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Fresh News Served Daily With Cafe MochaToday's Health, Science, Technology, Personal Finance News(please report bugs and errors: suzanne@liveinfospace.com)July 3 2008
Health has long been an area beset by superstition and spurious claims, and despite our medical advances, some common myths persist. By Johanna Leggatt In physicist Claudius Galen's day - around 130AD - illness was thought to be the excess of one of the four humours (yellow bile, black bile, phlegm and blood), which were treatable by bloodletting and purges.While medicine has come a long way since then, some common myths still abound. Where medical science has faltered or been less than decisive, we have stepped in to fill in the gaps of our knowledge as we seek ways of making sense of our bodies' mysterious workings. Drink plenty of water, avoid carbohydrates to lose weight and detoxify regularly are just some of the 21st-century health mantras that are often unquestioningly accepted. Here, telegraph.co.uk, addresses some of the most commonly held health axioms in a bid to sort the fact from the fiction. Health mantra: we must drink eight glasses of water a day Reality: This is one of the most popular and pervasive myths, and according to Telegraph columnist Dr James Le Fanu, it is also entirely untrue. "The myth comes from a holistic notion that you need that amount of water per day to flush all of the toxins out of the body," said Dr Le Fanu. In fact we need only need 750ml to one litre of water, per day. "Quite simply, if we exceed that amount, we will simply excrete it." Health mantra two: certain foods prevent cancer Reality: Despite many newspaper reports that a low-fat diet and plenty of exercise has the potential to prevent cancer, Dr Le Fanu says cancer is, and always will be, a question of age. "Cancer is an age-determined disease, which means your likelihood of getting it increases as you get older," Dr Le Fanu said. "That is overwhelmingly the determiner, rather than diet." Eating well and exercising will of course contribute to overall wellbeing, but it should not be viewed as the holy grail of cancer prevention. Health mantra three: antibiotics and alcohol don't mix Reality: One of the most prevalent misconceptions Dr Le Fanu comes across is that alcohol and antibiotics shouldn't be mixed. "I get asked this all the time and people are very relieved to find out that drinking alcohol while on antibiotics will not hinder their efficacy." The NHS, however, does recommend avoiding alcohol while on the drugs Metronidazole and Tinidazole, as it may cause flushing, headaches and vomiting. Health mantra: carbohydrates are to be avoided if you want to lose weight Reality: Not so. According to eatwell.gov.uk, the website of the Food Standards Agency, starchy foods only become fattening when actual fat, such as cream or margarine, is added to the meal. Gram for gram, starchy foods contain less than half the calories of fat. Starchy meals should ideally make up a third of the average diet, and the FSA advises using wholegrain varieties where possible, to ensure you receive additional nutrients and fibre. Health mantra: computers may be harmful to our health Reality: Sadly this is the case. According to independent health website, netdoctor.co.uk, the long-term repetitive use of computers can cause back muscle strain, RSI and eye-strain. The desk that employees use, as well as the chair and computer all have to meet certain ergonomic standards, so that you are able to sit comfortably and upright, and do not feel any eye or back strain. To minimize eye strain it is recommended that employees take regular breaks and look away from their screen every 20 minutes for 20 seconds. Screen filters and footstools may also prove helpful. Health mantra: shaving causes hair to grow back faster or coarser Reality: It's a rumour that is no doubt convenient for the hair-removal industry, but let's put it straight: shaving hair will in no way make it grow back thicker, or any faster. According to US researchers, who conducted a study last year on commonly held health myths, the illusion of thicker locks is created because the hair grows back blunt-ended without the fine tapered ends of unshaven hair. Furthermore, the sun naturally bleaches hair over time so hair that is newly emerged may seem darker but is, in fact, no darker than any other new hair growth. Health mantra: poor diet and hygiene cause acne Reality: This is a common one, and generally, most doctors agree that acne is the direct manifestation of the production of hormones, which explains why it is so prevalent in teenagers. As Dr Le Fanu points out, when treating acne, doctors turn not to dietary treatments, but very often prescription drugs. That is not to suggest, however, that in some people a vast improvement in diet won't have a noticeable impact on their skin. Health mantra: detoxifying the body is the ultimate path to wellbeing Reality: Detoxification has been hugely successful in the West in recent years - and expensive too - as men and women part with large sums of money for colonic treatments and embark on post-partying cleansing rituals. But according to Dr Simon Singh and Dr Edzard Ernst in their book, Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial, the human body is well equipped with organs that are marvelous at detoxifying what we put in our bodies. Gentle exercise and plenty of water are all that are needed to get the human body back on track after a period of over-indulgence. Anything else, they argue (colonics included), is likely to be a waste of time and money. Study suggests lack of "sunshine vitamin" dims health outlookThe old song says, "sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy." But perhaps it should add: "and keeps me healthy." More research is showing that vitamin D, which the skin produces when exposed to sunlight, may do more for the body than experts previously thought. And, according to a new study, a lack of it may be linked to a higher chance of dying early from heart problems and other causes. We've known for a long time that vitamin D helps our bodies absorb calcium, which our bones need to grow and stay strong. You can get vitamin D from foods and supplements, but the best source is your skin (hence the nickname "the sunshine vitamin"). In the new study, researchers tracked levels of vitamin D in more than 3,200 men and women for nearly eight years. All the people in the study were white and older (the average age was 62) and they'd had symptoms suggesting heart problems. At the end of the study, researchers found that those with low levels of vitamin D were more likely to have died, either from heart and circulation problems or other causes. In fact, 37 percent of the group with the lowest amount of one form of vitamin D had died, compared with 13 percent of the group with the highest amount. These are striking numbers, to be sure, but researchers caution that they can't be certain a lack of vitamin D contributed to their death. The study only shows that there might have been a link. Although the study is far from conclusive, it does add to growing evidence that the risks of low vitamin D go far beyond our bones. Studies have also found that a lack of vitamin D may increase the problems with the immune system, certain cancers, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and problems with the heart and circulation. And, unfortunately, many of us aren't getting enough of this vitamin, experts say. Up to 6 in 10 older people in North America and worldwide don't have enough of this nutrient. Studies show many younger people also have low amounts, which can lead to malformed bones in children. Experts aren't sure why vitamin D levels are low, but possible reasons include air pollution, which blocks some sunlight (this is called global dimming), and less time spent outdoors. What you need to know. It's hard to know how much vitamin D you're getting, as much of it may come from time spent in the sun. But many experts say as little as 10 minutes outdoors three or four times a week provides most people with what they need. Those who are older than age 60, have darker skin, are very overweight, or live in northern areas (where the sunlight is less intense) need more. Complicating matters, sunscreen blocks out rays that help the skin make this vitamin, even though wearing sunscreen is important to protect against skin cancer. Staying in the sun for a short while without sunscreen is likely to be safe, but it can be difficult to get the balance right. If your time outdoors is limited, make sure you get vitamin D from what you eat and drink. Vitamin D is plentiful in halibut, salmon, and other fish. Also milk, orange juice, and cereals often have this vitamin added. You can also take supplements. Talk to your doctor if you have questions about vitamin D and whether you're getting enough. And, now that summer is here, why not follow John Denver’s advice? —Sophie Ramsey, patient editor, BMJ Group ConsumerReportsHealth.org has partnered with The BMJ Group to monitor the latest medical research and assess the evidence to help you decide which news you should use. Read more on safe supplements (free) and check out our Natural Medicine Ratings (subscribers only) on vitamin D.
6 emergency-room survival tipsPatients now wait about 40 percent longer before receiving care in emergency
rooms than they did in 1997.
