Second language -- all in the head?
U.S. neuroscientists suggest that the differences in ability adults display in learning a second language is linked to structures in the brain... [more]
Source : UPI
Study links brain anatomy to the ability to learn a second language
Donepezil slows mental decline in Alzheimer's disease
Donepezil Puts the Brakes on Alzheimer's
Everyone dreads the possibility of contacting Alzheimer's. This incapacitating disease robs a person of his mind and of his memories. In the advanced stages it can be extremely difficult to treat. However, all is not lost. A new study has revealed that a drug approved to treat severe as well as moderate forms of Alzheimer's by the FDA in October 2006, may now also be suitable for patients with the more advanced stages of the ailment... [more]
Source : Earth Times
Left handed gene found
Gene for left-handedness is found
Scientists have discovered the first gene which appears to increase the odds of being left-handed. The Oxford University-led team believe carrying the gene may also slightly raise the risk of developing psychotic mental illness such as schizophrenia... [more]
Source : BBC
India : More and more parents are spending exorbitant amounts on children's birthday
India's Birthday Extravagance
For Parents in India, a Chance to Display Generosity, Affluence. Weddings have long been extravagant celebrations of a lifetime, costing families huge sums. But with prosperity growing in urban India, more and more parents are spending exorbitant amounts on children's birthday parties -- sometimes in excess of $4,000 a bash... [more]
Source : Washington Post
No sex, please, you're a carnivore
Carnivore sex off the menu
A new phenomenon in New Zealand is taking the idea of you are what you eat to the extreme. Vegansexuals are people who do not eat any meat or animal products, and who choose not to be sexually intimate with non-vegan partners whose bodies, they say, are made up of dead animals... [more]
Source : The Press
Russian Opposition: Journalist In Psychiatric Hospital
Russian dissident 'forcibly detained in mental hospital'
A Russian opposition activist has been forcibly detained in a psychiatric clinic near the Arctic city of Murmansk, the chess champion turned dissident Garry Kasparov said, the move was revenge by the authorities for an article in which the activist, Larisa Arap, 48, criticised practices in children's mental health wards... [more]
Source : Independent
Money appears in mailboxes in Japan
Mystery money in Japan appears in mailboxes
A mystery is gripping Japan over anonymous cash gifts that turn up out of the blue. Residents of a Tokyo apartment building are baffled about a total of 1.8 million yen ($A17,800) found in 18 mailboxes, the money was in identical plain envelopes, which were unsealed and carried no names or messages," a police spokesman said. Since June, dozens of city halls and other public buildings across the country have reported finding neatly packaged envelopes full of cash in men's toilets... [more]
Source : The Age
No way currently to prevent Alzheimer's disease but it may be possible to ward off vascular dementia
Heart disease tied to mental decline
People who take steps to maintain the health of their heart and blood vessels may be protecting their brains too, a new study from UK researchers suggests. Elderly people with cardiovascular disease showed sharper declines in cognitive function over a four-year period than their peers with healthy hearts... [more]
Source : Scientific American
The five-second rule, is it idiocy?
That Dropped Doughnut: How Soon, and How Often, Will It Come Back Up?
