Cancer increases the chances of bankruptcy (Credit: laurasia2303/DeviantArt)

Main Points:

Researchers have found that the cancer patients in America are greater than two times more likely to go bankrupt than the healthy people. I think this is the case not only in America but everywhere in the world.

Published in:

Health Affairs

Study Further:

Researchers collected data in Washington State from about 400,000 adults and found that the patients of cancer have more chances of bankruptcy, i.e. 2.65 times more chances, even if they have the health insurance as the high cost of cancer treatment is really high.

“Younger cancer patients had 2–5 times higher rates of bankruptcy than cancer patients age sixty-five or older, which indicates that Medicare and Social Security may mitigate bankruptcy risk for the older group,” Researchers wrote.

“People who have fewer assets, less income and less generous insurance because of entry-level jobs or no insurance are more vulnerable to severe financial distress,” lead author, Dr. Scott Ramsey, said in a statement.

These financial crises could be solved by the help from the governments and employers.

“The findings suggest that employers and governments may have a policy role to play in creating programs and incentives that could help people cover expenses in the first year following a cancer diagnosis,” Researchers wrote.

Source:

Think Progress, NBC News

Reference:

Ramsey, S., Blough, D., Kirchhoff, A., Kreizenbeck, K., Fedorenko, C., Snell, K., Newcomb, P., Hollingworth, W., & Overstreet, K. (2013). Washington State Cancer Patients Found To Be At Greater Risk For Bankruptcy Than People Without A Cancer Diagnosis Health Affairs DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1263

Main Point:

Scientists utilized radiation data gathered by Planck telescope and found first “hard evidence” that other universes do exist i.e. we are living in multiverse.

Study Further:

Scientists found that the data from the Planck spacecraft showed anomalies that can only be described by the gravitational pull of the other relevant universes.

Scientists observed the cosmic microwave radiations from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago that are still detectable in the universe and found that these radiations showed stronger concentration in the south half of the sky and a “cold spot” unable to be understood by the current concepts of physics.

Initially, scientists including Laura Mersini-Houghton, theoretical physicist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Richard Holman, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, hypothesized the presence of anomalies in radiations that are caused by the gravitational pull from the other universes in 2005 and now with the help of $900 million Planck space telescope, launched in 2009, they found that the hypothesis was right. Scientists spent 15 months mapping the sky.

According to the scientists, there could be an infinite number of universes.

Dr Mersini-Houghton said in a statement, “These anomalies were caused by other universes pulling on our universe as it formed during the Big Bang.

“They are the first hard evidence for the existence of other universes that we have seen.”

Source:

The Australian, Dailymail

Pocket sized ironing device (Credit: esupply.co.jp)

Japanese technology has brought a small pocket-sized iron to press your clothes while on the go. This little iron runs on three AA batteries or it can be charged from your PC by USB port. The iron costs only $10.

In order to hold the cloth, the cap of the repressor itself helps. Heating is built on both sides of the body inward and is about 90 to 95 degrees in about 1-3 minutes.

Card hot-repressor has the dimensions of about 100mm x 60mm x 18mm and weighs just 60 grams making it ideal for travel trips and business engagements.

Source:

ESupply via DamnGeeky

Artist’s rendition of a huge impact on moon (Credit: NASA)

Main Point:

NASA discovered the biggest impact on moon in the eight years since the agency is working on the lunar impacts caused by the meteoroids.

Study Further:

“On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium,” said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we’ve ever seen before.”

The meteoroid is thought to be about 40 kilograms in mass and was nearly third of a meter in width. It impacted the moon with the speed of about 90,000 kilometers per hour and exploded with about five tons of TNT power. It was such a huge blast that it could be seen from the Earth at the time of impact. The crater, developed as a result of impact, could be about 20 meters wide, according to NASA.

NASA will use the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to study the impact site, whenever the spacecraft will pass over the site.

“We’ll be keeping an eye out for signs of a repeat performance next year when the Earth-Moon system passes through the same region of space,” Cooke said. “Meanwhile, our analysis of the March 17th event continues.”