And nearly a quarter of heart-attack patients wait at least 50 minutes before
seeing a doctor. Some of the delays stem from fewer emergency rooms as hospitals close or consolidate and more uninsured patients resort to E.R.s for basic care. Here’s how to make your trip to an E.R. go more smoothly. Recognize real emergencies. Get to an E.R. fast if you have severe blood loss or physical trauma, including a possible broken limb, or if you experience sudden chest pain, difficulty breathing, the inability to use a limb, vision loss, or an "explosive" headache. Don’t go if you don’t have to. Conditions that don’t warrant emergency care include mild respiratory infections, minor aches and sprains, scrapes and bruises, and prescription refills. If your doctor isn’t available, go to an urgent- or immediate-care center. Don’t drive yourself. Dial 911 for an ambulance. You can ask to be taken to a hospital of your choice. But for true emergencies it's generally best to let the paramedics take you to the nearest E.R. that is accepting patients. You can transfer to a different facility later. Bring the essentials. That includes a card listing your illnesses, medications, and allergies. If possible, have someone come with you in the ambulance or meet you in the E.R. to provide vital medical information and act as your advocate. Guard against infection. Try not to sit near people who are sneezing or coughing, and avoid handling reading material or other items in the waiting area. Follow up. Before you leave the E.R., get your diagnosis, follow-up instructions, and the names of the doctors who treated you. Within a week, ask the hospital for a copy of the emergency-room report and your lab results. Also ask for an itemized bill, and check for any discrepancies. This article first appeared in the July 2008 issue of Consumer Reports on Health.
Doctors extract cancer cells from blood sample Last Updated: 2008-07-03 9:03:00 -0400 (Reuters Health) BOSTON (Reuters) - An experimental process that snags lung cancer cells from a blood sample could give doctors real-time feedback on the most effective therapy, researchers reported on Wednesday. Dr. Daniel Haber of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School and colleagues were able to extract blood-borne cancer cells from 27 volunteers with non-small-cell lung cancer that had spread. They found that changes in the number of circulating cancer cells correlated with the effectiveness of a patient's treatment and were also able to track genetic changes in the tumor cells over time. The study, reported on the Web site of the New England Journal of Medicine, is another step in the quest for individualized medicine, where doctors strive to quickly assess a tumor, choose the most effective treatment, and alter that treatment as cancer cells adapt. In December, the same group reported in Nature that their circulating tumor cells, or CTC, chip could extract malignant cells from people with breast, prostate, pancreatic and colorectal cancers, as well as lung tumors. Now they say they have used the collected cells to identify specific mutations, which may someday help guide therapy. "Right now you take your best guess as to what kind of treatment would work for a patient's cancer, give it to them for two or three months, and then repeat a CAT scan to see if it worked," Haber said in a telephone interview. CONTINUOUS MONITORING "If there were a way of measuring an earlier response, that would be fantastic," he added. "The CTC chip offers the promise of non-invasive continuous monitoring." Doctors have many choices of drugs to treat lung cancer, the world's leading cancer killer, taking the lives of 1.2 million people a year -- 166,000 in the United States alone. Yet only 15 percent of patients live five years or more. "Treating patients with drugs specific to their particular tumor is likely to yield increased response rates, prolonged survival, and a decrease in the number of patients who are exposed to toxic drugs unnecessarily," Dr. Joan Schiller of the Lung Cancer Alliance wrote in a commentary. Schiller, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said there are practical questions about whether enough cells can be extracted to make the technique effective and whether it will work for other types of tumors. Haber said he believes it will. The CTC chip, licensed to the privately held CellPoint Diagnostics in Mountain View, California, is 100 times more sensitive than a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved technique that uses magnetic beads to try to extract cancer cells, according to Haber. The test requires a 10 milliliter blood sample -- just two teaspoons. It takes about eight hours to send the blood across the 80,000 tiny columns so specially designed antibody glue can latch onto passing cancer cells. Haber said his team is trying to further automate the process to make it faster. "If the cells are alive on the chip, which they are, and if you have a new 'smart' drug that's supposed to attack a particular protein, you can test in the cell if the protein is being attached by the drug," he said. Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. Diets high in saturated fat may increase the risk of prostate cancer progression, researchers from the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston report.In a follow up study of men who had their cancerous prostates removed, researchers found that men who consumed higher amounts of saturated fat -- mostly from steaks, burgers, cheese, ice cream, salad dressings, and mayonnaise -- were nearly two times more likely to experience disease progression after surgery than men with lower saturated fat intake. "Diet before surgery, especially saturated fat, may modulate patient outcome after surgery," Dr. Sara S. Strom, who was involved in the study, told Reuters Health. Strom and colleagues also found significantly shorter "disease-free" survival times among obese men who ate high amounts of saturated fat compared with non-obese men consuming diets low in saturated fat. These results expand upon the team's previous finding linking obesity with prostate cancer progression "and suggest that saturated fat intake plays a role in prostate cancer progression," the researchers note in the International Journal of Cancer. Strom's group used standard food questionnaires to assess the saturated fat intake of 390 men during the year before surgery for localized, or "organ-confined" prostate cancer. The researchers also assessed the men's medical and family history for other risk factors for disease progression. The men, all Caucasian, were about 60 years old on average and consumed between 600 and 5,000 calories daily. Overall, 293 men averaged 10 percent of their daily energy from saturated fat (low intake) while 97 men averaged 14 percent (high intake). Obese men with a high saturated fat intake had the shortest survival time free of prostate cancer (19 months), while non-obese men with low intake survived the longest time free of the disease (46 months). Non-obese men with high intake and obese men with low intake had "disease-free" survival of 29 and 42 months, respectively, the researchers report. Additional investigations looking at associations between post-surgery dietary changes and disease progression would be worthwhile, Strom suggests. SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, June 1, 2008 Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. Tumor-starving pill helps thyroid cancer: study Last Updated: 2008-07-03 9:02:44 -0400 (Reuters Health) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amgen's once-a-day pill to starve tumors can help many patients with hard-to-treat thyroid cancer, either by shrinking tumors or slowing their growth, researchers reported on Wednesday. And they found a marker -- a genetic clue -- that showed which patients were the most likely to be helped. This could offer a step to more tailored treatments, the researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. They said 49 percent of patients with advanced thyroid cancer responded to the pill, known as AMG 706 or motesanib diphosphate. Of these, 14 percent saw their tumors shrink, and tumors did not grow for more than 24 weeks among 35 percent. On average, patients gained 40 weeks during which their cancer did not worsen. Genetic analyses of 25 patients indicated that those with a specific mutation known as BRAF V600E in their tumors had a better response to motesanib. "Finding that patients whose tumors bear a particular mutation were more likely to respond to the drug is an example of where we would like to head in our research," said Dr. Steven Sherman of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who helped lead the study. "This is the first of the various thyroid cancer trials to identify specific mutations that might allow us to individualize or personalize therapy." The researchers started with 93 patients, of whom 32 completed the full 48 weeks of treatment in the Phase 2 clinical trial. Thirty-five patients stopped because their cancer worsened, five died, and 12 pulled out because of adverse events, which included diarrhea, stroke and dangerously low calcium levels. Sherman said the drug, which is also being tested against breast and lung cancer, may be worth the side-effects for people with thyroid cancer who have few other choices. "Most patients are not treated with systemic chemotherapy because the limited benefit rarely justifies the side effects. Treatment of thyroid cancer has been a completely unmet need," he said. In February, Amgen agreed to sell the rights for motesanib to Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. The companies would split any profit 50-50 outside Japan. More than 37,000 new cases of thyroid cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2008, according to the American Cancer Society, with 1,500 deaths. Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. Autism And Lyme Disease Are Connected, Lyme-Induced Autism Study FindsLyme disease may play a role in causing autism according to a recent study published in Medical Hypothesis, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.A team of five physicians led by Robert Bransfield, M.D., analyzed the two diseases and discovered a connection based on epidemiological findings, symptom similarities, case reports, and laboratory test results. The Lyme-Induced Autism (LIA) Foundation has paved the way for studies such as this one. Led by Tami Duncan, herself the mother of an autistic child, the LIA Foundation was established in 2006 by a group of parents who suspected the connection but recognized the need for scientific research. Collaboration on the Medical Hypothesis study began during one of the LIA Foundation national conferences, which have attracted top physicians from around the country. Charles Ray Jones, M.D., considered the nation's leading pediatric Lyme specialist, was one of nine presenters at a recent LIA Foundation conference held on April 12, 2008 in Fort Lee, New Jersey. "I've treated over 10,000 children with Lyme disease," Jones said during his presentation. "A good many of the children, we've found, have had autism-spectrum disorder." Warren Levin, M.D., was also present at the New Jersey conference. He described the case of "a terribly ill autistic kid...who tested positive for Lyme disease." Subsequent to that case, Dr. Levin "started screening all autistic patients...and nine in a row tested positive for Lyme disease." The LIA Foundation hosted their most recent conference on June 27-29, 2008 in Indian Wells, California. To educate the public about the Lyme-autism connection, LIA Foundation president and co-founder Tami Duncan recently co-authored a book on the topic with author Bryan Rosner. Rosner has written three books on Lyme disease. "Lyme disease is not the only causative factor in autism," Rosner says. "We know that many other environmental and genetic triggers are involved. However, Lyme disease is the fastest spreading infectious disease in the United States, with an estimated 200,000 new cases per year. Autism cases are also exploding. If Lyme disease can contribute to the onset of autism, then we are onto something big here." In their book, Duncan and Rosner describe a correlation between the geographic incidences of the two diseases. "The ten states with the highest incidence of Lyme disease are the same states with the highest incidence of autism," Duncan says. "Research also suggests that Lyme disease can be congenitally transferred from mother to child during pregnancy, even if the mother is unaware that she is infected," Duncan continues. "This can account for the early onset of Lyme-induced autism in young children." Duncan and Rosner do not believe that the Lyme-autism connection hypothesis is new. Their book states that parents, caretakers, and researchers have long suspected the link. But the recent conferences and peer-reviewed studies are important because they attract the attention of the medical community, which can lead to life-saving research. "New medical truths do not have significant impact until they are packaged and presented according to accepted guidelines," Rosner says. "The connection is not new, but it is finally receiving proper attention." To learn more, visit the LIA Foundation website at http://www.liafoundation.org. Rosner and Duncan's book, "The Lyme-Autism Connection," can be ordered from http://www.lymebook.com/lyme-autism-connectionor http://www.amazon.com. The publisher is BioMed Publishing Group, South Lake Tahoe, California, (530) 541-7200. Lyme-Induced Autism Foundation "Pacemaker For The Brain" Shows New PotentialDr. Douglas Anderson was among the earliest neurosurgeons in the nation to treat Parkinson's disease with a treatment called deep brain stimulation.Dr. Anderson has treated approximately 50 Parkinson's patients with the therapy, known as DBS. His first patient was a middle-aged woman who used a wheelchair due to her Parkinson's. Dr. Anderson implanted an electrode that delivered mild electrical signals deep in her brain. This stimulation reorganized her brain's electrical impulses. The treatment worked so well the patient was able to walk down the aisle as a bridesmaid at her friend's wedding. "DBS can quell or eliminate tremors," Dr. Anderson said. "It increases the percentage of time that a patient is functional. It also improves a patient's ability to move arms and legs in a more coordinated fashion. And there is a lessoning of bradykinesia." Anderson is a professor of neurological surgery at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Dr. Anderson also has used deep brain stimulation to treat patients for obsessive-compulsive disorder, body dysmorphic disorder and debilitating headaches. DBS has been called a "pacemaker for the brain." It is an approved treatment for Parkinson's patients who no longer benefit from drugs, or who experience unacceptable side effects. DBS is not a cure, and it does not stop the disease from progressing. But in the right patients, DBS can significantly improve symptoms, especially tremors. DBS also can reduce rigidity and dyskinesias. About 40,000 patients worldwide have undergone DBS. The cost of the device and surgery can total more than $50,000. Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers generally cover the treatment. Dr. Anderson said that although patients' response to treatment may vary, overall he is pleased with the results. "Patients are more mobile and can move more freely," he said. "Occasionally their medications can be reduced." DBS is among the treatments offered at Loyola University Health System's new Movement Disorders Clinic. In addition to Parkinson's disease, specialists at the clinic treat essential tremor, dystonia, Huntington's disease and tic disorders. "This treatment is an adjunct, not a substitute, for medications," cautions Dr. Anderson, who believes collaboration with neurologists is vital to the overall successful treatment plans for patients with movement disorders. With locations in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. and at Loyola's main campus in Maywood, Ill., the clinic offers easy access to patients in Chicago's western suburbs. Waiting times for first appointments are less than one month, said clinic director Ninith Kartha, MD, who is an assistant professor, Department of Neurology, at Stritch. Brain surgery for Parkinson's disease dates to the 1940s. Using electrodes, surgeons would heat tissue and destroy small parts of the brain responsible for abnormal movements. These surgeries produced moderate benefits, but at the risk of causing neurologic deficits or hemiballismus. In the 1980s, French neurosurgeon Alim-Louis Benabid, MD, discovered it was not necessary to destroy tissue; tremors instead could be stopped with electrical signals. His discovery lead to DBS, and in 1997, the Food and Drug Administration approved DBS for essential tremor and tremor in Parkinson's disease. In the procedure, the neurosurgeon drills one or two dime-size holes in the skull and inserts one or two electrodes about four inches into the brain. A connecting wire from the electrode runs under the skin to a battery implanted near the collarbone. Surgical risks include infection, hemorrhage and stroke. Adverse effects of electrical stimulation, which are reversible, include jolting sensation, numbness or tingling in the face or hand, dizziness, dyskinesia, muscle spasms, slurred speech, double vision and depression. A pivotal 2001 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that DBS significantly improved symptoms in Parkinson's patients who could not be further improved with medications. The clinical trial was conducted by the Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson's Disease Study Group, an international collaboration. Researchers performed a prospective, double-blind crossover study in 134 patients. Investigators compared scores on the motor portion of the United Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale when the device was randomly turned on or off. Three months after the procedure, stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus was associated with a median improvement in the motor score of 49 percent, compared to when the device was turned off. During the first six months, the percentage of time during the day patients had good mobility without involuntary movements increased from 27 percent to 74 percent. Similar improvements were seen with stimulation of the pars interna of the globus pallidus. Seven patients had intracranial hemorrhage, and the leads had to be removed from two patients because of infection. The FDA approved DBS for advanced Parkinson's disease motor symptoms in 2002 and for the humanitarian use of DBS for primary dystonia in 2003. DBS is being studied for several psychiatric conditions, including depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In 2003, Dr. Anderson and a colleague published a case report about DBS treatment on a 35-year-old obsessive-compulsive patient. The woman had received minimal benefit from antidepressants, cognitive therapy and electroconvulsive therapy. Before surgery, her behaviors included repeated urges to pull her hair out and checking her mailbox 20 times a day. She was unable to work and scored 34 of a possible 40 on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. Three months after surgery, her OCD score had dropped to 7. At 10 months, she was able to "return to the workforce and all compulsions had abated," Dr. Anderson wrote in the Journal of Neurosurgery. At the 2008 meeting of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Dr. Anderson presented case reports about two patients. One patient was treated for body dysmorphic disorder and the other was treated for debilitating headaches. Body dysmorphic disorder is excessive preoccupation with minor or imagined flaws in appearance. Dr. Anderson's patient was a 20-year-old man who obsessed on perceived flaws with his nose and other facial features. He had attempted suicide once, and described his life as a "living hell." Eight months after DBS surgery, the patient reported mild depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, but no symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder. "While this is a single case report with all the limitations inherent as such, the patient has reported steady psychological progress, the absence of body dysmorphic disorder symptoms, increased activity and energy -- confirmed by both family members and his psychiatrist," Dr. Anderson reported. The second patient was a 43-year-old woman who suffered paroxysmal hemicrania headaches around the orbit of her right eye. She would typically get 10 to 20 attacks per day, each lasting 2 to 20 minutes. The headaches did not respond to either medications or a nerve block. But as soon as the DBS device was turned on, the woman reported the pain went away. A year after surgery, she remained headache-free. Anderson said this was the first reported case of DBS for refractory chronic paroxysmal hemicranias. A limitation was the lack of neuroimaging during attacks. More study is needed to determine the potential of DBS for managing refractory headaches. The concept of psychosurgery still makes many people uneasy. It often brings to mind the inappropriate or indiscriminate use of frontal lobotomy, such as the operation depicted in the novel and 1975 movie One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest. But psychosurgery today is nothing like the Hollywood depiction." The benefits of DBS for intractable psychiatric conditions outweigh the risks," Dr. Anderson said. "The great advantage of DBS over earlier surgical treatments is that it's reversible," Dr. Anderson said. "If there are side effects, we can turn the device off and reverse them." Loyola University Health System 2160 S. First Ave. Maywood, IL 60153 United States http://www.luhs.org Gene Directs Stem Cells To Build The HeartResearchers have shown that they can put mouse embryonic stem cells to work
