http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Technology-transfer/Technology-transfer-showcase/WTVM051449.htm
A robotic snake for surgery
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/24/huge-testicular-tumour-portrait?CMP=twt_gu
What do you do if you enhance a man's life by removing his giant testicular tumour? Why, you have a painting commissioned of course, with the tumour on your desk!
suze9 wrote:
Alicia D'amore wrote:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028136.500-do-early-gut-problems-set-the-brain-up-for-depression.html
Can a tummy ache really cause depression?
Interesting, when I eat something wheat based its not just the pain thats an issue but the low, lethargic mood I go into. It certainly affects more than just my gut and have noticed that my mum seems to be the same when she eats something that triggers her IBS..
There certainly seems to be something in it! Here's to further research and improved treatments!
Adx
http://www.humanism.org.uk/campaigns/what-you-can-do-to-help/Homeopathy
With NHS funding to research on the decline, can we really justify giving yet more public money to research into homeopathy which has already been solidly proven to be ineffective. It has been proven to be less effective in placebo - that needs to be the end of it. Homeopaths need to provide their own funding, not expect public funding in the current climate. Please email your MP to prevent NHS funding to the research into homeopathic "medicine".
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028122.400-the-grand-delusion-egotist-moi.html?
We think we're better than we really are - apart from when it comes to attractiveness when we just don't have a clue!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/harold-camping-says-may-21-2011-was-invisible-judgment-day-world-will-end-october-21-2011/2011/05/23/AFZmc99G_blog.html
Oooh, ok, it was a "spiritual" second coming...
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/05/moody-men-more-attractive-than.html
I find smiley men the most attractive - apparently I'm in the minority!
http://poddelusion.co.uk/blog/2011/03/08/a-tribute-to-douglas-adams/
It's towel day - a tribute to Douglas Adams.
http://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/2011/05/time-necessarily-deeply-rooted-brains/
Time really is a social construct.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/26/how-important-is-gender?CMP=twt_fd
How important is gender? A two sided article.
http://www.nature.com/news/specials/vaccines/index.html?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews
A specials section in Nature on vaccination. A must read.
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110525/full/news.2011.319.html?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+yahoo%2FqUaz+%28Nature+news%29&utm_content=Twitter
Drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier may improve treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/05/25/science-echolocation-blind.html
Some blind people still use the seeing part of their brain to get around
Reading the Grand Delusion article in New Scientist. Utterly amazing. So far have read that because the retina transmits no information during saccades ( rapid involuntary eye movements ) we don't see the world as it is for 4 hours a day. So for 4 hours in a day our brains are just winging it and filling in the blanks! Also because of the transmission delay in the optic nerve what we see is not what is what's happening at that exact moment but the brains best guess of what's occurring 200 milliseconds in the future.
Or as the BBC would probably put it ' everyone on earth is psychic!! '
Makes you realise why we can't all just get along as we really do not see the world as it is but as our brains want/think it should be!
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/nasa-art-remembers-50-years-of-space-exploration
NASA art
BigPoppa wrote:
Reading the Grand Delusion article in New Scientist. Utterly amazing. So far have read that because the retina transmits no information during saccades ( rapid involuntary eye movements ) we don't see the world as it is for 4 hours a day. So for 4 hours in a day our brains are just winging it and filling in the blanks! Also because of the transmission delay in the optic nerve what we see is not what is what's happening at that exact moment but the brains best guess of what's occurring 200 milliseconds in the future.
Or as the BBC would probably put it ' everyone on earth is psychic!! '
Makes you realise why we can't all just get along as we really do not see the world as it is but as our brains want/think it should be!
This is why it baffles me when people claim they've seen a ghost like it can be the only thing - our brain is quite remarkable, see a shape or substance that doesn't make sense and your brain will attempt to make sense of it, a black shadow in the corner of your eye becomes a man following you, an eerie light when half asleep becomes a glowing angel...
Adx
http://blogs.plos.org/thepanicvirus/2011/05/25/the-financial-implications-of-the-us-measles-outbreaks/
A sad truth about measles...
And this is exactly what maddens and upsets me:
* Eighty-nine percent of all reported cases have been in people who’ve been unvaccinated. Almost 20 percent of that figure is made up of children who were less than a year old. That means they were too young to have received the first dose of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is given once between the ages of twelve and fifteen months and again when a child is between four and six years old. Another twenty percent of the total number of reported infections were in children between the ages of one and four.
The fact that we're losing heard immunity and therefore threatening the lives of infants too young to be protected. Despicable and Mr. Wakefield is still spreading his vile in the US.
Adx
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=new-bacteria-lives-on-caffeine-2011-05-24
Bacteria that lives on caffeine
Yep I'm glad the general medical council have give him a professional kicking.
I think that the patients should have the right to sue him and the media for senseless scaremongering.
Anyone reading this and thinking about MMR the answer is unequivocal no the vaccine does not cause autism. The number of cases of autism were steadily on the rise pre MMR and the rate didn't change after. In fact if memory serves it may have even dropped slightly. This based on huge studies involving very large numbers of people vs this guys messing about and then speculating.
To be fair the media are the most to blame in this though. There needs to be some regulation on the media in regard to health information say for instance not publishing speculation or endless articles about this cures cancer or that doesn't.
I say this as someone who has lost a dad to cancer and I wish he were still here but this crap does nothing but confuse, misdirect and give false hope.
The media is a big issue - science journalism no longer exists and even when it does (see Goldacre at the Guardian) the "good" stories (those that scare monger or tout miracle cures) are never given to the scientists...
However in the case of Wakefield - he did unethical testing (invasive tests in children, getting volunteers unethically) only tested on a tiny, tiny number of people and didn't declare his interests (he had money in the separated MMR vaccines) so his paper should never even been published let alone in the Lancet....he is a unique case and he is an absolutely despicable man.
But yes there are science media issues (and this is another thing covered in Bad Science!).
Adxx