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A linguistic study found that people who regularly text message are less likely to accept new words, as opposed to those that read more traditional print media such as books, magazines, and newspapers. For the study, student volunteers were asked about their reading habits and text messaging frequency, and then presented with a set of […]
For a number of years now researchers have been studying the sirtuin gene and the proteins encoded in it as it is believed to be directly linked to prolonged lifespan. A myriad of individual studies were performed with mixed results, and so far hundreds of millions have been allocated for research in this direction. A […]
Good news for men, and especially women: the Y chromosome, which holds the male sex determining genes in most mammals, including humans, is not going extinct, as some claim, as a new research found that the diminishing gene numbers have come to a halt and will remain this way. Sex chromosomes come in pairs, such […]
Implantable medical devices, capable of delivering drugs or performing micro-surgery from inside the body, have been the subject of scientific research for decades now. A number of exciting prototypes have been developed in the past few years, as miniaturization allowed it, however reliability flaws rendered them unpractical. A new tiny device developed by Stanford electrical engineers, was presented […]
Since the advent of modern DNA sequencing technology, biological research and discoveries has been dramatically accelerated. It’s absolutely instrumental to genetic research nowadays, which among other great achievements, has lead to the sequencing of the human genome. The methods and technologies involved in DNA sequencing are terribly complex, however, and usually require sophisticated research laboratories. […]
In what can only be hailed as a breakthrough in the “smart drugs” field, scientists at Harvard University have successfully managed to create nanorobots made out of strands of DNA, folded together by the DNA origami method. These act like drug-carrying recipients, which specifically target various types of cells and deliver complex molecular instructions – […]
The speed at which someone walks and the likelihood of dementia don’t have absolutely anything in common at a first glance, but according to a study published in the British Medical Journal in 2009 there is a ‘strong association’ between the two. They also said at a conference that grip strength in middle-aged men was […]
Researchers successfully tested gene therapy in rats to stimulate the production of a chemical which naturally occurs in the brain and stops seizures from taking place. About 3.000.000 people are suffering from epilepsy in the US alone, and a major characteristic of this lifelong disease is uncontrollable seizures which prevent sufferers from normally carrying on […]
Four hundred of the most popular lipsticks in the US contain trace levels of lead, according to tests conducted by the federal government – a number much bigger than what was expected. Five of the L’Oreal and Maybelline lipsticks ranked among the top 10 most contaminated brands, as well as two Cover Girl and two […]
Researchers report that after testing on lab mice an FDA-approved drug, used as treatment for skin cancer, that significant improvements in cognitive recovery were signaled, shinning a new ray of hope for Alzheimer patients. Neuroscientists Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine discovered that bexarotene, a skin cancer drug, remarkably also appears to reverse cognitive […]
Seropositive volunteers participated in what can turn out to be a revolutionary test, conducted in Belgium, at the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp University Hospital and Antwerp University, involving a new therapeutic vaccine that uses cells from their own bodies; the cells are then charged and reinjected into their system. A cure for AIDS […]
Last year, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, produced a draft of the Denisova genome, in order study in what proportion they relate to homo sapiens sapiens. The Denisovans, are a new group of hominids, discovered just two years ago, which is believed to have lived around 30,000 years ago, alongside Neanderthals and […]
Hailed as a breakthrough in reconstructive surgery, an 83-year old woman had her lower jaw replaced by an exact 3D printed replica made out of titanium. The implant was made by heating and fusing together titanium ore, one layer at a time with a laser. The procedure took place last summer in the Netherlands, but […]
Modern technology has revolutionized the way we communicate forever. From the telegraph, to the wire telephone, to the internet, to extremely capable smartphones, technology, fueled by scientific advancements, has helped people communicate easily with one another and be aware of what’s going on in world instantly. Too much of anything, however, can be harmful, and […]
From a certain age onward, humans seem to process information at a slower pace – learning new things becomes more difficult, remembering where you put the car keys seems to give headaches, and it gets ever worse as we age even more. Neuroscientists at the University of Bristol studying dysfunctional neural communication in Alzheimer patients demonstrated that the […]
No less than 1 million birth control pills have been taken from the shelves by big pharma Pfizer in the United States because they might not contain enough contraceptive to prevent pregnancy. Whoa! Wait just a moment there. They might not have enough contraceptive? As in, if I took the pills, I might get pregnant? […]