building the heart, potentially moving medical science a significant step closer
to a new generation of heart disease treatments that use human stem
cells. Discovery Explains How Cold Sore Virus Hides During Inactive PhaseNow that Duke University Medical Center scientists have figured out how the virus that causes cold sores hides out, they may have a way to wake it up and kill it.Cold sores, painful, unsightly blemishes around the mouth, have so far evaded a cure or even prevention. They're known to be caused by the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1), which lies dormant in the trigeminal nerve of the face until triggered to reawaken by excessive sunlight, fever, or other stresses. "We have provided a molecular understanding of how HSV1 hides and then switches back and forth between the latent (hidden) and active phases," said Bryan Cullen, Duke professor of molecular genetics and microbiology. His group's findings, published in Nature, also provide a framework for studying other latent viruses, such as the chicken pox virus, which can return later in life as a case of shingles, and herpes simplex 2 virus, a genitally transmitted virus that also causes painful sores, Cullen said. Most of the time, HSV1 lives quietly for years, out of reach of any therapy we have against it. It does not replicate itself during this time and only produces one molecular product, called latency associated transcript RNA or LAT RNA. "It has always been a mystery what this product, LAT RNA, does," Cullen said. "Usually viral RNAs exist to make proteins that are of use to the virus, but this LAT RNA is extremely unstable and does not make any proteins." In studies of mice, the team showed that the LAT RNA is processed into smaller strands, called microRNAs, that block production of the proteins that make the virus turn on active replication. As long as the supply of microRNAs is sufficient, the virus stays dormant. After a larger stress, however, the virus starts making more messenger RNA than the supply of microRNAs can block, and protein manufacturing begins again. This tips the balance, and the virus ultimately makes proteins that begin active viral replication. The new supply of viruses then travels back down the trigeminal nerve, to the site of the initial infection at the mouth. A cold sore always erupts in the same place and is the source of viruses that might infect another person, either from direct contact, or sharing eating utensils or towels, Cullen said. The approach to curing this nuisance would be a combination therapy, Cullen said. "Inactive virus is completely untouchable by any treatment we have. Unless you activate the virus, you can't kill it," he said. Cullen and his team are testing a new drug designed to very precisely bind to the microRNAs that keep the virus dormant. If it works, the virus would become activated and start replicating. Once the virus is active, a patient would then take acyclovir, a drug that effectively kills replicating HSV1. "In principle, you could activate and then kill all of the virus in a patient," Cullen said. "This would completely cure a person, and you would never get another cold sore." He and the team are working with drug development companies in animal trials to begin to answer questions about how to deliver this drug most effectively. Co-authors included Jennifer Lin Umbach, Ph.D., and Heather W. Karnowski, B.S., of the Duke Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Center for Virology, and Martha F. Kramer, Igor Jurak, and Prof. Donald M. Coen of the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. This work was supported by two NIH grants. Source: Mary Jane Gore Duke University Medical Center View drug information on Acyclovir Capsules.
Potential New Drug Candidates To Combat 'Bird Flu' Identified By UC San Diego ResearchersAs the specter of a worldwide outbreak of avian or "bird flu" lingers, health officials recognize that new drugs are desperately needed since some strains of the virus already have developed resistance to the current roster of anti-flu remedies.Now, a team of UC San Diego scientists - with the help of resources at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), also at UC San Diego - have isolated more than two dozen promising and novel compounds from which new "designer drugs" might be developed to combat this disease. In some cases, the compounds appeared to be equal or stronger inhibitors than currently available anti-flu remedies. "If those resistant strains begin to propagate, then that's when we're going to be in trouble, because we don't have any anti-virals active against them," said Rommie Amaro, a postdoctoral fellow in chemistry at UC San Diego. "So, we should have something as a backup, and that's exactly why we're working on this." Avian flu has provoked considerable concern since humans have little or no immune protection against the virus. While flu vaccines are being developed, it could take up to nine months for an effective vaccine to be developed against any new strains, and could still be rendered ineffective if any new strains arise over that time. Should the virus gain the capacity to spread from person to person, the result could be a worldwide outbreak or pandemic. "In light of the urgency to find drugs to combat this virus, we're hopeful that our results will assist in that effort," said J. Andrew McCammon, holder of the Joseph Mayer Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at UC San Diego and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Also participating in this study were researchers from the National Biomedical Computation Resource (NBCR), part of the Center for Research on Biological Systems and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology at UC San Diego, including Lily S. Cheng, co-first author; Don Xu; Wilfred Li; and Peter W. Arzberger. The study, published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, builds on prior work that captured the nanosecond-by-nanosecond movements of a protein called neuraminidase 1 (or N1), needed by the avian flu virus to spread infection to new cells. To help reveal the often-spasmodic motion of proteins, scientists work with molecular dynamics codes that simulate their movements as they obey the fundamental laws of physics. Such is the complexity of the mathematical calculations needed for these simulations that scientists often require the use of supercomputers. In this case, the researchers ran their data through a molecular dynamics program called NAMD - developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - on supercomputers at SDSC and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Illinois. Some surprising details emerged as the scientists watched the protein gyrate and wiggle over time. In particular, one region - dubbed a "hot pocket" - appeared to be quite dynamic and flexible. Amaro said the topology of this region and the amino acids linking the pocket are significantly different from what the scientists previously observed in a static image of the protein's crystal structure. "Crystal structures are very important," she said. "They give us a real picture of the protein. But it's just one picture." Over the past decade or so, scientists have come to realize that the sometimes colorful structures gleaned from standard crystallography studies are limited. Instead of a still-life painting, proteins act more like a moving picture, constantly twitching and jiggling, making the goal of finding a specific inhibitor somewhat daunting. It's somewhat like a baseball pitcher attempting to throw strikes to a catcher who's doing handsprings behind home plate. Molecular dynamics simulations already have proved their value for other drug designs, said McCammon, one of the pioneers in the field. For example, the route to the development of raltegravir, an anti-integrase inhibitor recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to combat HIV, was discovered in McCammon's lab. "The treatment of receptor flexibility with molecular dynamics simulations played a critical role in understanding the mechanism of action for this new class of inhibitors," said McCammon, a professor of Pharmacology at UC San Diego. In their latest work, the scientists conducted a "virtual screen" of an ensemble of 1,883 compounds selected from the National Cancer Institute Diversity Set, using a computational tool called AutoDock that predicts how small molecules, such as drug candidates, bind to a receptor of a known three-dimensional structure. The goal was to try to determine which compounds fit best into the "hot pocket" region of N1. Generally, compounds that most easily bind to the site are considered to be top hits for validation and further optimization as drug candidates. Five other compounds known to experimentally bind to avian influenza N1 were also screened, including drugs now available or in clinical trials. The results were intriguing. About 27 compounds showed significant promise, all having potentially the same or stronger bonding affinity than current anti-flu drugs now available, including Tamiflu and Relenza. Several looked like particularly good candidates, Amaro said, since they bound to both the regular active site and an additional side pocket that opened during the computer simulation. "The general idea is that we will be able to make a better drug through the strategic targeting of multiple active site pockets," said Amaro. Added Cheng, former Pacific Rim Experience for Undergraduate student and NBCR researcher: "Importantly, half of these compounds would have been neglected based on the crystal structure simulations alone. Many of these drug leads would only have been found through the use of this computational method." The research now moves into the lab, where the compounds will undergo testing against the virus. Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., led by Dr. Ian Wilson, will lead this phase of the research. Funding for the research was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, and the National Institutes of Health, with additional support from the HHMI; SDSC; NCSA; Accelrys, Inc.; the W.M. Keck Foundation; NBCR; and the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics. A related video is available at http://video-jsoe.ucsd.edu/asx/LilyCheng.asx . Windows Media Player and a broadband connection are required. A downloadable version of the full paper as published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry is available here. Source: Warren R. Froelich University of California - San Diego View drug information on Relenza; Tamiflu capsule.
