on July 11th, 2008
The part of the brain associated with reward and addiction is more activated in males than in females when both genders play a game whose object is to acquire more territory. Researchers at Stanford made 22 undergraduates, half of them men and half women, play a video game that dealt with territoriality. The game involved gaining space by clicking on balls on the computer screen.
Although both genders clicked on the same number of balls, men quickly acquired more space than women, apparently because men were better at identifying which balls would give them the most space when clicked. According to the researchers, most computer games that males like to play involve territory and aggression, explaining why men are more likely to get hooked. The study could offer insights into what motivates human behavior.
on July 10th, 2008
Scientists have created human embryos from three parents, which could be the answer to a group of hereditary diseases called mitochondrial disease. Researchers from Newcastle University in Northern Ireland created test tube embryos in the lab using the DNA of a man and two women. Mitochondrial diseases — including liver, brain and heart disorders, blindness, deafness, some forms of epilepsy, and muscular problems — are inherited from the mother. The aim of the method is to make sure that women with faulty mitochondrial DNA do not pass the diseases on to their children. This is achieved by giving the embryos at risk a mitochondrial transplant. However, it may take time to sort out the ethical aspects of these studies.
on July 9th, 2008
Satisfying friendships are a greater predictor of longevity than even close family ties, and they can protect against obesity, depression and heart disease, according to a 10-year study of senior citizens in Adelaide, Australia. Here are six friends to keep on speed dial. Continue reading »
on July 8th, 2008
A patient whose skin cancer had spread throughout his body has been given the all-clear after being injected with billions of his own immune cells.
Tests revealed that the 52-year old man’s tumors, which spread from his skin to his lung and groin, vanished within two months of having the treatment, and had not returned two years later. Doctors attempted the experimental therapy as a part of a clinical trial after the man’s cancer failed to respond to conventional treatments.
The man is the first to benefit from the new technique, which uses cloning to produce billions of copies of a patient’s immune cells. When they are injected into the body they attack the cancer and force it into remission.
Continue reading »
on July 7th, 2008
Artificial sweeteners may not help lose weight. Consuming food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to more weight gain and adiposity than consuming the same food sweetened with higher calorie sugar, according to researchers at the University of Purdue, USA. A study on rats fed on artificially sweetened food showed that they ate more food and gained more weight compared to rats fed on food sweetened with normal sugar. Researchers say that the body is confused when a sweet taste is not followed by a heavy-calorie food, leading the rats on artificially sweetened diet to crave for more food. The results of the study are yet to be translated in humans.
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