Last month, scientists at Clemson University in South Carolina determined that applying the five-second rule to dropped food will not actually prevent the food from gathering bacteria. The five-second rule. If you've never heard of it, ask any sixth-grader. "It means that if you drop something on the ground, you can still eat it if you pick it up in five seconds," says Kiara Hopkins, 11. "God made dirt and dirt don't hurt," elaborates Christopher Evans, 13. "But after five seconds, it's nasty."... [more]
Source : Washington Post
Magic pill to cut heart attack risk
Polypill, medics warn of superpill's threat
It's being hailed as the all-purpose cure for heart disease, but laziness and over-confidence about diet and fitness could turn the polypill into a killer. A surge in the numbers of people leading unhealthy lifestyles could be the unwanted result of offering all men over 50 and all women over 60 a pill to protect them against heart disease and stroke, doctors warned. While many experts welcomed the plan to increase the numbers taking the 'polypill' - a combination of cholestrol-lowering statin, aspirin and drugs to cut blood pressure - they warned it should not be viewed as a magic cure... [more]
Source : Guardian
Alternative Energy : Jatropha Oil
Poison plant could help to cure the planet
The jatropha bush seems an unlikely prize in the hunt for alternative energy, being an ugly, fast-growing and poisonous weed. Hitherto, its use to humanity has principally been as a remedy for constipation. Very soon, however, it may be powering your car. The hardy jatropha, resilient to pests and resistant to drought, produces seeds with up to 40 per cent oil content. When the seeds are crushed, the resulting jatropha oil can be burnt in a standard diesel car, while the residue can also be processed into biomass to power electricity plants... [more]
Source : Timesonline
Nashi the youth movement run by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin
Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp
Remember the mammoths, say the clean-cut organisers at the youth camp's mass wedding. "They became extinct because they did not have enough sex. That must not happen to Russia". Nashi's annual camp, 200 miles outside Moscow, is attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters and involves two weeks of lectures and physical fitness. Attendance is monitored via compulsory electronic badges and anyone who misses three events is expelled. So are drinkers; alcohol is banned. But sex is encouraged, and condoms are nowhere on sale... [more]
Source : Daily Mail
Cigarette smoking increases erectile dysfunction
Smoking linked to erectile dysfunction
Smoking increases the risk of erectile dysfunction, a U.S. report said. Epidemiologist Jiang He examined the association between cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction in a Chinese study involving 7,684 men ages of 35-74 who did not have vascular disease... [more]
Source : Earthtimes
UK Odd News: Shock as councillor reveals part-time sex job
The woman who is a stripogram, kissogram and a Lib Democrat councillor
When it comes to serving her constituents, Liberal Democrat councillor Myrna Bushell goes further than most. But her evening jobs as a stripper and sex chatline hostess take the definition of liberal way beyond the comfort of some of her colleagues.
The married 34-year-old is now at the centre of a bitter party split which has seen three of her fellow Liberal Democrat councillors resign from the party... [more]
Source : Thisislondon
The terrifying world behind the 'Brazilian California'
The Dark Side of Biofuels: Horror in the 'Brazilian California'
Brazil is staking its claim as a great emerging power thanks to the leadership it maintains in biofuel production. The price of this ambition is paid by the environment and by the cane cutters, who are the invisible characters in this story. "The people work and they give them a slip of paper to shop with in the supermarket. The people don't see money, just the bill of what they owe," confirms a worker from the same region, where seven of every 10 cane cutters did not finish primary school. Looking closer at the cane cutters' working conditions, a terrifying world appears—a world that should give people who are enthused by the idea of substituting fossil fuels with agrofuels something to think about... [more]
Source : Worldpress.org
German leaders have attacked French President Nicolas Sarkozy over nuclear reactor
Germans attack Libya nuclear deal
German leaders have attacked French President Nicolas Sarkozy over a deal to provide Libya with a nuclear reactor for desalinating sea water.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said "politically this business is problematic", adding: "German interests are directly affected"... [more]
Source : BBC
A double agent serving Russia in Spain
Spain claims arrest of double agent
Spain has arrested a former intelligence agent on suspicion of spying for another country, the head of Spanish intelligence said.
