11.10.2009
One day soon, period pain might be a thing of the past thanks to a new drug currently being tested. This possible boon to womankind is being tested and developed by Vantia Therapeutics. Designated VA111913, the pill, taken orally, could potentially take the place of current methods of alleviating menstrual cramps including aspirin.
According to recent trials, the pill levels out the muscle contractions that are the main cause of painful cramps. With Phase I testing deemed a success, Phase II of the testing will include "128 women aged between 18 and 25 in the UK and the US." The results of the testing should be ready for review sometime in 2010.
If testing is successful, the drug could be available in as little as four years. Until then, women the world over will have to grin and bear it and keep their fingers crossed.
Via Gizmag
Posted by sherri
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10.21.2009
If you had walked into Takashimaya - Tokyo's premium retail store - anytime during October 14th to 18th, you would have been greeted rather mechanically. No, not a figure of speech, just the bare truth. For the receptionist at Takashimaya was Saya - the speech-capable robot created by Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi from the Tokyo University of Science.
This "female" robot has been designed to provide about 700 programmed responses to questions and commands - enough to direct customers to the appropriate floor, make small talk(!), and answer a few basic questions about herself and her background. And to help her pull off the con are pneumatic actuators in Saya’s head which allow her to move her neck, mouth and eyes while she speaks, and to also create facial expressions ranging from happiness and surprise to sadness and anger.
Now imagine what made her angry. The compliment "You are pretty" to which she replied scornfully "Are you crazy?". Whoever said "Vanity, thy name is woman", take it back.
Via Pink Tentacle.
Posted by kanchana
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07.23.2009
It is a disease that strikes most of us once too often - either forgetting to take the meds, or forgetting the ones that have been already downed, and thereby ending up with an overdose. Well, here's the good news. Patients with eye problems such as dry-eyes and glaucoma can now look forward to some help from technology that promises to take over when you have discovered the imperfections of your own memory. And it is a contact lens that delivers medication gradually over time, and eliminates the need to use messy eye drops.
Heard right. Boston researchers report that they’ve created a contact lens that can deliver a high concentration of antibiotic at a constant rate for more than 30 days. Call this a great boon for eye patients considering the statistics that even if you do diligently put in your eye drops, for every administration, only 1 to 7 percent of the medication actually gets absorbed into the eye, while the rest drips down the cheeks or into the back of the throat. The new contact lens design can apparently provide large amounts of drug released at constant rates for long periods of time, which previous discoveries have not been able to do.
The research is currently being tested in a lab dish and is expected to soon move towards animal testing. Human lenses of this kind? Perhaps well before we set up life on the moon.
Via Medlaunches.
Posted by kanchana
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07. 7.2009
"Hi honey, how was your day?"
"Oh, pretty good - I tickled some chimps for a bit and then started in on the babies..."
Not a typical day in the office for most of us perhaps, but when British researcher Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth, England began a study to trace the origin of human laughter, she knew she was going to have to get hands on.
She and her colleagues tickled three human babies as well as 21 orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. They recorded the laughter sounds that resulted from each bout of tickling, and were able to identify some sounds which indicate humans and apes may have a shared laughter heritage. (I'm guessing they also identified that tickling babies and primates is a fun way to spend a day).
To think, at school I was under the misapprehension that science was boring.
Image: Thomas Lersch via Wikipedia.
Posted by Diane
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06.29.2009
We're more used to seeing news stories about teenage girls running up astronomical cell phone bills than having an interest in astronomy, but 14 year old Caroline Moore is clearly exceptional. Caroline, who is from New York, was scouting the night sky with her amateur telescope when she spotted celestial object SN 2008ha (catchy name, huh?)
The supernova is an exploded star located 70 million light-years away from Earth (approx) and no-one had ever identified it before. It appears to be unusually bright.
As Alex Filippenko, the leader of the supernova group at the University of California in Berkeley told Softpedia.com:
“Coincidentally, the youngest person to ever discover a supernova found one of the most peculiar and interesting supernovae ever."
Kudos, Caroline - keep up the great work!
Image: NASA.
Posted by Diane
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05.27.2009
Mrs Venetia Phair, who used to be Miss Venetia Burney (what a great name, like something out of a Roald Dahl novel) died at the end of April, according to reports.
She thought the new celestial body discovered in 1930 should be called Pluto - not after a Disney character but after the Roman God of the Underworld. Her 11 year-old self must have been thrilled when her suggestion was taken seriously. Sounds like the talent for naming ran in the family, though - her great-uncle Henry named the two dwarf moons of Mars. (Phobos and Deimos, though I'm sure I don't need to tell you that).
Posted by Diane
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03.27.2009
Male circumcision protects both men and women from several sexually transmitted infections, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Despite its regional-sounding name, NEJM is possibly the world's best medical journal and certainly one of the top five. Which means this news is to be taken very seriously indeed.
The study showed that, when their male partners are circumcised, women are less likely to get both bacterial vaginosis and trichomoniasis, that crazy-making itching and burning of the vagina commonly known as trich. In addition, circumcision reduced the risk of 3 other sex-related diseases for men: HIV (the AIDS virus), herpes simplex virus Type 2, and human papilloma virus (HPV). That's also terrific news for women, because if a guy isn't infected, his woman partner won't get infected either - and HIV and HPV aren't just infuriating, they are killers.
Continue reading "Circumcised men are good for women"
Posted by Tam
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03.24.2009
I just checked out the NASA effort to get the public involved in the project to send its new rover to Mars and have hot news about why you should vote to name the rover.
Eight out of the nine name choices are borrrrrrring, but one is highly vote-worthy: Amelia. They don't explain, but presumably this is in loving memory of the daredevil pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart, who died in a Pacific plane crash some 70 years ago.
Ladies, it's the least we can do. You have until March 29. Vote for Amelia!
Posted by Tam
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03.23.2009
Using some science I really don't quite have a grasp on, chemists Paul Rothemund and Erik Winfree of the California Institute of Technology have created artificial DNA thanks to a technique called "DNA origami." This artificial DNA is capable of building itself into (slightly) larger structures, and could apparently be useful in nanocomputing (to create teeny tiny electrical circuits, for example).
But mainly, it's really quite cool and more than a little spooky (in my non-scientific opinion).
Posted by Diane
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03.22.2009
The new Mars rover is scheduled to land on the Red Planet to look for wee microbial life in 2012. Your name could be aboard.
The US National Aeronautics and Space Agency wants you to try your luck by helping to name the new rover, which is scheduled for launch in 2011. Just vote for your fave among the 9 names NASA has selected from hundreds proposed by kids. I haven't seen the candidate rover names yet, but NASA says it will reveal them starting March 23.
The people names destined for Mars will be recorded on a chip installed on the rover before launch. NASA is collecting names from folks who vote in the rover-naming contest. Here's the link for voting. You have until March 29 to cast your ballot and maybe get your name to Mars.
Posted by Tam
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