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Inovelon® (rufinamide) Drinkable Suspension Formulation Launched For The First Time In Europe

Inovelon® (rufinamide) Drinkable Suspension Formulation Launched For The First Time In Europe

Mar 15 2012 | comment(s)

Requiem for Humanity — Ecology

Requiem for Humanity — Ecology

Mar 14 2012 | comment(s)

ECOLOGY
   Humans are the most successful consumer of resources that Earth has produced. Our success has altered our planet. Humanity is currently experiencing limits to further growth. We have consumed the easily developed resources across most of our world. We are now faced with more people consuming fewer resources at a higher relative cost. Unchecked this trend will create the same results as in past human history: famine, war and disease.

Five Ways Our Need To Fit In Controls Us

Five Ways Our Need To Fit In Controls Us

Mar 14 2012 | comment(s)

As a society, we Westerners exalt individualism and self-reliance, and yet our biology moves us in other directions. Humans evolved as social animals, and we posses a number of behaviors that motivate us towards group conformity. The feeling of wanting friends, of desiring a peer group, and of needing to feel like we are valuable members of that group is something we all can directly relate to, and we usually experience those feelings as a positive thing. Yet there is a bit of a dark side to our social nature that we might not notice, particularly because so much of its action goes on underneath the level of conscious awareness.
Afraid To Fly? That's A Good Excuse To Try Drugs And Virtual Reality

Afraid To Fly? That's A Good Excuse To Try Drugs And Virtual Reality

Mar 14 2012 | comment(s)

A randomized controlled trial showed that fear of flying can be cured independently of drug condition after 4 sessions of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET).

The study introduced a new treatment for fear of flying. Research suggests that yohimbine hydrochloride (YOH), a noradrenaline agonist, can facilitate fear extinction. It is thought that the mechanism of enhanced emotional memory is stimulated through elevated noradrenaline levels.
How Red Solo Cups Are Made: Neutrino Oscillations And Mixing Angles

How Red Solo Cups Are Made: Neutrino Oscillations And Mixing Angles

Mar 14 2012 | comment(s)

The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has discovered a new type of neutrino oscillation in which the particles appear to vanish as they travel. The rate of oscillations was much larger than many scientists had expected, which could open the gateway to a new understanding of fundamental physics and may eventually solve the riddle of why the universe today is dominated by matter as opposed to antimatter.
Improved Wealth, Culture Linked To Obesity

Improved Wealth, Culture Linked To Obesity

Mar 14 2012 | comment(s)

It seems obvious that when a culture can eat more than it needs to survive, many people will.. When even the poorest people can afford to be fat, they are happy.

Researchers from Rice University and the University of Colorado did an analysis of survey results and found that while growth of developing countries may improve conditions such as malnutrition and infectious disease, it may also increase obesity among people with lower socio-economic status.  This troubles them, though it is unclear why. Being fat is better than starving.
Human Brain And Mind

Human Brain And Mind

Mar 14 2012 | comment(s)

The most logical and intuitive place to seek the mind is in the human brain. Neuroscience can observe the workings of perception, memory, thinking, and emotions by using imaging devices to see which sections of the brain light up while it’s performing different functions. 

Do Imaging Devices tell us about Subjective Experience?

We see chemical and electric signals, in oscillating and bursting patterns, sending communications throughout the brain as study subjects perform mental functions. But, there has been no way to find out what subjective experience is, other than studying how it seems to correlate with these brain images and electrical signals.

More Bad News: Nanoparticles Help Bacteria To Become Superbugs

More Bad News: Nanoparticles Help Bacteria To Become Superbugs

Mar 14 2012 | comment(s)

You may have heard about certain potential dangers of nanotechnology; I like to write about some of them on occasion; and you probably know about the almost lost battle against so called superbugs, those pesky bacteria that evolved in hospitals to become resistant against all our drugs. Now combine these for something a little more scary: Fast-track evolution towards superbugs.

Two-wheeled Balancing Robot (that Can Sing At The Same Time)

Two-wheeled Balancing Robot (that Can Sing At The Same Time)

Mar 13 2012 | comment(s)

There have been several implementations of two wheeled balancing robots [example]. And several which can read sheet music via a camera [example]. Others can ‘sing’ [example] – but the number of two-wheeled balancing robots that can autonomously read music and sing songs is low – possibly numbering just one.
Archaea As Food Source Adds New Twist To Understanding Greenhouse Gas Cycles

Archaea As Food Source Adds New Twist To Understanding Greenhouse Gas Cycles

Mar 13 2012 | comment(s)

Archaea, one of the three "domains of life" on Earth - the other two being bacteria and eukaryota (plants and animals) - strangely do not seem to be part of any food chain.

But maybe they soon will be - and it just might help solve future climate change issues. Archaea, a type of single-celled microorganism, perform many key ecosystem services including being involved with nitrogen cycling, and they are known to be the main mechanism by which marine methane is kept out of the atmosphere. 
Social Microbes

Social Microbes

Mar 13 2012 | comment(s)

In the excellent book, “The Social Amoebae,” John Tyler Bonner, an emeritus professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, describes many social abilities of amoebas including communication, group activity, and individual and group decision making.  Do these raise the question of cognition in amoeba?
Two-Photon Lithography Means Nanoscale 3-D Printing

Two-Photon Lithography Means Nanoscale 3-D Printing

Mar 13 2012 | comment(s)

A new high-precision 3-D printer at TU Vienna is orders of magnitude faster than similar devices and opens up completely new areas of application, such as in medicine. "Two-photon lithography" means tiny structures on a nanometer scale can be fabricated quicker than ever.

