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If you’re left-handed, some of the simplest and most mundane things can be an ordeal. Scissors are awful, musical instruments are a drag and house appliances can be quite challenging. But according to a new study, being a leftie is associated with better math skills, at least for teenage boys. The link between handedness was […]
Thanks to robots, surgery has gone a long way since these have been introduced in the '80s making operations safer and less invasive. Now, surgical robots are starting to migrate from assistant to leading roles, which is where experts say they will really shine.
The unlikely ally is silk.
When researchers at John Hopkins factored human errors they found this was the third leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing respiratory diseases.
There are entire “cities” of bacteria inside your mouth and researchers want to map them all. This is what they look like: Gary Borisy wants to map out colonies of microbes much like neighborhoods and cities. But there’s a problem. “You don’t have the addresses. You don’t have a GPS. You don’t know where they are,” […]
There's good bacteria and bad bacteria, but the gut seems to be so diverse in its bacterial offering from person to person that scientists have always found it difficult to say "hey, this is what a healthy microbiome should look like." Analyzing thousands of bacteria species in your guy is challenging and we're still not there, but a recent effort involving 4,000 participants has some good hints as to what makes a healthy gut.
Cutting our meat consumption is crucial for a sustainable future.
This remarkable research could open the doors for biological thermometers at the nanoscale which might tell us a thing or two about how our bodies function at the smallest level.
A new study from the University of Toulouse found that intelligence and learning aren't limited to organisms with brains. By studying the mold P. polycephalum they found it can, over time, learn to navigate even irritating environments.
A new research investigated various light intensity scenarios and reported their findings. For optimal learning performance, "cool" light is better while "yellow" or "warm" light is the most relaxing.
Thousands of junior doctors (the rough equivalent of a resident in the US) walked out of hospitals and emergency wards to protest against borderline inhuman measures implemented by the government. It’s the first time in English history since an all-out strike was carried out. The NHS said “military level” contingency planning had been carried out […]
Just don't do it.
Humans are throwing away an insane quantity of food, both in the developed and in developing countries. While in the latter case this can be attributed to economic and technological constrains, the former is primarily consumer-driven. And the sum of individual choices adds up to major impacts on a global scale, a new study finds.
A new study offers insight into why you might have a hard time sleeping on the first night in a new place: half of your brain stays awake to watch out for potential dangers.
Men who consume high-fat diets are far likelier to feel sleepy during the day and sleep poorly at night, researchers at University of Adelaide, Australia report.
In a novel study, researchers have identified for the first time the heritable components that influence how early or how late people lose their virginity.
Is size all there is to it? As far as the brain is concerned, a recent study that assessed corvid intelligence suggests the answer seems no. The researchers found crows, ravens and other corvids score the same on an important cognitive test as the big-brained chimps.
Flap your hands like a shark.
Each city has its own distinct germ cloud comprised of a unique microbial population and distribution, according to scientists at Northern Arizona University.
Electrically stimulating the frontopolar cortex can enhance creativity, a new study from Georgetown University found.
Nothing seems to work when you're sick. When I'm down with the flu, for instance, my muscles ache, my eyes are bloodshot and I don't feel like doing anything. It's pretty bad, and if you ever wondered who you have to thank, a team of scientists has singled out a prime suspect: a signaling protein called interferon-β.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially endorsed the world's first Dengue fever vaccine, a disease that infects 390 million people each year.
No matter who you ask, they’ll tell you the same thing: butter isn’t good for you, just use vegetable oil. But while butter may not be the healthiest of foods, new research has found that replacing it with vegetable oils does not decrease risk of heart disease. The main culprit is linoleic acid – a polyunsaturated […]
Using two sets of electrodes, scientists have successfully restored finger movement in a paralyzed patient for the first time in history. The results could be the starting point to developing methods that would allow people around the planet to regain limb mobility.
Westerners are horror-struck by the prospect of an Ebola or Zika pandemic in their very own neighbourhood. Media panic aside, that's extremely unlikely thanks to modern medical science. Our close cousins, the Neanderthals, weren't so lucky tens of thousands of years ago when they first met us, humans. British researchers analyzed ancient bone DNA and sequenced pathogens and found some infectious diseases are far older than we thought. They argue that it's very likely that humans passed many diseases to Neandertals, the two species having interbred, like tapeworm, tuberculosis, stomach ulcers and types of herpes.