Some huge event may have occurred somewhere and this impact could be the part of that event, according to Cooke.

“On the night of March 17, NASA and University of Western Ontario all-sky cameras picked up an unusual number of deep-penetrating meteors right here on Earth,” he said. “These fireballs were traveling along nearly identical orbits between Earth and the asteroid belt.”

Source:

NASA

Main Point:

Researchers have found that the people, who develop skin cancer, may have less chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease in the older ages.

Published in:

Neurology

Study Further:

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disorder that affects the brain and causes dementia, especially late in life.

In this new study, researchers worked on 1,102 volunteers with an average age of 79. They were studied for about 3.7 years. In the beginning of the study, 109 people reported that they had skin cancer in the past. During the study, 32 people developed skin cancer and 126 people developed dementia, including 100 with Alzheimer’s dementia.

Researchers found that the people, who had skin cancer, had nearly 80% less chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease than the people who did not have skin cancer. Out of 141 patients of skin cancer, only two developed the Alzheimer’s disease. This link has only been found in non-melanoma skin cancer.

The mechanism behind the less chances of Alzheimer’s disease in the patients of skin cancer is not clear. However, “One possible explanation could be physical activity,” he said. “Physical activity is known to protect against dementia, and outdoor activity could increase exposure to UV radiation, which increases the risk of skin cancer,” Study author Richard B. Lipton, MD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, said in a statement.

According to Lipton, other possible factors such as genetic factors could also be involved in this. “The hope is that these results help us learn more about how Alzheimer’s develops so we can create better preventive methods and treatments,” he said.

Source:

AAN

Reference:

White, R., Lipton, R., Hall, C., & Steinerman, J. (2013). Nonmelanoma skin cancer is associated with reduced Alzheimer disease risk Neurology, 80 (21), 1966-1972 DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182941990

NASA is installing quantum computer for research (Credit: ALENGO/ISTOCKPHOTO)

Main Points:

NASA is installing a $15m computer that works on quantum computation and is reported to be about 3,600 times faster than the existing computers. It will also be shared by Google and other scientists from the world to study the artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Study Further:

“If we want to create effective environmental policies, we need better models of what’s happening to our climate,” Google said in a blog post announcing the partnership. “Classical computers aren’t well suited to these types of creative problems.”

Google said that it has already worked on the machine-learning algorithms that will work inside the quantum computer made by D-Wave Systems of Burnaby, British Columbia, and the USRA (Universities Space Research Association).

This computer can work thousands of times faster than the traditional computers helping the scientists to reach the solutions to certain types of mathematical problems in fractions of a second by trying the possible solutions and selecting the best one at the same time.

According to the reports, the computer will start working in the third quarter of this year.

Sources:

BBC, Bits, Google Research Blog

Main Point:

Researchers have found that the immune system of the women declines more slowly than men and this could be one of the reasons for the longer life of women – at least in Japan.

Published in:

Immunity & Ageing

Study Further:

Immune system is the system that recognizes and opposes disease. In the new study, researchers have reported that with the passage of time, men’s ability to oppose the disease decrease more rapidly as compared to women, resulting in increased weaknesses with time.

Researchers from Japan analyzed blood samples of 356 healthy men and women in the age range of 20 and 90. They found that the two components of the immune system; T-cells, which protect the body from infection, and B-cells, which secrete antibodies, declined rapidly in men as compared to women.

Moreover, CD4 T-cells and natural killer cells, two specific types of immune system cells that attack invaders and usually increase with age, increase at a higher rate in women as compared to men.

“Age-related changes in various immunological parameters differ between men and women.” Researchers wrote, “Our findings indicate that the slower rate of decline in these immunological parameters in women than those in men is consistent with the fact that women live longer than do men.”

