust.

So, what's the holdup? Let's get building! I want to visit a hotel in a moon base sometime in the next 20 years, please!

Facing the Facebook mirror can boost self-esteem

Facing the Facebook mirror can boost self-esteem
A new study has found that Facebook can have a positive influence on the self-esteem of college students.

This is probably because Facebook allows them to put their best face forward, said Jeffrey Hancock, associate professor of communication at Cornell University and co-author of "Mirror, Mirror on my Facebook Wall: Effects of Exposure to Facebook on Self-Esteem" published Feb. 24 in the peer-reviewed journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.

Hancock said users can choose what they reveal about themselves and filter anything that might reflect badly. Feedback from friends posted publicly on Facebook profiles also tends to be overwhelmingly positive, which can further boost self-esteem, he said.

Bad News: Scientists Make Cheap Gas From Coal

Bad News: Scientists Make Cheap Gas From Coal | Wired Science | Wired.com
Electric cars have been getting a lot of buzz lately, but a more immediately viable transportation fuel of the future could be liquid derived from coal. Scientists have devised a new way to transform coal into gas for your car using far less energy than the current process. The advance makes scaling up the environmentally unfriendly fuel more economical than greener alternatives.

If oil prices rise again, adoption of the new coal-to-liquid technology, reported this week in Science, could undercut adoption of electric vehicles or next-generation biofuels. And that’s bad news for the fight against climate change.

The new process could cut the energy cost of producing the fuel by 20 percent just by rejiggering the intermediate chemical steps, said co-author Ben Glasser of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. But coal-derived fuel could produce as much as twice as much CO2 as traditional petroleum fuels and at best will emit at least as much of the greenhouse gas.

Shift work may be associated with decreased risk of skin cancer

Shift work may be associated with decreased risk of skin cancer
Melatonin is known to have cancer-protective properties, and shift work can induce desynchrony of the circadian system, reducing melatonin production. Shift work has been thought to have important health impacts, with evidence linking shift work to an increased risk of several cancers including breast, endometrial, prostate, and colorectal, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In a recent study, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) found that shift work may be associated with a reduced risk of skin cancer in women.

Cements that self-repair cracks and store latent heat energy?

Cements that self-repair cracks and store latent heat energy?
Cement (and derivatives thereof) is one of the materials most commonly used in construction, given its good performance at low cost. Over recent years, one part of scientific and technological research is aimed at incorporating additional functions into these materials. Specifically, Doctor Idurre Kaltzakorta studied the possibility of adding capacities to the cement such as self-repair of cracks as well as storing latent heat energy.

Today's Food System: All Drugged Up

Laurie David: Today's Food System: All Drugged Up
The next time you're feeling sick, think twice before going to your doctor for answers. Look down at your plate, instead.

Hidden in your hamburger or smoked ham may be something you didn't want or expect on the menu -- antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Instead of protecting you from infectious diseases, antibiotics might simply be making you sick.

Just last month, the FDA confirmed that 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the U.S. go to animal agriculture. No joke, 80 percent! This is true insanity and scientists fear that this extreme overuse of antibiotics is putting our children, elderly and families at serious risk.

Study: US has much higher obesity rate than Canada

Study: US has much higher obesity rate than Canada - Yahoo! News
American adults have a significantly higher rate of obesity than their neighbors to the north, a new study says.

About 24 percent of Canadians are obese compared to more than 34 percent of Americans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Wednesday.

Researchers looked at height and weight data taken in surveys in both countries during 2007-09.

The two countries have different racial demographics. The United States has more black and Hispanic people, and both have higher rates of obesity. But even looking solely at white people, there was still a big difference — a 26 percent obesity rate in Canada compared to 33 percent in the United States.

World's most powerful optical microscope: Microscope could 'solve the cause of viruses'

World's most powerful optical microscope: Microscope could 'solve the cause of viruses'
Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the team have created a microscope which shatters the record for the smallest object the eye can see, beating the diffraction limit of light.

Previously, the standard optical microscope can only see items around one micrometre -- 0.001 millimetres -- clearly.

But now, by combining an optical microscope with a transparent microsphere, dubbed the 'microsphere nanoscope', the Manchester researchers can see 20 times smaller -- 50 nanometres ((5 x 10-8m) -- under normal lights. This is beyond the theoretical limit of optical microscopy.

Meditation beats dance for harmonizing body and mind

Meditation beats dance for harmonizing body and mind
The body is a dancer's instrument, but is it attuned to the mind? A new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that professional ballet and modern dancers are not as emotionally in sync with their bodies as are people who regularly practice meditation.

UC Berkeley researchers tracked how closely the emotions of seasoned meditators and professional dancers followed bodily changes such as breathing and heart rates.

They found that dancers who devote enormous time and effort to developing awareness of and precise control over their muscles -- a theme coincidentally raised in the new ballet movie "Black Swan" -- do not have a stronger mind-body connection than do most other people.

Nanotechnology used to prolong machine and engine life

Nanotechnology used to prolong machine and engine life
Guojun Liu has discovered a way to use nanotechnology to reduce friction in automobile engines and machines.

"The technology should be useful in a wide range of machineries other than automobile engines," says Dr. Liu, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and an expert in polymer synthesis. "If implemented industrially, this nanotechnology should help prolong machine life and improve energy efficiency."

Dr Liu's team prepared miniscule polymer particles that were only tens of nanometers in size. These particles were then dispersed in automobile engine base oils. When tested under metal surface contact conditions that simulated conditions found in automobile engines, these tiny particles were discovered to have an unprecedented friction reduction capability.

March 1, 2011

Rush Holt Beats 'Watson' Computer In Congressional 'Jeopardy!' Showdown

Rush Holt Beats 'Watson' Computer In Congressional 'Jeopardy!' Showdown
Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) did Monday night what two of the most renowned champions of "Jeopardy!" couldn't -- he conquered "Watson," an IBM supercomputer designed to answer complex questions, on the trivia game show.

In a congressional showdown of man vs. machine, Holt, a five-time "Jeopardy!" winner and nuclear physicist himself, defeated the computer with a score of $8,600. Watson finished with $6,200, while Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a third finalist, rounded out the trio with $1,000, The Hill reports.

Rising status of women linked to more smoking

Rising status of women linked to more smoking | Reuters
Millions of women in developing countries risk disease and early death in the coming decades as their rising economic and political status leads them to smoke more, researchers said Tuesday.

An analysis in 74 countries found that men are five times more likely to smoke than women in countries with lower rates of female empowerment, such as China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uganda.

In countries with relatively high female empowerment, such as Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden and the United States, this gap is small and women smoke almost as much as men do.

Don't worry, be happy and live longer

Don't worry, be happy and live longer: scientific studies | Reuters
Today's lesson: be happy, live longer. Now science seems to back the glass half-full approach.

A review of more than 160 studies on the connection between a positive state of mind and overall health and longevity has found "clear and compelling evidence" that happier people enjoy better health and longer lives.

In fact, evidence linking an upbeat outlook and enjoyment of life to better health and longer life was stronger even than that linking obesity to reduced longevity, according to the review published on Tuesday in the journal "Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being."