If true, the revelation could become another point of contention between Western Europe and the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which is already locked in a dispute with Britain over the poisoning death in London of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko... [more]
Source : The Sydney Morning Herald
500 year old Korean mummies provide clues to combat hepatitis B
Korean Mummies May Provide Clues To Combat Hepatitis B
Mummies that have recently been unearthed in South Korea may provide clues on how to combat hepatitis B, according to Prof. Mark Spigelman of the Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Spigelman known for his pioneering studies of ancient diseases (palaeoepidemiology) found on mummified bodies from Hungary to Sudan, in his quest to provide answers to the development of diseases affecting us today, such as tuberculosis, leishmania and influenza. The South Korean mummies are particularly well preserved, and could provide crucial information in the evolution of the hepatitis B virus... [more]
Source : Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Marijuana May Increase Psychosis Risk
Cannabis 'raises psychosis risk'
Smoking marijuana can raise your risk of developing a psychotic illness by 40 percent, British researchers say. "People who used cannabis had a greater risk of developing psychotic outcome then people who didn't use cannabis," said study author... [more]
Source : Washington Post
Cholesterol Linked to Air Pollution
UCLA Study Links Air Pollution to Clogged Arteries
Got high cholesterol? You might want to stay away from air pollution. That's the message of a new UCLA study linking diesel exhaust to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which significantly increases one's risk for heart attack and stroke. Published in the July 26 edition of the online journal Genome Biology, the findings are the first to explain how fine particles in air pollution conspire with artery-clogging fats to switch on the genes that cause blood vessel inflammation and lead to cardiovascular disease... [more]
France : Sarkozy and the circles of influence, wealth, and political power
Sarkozy's tight circle of media friends
Even under the hot lights of the French media's scrutiny, it sometimes seems that President Nicolas Sarkozy gets by with a little help from his friends. The concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few well-connected industrialists has been building for years. But the circles of influence, wealth, and political power have converged to an unusual degree in Mr. Sarkozy's France. This month, the country's richest man, who was also the best man at the president's wedding 11 years ago...[more]
Source : Csmonitor
America’s most influential institutional investors warns Shell over Iran
US pension funds urge Shell to abandon Iran
The call from influential American investors comes a day before the oil group is expected to report bumper profits. Some of America’s most influential institutional investors have written to Shell and other seven international energy companies warning they are becoming increasingly exposed by guarding their ties with the pariah state... [more]
Source : Timesonline
Moisture sensors used for the plants to call your cell phone when they needs a drink
Your plant just called to say 'I'm thirsty!'
Imagine answering your cell phone to hear your Scotch Moss plant telling you in a fake Glaswegian accent that it needs a drink. This scenario is not far from reality, as a group of postgraduate students at New York University is developing a way for over-watered or dry plants to phone for help... [more]
Source : ZDNet News
The FDA is considering how it should regulate products which contain nanoparticles
FDA: No Need to Flag All Nanotechnology
Food, drugs, medical devices and cosmetics that contain minuscule engineered particles don't necessarily need special labeling to alert consumers, a federal task force recommends... [more]
Source : Forbes
Israelis with German passport on the rise
Sharp rise in Israelis seeking German citizenship
Sharp rise in Israelis seeking German citizenship. More than 4,000 Israelis received German citizenship last year, marking 50 percent increase from 2005. ‘For me it is important that I can have a European passport; I have no problem being German,’ 30-year-old Israeli says... [more]
Source : Ynet
The Rats, the first mammals domesticated strictly for research purposes
Smart, curious, ticklish. rats?
Though rats have yet to produce an Albert Camus or design a better mouse trap, a host of new behavioral studies makes plain that the similarities between us and Rattus extend far beyond gross anatomy. They're surprisingly self-aware. They laugh when tickled, especially when they're young, and they have ticklish spots; tickle the nape of a rat pup's neck and it will squeal ultrasonically in a soundgram pattern like that of a human giggle. Rats dream as we dream, in epic narratives of navigation and thwarted efforts at escape: When scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tracked the neuronal activity of rats in REM sleep, the researchers saw the same firing patterns they had seen in wakeful rats wending their way through those notorious rat mazes... [more]
Source : IHT
Experimental Medication Kicks Depression in Hours Instead of Weeks
Experimental Medication Ketamine Relieves Depression In Just Hours
People with treatment-resistant depression experienced symptom relief in as little as two hours with a single intravenous dose of ketamine, a medication usually used in higher doses as an anesthetic in humans and animals, in a preliminary study. Current antidepressants routinely take eight weeks or more to exert their effect in treatment-resistant patients and four to six weeks in more responsive patients — a major drawback of these medications. Some participants in this study, who previously had tried an average of six medications without relief, continued to show benefits over the next seven days after just a single dose of the experimental treatment, according to researchers conducting the study at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health... [more]
Source : National Institute of Mental Health
Russian Explorers to Probe North Pole