Cell therapy breakthrough could boost sperm count and give 1.5m men hope of
fatherhood
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Reuters - Volcanic activity has played a
central role in forging the surface of Mercury, scientists said
on Thursday based on data collected by a NASA spacecraft that
zoomed past the closest planet to the sun in January.
AP - When staffers at a Brooklyn hospital spotted a middle-aged woman lying face-down on a waiting room floor last month, it hardly seemed like cause for alarm.
AFP - A new kidney cancer vaccine failed in last-phase clinical trials to improve the odds of avoiding remission after tumour-removing surgery, according to a study released Friday.
Awww, how could anyone test experimental pharmaceuticals on that little face A few new technologies -- substitute tissues, for instance -- aim to take the rat out of the equation, or at least provide other, gentler options for experimenters. Here's a look at three of the best new hopes for rodents.
The Brits are murdering pigeons. Unable to prevent the pests from pooping on the stuffy spectators and sweater-vested tennis players at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (aka Wimbledon), officials have hired marksmen and instructed them to shoot to kill. Previous attempts to control the pigeons by releasing hawks were unsuccessful. PETA argues that shooting the birds is "cruel and illegal."
Specialists in infectious disease worry about drug resistance all the time. The most difficult challenge in the fight against bacterial infection is to stay out in front of the organisms before they develop resistance to medications. But what happens when the organism is us and the disease is high blood pressure
An increasing number of patients are failing to respond to blood pressure medications. It's what's known as resistant hypertensionblood pressure that remains elevated even after treatment with three or more different medications.
Much like cold fusion, nano-computing always seems ten years off. The years go by, technology advances, but the goal doesnt seem to get any closer. Last week, however, a team of Purdue University scientists reported overcoming a major hurdle in the path to creating a functional quantum computer.
If the passengers on that airplane felt their collective hearts stop for a moment, it wasn't due to the electric current from the lightning strike running through their bodies. In fact, airplanes getting struck by lightning is a fairly common occurrence -- more common than you might realize.
With global warming grabbing headlines, carbon-free nuclear power is gaining popularityand with it, concerns over what to do with the spent uranium fuel. The largest long-term burial project, Yucca Mountain, has stalled, and even though uraniums first trip through a reactor extracts only 5 percent of its energy, power plants in the U.S. dont reprocess fuel. This is mainly because the most common form of uranium, an ion called uranyl, is extremely difficult to extract from the spent fuel rods. But a new Pac-Man-like molecule could change that.
What makes a disease deadly in the twenty-first century Medicine has never been more advanced; our understanding of spread and infection, never more sophisticated. And yet, we may be poised for the largest and most devastating pandemic the human race has ever encountered.
Researchers have confirmed the unfortunate karaoke phenomenon whereupon terrible singers either do not know they sing poorlyor do, yet still hog the stage with little regard for the audiences ears or glassware.
Health risks for the 21st century worker keep getting weirder. Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that quantum dotsnanoparticles made of semiconducting crystals that emit light when stimulated at certain wavelengthscan penetrate skin through abrasions.
Since becoming the first state to ratify the Constitution, Delaware hasnt exactly retained its leader-of-the-pack status. But now, as every state scrambles to shore up its economic future by investing in alternative energy, Delaware may be the site of another triumphant first. This week, a local energy company announced that Delaware will be the first to invest in offshore wind power.
Whalers in Japan, Norway and Iceland claim that whales are eating fish that might otherwise provide food for humans. Killing whales means more fish for people to eatin fact, it's a matter of food security for developing countries, the argument goes.
This summer, for the first time in recorded history, there may be no ice on the North Pole. In a dramatic symptom of climate change, the thick frozen layer at the pole is likely to melt away entirely, turning the top of the world from sea ice to sea water.
Finally, some good news on the climate. Good, but hesitantly good, mind you. British scientists working in a remote area of the tropical Atlantic have discovered that ozone levels there were 50 percent lower than expected. The reason for the discrepancy is due to a process in which UV rays from the sun are the catalyst for a series of chemical reactions which end with the breakdown of ozone and methane.
Few would begrudge an environmental impact study in advance of new power plant construction, least of all proponents of alternative energy. But with the Bureau of Land Management's recent decision to put a freeze on any new solar projects on the land it oversees in order to study the potential environmental effects, those same proponents are now looking skeptically at the federal government.
Dear EarthTalk: What are the environmental pros and cons of corn-based plastic as an alternative to conventional petroleum-based plastic
Laura McInnes, Glasgow, Scotland
When the Weatherbird II cruised up the Potomac River and into the nation's capitol in March of last year, spirits were high. The freshly painted 115-foot research vessel was about to set sail for what would be the world's first for-profit effort to "fertilize" the ocean with iron, growing a vast forest of marine plant life that would pull the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The lap through Washington was an effort to drum up support for the voyage to the iron-deficient waters west of the Galpagos Islands.
Staying green may be a priority for most people, but offices rarely share that concern. If you find yourself buried daily in an avalanche of paper, printers, and chemical-laden supplies, fear not—help is here. Below, five Web services to green even the reddest of workplaces.
For 18 years you fought a nightly crusade for control of the television. Like a samurai with his sword, your father protected his remote during dinner, while seated on his porcelain pedestal and while snoring loud enough to wake the dead. An air horn wouldn't rouse him, but a mere footstep towards the volume setting was perceived as a sign of aggression. Yep, Dad's a pretty special guy. Yet you, like so many other sons across this great land, forgot about Fathers Day. And forgiveness comes at a cost. So what better sign of devotion than to purchase your pop that which you so brilliantly battled for throughout your childhooda remote.
Not just any remote, mind you. No, your father deserves more: the ultimate remote branded with four letters that mean so much to men and their television rituals: E S P N. Yes, for a mere $299 you can purchase you father the ESPN Ultimate Remote (currently only available on Amazon.com).
I recently got my first look at two very different games from Capcom that share one interesting trait your on-screen character will fly through the air with the greatest of ease (although not getting shot and landing without killing yourself prove pretty challenging).