Their 3-D printer uses a liquid resin, which is hardened at precisely the correct spots by a focused laser beam. The focal point of the laser beam is guided through the resin by movable mirrors and leaves behind a polymerized line of solid polymer, just a few hundred nanometers wide. This high resolution enables the creation of intricately structured sculptures as tiny as a grain of sand.
Do More Aggressive People Eat More Twinkies?

Do More Aggressive People Eat More Twinkies?

Mar 13 2012 | comment(s)

 Researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine are contending that  consumption of dietary trans fatty acids (dTFAs) is associated with irritability and aggression. 

Their survey of 945 men and women led them to link dTFAs with adverse behaviors that impacted others, ranging from impatience to overt aggression.  Dietary trans fatty acids are primarily products of hydrogenation, which makes unsaturated oils solid at room temperature. They are present at high levels in margarines, shortenings and prepared foods. Adverse health effects of dTFAs have been identified in lipid levels, metabolic function, insulin resistance, oxidation, inflammation, and cardiac health.

Holistic approach to cure Ailments

Holistic approach to cure Ailments

Mar 13 2012 | comment(s)

In today's world, with the advent of Science and Technology, we have unraveled a myriad of mysteries that were hidden from the human eye for centuries. Typically, a reductionist approach is taken by scientists to understand the processes as a whole. As a result of this approach, a target is identified for modulation to alleviate the disease. Modulation of this target may prove to be beneficial in many cases. Its High time that we look at curing diseases from a holistic standpoint. Presently, from the symptoms we try to treat to symptoms of the disease with drugs which is definitely effective but side effects cant be prevented. Ayurveda deals with a holistic way of healing diseases. This includes natural herbs and extracts, massage therapy, Yoga and diet.
BFF with HBT (hyperbolic trig)

BFF with HBT (hyperbolic trig)

Mar 13 2012 | comment(s)

I enjoyed Johannes Koelman's blog, "Velocity: Stuff That Doesn't Add Up."  If you haven't read it, please consider doing so. I will review just the math here. There was a technical point that probably flew over many a reader's head. When discussing the elegance of the Lorentz relativity approach, he mentions a hyperbolic tangent.  Hyperbolic trig functions used to cause me hypertension. With a little math and a few pictures, gone is my fear. Hopefully the reader will feel these strangers are not so strange after reading this blog.

Galileo Velocity Roundup
Mimosaceae family is rich in medicinal plants

Mimosaceae family is rich in medicinal plants

Mar 12 2012 | comment(s)

Family Mimosaceae has 56 genera and 2800 species which are found in tropical and subtropical region. The mimosaceae plants are climber (Acacia caesia), tree (Acacia catechu), Shrub (Acacia farnesiana), deciduous tree (A. leucophalia), tree (babul), climber (A. pennata), low erect tree (A. senegal), tree (A. lebbeck) tree (Prosopis spp.). Albizia lebbeck Benth is widely distributed in India and is also found in South Africa and Australia. It is a host of lac insect and is reported to have antiseptic, antidysentric and anti-tubercular activities (Chadha, 1985) . Review of Literature National Status : Acacia caesia Willd (Aila) It is important plant. Its roots are used in pleurisy, measles, smallpox and bronchitis.
Principles of Ayurveda

Principles of Ayurveda

Mar 12 2012 | comment(s)

There are two principle objectives of Ayurveda. One of them is the protection, preservation and promotion of health in a healthy person and the other is the prevention and treatment of disease in the patient (Shivsharma, 1929). Thus Ayurveda provides the knowledge to preserve, promote and correct the bodily tissue as well the quality and strength of mind so that one can aspire to attain a state of supreme eternal happiness. On the other hand it advocates employing holistic and comprehensive and Ayurveda conceives life as a fourd imensional entity comprising of physical body(Sharira), the sense organs(Indriya), the mind(Satva), and soul(Atma), thus, the individual is a comprehensive psychophysicospiritual entity, which is highly dynamic and is in constant interplay with the nature.
Complex Machinery in the Neuron, Vesicle Budding and Fusion, Transcription, and More

Complex Machinery in the Neuron, Vesicle Budding and Fusion, Transcription, and More

Mar 12 2012 | comment(s)

The neuron performs an incredible job in maintaining the mechanics of the cell while still being responsible for the transmission of mental function.  Its responsibilities include: building structures to maintain its long axon, building and rebuilding the large number of input receptors on its dendrites, maintaining the packets of neurotransmitter molecules as they travel down the axon, opening and closing the cell membrane to build dendrites, expelling signaling molecules in a process called budding, and retracting the packets of those signal molecules.
Should Midwives Perform Abortions?

Should Midwives Perform Abortions?

Mar 12 2012 | comment(s)

While other states find creative ways to perhaps lessen abortions, notably by requiring a waiting period, it is no surprise that California wants to find ways to do more of them. That’s not a shock and it isn’t bad. Yes, California is kooky and anti-business and overwhelmingly progressive but in a diverse country, someone is going to be the most at those things so it might as well be California.

But if you know anything about medicine, you have to wonder why a midwife is somehow qualified to perform abortions when the whole point of making abortions a federal right was that botched abortions risked live.  
Design for a national secure identity system

Design for a national secure identity system

Mar 12 2012 | comment(s)

The fatal flaw of all biometric (or cognitive) identity validation is that once its signature is stolen it is unusable for that individual again. Hence, the system eventually makes it more difficult to verify identities, particularly valuable identities, as the system’s records are progressively compromised. This flaw is not discussed (or is minimized) by purveyors of identity security systems. Informed security experts are well aware of the threat of extremely well-funded foreign national, foreign corporate and organized crime to crack into any targeted repository of identity records given sufficient time and incentive. Hence any viable system for identity validation must deal with this critical flaw.