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Researchers at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor have recently reached some arguable findings, after an analysis of statistical data showed that there’s an uncanny link between the people who show up at the hospital for cat bites related wounds and depression. Also, most people who had been both diagnosed with depression at some point in their […]
Physical workouts, be it simple home fitness, represent a golden standard for living a healthy life. Researchers at Emory University recently proved another key benefit to exercising, one especially useful to the elderly, after they found that even taking a few short walks a day can vastly curb macular degeneration – the leading cause for loss […]
We’ve wrote before on studies discussing some of the effects of gaming might have on real life behaviour. In a most interesting study, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that even the avatar you choose greatly influences behaviour later on when interacting with real people. The researchers recruited 194 undergraduates to participate in two supposedly unrelated studies. […]
David Ley, PhD, a clinical psychologist in practice in Albuquerque, NM, made an extensive review study of the current scientific literature discussing the idea of ‘porn addiction’. His summary is that, first of all, there’s no such thing as porn addiction, based on the currently published literature since the behavior described in this work can […]
Mammograms have been controversial since their inception – many researchers argued that reduction in mortality from breast cancer comes from improved treatment, and not from the procedures. Now, a very large and thorough study involving 90.000 women and lasting 25 years casts a big doubt on the value of mammograms. Basically, what they found was […]
An imbalance in chloride ions during a fetus’s development is one of the factors for autism, study shows. Some children today show clear symptoms of autism only a year or more after birth, such as the impossibility to focus on eye contact or poor language development. The study made by neuroscientist Yehezkel Ben-Ari and his […]
Human embryonic stem cells can be induced into forming a developing brain tissue. The brain development process represents one of the most specific processes; during it, neuroepithelium, formed as a flat sheet by the nervous system, grows on the exterior layer of the embryo, after which it folds in to create a neural tube giving […]
In popular view, the scientists is a white, skinny male, clothed in a white lab coat, wearing glasses. Of course, in reality it’s not always the case, but there’s no question that a certain gender, race and social upbringing dominates positions in science. Are females and minorities discriminated or is the lack of a balanced […]
It’s one of the most known effects of marijuana – you get a powerful surge in appetite (especially a craving for sweets) after smoking (or inhaling or ingesting the drug) – something colloquially referred to as “the munchies”. While for casual users this is a minor and not troubling side effect (often times even enjoyable), […]
As a non-smoker with many smoking friends living in a country without a smoking ban, going out can be quite a hassle sometimes. Staying in smoky rooms, the way the clothes smell after getting home… I feel like I may be smoking just as well. But as it turns out, smoking bans help smokers just […]
Dennis Aabo Sørensen is the first amputee in the world to feel sensory rich information (in real time), thanks to a prosthetic hand hard-wired into the nerves in his upper arm. After nine years ago he lost his left hand, Dennis Aabo Sørensen got lucky. Silvestro Micera and his team at EPFL (Switzerland) and SSSA […]
A new research paper written by psychologists Elizabeth Dunn and Lara Aknin, along with Michael Norton of Harvard Business School shows that there’s a clear and simple way to be more happy in life – spending more money on others. The notion of generosity has been greatly debated among scientists lately – and it’s not […]
Fetal brain development has been found to be drastically endangered by maternal drug exposure, according to an ongoing study by an international consortium of researchers from Karolinska Institutet. Cannabis consumption during pregnancy can impair the brain development of the fetus, bringing dreadful long-lasting effects after the child is born. The main consequences are affecting the […]
It’s estimated that some 8 million people in the United States suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), causing great angst, depression and poor social integration. There are numerous therapies and techniques designed to help patients recover and banish the specters that lurk in the deepest recesses of their minds, haunting them. A common psychotherapy is fighting […]
A new study that looked to compare how working memory differs in young and old people, found that young people are able to retrieve memories in ‘high definition’. However, it’s not the case that young people necessarily remember more than older ones, the researchers at Vanderbilt University who made the study add. It’s just that […]
The first moments following a nuclear attack are crucial. If you’re right in line of the blast, well … you’re pretty much toast. For people out of the initial blast’s way, but still subjected to lethal fallout, making the right steps can mean the difference between life and death. Not satisfied with the official government […]