This is the first time a two-stage model has been proposed for how consciousness arises, and it offers a more complete picture than the purely continuous or discrete models. It also provides useful insight into the the way our brain processes time and relates it to our perception of the world.
A Silicon Valley billionaire who made a fortunate investing in Facebook wants to beat cancer once and for all.
There are six components that make or break an apology, a new study finds. Depending on many of these you include, your feelings of regret will either be accepted or get a cold shoulder.
It took a while, but scientists have finally imaged the brains of people on LSD -- a psychedelic used recreationally by millions, but whose therapeutic potential is only recently beginning to be recognized. Judging from the scans, it seems like Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) "completes the brain". Essentially, the brain functions less like a compartmentalized entity and more like a whole, very much akin to how the brain of an infant works.
In Europe and the United States, an increasing number of employers have adopted a smoke-free policy and may not hire people who smoke. This is because of the negative perception of smoking. Stanford researchers wanted to quantify just how large the economic burden of tobacco use is on the labour market. Their analysis suggests that nonsmokers are twice as likely to get hired than smokers. Tobacco users also earn $5 less per hour on average than nonsmokers.
Acetaminophen, commonly sold as Tylenol or Paracetamol may affect our ability to solve errors, a new study has found. The impairment is minor, but noticeable.
For archiving purposes, at least, DNA -- the blueprint or genetic recipe that codes all life -- might be worth considering. One team, for instance, coded digital images into synthetic DNA using a novel method, then decoded and read this data.
They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and unfortunately, that seems to be the case for HIV viruses.
Curiosity is probably the single most powerful force behind our species' scientific discoveries. It can drive us to explore and discover even if the outcome might be painful or harmful. But this need to discover and learn can also become a curse; a new study found that people are willing to face unpleasant outcomes with no apparent benefits just to sate their curiosity.
People frequently overindulge, sometimes to the point of developing sugar addictions. There has been a lot of interest in the pharmaceutical industry in finding treatments that can combat this effect, with little results up to now. But, a world-first study led by QUT might change that.
Adding extra-salt may make food tastier, but it can also has a negative effect on your health. With that in mind, Japanese researchers have invented a fork that creates a salty taste in your mouth at the press of a button, by releasing an electrical current which stimulates the tongue. Salt has long been associated with blood […]
Creating artificial skin may sound weird, but it can be extremely useful (or even life saving) for people who suffered from burns or any type of similar accident; it is also useful for testing drugs or cosmetic products. Skin transplants are a growing need, and many teams from across the world hope to one day […]
Mouth microbes may be connected to a variety of illnesses, more and more studies are showing. Dental care has been disconnected from general health care for many years now, but the more you start to think about it, the stranger it seems. After all, you don’t really separate any other branch of medicine so… why […]
The virus, which was once a serious risk for expectant mothers in Brazil, may be well an “explosive pandemic” deserving of international attention from the World Health Organization (WHO).
. A team at Purdue University in West Lafayette finally cracked the code, revealing a virus very much akin to the dengue and West Nile viruses.
Five baboons were each hooked up with a pig heart alongside their own hearts. Essentially, these baboons lived with two hearts and the pig one still functioned two years on average after the grafting, marking a marvelous breakthrough in xenografting.
The first case of white nose syndrome, a disease that has wreaked havoc on bat populations in the eastern U.S. has been identified west of the Rockies. The disease's spread threatens to drastically impact bat populations there, altering ecosystems throughout the country.
Depression can be exhausting. Here's why.
Women who use certain sunscreens might be at risk of infertility, as scientists found 45 percent of the tested products contained chemicals that mess with the function of sperm.
Takeout, instant noodles and cheap beer -- the only known organisms able to survive solely on these three items are university students. A new study examined undergraduates' dietary habits to see what powers their resilience to low-quality food, and if this trait can be grafted into human beings.
Having a single copy reduces lifespan by up to one year, while individuals having both copies stand at risk of living three years less than they'd normally would.
Scientists have confirmed what deep down, we already knew: dark chocolate makes you feel better.
Food packaging does influence the amount of calories consumed, a new study found. By showing portion sizes much larger than recommended, the pictures on various product's packaging could make it difficult to eat healthy. Extras such as toppings or frosting on cakes are also usually not taken into account on nutritional labels, exacerbating the problem.
As if living with a mental illness wasn't tough enough, many are stigmatized and discriminated by the rest of the 'mentally well' population.
It pains me that studies like this have to be made.
