Indulgence in a high-fat diet can not only lead to overweight because of excessive calorie intake, but also can affect the balance of circadian rhythms commonly known as the 24-hour biological clock. The biological clock regulates the expression and/or activity of enzymes and hormones involved in metabolism, and disturbance of the clock can lead to such phenomena as hormone imbalance, obesity, psychological and sleep disorders... [more]
Source : Hebrew University of Jerusalem
High-fat Diet: Disrupt The Balance Of Circadian Rhythms Our Biological Clock
New wireless technology femtocells boost cellphone reception
A new wireless technology called femtocells could finally mean the end of crummy cellphone coverage in your home or office. A femtocell is a toaster-size plastic box that plugs into a regular broadband Internet connection. Once plugged in, the device emits a wireless cellular signal that's big enough to cover most houses... [more]
Source : Dallas News
Bionic sex chip that stimulates pleasure for the brain developed
Researchers are focusing on the orbitofrontal cortex, which is associated with feelings of pleasure caused by eating and sex. The technology, which creates tiny shocks deep in the brain, has already been used to treat Parkinson's disease. The chip works by sending tiny shocks from implanted electrodes in the brain... [more] & [more]
Source : Daily Mail & Thenewspointer.blogdns.com
Robotics expert warns we must protect vulnerable from robots
Top robotics expert Professor Noel Sharkey, of the University of Sheffield, has called for international guidelines to be set for the ethical and safe application of robots before it is too late. Professor Sharkey, writing in the prestigious Science journal, believes that as the use of robots increases, decisions about their application will be left to the military, industry and busy parents instead of international legislative bodies... [more]
Source : University of Sheffield
Innowattech Piezoelectric roads that generates electricity
The scientists in Israel say that cars travelling along a mile length of asphalt could generate more than 640 kilowatts - enough power to run 12 small cars. As vehicles pass over a road, they squeeze tiny piezoelectric crystals that produce a small amount of energy. The piezoelectric effect converts mechanical strain into electrical current or voltage and the system is expected to scale up to 400 kilowatts from a 1-kilometre stretch of dual carriageway. The IPEG is a pioneering invention in the field of Parasitic Energy harvesting and generates energy from weight, motion, vibration and temperature changes and will certainly have other parasitic energy harvesting applications in many fields... [more] & [more] & [more]
Source : Gizmag & Daily Mail & Innowattech
Talent Scout Software To Find Out The Next Music Superstar
The program is claimed to be able to spot upcoming pop artists weeks or months before they hit the big time by watching people share music on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. But rather than spending its time listening to poor quality demos, the software tries to identify local spikes in interest in a particular artist, says Yuval Shavitt, a computer scientist at Tel Aviv University. Shavitt's predictions were based on information from a commercial service called Skyrider that tracks searches on the Gnutella peer-to-peer file sharing network. Because the network reveals the IP address of some users, Shavitt was able to track many of the search terms back to their geographical locations... [more] & [more] & [more]
Source : ABC News & Israel 21c & Telegraph
Obesity controlled by the brain genes associated with increased body mass
Seven new gene variants discovered by scientists suggest strongly that obesity is largely a mind problem. The findings suggest the brain plays the dominant role in controlling appetite, and that obesity cannot easily be blamed on metabolic flaws. This suggests that the brain's impact on appetite and eating behaviour may be more important that any genetic variation which alters the body's ability to lay down or burn up fat... [more] & [more]
Source : BBC & Thenewspointer.blogdns.com
Self-Healing Coatings Paint Additive Protect Cars, Bridges, And Ships From Corrosion
When a car's underbody or a ship's hull begins to corrode, it usually ends up junked. New protective coatings developed at the University of Illinois heal over their own scratches with no external intervention, protecting the underlying metal. The self-healing elements, enclosed in microcapsules that rip open when the coating is scratched, are compatible with a wide range of paints and protective coatings... [more]
Source : Technology Review
Sons or daughters? Boy or girl? It’s in the father's genes
A Newcastle University study involving thousands of families is helping prospective parents has shown that men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters... [more]
Source : Newcastle University
Yukiyasu Kamitani for the first time it is possible to visualise dreams directly from the brain
In a world first, a research group has succeeded in processing and displaying optically received images directly from the human brain. Yukiyasu Kamitani and Yoichi Miyawaki, NeuroInformatics Department, said about 100 million images can be read, adding that dreams as well as mental images are likely to be visualized in the future in the same manner. And even though they have only managed to reproduce simple images, they reckon they will eventually be used to figure out dreams and other secrets inside people's minds. By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams... [more] & [more] & [more]
Source : Thenewspointer.info & The Daily Yomiuri & The Sun
HD 189733b the hot Jupiter planet with water
Scientists say they have found evidence for water vapour in the atmosphere of a planet 63 light-years from Earth. The "hot Jupiter" planet's surface temperatures exceed 900C. The planet known as HD 189733b is classed as a hot Jupiter due to its fiery molten centre and heavily gaseous atmosphere, which mimics the atmosphere of Jupiter... [more] & [more]
Source : BBC & San Francisco Chronicle
Amphetamines A Cure For Cocaine Addiction?