Good news is not something you see very often in India. The lack of food and sometimes even water is still a problem, women discrimination is big, being gay has been criminalized (again), and poverty is the common standard. But among that, there’s still some good news: India is now, officially, polio free. Poliomyelitis, often […]
The human brain is arguably the most complex structure in the Universe. To unlock its secrets, scientists all over the world are mapping and simulating parts of the human brain. The latest breakthrough comes from Japan where scientists using the K supercomputer, the fourth most powerful in world, accurately mapped one second’s worth of brain […]
Doctors from Sweden recently revealed they have successfully completed a total of nine womb transplants, marking a new milestone for a type of procedure that is still in its infancy and is considered highly risky. The transplanted wombs came from relatives, and the doctors hope report little complications have been witnessed. Ultimately, the doctors hope […]
What evolutionary traits helped humans become the dominant species on Earth? Our dexterous limbs and complex nervous system certainly played a major role, allowing human to manipulated the world and handle tools. Physicians are very interested in studying motor neural circuits to make better therapies when things go wrong, and to attain a comprehensive understanding […]
The effects of urban pollution in China are started to get out of hand, and by now, it’s pretty safe to say that they are dealing with a major pollution crisis – the smog in Beijing particularly is so severe you can easily see it from outer space. Now, a new study has concluded that […]
A study from Yale University found that some eight million premature deaths have been adverted as a result of anti-smoking measures which first began 50 years ago with the groundbreaking report from the Surgeon General outlining the deadly consequences of tobacco use. In 1964, the then Surgeon General Luther Terry dropped a bombshell that made […]
We need more green spaces in town and cities – the myriad of advantages they provide is simply undeniable. Now, a team of researchers has shown that they also lead to significant and sustained improvements in mental health. Analyzing a consistent amount of data over a five year period, they found that moving in a […]
M.P., a kindergarten teacher and expert reader, was hit by a stroke and, in the aftermath, her brain underwent some irreversible transformations. It’s hard to imagine the confusion and fright the 40-year-old woman must have felt when shortly after her stroke, while in the classroom trying to read to children – her biggest source of […]
Sure to raise a slew of controversy and debate, researchers in Japan are currently investigating the possibility of growing human organs, like kidneys, livers or even hearts, inside pigs. A real life chimeric tale, as if spawned from the Island of Dr. Moreau. The challenges are numerous though, both technical (we’re talking about growing human […]
An international team of researchers believes they have found a way to reopen critical learning periods in the brain, allowing adults to learn as if they were children, even abilities thought to be restricted to early ages, such as new language learning and absolute pitch development. The drug is known as valproate or valporic acid […]
The world is changing awfully fast, and with change expect many paradigms to shift or crumble entirely to dust. Over the course of a mere couple of decades, world’s politics has changed dramatically. Superpowers have fallen, the Cold War is well behind us and countries which not long ago were considered hallmarks of poverty have […]
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Iowa have found out that we don’t just smell with our noses, we also smell with our lungs… sort of. But while your nose might tell you that something is or isn’t good for you, your lungs might make you cough it out. Smelling […]
Some people just have the knack of remembering the face of everyone they’ve met in their lives, while others, on the opposite end of the spectrum, have a difficult time recognizing who they met yesterday. Now, researchers at Emory have identified the oxytocin receptor, a gene known to influence mother-infant bonding and pair bonding in monogamous […]
Researchers from the Aalto University in Finland have revealed how the most common emotions are experienced in the body. Emotions are a very good way of preparing us for environmental challenges. It has been known for quite some time that our emotions trigger physical reactions in our body, and the bodily maps of these sensations […]
Tylenol is one of the most common drugs, and for good reason: it’s good, and it gets the job done – it’s one of several drugs which use acetaminophen as the active substance. There are two main reasons for which it should be administrated: it’s a mild analgesic and it reduces fever. While it’s also […]
Co-authors of the study Prof Keith Martin and Dr Barbara Lorber, from the John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair at the University of Cambridge say they have been able to successfully print new eye cells that could be used to treat sight loss. Their research has been carried out so far only with animal […]
If all people over 50 in the UK would eat an apple a day, over 8,500 vascular deaths such as heart attacks and strokes every year in the UK would be prevented. This is even better than giving everyone (who is not already taking them) statins – a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol […]