Russian expedition sets sail to claim Arctic for the Kremlin
A Russian expedition in which two parliament members will explore the North Pole seabed in a mini-submarine set out from the northern port of Murmansk on Tuesday, an expedition organizer said. The unprecedented expedition is part of Russia's efforts to assert territorial claims well north of its Arctic coast in territory thought to contain significant oil, gas and other reserves... [more]
Source : Discovery News
[more]
Greenbox converts carbon emissions into biofuel
From Wales, a box to make biofuel from car fumes
The world's richest corporations and finest minds spend billions trying to solve the problem of carbon emissions, but three fishing buddies in North Wales believe they have cracked it. They have developed a box which they say can be fixed underneath a car in place of the exhaust to trap the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming -- including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide -- and emit mostly water vapour... [more]
Source : The Vancouver Sun
Survey: oil less popular than nuclear power in US
Americans Warming to Nuclear Power
Americans' icy attitudes toward nuclear power are beginning to thaw, according to a new survey from MIT. The report also found a U.S. public increasingly unhappy with oil and more willing to develop alternative energy sources like wind and solar. When people are asked how much more they would pay for their electricity to counteract global warming, the average answer is $10 more on their monthly electric bill. The amount needed would likely be closer to $25... [more]
Source : Massachusetts institute of technology
Culture Influences The Brain
Culture Influences Brain Cells: Brain's Mirror Neurons Swayed By Ethnicity And Culture
The brain's mirror neuron network responds differently depending on whether we are looking at someone who shares our culture, or someone who doesn't. In their study, the researchers wanted to investigate the imprint of culture on the so-called mirror neuron network. Mirror neurons fire when an individual performs an action, but they also fire when someone watches another individual perform that same action. Neuroscientists believe this "mirroring" is the neural mechanism by which we can read the minds of other people and empathize with them... [more]
Source : Science Daily
Photo exibition of unusual japanese ice cream
The Wackier World of Japanese Ice Cream
A photo collection of unusual japanese ice cream like Raw Horseflesh Ice Cream (Basashi Aisu), Shark Fin Noodle Ice Cream (Fukahire Ramen Aisu) or for the veggies Seaweed Ice Cream (Wakame Aisu)... [more]
Source : Mainichi Daily News
CHINESE POLLUTION OVER NORTH AMERICA ALTERING THE CLIMATE
Huge Dust Plumes From China Cause Changes in Climate
One tainted export from China can't be avoided in North America -- air. An outpouring of dust layered with man-made sulfates, smog, industrial fumes, carbon grit and nitrates is crossing the Pacific Ocean on prevailing winds from booming Asian economies in plumes so vast they alter the climate. These rivers of polluted air can be wider than the Amazon and deeper than the Grand Canyon... [more]
Source : Wsj
Senior communist party official admit web censorship is failing
Web censorship is failing, says Chinese official
A Government minister admits that trying to suppress information on the internet "is like walking into a dead end". The internet and mobile phones have undermined attempts by China’s secretive rulers to control the news, a senior Communist party official admitted... [more]
Source : Timesonline
Universal flu vaccine undergoes clinical testing
Universal flu vaccine now in human trials
A universal flu vaccine, developed by Ghent University and Flanders Institute for Biotechnology in Belgium, is undergoing its first round of clinical testing.The vaccine will be able to provide protection against all 'A' strains of the virus that causes human influenza, including the deadly pandemic strains... [more]
Source : Healthcare Digital
Sugar replacement Stevia classified in the US as an "unsafe food additive"
A healthy sugar replacement? Stevia
The plant, called stevia (Stevia rebaudiana), originates in South America, where it has been used for centuries as a sweetener and herbal remedy. It is said to have no lingering aftertaste and is already popular in Asia, having being used for decades in countries such as Japan... [more]
Source : New Scientist
Stevia ... [more] Source : Wikipedia
Physics: Can the Future Leak Into the Present?
Putting Time in A (Leaky) Bottle
Since experiments keep proving quantum ideas right, physicists are forced to take them seriously. It isn't easy. They have to admit that a particle can be in two places at once. They have to accept that subatomic systems can become so "entangled" that measuring one affects the other even if the two are light-years apart, which Einstein called "spooky action at a distance."... [more]
Source : Newsweek
Indonesian cinema threatened by censorship
Indonesia's 12 Categories of Kisses
Local filmmakers have to tread around a scissor-wielding government censor whose logic is sometimes hard to follow... [more]
Source : Time
How Anaesthetics Work In The Brain
Scientists A Step Closer To Understanding How Anaesthetics Work In The Brain
An important clue to how anaesthetics work on the human body has been provided by the discovery of a molecular feature common to both the human brain and the great pond snail nervous system, scientists say today. Researchers hope that the discovery of what makes a particular protein in the brain sensitive to anaesthetics could lead to the development of new anaesthetics with fewer side effects... [more]
Source : Imperial College London
Panama still wants the return of Manuel Noriega
Panama Seeking Noriega's Return, Despite France's Request
Panama says it still wants former dictator Manuel Noriega sent back to his native country after he is released from a U.S. prison in September.U.S. prosecutors filed a request on Tuesday to have Noriega extradited to France on behalf of the French government. Noriega was convicted in France in absentia in 1999 on drug trafficking and money laundering charges... [more]
Source :
Hurricanes on Mediterranean Sea?
