Emotional Brain has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has awarded a new patent (US Patent No. 8,227,453, issued today) for its combination of a PDE5-inhibitor and testosterone for the treatment of Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD).  

There is no FDA-approved medicine available yet for this particular indication area, so American physicians annually prescribe off-label drugs for the treatment of FSD.  Dr Adriaan Tuiten, PhD, CEO of Emotional Brain, explains, 'It ensures protection of our medical applications and medical procedures aimed at the treatment of Female Sexual Dysfunction. The issuance of new patents in a country such as the United States is tremendously important and has a huge impact.' 

How will the Universe end?  And when? It's been speculation in religion and philosophy since man realized he was special.  Can physics offer anything new?

Let's go to the Dark Energy hypotheses and see.  1998 really messed us up, theoretically. Until then, we knew the Universe had to slow down - well, theoretically.  But then the Hubble showed us truly distant supernovae and we got the uncomfortable reality that the Universe was actually expanding more slowly in the past than it is now.  That meant gravity has not been slowing Universal expansion, it has been accelerating. 

Slowly but surely, because it is a good idea, the Quantum Randi Challenge (QRC) generates interest behind the curtains. Some think that because of this, it is all over, but they are mistaken. Several researchers wanted to properly quote the QRC despite of it finding still no support by ‘professional’ journals on the grounds that it is “extremely important but just not quite right for our fine publication”.

NASA's Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3), a large inflatable heat shield developed, was launched by sounding rocket at 7:01 a.m. Monday from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.  It successfully survived a trip through Earth's atmosphere while traveling at hypersonic speeds of 7,600 mph.

When it comes to new legislation, sometimes what you see is not all you get. Just ask Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader who two years ago uttered the now infamous words, “We have to pass the [Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act] so that you can find out what is in it….” Whether or not you support the president's healthcare reform initiatives, the implementation of any vast, complex legislation can result in unintended consequences.

No one is asking the Department of Energy to play venture capitalist with taxpayer money again, but basic research in dye-sensitized solar cells may bring the cost of solar down enough to allow for mainstream acceptance - primarily because dye-sensitized solar cells (also known as DSCs) are less fragile than panels that use crystalline silicon, also a benefit of thin-film panels, and don't require a clean room.

Researchers have moved a step closer to find a treatment for the fatal neurodegenerative disorder Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) after a Portuguese team from the Centre for Neurosciences at the University of Coimbra was able to halt the brain degeneration in mice, by blocking a molecule called calpain. Calpain are known to cut ataxin-3 (the mutant protein behind MJD) into fragments, and the study proves that these fragments are crucial to trigger the neurodegeneration. 

At the time of diagnosis, hundreds of mutations already exist in leukemia cells but new research has found they are a part of normal aging and are not related to cancer.

Even in healthy people, stem cells in the blood routinely accumulate new mutations over the course of a person’s lifetime. In many cases only two or three additional genetic changes are required to transform a normal blood cell already dotted with mutations into acute myeloid leukemia (AML). 

There is a “Carnival of Cosmology: Dark Energy”; here is my contribution: I will discuss the public acceptance of dark energy (1), then I explain that dark energy is crazy but also that the crazy stuff is actually basic general relativity, so that if you refuse dark energy, the crack-pots are your team (2), and lastly, I explain that dark energy, as opposed to dark matter, is completely natural and obviously exists(3).

1) Perception: Nobel Prize for Einstein’s Greatest Blunder

Researchers have linked mutations in specific genes to each of the four recognized subtypes of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor of children. The discovery provides doctors with potential biomarkers for guiding and individualizing treatment and reveals prospective therapeutic opportunities for countering this devastating malignancy.

Medulloblastomas occur in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance and other complex motor functions, and are treated with a combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Though overall survival hovers around 70 percent, most survivors are unable to live independently due to the lasting effects of both tumor and treatment.