News
"A Cheap Little Chip Can Diagnose HIV in 15 Minutes"
By Rob Winters - Published on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 18:05
"Technology to treat and prevent HIV is getting better every day; last month, we told you about a pill that helps prevent the virus. But none of this matters if a person hasn't been diagnosed in the first place. An AIDS test in the United States is easy enough—you can usually get the results back in days or even hours. In some African countries, though, the test needs to be sent to a national lab and results might take weeks. Some patients don't even bother to make the journey back to the clinic, which could be hours or days away, to find out their results. A new plastic credit card-sized device called the mChip may change all that. Columbia University researchers have found that with one prick of blood, the chip, which uses microfluidics technology, can diagnose multiple diseases including HIV and syphilis in 12 to 15 minutes for an extremely affordable price."
Read more: http://www.good.is/post/a-little-1-chip-can-diagnose-hiv-in-15-minutes/
"College Students Create Device That Helps Legally Blind Students Take Notes"
By Rob Winters - Published on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 18:01
"Remember the days of sitting in class, copying down what your teacher scribbled on the board? Now imagine the frustration you'd feel if you couldn't see that board. That's the situation San Diego State University student Jeremy Poincenot found himself in almost three years ago after contracting an extremely rare disorder called Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. As Poincenot shares in the above video, he'd lost his love for the college experience due to his inability to fully follow what was going on in class. That is, until he connected with Note-Taker, an assistive technology that helps "low-vision and legally blind students take notes in class as quickly and effectively as their fully-sighted peers."
The designers of this innnovative technology, Team Note-Taker, are four Arizona State University students—Michael Astrauskas, David Hayden, Shashank Srinivas and Qian Yan."
"Memory decline may be reversible"
By Rob Winters - Published on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 17:47
"YALE (US) — Researchers have figured out why we tend to be more forgetful as we age. Interestingly, they say, the findings suggest the condition is reversible.
A new study published in the journal Nature shows the neural networks in the brains of the middle-aged and elderly have weaker connections and fire less robustly than in youthful ones.
“Age-related cognitive deficits can have a serious impact on our lives in the Information Age, as people often need higher cognitive functions to meet even basic needs, such as paying bills or accessing medical care,” says Amy Arnsten, professor of neurobiology and psychology at Yale University. “These abilities are critical for maintaining demanding careers and being able to live independently as we grow older.”
As people age, they tend to forget things, are more easily distracted, and have greater difficulty with executive functions. These age-related deficits have been known for years but the cellular basis for these common cognitive difficulties has not been understood."
Read more: http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/memory-decline-may-be-reversible/
"Scientists create glowing dog"
By Rob Winters - Published on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 17:38
"(Reuters) - South Korean scientists said on Wednesday they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, Yonhap news agency reported.A research team from Seoul National University (SNU) said the genetically modified female beagle, named Tegon and born in 2009, has been found to glow fluorescent green under ultraviolet light if given a doxycycline antibiotic, the report said.
The researchers, who completed a two-year test, said the ability to glow can be turned on or off by adding a drug to the dog's food.
"The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," the news agency quoted lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun as saying."
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/27/us-korea-dog-idUSTRE76Q1MK20110727
"Build Muscle to Fight Diabetes, Researchers Say"
By Rob Winters - Published on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 17:33
"University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers reported that their studies indicated more muscle mass would do more to prevent diabetes than previously thought. They say that while its still important to reduce fat, the maintenance of muscle is an important part of therapy."Our findings suggest that beyond focusing on losing weight to improve metabolic health, there may be a role for maintaining fitness and building muscle mass," says assistant professor Preethi Srikanthan, of UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine.
Researchers in the school's division of endocrinology surveyed 13,644 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANESIII) to look for a connection between higher muscle mass and the bodies' insulin resistance."
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