In the not so distant future, scientists could be able to eavesdrop on a patient’s inner monologues or communicate with those who cannot speak, thanks to a breakthrough made by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley. They have astonishingly managed to crack the ‘code’ of a brain wave by decoding electrical activity in a […]
A team of researchers, lead by itch expert Gil Yosipovitch, have studied which parts of the body produce the most pleasure when scratched, and found that scratch relief varies along different areas of the body. If you believe this study is totally irrelevant or useless, Yosipovitch believes otherwise and explains how the science of itching […]
Darwin’s theory of natural selection illustrates perfectly what evolution is all about, the survival of the fittest if you will. It’s because of natural selection that a crocodile has an armor-like skin to protect it against enemies, a chameleon can change its color and camouflage itself for protection and hunting or humans evolved a more […]
Detailed in a recently published study, a team of ophthalmologists have successfully managed to improve the vision of both of their trial patients, which were declared legally blind due to macular degeneration, by inserting human embryonic stem cells into one eye of each person. Significant improvements were recognized shortly after the procedure, and continued to […]
In the popular TV series, Star Trek, one of the most fascinating devices featured, out of the whole myriad of blasters and tractor beams, is the tricorder, a portable medical scanner and communication device which could detect biological phenomena such as increased blood flow around tumorous growths just by sweeping a person. The closest thing […]
A nurse’s tender loving really does ease the pain during a medical procedure, and grandma’s cookies really do taste better when they’re made with love. This new study conducted by researchers from the University of Maryland might have numerous real-world applications, from medicine to parenting and business. “The way we read another persons intentions changes […]
It seems more and more evidence points towards marijuana not being such a bad thing; now, a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco disproved one of the major concerns regarding smoking some ‘belvedere’, concluding that it doesn’t harm the lungs in any way. The study, which was published in the Journal […]
Scientists publish papers to tell the world about what they’ve done. Sharing your results with the world is especially important in the pharmaceutical industry, so people will know if/how the drug in case worked and how good it is. But a team of scientists found that statistically, for studies funded by the US government, more […]
Red wine. Everyone has heard of the proposed “magic” of red wine. Perhaps it is good for your heart; maybe it protects the prostate. Despite all of these rumored benefits of red wine, few studies have actually been able to support and explain how and why red wine is so beneficial. Recent studies have shown […]
In Greek mythology, the chimera is a fire breathing beast composed of several animal parts (lion body, snake-head tail, a goat head hanging from its back and so on), which has spurred the imagination of man for thousands of years. Though it is fairly clear that such an abomination never existed, apart from the infinite recesses of […]
What if you could increase your ability to remember with a pill? This may not be an idea just for science fiction novels. Scientists have discovered a method that could strengthen long-term memories. A protein called PKR functions to maintain a relatively low level of excitability by enhancing GABA synaptic transmission. GABA is an inhibitory […]
In 1926, when merchant marine captain Charles Martell checked into Massachusetts General Hospital, he had already gone down from 6’1″ to 5’6″, accusing major pain in his legs, neck and back and reporting a fine, white gravel in his urine. He was place on Ward 4, a recently opened facility focused primarily on hormone research. […]
I recently stumbled across this study which I found absolutely mind blowing. Here’s how researchers did it. They trained 5 dogs by using a food reward system to recognize, by scent alone, the exhaled breath samples of 55 lung and 31 breast cancer patients from those of 83 healthy controls; once the dogs were trained […]
You’ve heard about Bayer, right? They’re one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, most famous for inventing aspirin. But what most people don’t know about them is that they have a long and shady history. For starters, during World War II they bought patients from Auschwitz with the purpose of using them as […]
In a recent post I was telling you about Russian and Japanese researchers working together with the purpose of cloning a mammoth from bone marrow DNA recently found in Siberia. However, many researchers are extremely skeptical about this, including some of the world’s leading experts. “C’mon, it’ll never happen. Not in my lifetime,” said Webb […]
Scientists from Russia and Japan searching in the permafrost soil in Siberia have found mammoth remains so well-preserved that they believe they will actually be able to clone it, using its bone marrow. Teams from Sakha Republic’s mammoth museum and Japan’s Kinki University have embarked on this quest, vowing to find how this can be […]
Morality has been the subject of interminable discussions among philosophers since ancient times. What’s makes for ethical behavior is most of the time a matter of the beholder, however it seems like nevertheless humans have an inherent sense of justice nested deep inside of them from an early age. A recent research suggests that babies […]