Hurricanes Brewing in Mediterranean?
Climate change models tailored to investigate some strange storms in the Mediterranean suggest that global warming could lead to hurricanes forming in that sea. If so, countries around the Mediterranean could be in for the most violent weather in centuries. Most hurricanes form in the tropical Atlantic, rarely reaching Europe. But warming oceans could encourage them in the relatively landlocked Mediterranean... [more]
Source : Discovery News
The higher the education level of the wife, the happier the husband is
Survey: Men Happiest With Smart Wives
Men in search of true happiness should steer clear of bimbos and dumb blondes: research shows men are happiest if they marry smart women. In a paper to be presented at the HILDA Survey Research conference this week, he says "the higher the education level of the wife, the happier the husband is."... [more]
Source : The Sydney Morning Herald
OxyContin maker fined $635M for misleading public
Judge Fines OxyContin Maker and 3 Executives
Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and three of its executives were ordered Friday to pay a $634.5 million fine for misleading the public about the painkiller's addictive risks. U.S. District Judge James Jones levied the fine after a hearing that included statements by people who said their lives were changed forever by the addiction potential of OxyContin, a trade name for a long-acting form of the painkiller oxycodone... [more]
Source : Washington Post
DEMOCRATIC SPAIN : Cartoon of Crown Prince Banned
Spanish royal sex cartoon banned
Spain's High Court has ordered the seizure of all copies of a magazine that carried a cartoon of Crown Prince Felipe and his wife having sex. The cartoon on the front page of the weekly satirical magazine El Jueves depicted Prince Felipe saying sex was the closest he would come to working... [more]
Source : BBC
A life-size, robotic fly created
Robotic Insect Takes Off for the First Time
Researchers at Harvard have created a robotic fly that could one day be used for covert surveillance and detecting toxic chemicals... [more]
Source : Technology Review
Literary agents and publishers fail to recognise Jane Austen words
Jane Austen fan submits her work anonymously to publishers... and receives a dozen rejections
It is a truth universally acknowledged that many of us who claim to have read a classic novel are telling porkies. Or have simply watched the film version instead.This even applies, it seems, to literary agents and publishers. For when a budding author sent typed chapters of Jane Austen's novels to 18 of them, changing just the titles and characters' names, only one recognised her words... [more]
Source : Daily Mail
How the mind processes placebo effect
Brain region central to placebo effect identified
Sometimes a sugar pill can work just as well as an aspirin, a bit of neurological chicanery known as the placebo effect. New research strengthens the connection between the placebo effect and the anticipation of other types of rewards. Scans of a particular brain area show that people who experience more intense placebo effects also respond more strongly to the promise of monetary gain. MRI scans have shown that placebos can cause the levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine to shoot up in a small part of the forebrain called the nucleus accumbens... [more]
Source : ScienceNow
Researchers have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets
Researchers Develop Inexpensive, Easy Process To Produce Solar Panels
Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations. Developing organic solar cells from polymers, however, is a cheap and potentially simpler alternative... [more]
Source : New Jersey Institute of Technology
Ancient Megaflood Made Britain an Island
The megaflood that made Britain an island
A flood of biblical proportions cut the British Isles off from mainland Europe sometime between 450,000 and 200,000 years ago, according to a new study. At its peak, the flood would have discharged water at a rate of about 264 million gallons (a million cubic meters) a second, gushing at speeds of up to 62 miles (100 kilometers) an hour... [more]
Source : National Geographic
An Iranian Chernobyl Envisaged
Waiting for an Iranian Chernobyl
An Iranian-born nuclear safety scientist, warns that the biggest nuclear threat from Iran is not an attack, but an accident... [more]
Source : New Scientist
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
