Nanotubes for treating brain tumors

A Shocking Experiment Video for Heavy Smokers

This video clip shows what you will get after smoking 400 cigarettes on your lungs.

Seeing is believing! 7200 mgr of black toxic chemical called tar. It contains many deadly elements assuring to make you lung cancer in the long run.

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Blind to 'see' and 'touch' the images soon

A recently completed licensing agreement for two new technologies may help bring affordable graphic reading systems for the blind and visually impaired to market. The two systems bring electronic images to life in the same way that Braille makes words readable.

The Braille system, based on a method of communication originally developed by Charles Barbier for Napoleon's soldiers, was devised by Frenchman Louis Braille in 1821. Braille allows vision impaired people to read and write using characters made up of raised dots. The system has been used for almost two centuries but these new developments in technology could mark a significant change in the way the blind are able to “see” in that they incorporate images, rather than words and numbers.

The two new systems, a tactile graphic display device and fingertip graphic reader, were developed by researchers at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US. The tactile graphic display for localized sensory stimulation, was created using an array of about 100 small, very closely spaced (1/10 of a millimeter apart) actuator points set against a user’s fingertip. To “see” a computer graphic with this technology, a blind or visually impaired person moves the device-tipped finger across a surface like a computer mouse to scan an image in computer memory. The computer sends a signal to the display device and moves the actuators against the skin to “translate” the pattern, replicating the sensation of the finger moving over the pattern being displayed. With further development, the technology could possibly be used to make fingertip tactile graphics practical for virtual reality systems or give a detailed sense of touch to robotic control (teleoperation) and space suit gloves.

The second technology, introduced as a prototype in 2002, conveys scanned illustrations, map outlines or other graphical images to the fingertips, and can translate images displayed on Internet Web pages or in electronic books. It uses refreshable tactile graphic display technology, allowing a person to feel a succession of images on a reusable surface. The machine uses about 3,600 small pins that can be raised in any pattern, and then locked into place to hold the pattern for reading. The actuator points then can be withdrawn and reset in a new pattern, allowing the tactile reading to continue through a variety of images.

If you think the devices look familiar it’s because inspiration came from a “bed of nails” toy found in a novelty store. The toy allows the user to press their hand or face or an object onto the back of the nails and they raise up to create a picture of that object. Watching the pins in the toy depress under fingers and then return to their original state started the researchers thinking about how the principle could be applied to electronic signals. NIST recently signed a non-exclusive license for commercialization of its two tactile graphic display technologies with ELIA Life Technology which may soon see the two products become commercially available.

Source : Gizmag

Bad sleeping raises risk of heart diseases and sudden attacks.

Researchers say both too much and too little sleep is linked to a doubled risk of fatal cardiovascular disease. Teams from the University of Warwick and University College London examined sleep patterns and death rates among 10,308 civil servants.

They found a doubled risk among those who cut their sleeping from seven to five hours a night compared to those who stuck to seven hours a night.

But the risk was similar for those who increased to at least eight hours.

The research, to be presented to the British Sleep Society, was based on data taken in 1985-88 and on follow up information collected in 1992-93.

The researchers took into account other possible factors such age, sex, marital status, employment grade, smoking status and physical activity.

Once they had adjusted for those factors they were able to isolate the effect that changes in sleep patterns over five years had on mortality rates 11-17 years later.

Those who cut their sleeping from seven to five hours a night had twice the risk of a fatal cardiovascular problem of those who stuck to the recommended seven hours a night - and a 1.7 increased risk of death from all causes.

--Disturbed sleep common

Researcher Professor Francesco Cappuccio said: ""Fewer hours sleep and greater levels of sleep disturbance have become widespread in industrialized societies.

""This change, largely the result of sleep curtailment to create more time for leisure and shift-work, has meant that reports of fatigue, tiredness and excessive daytime sleepiness are more common than a few decades ago.

""Sleep represents the daily process of physiological restitution and recovery, and lack of sleep has far-reaching effects.""

Curiously, the researchers also found that those individuals who increased their sleep to eight hours or more a night were more than twice as likely to die as those who had not changed their habit.

Professor Cappuccio said lack of sleep had been linked to an increased risk of weight gain, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

However, he said the link between too much sleep and poor health was less clear, although he suggested that staying in bed for prolonged periods could be a sign of depression, or, in some cases, cancer-related fatigue.

""Our findings indicate that consistently sleeping around seven hours per night is optimal for health and a sustained reduction may predispose to ill-health.""

--Individual need

Dr. Neil Stanley, a sleep expert from Norwich and Norfolk University Hospital, said while public health messages focused on diet and exercise, people were given very little information about the need to get proper amounts of sleep.

""This study is yet more evidence of the importance of getting sleep, and the right amount of sleep for you,"" he said.

""Sleep need is like height or shoe size: we all have an individual one, and we sleep less or more then there are consequences to pay.""

(Source: BBC)

Scientists Identify Height Gene

A team of scientists from Britain and the U.S. are on a high today as they have identified the first gene directly linked to a persons height, according to media reports Monday.

Examining DNA from 35,000 people, the researchers found that just one single letter in the human genetic code is likely responsible for making someone short, or tall, researchers said.

Scientists believe that inheriting a form of the gene HMGA2 that also carries the letter C in the genetic code instead of T will add a quarter of an inch in height. Two copies of the gene can result in a height increase of 2 inches.