DarkVoid was first to catch my eye.
For non-metrosexual men, theyre one of three pairs of shoes on the closet floor. Between the dusty brown loafers and Adidas cross-trainers lies a pair of flip-flops. In Providence theyre worn four months a year, in Florida everyday after work and in Californiafrom birth. Flops are an extension of mans feet, but could the pleasure of air running through ones toes be outweighed by long term complications
Bill Gates is taking over the Olympics. The supposedly retired CEO of Microsoft has taken his antitrust antics to new heights with the launch of NBC Olympics on the Go. Using a dedicated video player provided by TVTonic, users can specify their viewing preferences and events will download automatically when they're available. Commuters taking public transit can even watch saved video without an internet connection.
Chuck Cage sits down with editor Nicole Dyer and writer Cliff Kuang to get the inside scoop on the future of the environment. In this episode of Cocktail Party Science, the three tear open the eco-friendly green megalopolis to learn more about the pod cars, maglevs, energy-generating sidewalks and more.
A 450 square foot shoebox apartment was once a valid exemption from owning fitness equipment (and merely one component of your preemptive exercise avoidance plan). But you soon may have one less excuse for that gut. The Otto-Bench, a concept created by Gabriel Prero, presents the first chink in your oversized armor. The aesthetically pleasing ottoman or coffee table, transforms seamlessly into a weight bench and houses all the required hardware needed to get buff.
Vladimir Putin has worn many hats, from KGB officer to judo master to Bond-villain like autocrat. Well, add a new persona to the list: environmentalist. Today Putin announced that he will be moving the site of the 2014 winter Olympics because of concerns construction for the event would cause ecological damage in the ski resort town of Sochi.
Sorry, vinyl aficionados, but CDs most accurately capture the clarity of musical performances. If you look at the grooves of a standard long-play record, or LP, through a microscope, youll see that each is filled with what look like rolling hills. These are, in fact, an extremely close replication of the shape of the sound waves from the musicians instrument. But because the needle that carves the groove is shaped slightly different than the needle that reads it, the LP will never sound exactly like the original performance.
Stroll by a strip mall arcade or the local Dave & Buster's, look behind the noisy kids playing Dance Dance Revolution, and you'll likely spot an air hockey table. Like Pac-Man and the maddening claw game, air hockey remains unchanged and everlasting. Two facts seem to endear us to the floating puck: 1) everyone thinks they're good at the game but 2) nobody knows for sure. Nowhere in the sports landscape are so many goals scored upon oneself. A 6-0 victory in one game is reversed in the next battle, thanks entirely to Lady Luck. But when you compete against the Air Hockey Bot 1000 (AHB-1000), a career once dictated by fickle fortune can finally be tested against formulaic consistency.
Fitting for a programmers conference, this Apple keynote focused on softwareand the announcement of a new iPhone felt almost like an afterthought. Nearly an hour of the keynote was dedicated to a parade of developers who had built iPhone programs using the software developers kit (SDK). But is it really as easy to write iPhone apps as Apple says it is
One of the bigger announcements at the Steve Job's keynote presentation today was the new App Storea native application on the iPhone that will allow users to purchase, download and install third-party software for their phones. It's the only place iPhone owners can get the software, and most of the keynote today was dedicated to highlighting programs already created using the software developers kit.
Although high-def camcorders shoot incredible detail, they are a far cry from Hollywood gear. But the Red Scarlet, due out later this year, will capture five-megapixel video frames, picking up more than twice the detail of high-def camcorders and rivaling the eight-megapixel flicks that A-list directors are starting to shoot.
When Google squelched rumors of the all-powerful G-phone last November, we admit we were a bit bummed. Instead of an inexpensive smartphone that would free us from our carrier overlords, Google had been working on softwarean open-source, mobile operating system called Android. Great name, but will unlocking cellphone code really change things for consumers
Miner says that more than 750,000 developers have downloaded the tool required to write an Android-based program, four times as many as accessed the iPhones tightly regulated kit. That means Android users could have far more mobile applications to choose from. But we still dont know how those apps will stack up next to Apples. Android-equipped phonesset to go on sale this summershould be less expensive than the iPhone, since manufacturers wont have to pay licensing fees for the software. But instead of getting free, ad-subsidized service, like Googles e-mail, youll still shell out to carriers. Which makes us wonder: Is this really so new, or just another offering in the crowded mobile market We spoke with Rich Miner, head of Googles mobile-platform division, for some clarity.
While the MacBook Air showed how slim a laptop could be, the Voodoo Envy ($2,100; voodoopc.com) demonstrates how much can fit in that space. Using the same compact CPU as the Air, the carbon-fiber-clad Envy measures just 0.7 inch thicka tad thinner than the Mac at its thickest point. And it packs in more features, including a slot for high-speed cellular data cards, two USB ports, and an HDMI port for attaching to a high-def TV.
Photo printing just got faster and easier. Instead of waiting until you get home, you can use Polaroids pocket-sized PoGo to print on the spot. Using Zinks "zero-ink" technologypaper that contains layers of heat-activated color dye crystals a few microns thickPoGo eliminates the clunky ink cartridges of traditional printers. The deviceweighing just eight ounces and measuring 4.7 by 2.8 by 0.9 inchesgoes on sale July 6 for $150.
You dont have to fumble with a remote control to pause a video on Toshibas Qosmio G55-Q802. Simply hold your palm up in the universal stop sign.
The laptop reads this and other hand signals instantly using the Cell, the supercomputer chip best known for powering the PlayStation 3. An Intel CPU performs most of the tasks on the G55, but a special version of the Cell tackles complex video-manipulation jobs by breaking them into bite-size chunks and parceling them out to four processors on the chip.
Identity theft used to involve someone rifling through your garbage. But now more than half a million laptopsfull of tax returns and love lettersare stolen every year, estimates computer insurer Safeware. And even if your computer never leaves your sight, hackers can weasel into it over the Internet. Here are three technologies that will safeguard your digital data, whether it's on an office desktop or a stolen laptop.
Next-generation super-phones wont just be slimmer versions of todays devices; they will be entirely different machines. Chipmakers are reinventing every processor that powers your portable. From PS3-quality videogames to built-in cameras that can fill in for your current point-and-shoot, a chip for it is in the works. And thanks to shrinking transistors, the new phones wont be any larger or more power-hungry than todays ultrathin models. Below, we've pulled together the technologies being released in the next year and a half to build the smartest smartphone possible.
Although it's only one part of the answer, we have come another step closer to solving the question of how life originated. Two necessary molecular ingredients of DNA and RNA have been confirmed to have originated from outer space. They join the handful of amino acids we have discovered to have been delivered to Earth on the backs of asteroids and comets.
For as long as humans have looked to the night sky to divine meaning and a place in the universe, we have let our minds wander to thoughts of distant worlds populated by beings unlike ourselves. The ancient Greeks were the first Western thinkers to consider formally the possibility of an infinite universe housing an infinite number of civilizations.
NASA spent $420 million to send the Phoenix Lander to Mars last year. Festooned with state-of-the-art detection equipment, the rover's task was to scour the red surface in search of elusive Martian ice. And today, the NASA mission finally did uncover some extraterrestrial frost, and it did it with its simplest tool, a shovel.
When it launches in 2009, NASA's Kepler Mission will include the most sensitive detection system ever put into service for discovering exosolar planets. In the meantime, our toolkit on Earth is getting better with each passing year. Astronomers using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at La Silla Observatory in Chile have discovered three new rocky planets orbiting a single star, all within ten times the size of Earth.
