Some people have a distinct, disabling sleep disorder called "primary hypersomnia" - they regularly sleep more than 70 hours per week and have difficulties awakening.

Even when awake, they still have reaction times comparable to someone who has been awake all night. Their sleepiness often interferes with work or school attendance, and conventional treatments such as stimulants bring little relief.

A universal approach to helping people who witnessed or experience genocide may be misguided, says an anthropologist.

The experience of genocide as transmitted trauma may not be universal but in the fields of human rights and memory studies, giving testimony about one's personal experience of genocide is believed to be both a moral duty and a psychological imperative for the wellbeing of the individual and the persecuted group to which they belong. The coping strategies for victims of genocide tend to be uniform: tell your story and do not let the violence you suffered be forgotten. What about descendants?

Einstein infamously said, and he said so many times, that god does not play dice.  He said this in order to refute indeterminism, and therefore, we cannot say that he was correct:  The meaning he intended to communicate was probably wrong (depending on your definition of “god”).  However, the most relevant meaning of his statement is self-evidently true:  Randomness (indeterminism) is not satisfyingly explained by merely postulating some more mystical randomness (god’s dice).

Bones are resilient and heal well after most fractures but in cases of traumatic injury, where large pieces of bone are missing, healing is much more difficult and sometimes impossible.

"Large segmental defects" are a major clinical problem,  especially among the military in places like Afghanistan, and orthopedic surgeons struggle to treat them but new research results confirm that the bone healing process of large segmental defects is sensitive to its mechanical environment and suggests that "reverse dynamization," a straightforward and inexpensive process, could help speed healing of these traumatic injuries.

Studying the genetic variability of endangered species will be necessary for species conservation and monitoring but endangered species are difficult to observe and sample and typically have very limited genetic diversity.

 A research team has taken advantage of DNA sequencing methodology developed by Floragenex to identify the genetic markers for the Bornean elephant, an endangered species, using blood from very few animals. The results showed that Bornean elephants have very low genetic variability that can impact on their survival to a threatened habitat, but that variable genetic markers can still be identified. The study opens new avenues for the conservation of other endangered species.

An enzyme used in nature can make powerful chemicals as diverse as catnip and a cancer drug, vinblastine, which opens up the prospect of producing these chemicals cheaply and efficiently.

A new class of materials has shown to be able to form dynamic, moving structures.

Researchers have demonstrated tiny spheres that synchronize their movements as they self-assemble into a spinning microtube. The researchers used tiny particles called Janus spheres, named after the Roman god with two faces, which have been previously demonstrated for self-assembly of static structures. In this study, one half of each sphere is coated with a magnetic metal. When dispersed in solution and exposed to a rotating magnetic field, each sphere spins in a gyroscopic motion. They spin at the same frequency but all face a different direction, like a group of dancers in a ballroom dancing to the same beat but performing their own steps.

What can Kung Fu Nuns teach CERN scientists about cosmic energy?  

To start with, they would have to convince CERN scientists that 'cosmic energy' actually exists, and they recently got a chance to do that when the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) hosted Drukpa Buddhist's Spiritual Head, His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa. 

 A new device called the Argus II has been implanted in over 50 patients, many of whom can now see color, movement and objects and researchers have even streamed braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina, allowing him to read four-letter words accurately and quickly with the ocular neuroprosthetic device.

Argus II uses a small camera mounted on a pair of glasses, a portable processor to translate the signal from the camera into electrical stimulation and a microchip with electrodes implanted directly on the retina. 

Cardio3 BioSciences (C3BS) announced it has received authorization from the Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) to begin its Congestive Heart failure Cardiopoietic Regenerative Therapy (CHART-1) European Phase III trial for C3BS-CQR-1 in Belgium. This represents a world premiere for a regenerative medicine product targeting heart failure to be tested in the context of a Phase III trial. C3BS-CQR-1 is an autologous stem cell therapy for heart failure.