Over the years, maintenance treatment with methadone and other synthetic opiates like buprenorphine has proved successful — more than any other heroin-addiction therapy — in getting people off illicit drugs and lowering HIV transmission rates, crime and death among users. That success, in part, has got researchers wondering whether addiction to other drugs — namely to the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine — could be curbed in the same way, by substituting a chemically similar alternative... [more]
Source : Time
Personal care products that contain harmful chemicals
The dirty dozen care products that might contain harmful chemicals
Deodorant, perfume, shaving cream, lip balm, lipstick, mascara, eye shadow, hair gel, mousse, hairspray, anti-aging serum, it all gets applied to your body, including all the chemicals within.
Eco-groups and environmental researchers have raised alarms about the cumulative health effects of many of the compounds found in personal-care products. While many industry experts say the products are safe, some scientists and others outside the industry disagree... [more]
Source : The Kansas City Star
Cold sore virus could be the the cause of 60 per cent of Alzheimer's cases
The virus HSV1 could offer hope to up to 60 per cent of Alzheimer's sufferers
The virus that causes cold sores may be one of the main causes of Alzheimer's disease, according to research that suggests that existing drugs could be used to treat the most comon form of dementia. Scientists have found new evidence that the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) could be in up to 60 per cent of Alzheimer's cases... [more]
Source : Daily Mail
Happiness is infectious and collective not just individual
Happiness is also a collective phenomenon
If you’re happy and you know it, thank your friends—and their friends. And while you’re at it, their friends’ friends. But if you’re sad, hold the blame. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego have found that “happiness” is not the result solely of a cloistered journey filled with individually tailored self-help techniques.
Happiness is also a collective phenomenon that spreads through social networks like an emotional contagion... [more]
Source : Harvard Medical School
New ways to manipulate the brain's plasticity making an old brain young
Neural plasticity how to rewire a brain?
New ways to manipulate neural plasticity--the brain's ability to rewire itself--could make adult brains as facile as young ones, at least in part. Drugs that target these mechanisms might eventually help treat neurological disorders as diverse as Alzheimer's, stroke, schizophrenia, and autism. But first scientists will need to figure out how to harness this rewiring capacity without damaging vital neural circuitry. Hensch and his collaborators have now found that basket-cell development is controlled by a protein called Otx2.