Using an enzyme to ‘cut out’ the virus, German researchers have managed to find remove HIV from cells, leaving the cells virtually unharmed. This has a boatload of work before it sees the light of day, but it’s the most promising HIV study I’ve read in quite a while. Killing HIV cells, mice, and a […]
Meditation has been shown to have an impact on brain activity, decreasing beta waves and impacting each part differently. Activity in the frontal and parietal lobe slows down, while the flow of information to the thalamus is reduced. This can lead to positive side effects such as improved focus, better memory, and a reduction in […]
Just like taste, it’s really common for people not to agree on how pleasant or fowl a scent may be. You might find the meal you just cooked to have a pleasant odor or you might have bought a perfume you thought smelled divine, only for some other person to disagree and express a distaste. […]
We’ve written a number of times about the advantages that cannabinoids can bring – how they can become effective pain killers even without the high, how they don’t harm the lungs when smoked, and many more. But marijuana is definitely not a substance you want to abuse, just like tobacco and alcohol. In many cases, […]
Medicine and 3-d printing fit together like a glove. Imagine how many transplants and surgical procedures are so difficult to make or downright impossible because you can’t find a matching tissue or body part for the patient at hand. With 3-D printers, you can even make new bones – identical to those modeled from a […]
The world is getting smaller by the day, as fixed geographical distances become easier and more accessible for the common folk to travel. What this means is that a lot of things change as well, including the day diseases are carrier and spread throughout the world. Only a century ago, the number one mean of […]
Researchers at MIT found that individual cells in a bacterial colony will grow in a manner that is beneficial to the whole culture, even if this comes at a personal expense for the cell. With this in mind, it appears seemingly complex colony structures can be explained by an essentially simple behaviour. The findings could […]
From the common cold to pneumonia and potentially life threatening lung diseases: a single protein was found to play a key role. Now, an international team of researchers has finally zeroed in it. The key protein is called MUC5B – it is one of the two proteins found in the mucus that normally and helpfully […]
Playing an instrument comes with a wide range of benefits, especially for children. It teaches them discipline and how to focus on an important task at hand. It also fuels creativity. There’s a well constructed myth, however, that playing an instrument makes you smarter, as in it improves your cognitive abilities somehow. This idea is […]
A study which monitored the health habits of 2,235 men over a 35-year period has found that exercise significantly reduces the risk of dementia. It may seem like common sense, but it can never be emphasized too much: a healthy lifestyle ensures a longer… healthier life – it’s basically as simple as that. Published by […]
Humans want a pill to solve all their medical problems, but with the increase of antibiotic resistant genes in bacteria, those pills are beginning to become less effective. Early in September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report that said in the last few years, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have gained prevalence in […]
A new study found that parent stress is linked to heightened weight gain in children. The causes of this aren’t very clear yet, however scientists advise interventions should focus on how to support families in challenging conditions. Researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto studied data collected during the Children’s Health Study, one of the largest and […]
Fractals are non-regular geometric shapes that have the same degree of non-regularity on all scales. Fractals are the kind of shapes we see in nature, basically, and even though the term was first coined only a coupled of decades ago or if this is the first time you’ve heard about fractals, chances have it that you […]
Writing your memoirs or simply recollecting traumatizing memories in writing has been used as tool in therapy for many years now. A new study by researchers at University of Iowa found that switching to writing in third person eases recovery and improves health of participants. Whether it’s a car accident, the death of someone close, surgery, […]
Generally, you can view services like any other commodity and apply strict goods economics. So if the same type of service is available elsewhere, even in another country, at a cheaper price it makes sense, economically, to outsource. Is health care a different matter, however? Apparently, if you took an X-ray in the past decade, […]
A new report made by a team of Harvard researchers proposes a set of measures aimed at leveling the health ground in the world by 2035. The authors envision a grand convergence, namely closing the most egregious equity gaps we still have between poor and rich populations around the world. Isn’t offering the same health benefits […]
Drug resistant bacteria (immune to almost all antibiotics) are dreaded by patients and physicians alike. Finding them in hospitals is bad enough as it is, but failing to detect them is even worse – it can result in a dramatic outbreak. This is why patients with bacterial infections are typically screened using automated lab tests […]
