I'm taking a moment away from crafting "Journey To The Center Of The Uterus", my opus on reproduction and culture, to discuss something of equal import - namely, orgasms.

It will shock you to know this, but nearly 50% of British women don't have orgasms. Are they frigid? No, not at all, as my 1999 layover at Heathrow can attest. Science funding is the issue, as we shall see.

As we have discussed in articles like The Science of Orgasms and Would Female Orgasms Kill Men?, (1) orgasms are tricky business but scientists know what they are doing. Fewer scientists means fewer orgasms. Britain is in the throes of a science funding meltdown so the problem for British women will only get worse. With fewer scientists there can be fewer studies on important stuff like this.

What are we talking about?

TORONTO, Canada and GENEVA, Switzerland, July 30 /PRNewswire/ -- WISeKey and MyScreen today announced their partnership on integrating WISeKey electronic identity technologies with MyScreen's unique patent-pending mobile advertising technology platform, defining a new standard in the delivery of high-quality, personalized and secure advertisements, offers and transaction capability to mobile phones.

MyScreen subscribers can use this joint MyScreen-WISeKey privacy enhancing solution to securely opt-in to receive advertisements, credits, coupons and transaction offers.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Eye on Earth online environmental observatory allows Europeans to understand the quality of the water they swim in and provides the power to call for change.

Lovastatin, a drug used to lower cholesterol and help prevent cardiovascular disease, has been shown to improve bone healing in an animal model of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The research, reported today in BMC Medicine, will be of great interest to NF1 patients and their physicians.

Many NF1 patients suffer from bowing, spontaneous fractures and pseudarthrosis (incomplete healing) of the tibias (shinbones). Mateusz Kolanczyk from Stefan Mundlos' laboratory in the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, led a team that investigated lovastatin's ability to prevent pseudarthrosis in a new animal model of human NF1 disease.

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found the brain's appetite center uses fat for fuel by involving oxygen free radicals—molecules associated with aging and neurodegeneration. The findings suggest that antioxidants could play a role in weight control.

The study's lead authors were Sabrina Diano and Tamas Horvath, who are an associate professor and professor, respectively, in the Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and Neurobiology. Horvath is also chair of the Section of Comparative Medicine.

"In contrast to the accepted view, the brain does use fat as fuel," said Horvath. "Our study shows that the minute-by-minute control of appetite is regulated by free radicals, implying that if you interfere with free radicals, you may affect eating and satiety."

A strain of mice with the natural ability to repair damaged cartilage may one day lead to significant improvements in treatment of human knee, shoulder and hip injuries.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered males from a strain of mice called MRL/MpJ have the innate ability to repair their own knee cartilage. "We think there is something special about these mice," said Jamie Fitzgerald, Ph.D., assistant professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation in the OHSU School of Medicine. "They have the ability to regenerate cartilage."

LEUVEN, Belgium, July 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Shares Acquired From Biggar Limited

ThromboGenics NV (Euronext Brussels: THR), a biotechnology company focused on eye disease, vascular disease and cancer, today announces that a group of private investors based in Belgium have together acquired an 8% stake in the Company. Their stake was purchased from Biggar Limited, a charitable foundation that is ThromboGenics largest shareholder. Biggar now holds a 9.8% stake in ThromboGenics following this transaction, and has informed the company that it intends to remain an important shareholder in ThromboGenics for the long term.

This transaction was managed by Petercam.

Paleontologists in 2005 hailed research that apparently showed that soft, pliable tissues had been recovered from dissolved dinosaur bones, a major finding that would substantially widen the known range of preserved biomolecules. But new research challenges that finding and suggests that the supposed recovered dinosaur tissue is in reality biofilm – or slime.

The original research, published in Science magazine, claimed the discovery of blood vessels and what appeared to be entire cells inside fossil bone of a Tyrannosaurus rex. The scientists had dissolved the bone in acid, leaving behind the blood vessel- and cell-like structures.

The field of robotics makes consistent progress but the great success of so far has been in automating repetitive tasks in process control and assembly, yielding dramatic cuts in production.

The next step - towards cognition and more human-like behavior - remains elusive. It has been difficult to make robots that can truly learn and adapt to unexpected situations in the way humans can, while it has been equally challenging trying to develop a machine capable of moving smoothly like any animal. There is still no robot capable of walking properly without jerky slightly unbalanced movements.

A recent conference, jointly organized by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and held in Japan, was targeted at young researchers actively working in the fields of cognitive science and robotics.