Humans are hot-wired to scan other people in their surroundings, and determine whether their trust worthy or not, all by reading various signals like body language, facial expression etc. – the so called first impression. A team of researchers from UC Berkeley have now conducted a study which claims that some people are genetically predisposed to […]
A stroke of pioneering science, researchers have managed to restore hearing to a significant level in guinea pigs by using gene therapy, bolstering hope for a similar procedure to cure human deafness in the future. The therapy works by promoting the regeneration of hair cells in the cochlea, the part of the inner ear which […]
Researchers of Texas A&M University have managed to develop a synthetic compound capable of breaking apart the AIDS inducing virus before it has the chance to infect healthy cells. While the compound doesn’t cure HIV, it may provide effective means of preventing infection. Dubbed, “PD 404,182″, the compound works by quickly ripping and dissolving the virus […]
Amidst of all the talks and protest against stem cell treatment and companies shutting down, nature has found its own way of treating diseases with stem cells. When a pregnant mouse mother, for example, has a heart attack, her fetus donates some of its own stem cells to help and cure. Researchers started working on […]
Put down that clump of Whale vomit*, there’s a better kind of perfume now: “Sexual Sweat.” In a possible attempt to level the field for scientists everywhere, researchers Wen Zhou and Denise Chen of Rice University presented 20 women with samples of human sweat, both produced from times when male volunteers viewed either pornography or a […]
India Among 15 Nations Tops in Child Pneumonia Deaths: IVAC Study – Breastfeeding for six months, early diagnosis and medicine, effective health delivery and smoke-free cooking could prevent the deaths in developing countries Hyderabad ,Nov 21: India, an emerging economic superpower along with China in Asia, but with below 1 per cent of its GDP spending on […]
Scientists from the École Polytenchnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), with the aid of colleagues from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of Lausanne, managed to improve the muscle constitution of mice by knocking out genetically a “co-repressor” of the DNA transcription process. The end product are mice that are faster, stronger and healthier […]
Scientists have genetically engineered mice able to express a certain enzyme, which allows for an increased metabolic rate. The lab mice infussed with this enzyme in their fat tissue were able to eat more, but gain far less weight than their naturally bred brethren. It’s generally acknowledged that obesity and inflammation cause insulin resistance, however […]
Cancer is currently responsible for 13% of all worldwide deaths, and although remarkable progress has been made in treating this vicious disease, we’re still a very long way from curing mankind of this pest. Even the latest news from around the world is that cancers like mesothelioma and other harder to find cancers are running […]
A new study which capitalized on an extensive ongoing survey, shows that children with high IQs, especially girls, are more likely to indulge in illicit drug use in their 30’s than people with lower IQs. Dr. James White of Cardiff University and his team of researchers used data gathered from the British Cohort Study, an ongoing […]
Mark Post is a vascular scientists at the University of Maastricht in Holland. His plan is to create a lab-grown hamburger, just to prove that it could be done. It won’t come cheap though – not by any standards. Post estimates that it will cost some €250,000 to assemble the thin layers of muscle strips […]
The Vatican have entered an unusual partnership with a relatively small U.S. biotech company (NeoStem) to promote using adult stem cells for treating diseases, instead of focusing on embryonic stem cell research. The Vatican are perhaps the loudest advocates of not using embryonic stem cells; the Christian teaching holds that the life begins at conception, […]
After the International Space Station was completed, scientists noticed that exposure to weightlessness may have some deleterious effects on human health. The human body is too adjusted to the gravitational conditions on Earth, so extended periods of weightlessness can cause various physiological systems to change and atrophy. Astronauts on-board the International Space Station battle nausea […]
In the first study of its kind, a group of researchers have quantified the financial impact of climate-change infused natural disasters on health care in the U.S., during the past decade. Floods, famines, fires and other natural disasters are reported to have cost the US government $14 billion in lost lives and and heath care […]
There’s nothing not to love about animals. Since the dawn of mankind, animals have offered humans food, clothing and company. However, some have ventured this relationship farther from its platonic grounds, and expressed their love for animals in a more… intimate manner. A recent study conducted by Brazilian researchers has found that more than 35 percent […]
“I’m never gonna get used to the 31st century. Caffeinated bacon? Baconated grapefruit? Admiral Crunch?”, Fry, Futurama. The clumsy yet beloved Futurama hero did have an extremely valid point this time. The latest product to come off a tiny Army research facility near Boston, where new food rations are developed and tasted tested, might turn him […]
Medtronics is a medical tech behemoth worth $15 billion. Among other cutting edge medical tech and R&D SciFi prototypes, the company is responsible for manufacturing a wide range of pacemakers, anti-seizure gadgets along with a number of surgery machinery. One of their most successful products in the last decade is a spinal implant that alleviates people […]
