A mechanism which can lead to hay fever and other allergic reactions, by preventing the immune system from regulating itself properly, has been discovered by scientists. Researchers hope their finding will allow therapies to be developed that treat allergies by stopping this mechanism.
Religion might keep anxiety at bay
For many, religious activity changes between childhood and adulthood, and a new study finds this could affect one’s mental health. According to Temple University’s Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active.
Testosterone supplementation for older men appears to have limited benefit
Older men with low testosterone levels who received testosterone supplementation increased lean body mass and decreased body fat, but were no stronger and had no improvement in mobility or cognition compared with men who did not use the supplement, according to a study in the January 2 issue of JAMA.
‘Swish-and-spit’ test accurate for cancer
A morning gargle could someday be more than a breath freshener – it could spot head and neck cancer, say scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Their new study of a mouth rinse that captures genetic signatures common to the disease holds promise for screening those at high risk, including heavy smokers and alcohol drinkers.
Silence may lead to phantom noises misinterpreted as tinnitus
Phantom noises, that mimic ringing in the ears associated with tinnitus, can be experienced by people with normal hearing in quiet situations, according to new research published in the January 2008 edition of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.
Our Biological Receptors
Our biological receptors are our link to perceiving and understanding the universe. Shouldn’t we understand how they function?
Launch of science.TV
science.TV is a video-sharing website for people interested in science.
The aim is to create a platform for individuals and groups to communicate with each other, via pre-recorded and live video. It’s interesting for scientists and programme-makers, because it cuts out the broadcaster and helps creators and audiences find each other and does away with the need for dumbing-down for mass appeal.
Attila Csordas at Partial Immortalization has given us some interesting crit. There’s quite a bit that I want to say in response and I’ll hopefully be doing a blogterview with Attila soon.
Science, Technique, and Philosophy
Science is at a peculiar juncture. Despite all that has been written it has yet to be comprehensively defined both in contrast to earlier world-views and in terms adequate to include and discriminate its historical variations. And the distinction among what are called science, technology, and philosophy remains unsettled, if not neglected.
This article is an attempt to define science in contrast to technology and pre-scientific world-views, to identify science as a form of philosophy, and to make a case for the importance of a larger perspective and a more professional temperance in scientific society.
Looking To Fish For Answers in Climate Change
Several phenological studies seem to suggest a correlation of overfishing and climate linked temperature shifts may have resulted in a change in migration patterns of several cold water over the past decade. Considering that 71% of the earth’s surface is covered with water (Arnett, 2006) researchers have increased their attention to the earth’s oceans and its’ residents for clues.
An Iron bird with self intelligence
Introduction Aircrafts are the revolution of the transportation these years, oilots can reach the skyes pulling a stick and with the power of a tornado the engines leaves the aircraft in to the skyes, but [...]
Information theory is the basis of Gaussian adaptation
According to Kjellström, 1969, (see reference in the list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_adaptation#References)
a connection between GA and information theory is the average speed of stepwise random walks inside a high dimensional simplex region. It turns out that the speed is asymptotically proportional to (see also the point 7 in blog “Gaussian adaptation as a model of evolution”)
– P log(P),
where P is the probability that a random step will lead to a new feasible position inside the simplex. Maximum speed is obtained when P = 1/e = 0.37.
A plausible interpretation of this is that 1/P is proportional to the time/work needed to find a step leading to a feasible position, while –log(P) is the self-information obtained when such a step may be taken. Thus, – P log(P) may be seen as a measure of efficiency; information divided by the work/time needed to get the information. In addition GA maximizes the average information of a Gaussian distribution