One of the study’s lead authors, Dr Tim Frayling of the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, said that everyone carries two copies of the HMGA2 gene and that about 25 per cent of white Europeans will carry both versions of the “tall” gene and another 25 per cent will carry both versions of the “short” gene.

He said: “Height is a typical ‘polygenic’ trait. In other words many genes contribute towards making us taller or shorter. Clearly our results do not explain why one person will be 6ft 5ins and another only 4ft 10ins. This is just the first of many – possibly as many as several hundred – that will be found. Even though improved nutrition means that each generation is getting successively taller, variation in height within a population is almost entirely influenced by our genes.”

“Because height is a complex trait, involving a variety of genetic and non-genetic factors, it can teach us valuable lessons about the genetic framework of other complex traits such as diabetes, cancer and other common human diseases,” says JoelHirshhorn, a senior researcher on the study.

The study was carried out by scientists at Harvard University and Children’s Hospital Boston along with U.K. researchers at Oxford University and the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter.

Source : Ontario Now

Some office printers emit dangerous particles

A new study suggests that some printers emit dangerous particles that could make office workers sick.

Researchers at Queensland University of Technology in Australia found that 17 of the 62 printers they tested were "high particle emitters" that posed a threat to humans. They say 37 of the printers didn't emit any particles, but one gave off particles at the same rate as a burning cigarette.

"These printer particles are tiny like cigarette smoke particles and, when deep inside the lung, they do the same amount of damage. The health effects from inhaling ultra-fine particles depend on particle composition, but the results can range from respiratory irritation to more severe illness such as cardiovascular problems or cancer," Professor Lidia Morawska, the study's author, tells The Age.

Her research showed that particle levels were five times higher during working hours because of the emissions from printers. She says the printers were more likely to emit dangerous particles when the toner cartridge was new or the machines was being used to print detailed images.

"Printers should operate in environments where there is as much ventilation as possible and as far as possible from where people's desks are located." she tells tells Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

ABC Science has an extensive report on the findings.

Source : USA Today

Can Hair Turn White from Fright?

For centuries there have been reports of people who suddenly have hair turn white from fright or from tremendously stressful circumstances. According to many accounts, Marie Antoinette had her hair turn white the night before she was executed. Although this makes for a more dramatic story, evidence suggests Marie Antoinette's hair turned white far prior to this, and the process was not sudden.

The trouble with all accounts of people suddenly experiencing their hair turn white is that it’s not possible. White or gray hair begins at the hair shaft, so hair on your head is already dead material. It can’t suddenly change color, unless you visit a local beauty salon. Newly white hair must grow from the roots out, at the rate of typical hair growth, making the overnight process of having one’s hair turn white from fright an unlikely scenario.

Still, there are many who insist that people have had their hair turn white in an overnight situation of extreme stress. It is possible for it to appear as though a person suddenly woke up with white hair. This process requires that the person already have large amounts of white or gray hair before the change.

What can happen to hair in highly stressful circumstances is that some hair might fall out, in a condition called diffuse alopecia areata. This condition results in significant hair loss and occurs rapidly. In these instances, hair that is not colored could fall out, while a moiety of white hair or grey hair remains. This would give the appearance that one had their hair turn white overnight. In fact, what really occurred is someone lost a great deal of colored hair in a short period of time.

Alopecia areata tends not to occur overnight, but can occur suddenly. It tends to be linked to autoimmune disease where the cells in the body suddenly view the hair cells as foreign matter and attack them.

The result can be patches of baldness on the head, and in worst cases, all over the body. Normally alopecia areata is treated with medications like prednisone, which allows the body to shut down its immune response. Treatments with prednisone was unavailable until the 20th century, perhaps accounting for more "white overnight" stories earlier.

It’s unclear what triggers alopecia areata, but it can occur in men, women and children. In people with an abundance of gray hair, this could cause one to appear as though the hair had suddenly turned white. It would also result in patchy baldness, so the hair would appear thin. Other causes of sudden baldness include bad cases of ringworm, not terribly uncommon in previous centuries, or severe hyperthyroidism, which can cause sudden and significant hair loss.

Accounts of those who have their hair turn white suddenly are essentially urban legends. It’s more reasonable to say that if hair suddenly appeared white, it was due to significant loss of colored hair.

Source : JECS Health Journal

Growing Bone : Scientists Succeed in Lab

It was one of the first medical observations: that human bone is one of the few tissues that can regrow after injury. Hippocrates knew it and hoped that somehow that power could be harnessed for healing.

Now, 2,400 years later, reports from commercial and university laboratories suggest that scientists have finally begun to do just that -- to grow bones and cartilage virtually at will.

''This is exciting because we are mimicking the natural process of development,'' said Dr. A. Hari Reddi, a professor of biology and orthopedics at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore who has worked on bone growth for more than 30 years. ''We are following the same steps that occur in the first weeks after conception.''

The success is one of several in the new field of tissue engineering, the growing of spare parts for the human body. The new power to grow human tissues and organs is a result of years of basic research followed by rapid progress in molecular biology and genetic engineering. Among the tissues now successfully grown, at least in the laboratory, are skin, bone, cartilage, liver, kidney and teeth. This has been made possible through the identification of substances that control different types of tissue growth.

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