Overexpressing this protein can trigger a critical period of plasticity, while removing Otx2 halts it. While the findings are specific to the visual system, Hensch notes that different sensory systems also possess basket cells, and those might function the same way... [more]
Source : Technology Review
Source : Technology Review
Canadian Oil Sands environmental toll, new rules for waste
Far north of Canada through a web of transcontinental pipelines down to a network of refineries ringing the Chicago area, a new supply of precious oil has begun flowing into the gas tanks of more Americans, tapped from a source so vast it could one day furnish close to half of U.S. oil needs for 50 years or more. Few American consumers know as they routinely fill up their tanks is that this new petroleum bonanza, drawn from dense, tarry deposits known as oil sands, ranks as what environmentalists call the dirtiest oil on the planet. Extracting it causes widespread ecological damage—and could accelerate global warming. Alberta is set to introduce new regulations that will require oil sands companies to better manage their waste from oil sands mines, a move that will reduce the environmental footprint of new projects but would also increase their cost. To produce crude from the oil sands, companies must strip bitumen away from the grains of sand it comes mixed with. As the bitumen is extremely sticky, not all of it can be removed, and the remaining blend of sand, water, clay and bitumen - called tailings - is dumped in vast ponds, where the material settles and water can be recycled… [more]
Source : Chicago Tribune
Men of higher intelligence tend to produce better quality sperm
Intelligent 'have better sperm'
A team from the Institute of Psychiatry analysed data from former US soldiers who served during the Vietnam war era. They found that those who performed better on intelligence tests tended to have more and more mobile sperm... [more]
Source : BBC
FBI Copper Thefts Threaten US Critical Infrastructure
Criminal Groups Involved in Copper Thefts
Copper thieves are threatening US critical infrastructure by targeting electrical sub-stations, cellular towers, telephone land lines, railroads, water wells, construction sites, and vacant homes for lucrative profits. The theft of copper from these targets disrupts the flow of electricity, telecommunications, transportation, water supply, heating, and security and emergency services and presents a risk to both public safety and national security. Copper thieves are typically individuals or organized groups who operate independently or in loose association with each other and commit thefts in conjunction with fencing activities and the sale of contraband. Organized groups of drug addicts, gang members, and metal thieves are conducting large scale thefts from electric utilities, warehouses, foreclosed or vacant properties, and oil well sites for tens of thousands of dollars in illicit proceeds per month... [more]
Source : FBI
Giving off pheromones the smell of fear is real
How the smell of fear spreads panic
People can unconsciously detect whether someone is stressed or scared by smelling a chemical pheromone released in their sweat, according to researchers who have investigated the underarm secretions of petrified skydivers. The research was funded by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency – the Pentagon's military research wing – raising speculation that it is a first step to isolating the fear pheromone for use in warfare, perhaps to induce terror in enemy troops. But DARPA denied that it had any military plans for fear pheromones or plans to fund further research into the field... [more]
Source : Guardian
Why We Remember Important Things And Forget Irrelevant Details?
Neuron's Synapses Remodel Themselves
Where would we be without our ability to remember important information or, for that matter, to forget irrelevant details? Thanks to the flexibility of the nerve cell's communication units, called synapses, we are good at both. Up to now, only the receiving side of a synapse was believed to play an active role in this reorganization of the brain, which is thought to underlie our ability to learn but also to forget... [more]
Source : Science Daily
3DTV could be a reality by 2018 with holographic images floating in mid air
Starwars style holographic 3DTV
The ultimate 3D experience, using fully interactive floating holographic images - similar to that which is seen when Princess Leia appears in front of Luke Skywalker as a hologram in Star Wars - could be on the market by 2018. It's likely that within three years we will see a TV on the market which will use autostereo systems to create 3D images, so that viewers do not need to wear traditional 3D glasses. However, in ten years time it is highly probable that TV using holographic images which would appear to float as if in mid air will be available for consumers to purchase... [more]
Source : University of Aberdeen
How Daily News Stole Empire State Building In 90 Minutes
It took 90 minutes for Daily News to 'steal' the Empire State Building. In one of the biggest heists in American history, the Daily News "stole" the $2 billion Empire State Building. The News swiped the 102-story Art Deco skyscraper by drawing up a batch of bogus documents, making a fake notary stamp and filing paperwork with the city to transfer the deed to the property... [more]
Source : Daily News
UK Telephone lie detector catches benefit cheats
Lie detector technology which monitors callers to catch benefit cheats
Telephone lie detector technology could be used to trap benefit cheats by identifying subtle changes in their voices. People who phone to claim housing and council tax benefits have their voices monitored by the high-tech software, which indicates if they are giving false details. Callers are initially asked basic questions, such as their name and address, so the software becomes used to the pitch and tone of their voice... [more]
Source : Daily Mail
To help prevent cognitive decline exercise builds small blood vessels in the brain
Exercise to prevent cognitive decline
People who engaged in long-term, regular exercise had substantially more small blood vessels in their brains and more blood flow than people who performed little exercise over the years, now researchers think they know one reason why... [more]
Source : Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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