Skin guns. Organ printers. Pig dust. Biochemist Alan Russell believes tools like these could one day be standard-issue for the battlefield medic. The skin gun would heal burns. The organ printer would replace badly wounded livers, kidneys, even hearts. And the pig dust
A couple of days ago, it was big news when ice was found on Mars. Now, an upcoming study in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta claims that the Martian environment was once wet enough to produce morning dew. This finding runs counter to the more widely accepted view that liquid water on Mars seeped up from the ground, rather than falling from the sky as precipitation.
At this moment, in the constellation Taurus, a planet is forming in the dust and debris surrounding the star HL Tau. The protoplanet, named HL Tau b, may be the youngest yet discovered.
Along with satellites and space stations, Earth is surrounded by tens of millions of pieces of floating space debris. Like any landfill, the trash is diverse, ranging from dead satellites to castaway rocket parts to flecks of paint. On average, over the past 40 years, one piece of space junk has fallen to Earth every day.
Now that the glitches caused by the Martian soil's clumpy consistency have been shaken out, the Phoenix Lander has been able to cook up a few samples to test the soil composition. The preliminary results are surprising even to the chemists at work on the project: the soil is alkaline, and much more so than anyone expected. The analysis has found trace amounts of magnesium, sodium, potassium, and other elements similar to those in the soil on Earth. On first pass, Martian dirt appears to be non-toxic and laden with the basic nutrients necessary to support life.
When Seagate originally developed the ST1 hard drive family of devices in 2004, they were remarkable little critters. Measuring just a bit larger than a conventional Compact Flash media card, the ST1 was a full-fledged 3600 rpm platter spinnin hard drive. Armed with a large 2MB cache buffer and an average seek time of 16 ms, the ST1 was stoked with Seagates RunOn (the heads are forced to stay on track) and G-Force Protection (the heads are removed from the platter during power down) technologies. Yet, the ST1 sported a Type II Compact Flash interface.
Clean up your lawn, fix that fence and more. Our friends at toolmonger.com round up the best tools of the week here.
It's all about flexibility on this week's Top Tools. A reciprocating saw that bends any way you could need, a screwdriver that gives you another hand and a work station you can take anywhere. Our friends at toolmonger.com round up the whole collection here.
World of wires got you down Clear the clutter with your very own fire-proof gadget charging station. Editor Mike Haney shows how a power drill and some tape can transform a bread box into a pint-size panic room just for chargers.
Twenty years ago, duck hunter Stan Hewitt built his first amphibious vehicle, a clunky 10-wheeled truck-boat hybrid that topped out at 10 mph on land and just 7 mph on water. Hewitt wanted to tackle the prime duck habitat of the Alaskan tundra, an area hard to access using regular vehicles, and needed to improve the crafts speed and maneuverability to handle the currents there.
If you ever see a large industrial metal fire (yes, they happen) on the news, you may be surprised at what the firefighters do to extinguish it: nothing. Several metals, including lithium, sodium and magnesium, can burn easily, and from time to time large amounts catch fire in factories. But even heaps of burning metal need not cause immediate panic. They dont blow up; instead they tend to build up ash that chokes off their oxygen supply, so they slowly burn out.
Not necessarily. Its hard to ignore MS Office, but you dont need to blow 400 bucks to get your work done. In fact, you dont need to install any programs at all. Sign up for the free Google Docs (documents.google.com) or Zoho (zoho.com), and you can do everything in a Web browser. The programs look similar to Word, Excel and PowerPoint and offer all the same features (save for a few lesser-used ones like certain spreadsheet formulas). Zoho even kicks in a few extra applets like a Wiki-building tool. Best of all, these applications let you access your files from any computer thats online.
If you dont have reliable Internet access or are more comfortable installing programs on your computer, theres no shortage of competition, either.
Sometimes, when youre trying to immerse yourself in a movie or television show on an iPods diminutive screen, you just need to go bigger. Heres how: Turn your Classic or Nano into a home theater with a simple, unpowered DIY projector.
Pain at the pump continues to reach new levels of misery every day. While most of us cant afford to trade our current gas guzzler for a more fuel economical model, it would be nice to adopt some new driving skills that will translate into greater fuel economy. But where do you start How do you know if your current jitney is a fuel sipper or a gas guzzler
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars today provided a peek at what its next luxury car will look like. Design sketches of the car known internally as RR4 hint at a model that is smaller and sleeker than the big-ticket Rolls-Royce Phantom. Car wonks say the RR4 will face off against the successful Continental from Volkswagen-owned Bentley, at a price of between $250,000 and $280,000, according to Edmunds Inside Line.
The tripod is a fine and stable construct for photography and navigation, but how well will it work for motorcycles We're not sure,
but one student at California's Art Center Pasadena is challenging singletrack motorcycles and typical three-wheelers with an anthropomorphic, Yamaha-branded three wheeler concept called the Deus Ex Machina.
The forward-looking personal conveyance is a mobile exoskeleton propelled by in-wheel electric motorsor, more succinctly, a trike you can wear.
The run-up to the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race is always a nail-biting enterprise for race teams. Naturally, techs are most concerned with assuring cars' ability to sustain the day-night race, which is the ultimate test for GT cars and sportscar prototypes that will wind through the Circuit of the Sarthe -- on a combination of racetrack and public roads -- in Le Mans, Sarthe, France. This year there's an added kink keeping teams up nights. It appears the gods of aerodynamics have been sending LeMans prototype-class racecars into the ether with a cosmic finger flick.
Sometimes car marketers really earn their shrimp cocktail. Saddled with an unfavorable Euros-to-dollars conversion, Volkswagen North America needed a sales hook to take the edge off the slight premium buyers would pay for its German-built 2009 Tiguan. The answer was to hail the new compact model as "The GTI of SUVs." That tagline implies the Tiguan packs the driving entertainment of the company's sports hatchback, with extra room for lawn chairs, soccer balls and a 72-pack of Mott's.
As the host of one of the oldest and most famous racing events in the world, Indiana has always been known for fast cars. For now, those cars are still stuck on the racetrack, but a new study in the journal Transportation Research Record claims the roads are no more dangerous when motorists drive at Andretti-like speeds, providing further data in support of an American autobahn.
British industrial designer James Dyson made a fortune turning a pedestrian household appliance into a fashion item for suburban strivers. Box-store shoppers recognize his bagless vacuum cleaner by that future-sexy, ultra-maneuverable yellow orb that stands in for wheels. Now, according to the UK's Daily Mail Dyson is turning his attention from closet to garage: his firm is reportedly developing an electric car.
Passenger-car gasoline in Italy costs the equivalent of around nine bucks a gallon. Formula One racing fuel goes for several euros more. And at a (full-speed) fuel consumption rate of between three and four miles per gallon, Ferrari's F1 cars can burn through heaps of Italian green during track testing. That's one reason the company, along with a few other F1-entrenched firms, are betting on the latest virtualization tech to help shave a few Euros off the high cost of testing.
Is Formula One racing out of step with an auto industry whose greatest innovations have been in the area of fuel economy
In April, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation proposed new CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards that would increase the average efficiency of passenger cars and light trucks by 4.5 percent per year from 2011 to 2015. A lot of people wondered why the federal government wasn't aiming higher.
A study has found that diet-sized snack portions encourage people to eat more," The Daily Telegraph reported. The newspaper said that researchers had warned that smaller sized packets...
Study shows womendementia link, is the headline on the Channel 4 News website today. Women are much more likely than men to be suffering from dementia when they reach...
AP - France will build a second new-generation nuclear reactor, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday, pledging a "new industrial revolution" in an era in which fossil fuels have grown too expensive.
AP - A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra but don't necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks all night long.
Reuters - They left as children and
teenagers, crossing the border between dry southern Sudan and
Ethiopia before being transported half a world away to the
green strangeness of Cuba's Isla de la Juventud.