Source:

BBC

Reference:

Hirokawa, K., Utsuyama, M., Hayashi, Y., Kitagawa, M., Makinodan, T., & Fulop, T. (2013). Slower immune system ageing in women versus men in the Japanese population Immunity & Ageing, 10 (1) DOI: 10.1186/1742-4933-10-19

Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) can help in the improvement of mood

Main Point:

Researchers have found that Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) can help in improving the mood.

Published in:

Brain Stimulation

Study Further:

Ultrasound refers to the sound of a frequency above the upper limit of the normal range of human hearing, which is about 20 kilohertz. It is conventionally used for creating the images of the internal body parts especially of the fetus in the womb. It can also be used to affect, either positively or negatively, the internal tissues and it can also break the kidney stones.

In the present study, researchers used the clinical ultrasound imaging device (General Electric LOGIQe) with the ultrasound probe applied at the scalp overlying the brain’s temporal and frontal cortex of the volunteers. They found that the volunteers reported enhanced mood after 10 min and 40 min of TUS application. Furthermore, they found that 2 megahertz TUS (which traverses skull more readily) worked more effectively than 8 megahertz TUS in mood enhancement.

Although mechanism behind the enhanced mood caused by TUS is still not clear but “TUS may stimulate natural megahertz resonances in brain microtubules, enhancing not only mood and conscious mental states, but perhaps also microtubule functions in synaptic plasticity, nerve growth and repair.” Dr. Stuart Hameroff, lead author on the new TUS study, said in a statement.

“We plan further studies of TUS on traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease and post-traumatic stress disorders. ‘Tuning the tubules’ may help a variety of mental states and cognitive disorders.” Dr. Hameroff added.

Source:

Newswise

Reference:

Hameroff S, Trakas M, Duffield C, Annabi E, Gerace MB, Boyle P, Lucas A, Amos Q, Buadu A, & Badal JJ (2013). Transcranial Ultrasound (TUS) Effects on Mental States: A Pilot Study. Brain stimulation, 6 (3), 409-15 PMID: 22664271

Pheed app screenshots

Pheed, a comparatively new social networking platform with fame especially in teenagers, has launched its long awaited Android app on May 14^th.

“Pheed is the return of the all-in-one platform,” CEO and Co-Founder O.D. Kobo told CNET. “We’re all about options.”

Pheed released the world’s first pay-per-view functionality to the iOS app last week.

“Android is going to be interesting, Google has been so awesome” Kobo said in a statement. “It has been a long time coming, we expect to double in size over the next couple months due to the new Android market.”

Pheed is actually a multiple level platform with the combination of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube and I have found that it is the only platform where users can also upload their “audio tracks”.

You can approach the app here;

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pheed.android&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5waGVlZC5hbmRyb2lkIl0

Researchers have found that the size of the frontal lobes of the brain is not the only crucial factor of human intelligence.

Published in:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

Study Further:

Frontal lobes, as the name suggest, are present at the front of each cerebral hemisphere – either of the two symmetrical halves of the front part of the brain.

Researchers have reported in the new study that size of the brain’s frontal lobe is not the only reason of humans’ intelligence.

Professor Robert Barton, lead author, from the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, said in a statement, “Probably the most widespread assumption about how the human brain evolved is that size increase was concentrated in the frontal lobes.

“Although absolute and proportional frontal region size increased rapidly in humans, this change was tightly correlated with corresponding size increases in other areas and whole brain size, and with decreases in frontal neuron densities,” Researchers wrote.

“It has been thought that frontal lobe expansion was particularly crucial to the development of modern human behaviour, thought and language, and that it is our bulging frontal lobes that truly make us human. We show that this is untrue: human frontal lobes are exactly the size expected for a non-human brain scaled up to human size,” Robert Barton added.

Researchers further noted that cerebellum and other ‘primitive’ areas of the brain, and the more extensive brain networks in the different parts are also essential in the expansion of the human brain. These areas are important in human cognition and the related disorders such as dyslexia and autism.

Source:

EurekAlert

Reference:

Barton, R., & Venditti, C. (2013). Human frontal lobes are not relatively large Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215723110