Curing Addiction with Cannabis Medicines
Smokers trying to quit in the future could do it with the help of cannabis based medicines, according to research from The University of Nottingham.
Popularity: 7% [?]
March 7, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a CommentFirst Advert To Be Broadcast Into Space
The campaign to broadcast the first ever advert into space is launched today (Friday March 7) - with University of Leicester space scientists playing a key part in the process.
The British public is being asked to shoot a 30-second ad about what they perceive life on earth to be as part of Doritos ‘You Make It, We Play It’ user-generated-content campaign. The winning advert in the competition will be beamed past the earth’s atmosphere, beyond our solar system and into the Universe, to anyone ‘out there’ that may be watching. The winning ad will also be broadcast on terrestrial TV.
Popularity: 9% [?]
March 7, 2008 | Filed Under Astronomy | Leave a CommentResearchers Create Invisibility Cloak
Carnegie Mellon University’s Michael Bockstaller and Krzysztof Matyjaszewski have created a version of Harry Potter’s famed “invisibility cloak” for nanoparticles.
Through a collaborative effort, researchers from the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemistry have developed a new design paradigm that makes particles invisible.
Popularity: 12% [?]
March 7, 2008 | Filed Under Technology | Leave a CommentStudy Reveals How Hunger Works
What makes you suddenly dart into the bakery when you spy chocolate- frosted donuts in the window, though you certainly hadn’t planned on indulging? As you lick the frosting off your fingers, don’t blame a lack of self-control.New research from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine reveals how hunger works in the brain and the way neurons pull your strings to lunge for the sweet fried dough.
Krispy Kremes, in perhaps their first starring role in neurological research, helped lead to the discovery.
Popularity: 8% [?]
March 6, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a CommentSmoking Doesn’t Make People Happy
If you are planning to ignore the messages of national No Smoking Day on 12th March by claiming that smoking is one of the few pleasures left to you, then recent research from the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England may make you think again.
Extensive research carried out by Dr Iain Lang at the Peninsula Medical School looked at the relationship between smoking and psychological wellbeing. Dr Lang and colleagues used a measure of quality of life called the CASP-19 and found that smokers experienced lower average levels of pleasure and life satisfaction compared with non-smokers. The difference was even more pronounced in smokers from lower socio-economic groups.
Popularity: 8% [?]
March 6, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a CommentElderly Drink More Alcohol Than is Recommended
One out of ten elderly adults on Medicare reports drinking more alcohol than is recommended, according to a new study from Brandeis University.
“Even though alcohol problems are more prevalent in younger people, a substantial proportion of older adults are consuming alcohol in amounts that exceed recommended guidelines,” said study co-author Elizabeth Merrick, senior scientist at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management. The study sheds light on a complex problem that has received scant attention and is often missed by health care and other providers, she said.
Popularity: 7% [?]
March 6, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a CommentGood News for Chips Lovers!
Good news for chips lovers everywhere – new research in SCI’s Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture shows that pre-soaking potatoes in water before frying can reduce levels of acrylamide.
Acrylamide is a naturally occurring chemical that occurs when starch rich foods are cooked at high temperatures, such as frying, baking, grilling or roasting.
Popularity: 42% [?]
March 6, 2008 | Filed Under Chemistry | Leave a CommentTrust Your Gut - Intuition is More Than Just a Hunch
Most of us experience ‘gut feelings’ we can’t explain, such as instantly loving – or hating – a new property when we’re househunting or the snap judgements we make on meeting new people. Now researchers at Leeds say these feelings – or intuitions – are real and we should take our hunches seriously.
According to a team led by Professor Gerard Hodgkinson of the Centre for Organisational Strategy, Learning and Change at Leeds University Business School, intuition is the result of the way our brains store, process and retrieve information on a subconscious level and so is a real psychological phenomenon which needs further study to help us harness its potential.
Popularity: 8% [?]
March 5, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a CommentEastern and Western Cultures See Things Very Differently
A team of researchers from Canada and Japan have uncovered some remarkable results on how eastern and western cultures assess situations very differently.
Across two studies, participants viewed images, each of which consisted of one centre model and four background models in each image. The researchers manipulated the facial emotion (happy, angry, sad) in the centre or background models and asked the participants to determine the dominant emotion of the centre figure.
Popularity: 5% [?]
March 5, 2008 | Filed Under Humans | Leave a CommentHow to Store Nothing
How do scientists store nothing? It may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but the answer is causing a stir in the realm of quantum physics after two research teams, including one from the University of Calgary, have independently proven it’s possible to store a special kind of vacuum in a puff of gas and then retrieve it a split second later.
In our everyday life, light is completely gone when we turn it off. In the world of quantum physics, which governs microscopic particles, even the light that is turned off exhibits some noise. This noise brings about uncertainty that can cause trouble when trying to make extremely precise measurements.
Popularity: 39% [?]
March 5, 2008 | Filed Under Physics | Leave a Comment