Reuters - Many children may be carrying
the drug-resistant "superbug" MRSA in their nasal passages,
unbeknownst to anyone, research suggests. Investigators at
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, report that MRSA
"is widespread among children in our community."
Reuters - Two rival flu drugs, Tamiflu and
Relenza, work equally well to fight the symptoms of influenza
in children, Japanese researchers reported on Thursday.
Pesticides keep food edible and cheap. On the other hand they are, by definition, poisonous. Europe's legislators thus face a dilemma
WHAT is the difference between risk and hazard Quite a lot, it seems, if you make or use pesticides. Everybody hates them (dangerous, unnatural things). But everybody likes their benefits (cheap and unblemished food). Sensibly regulating their manufacture and use is thus a minefield--but one that Europe's politicians and bureaucrats are now attempting to cross without getting blown up.
The difference between hazard and risk, in this context, is that hazard is something you measure in a laboratory by finding out how much of a substance you need to kill or injure an experimental animal. Risk is something you measure in the real world. Risk depends not just on how toxic a chemical is, but on how it is actually used, how much of it is used and how often it is used. At the moment, Europe's rules on pesticides are based on risk. However, a piece of legislation regulating plant-protection products, which is awaiting its final reading in the European Parliament later this year, will shift the basis of the law towards an assessment of hazard. ...
The latest results in the search for Martians
"SPIT on the desert and a flower grows." That, at least, is the proverb on Earth. On Mars, however, you might hope for asparagus, green beans and turnips if the latest results from Phoenix are to be believed. An analysis carried out by the probe, which landed on May 25th, suggests the local regolith (the crushed rock that passes for soil on Mars) is slightly alkaline--which such vegetables prefer. That is a surprise. The regolith was expected to be very acid--probably too acid even for crops such as peanuts, potatoes and carrots that like their soils with low pH.
Of course, no one is really interested in what crops could grow in it. If people ever do live on Mars they will rely on hydroponic farms for food. The actual question that hangs over every result from Mars is "what does it say about the chances of there being Martians" ...
Red wine exercises its benefits before it enters the bloodstream
FINE food sings on the palate, but pairing it with the right wine creates a chorus. Among those in the know, the plum, chocolate and spice flavours of Cabernet Sauvignons, Merlots, Pinot Noirs and Sangioveses best accentuate the rich flavours of red meats. Now, however, a group of researchers led by Joseph Kanner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has discovered that pairing red wines like these with red meat appears to be more than just a matter of taste. If the two mix in the stomach, compounds in the wine thwart the formation of harmful chemicals that are released when meat is digested.
The idea that red wine is actually good for your health is irresistible to the average tippler. But it appears to be true. In particular, red wines are rich in polyphenols, a group of powerful antioxidants that are thought to protect against cancer and heart disease by destroying molecules that would otherwise damage cells. How the polyphenols in wine exercise their beneficial effects, though, has been mysterious. That is because they do not seem to travel in any quantity from the stomach into the bloodstream. ...
A chance observation may help explain why some babies die unexpectedly
SUDDEN infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the biggest killer of babies over one month old in the rich world (many things kill babies who are younger than this). What SIDS actually is, though, is a mystery. By definition, the child is dead when the diagnosis is made. That means researchers usually have only post mortem data about the symptoms to go on.
Such data are not valueless, however. Some of the nerve cells of SIDS victims' brainstems often look strange. The cells in question regulate basic bodily functions, including breathing and body temperature, and in SIDS babies they are more numerous and less mature than they are in babies who have died of other causes. ...
Product development cycles to be dramatically shortened using physical modeling techniques (PRWeb Jul 3, 2008)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/modeling/simulation/prweb1074464.htm
Renowned, Italian, orthopaedic surgeon, Paolo Aglietti, MD, will be inducted into the 2008 American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) Hall of Fame on July 12, 2008, during AOSSM’s Annual Meeting in Orlando. (PRWeb Jul 3, 2008)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Sports_Medicine/Hall_of_Fame/prweb1072664.htm
Reuters - A Chinese man who bought an emaciated
pig who survived for 36 days under rubble after May's massive
Sichuan earthquake and promised to care for it for life has
been given an award by an animal rights group.
AP - Showers and thunderstorms were forecast Thursday for the central Plains as a cold front moves through the region. The storms could produce damaging winds, hail and possibly tornadoes. Flooding was also a threat for some areas.
AP - The U.S. has done the least among the world's eight largest economies to address global warming, a study released Thursday found.
AP - The Phoenix lander's first chemical sniff of Martian soil did not turn up any trace of the building blocks of life. Its next whiff could be its last.
Reuters - They left as children and
teenagers, crossing the border between dry southern Sudan and
Ethiopia before being transported half a world away to the
green strangeness of Cuba's Isla de la Juventud.
AP - First came the floods now the mosquitoes. An explosion of pesky insects are pestering clean-up crews and just about anyone venturing outside in the waterlogged Midwest.
AP - A Filipino teenager who came to New York so doctors could perform surgery to untwist her severely clubbed feet took her first unaided steps Wednesday in pink-and-white sneakers the first shoes she's ever worn.
AP - The Kroger Co. expanded its voluntary recall of some ground beef products beyond stores in Michigan and parts of Ohio to its stores in more than 20 states on Wednesday.
AP - A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra but don't necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks all night long.
AFP - A scientific study published here Wednesday sheds light on why men who eat a lot of broccoli are less likely to develop prostate cancer.
Reuters - India's telecoms ministry does not
see any security risk from Research In Motion's popular
BlackBerry e-mail service and has no plans to shut the service,
a top government official said on Wednesday.
AFP - BlackBerry mobile devices do not pose a security threat and no permission is needed from the Indian government to make the service available, an official said Wednesday, according to media reports.
Reuters - Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS) Wii game
console once again outsold Sony Corp's (6758.T) PlayStation 3
in Japan in June, but its lead is fading, a game magazine
publisher said.
Reuters - British computer games retailer Game
Group smashed first-half profit forecasts, boosted by
new releases like Grand Theft Auto IV and Wii Fit, but its
shares slumped on concern that demand has peaked.
Reuters - If "American Idol" and a modern
fairy tale combined to create a video game, you'd get "Boogie
SuperStar" -- Electronic Art's latest game for the Nintendo Wii
system.
The Doe Run Company today announced its Herculaneum, Mo., facility met the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for lead during the second quarter of 2008. (PRWeb Jul 2, 2008)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/The_Doe_Run_Company/air_quality/prweb1073314.htm
PerkinElmer, Inc., a global leader in Health Sciences and Photonics, today announced the creation of the ViaCord Research Institute™ (VRI™) aimed at investigating new potential future uses of umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells. Led by a team of leading scientists and physicians, VRI will focus on supporting science, technology and medical treatments using cord blood stem cells in five key areas: cord blood technologies, emerging stem cell therapies, genetic screening, product development and related transplants. (PRWeb Jul 3, 2008)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/cord_blood/stem_cell/prweb1074084.htm
Price cut before E3
Reports have been circulating since last week that Microsoft was buying some horsepower in search. No, not Yahoo. The new purchase is Powerset, a company spokeswoman confirmed this morning.
The Wall Street Journal is out today with a major rehash of the Microsoft-Yahoo acquisition saga that includes some great corporate cloak-and-dagger details from the last five months. The news, however, is that Microsoft has been making another round of calls to the usual suspects -- Time Warner's AOL unit and News Corp. -- to find partners for a Yahoo bust-up deal.
Microsoft in July will begin selling a package of subscription services for consumers and small businesses, including the latest version of its widely used Office suite, previously only available for purchase as a one-time license.
Time to grill. We'll be back on Monday. Here's hoping Microsoft and Yahoo don't do some major deal over the holiday weekend.
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