Here First - Science and Technology Blog

Dolphins have the unparalleled ability to switch off and on diabetes, men of science have ascertained, in a discovery that might lead to remedy for the disease in humans.    Researchers determined that the mammal can stimulate the condition once there's little nutrient around and turn it off when nutrient is plenteous. They consider it is a unusual ability in the animal kingdom used in the mammal’s need to keep up high blood sugar levels to feed its big brain.  Scientists also think that this is an ability that humans have dropped off through evolution and that analyzing dolphins could guide to techniques to re-activate it. “Diabetes is to blame for 5% of human deaths globally,” said Dr Stephanie Venn-Watson, a veterinary epidemiologist and director of Clinical Research at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego.  “Maybe this is a vestige of something dormant that could be awakened and used as a therapy or cure.” It is believed that researching the...

It appears like  fusion power is just the next big thing that never happens. Although we're not quite on that point yet, 3 fresh reports altogether suggest we are at least getting a little closer. A great project between MIT and Columbia University suggested the hypothesis of a new path towards nuclear fusion reaction. By exploitation highly large and muscular donut shaped magnets, the men of science have produced an environment were plasma gets more densely concentrated — through a phenomenon known as turbulent pinching. To make this arrangement, a half-ton torus magnet is suspended inside a magnetic field, and then the plasma forms around it. This represents  the Levitating Dipole Experiment, and unfolds a potential third way of generating atomic power, apart from the current tokamaks and inertial nuclear fusion methods. Discoveries have as well been produced in the area of inertial fusion, and investigators at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California have...

US boffins funded by shadowy federal authorities allege they've produced a new kind of silicone implant that can generate electrical power from the motions of the bodily area in which it is localised. The fresh technology, developed at Princeton University in the States, necessitates adding piezo-electric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) to silicone, producing a material which generates electricity when squeezed, crushed or tilted. "Because the silicone is biocompatible, it is already used for cosmetic implants," note the Princeton engineers. "Natural body movements [could] power pacemakers, mobile phones and other electronic devices." "The new electricity-harvesting devices could be implanted in the body to power devices perpetually, and the body wouldn't reject them," adds Michael McAlpine, Princeton engineering prof. "As we get better at making these chips, we'll be able to make [the power units] larger and larger." Accurate exe...

The refractive surgery using the LASEK and PRK technique is considered the safest and most modern method of permanently getting rid of glasses or contact lenses. Many folks with eye problems are undergoing thys type of surgery that specifically corrects the refractive error of the eye. The anomalies that are corrected by these methods include myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. I'm going to share a short infographic that shows you some of the advantages of having a Lasik surgery instead of using contact lenses all your life. I think the image speaks for itself... Via: King Lasik

A breakthrough in the treatment of high blood pressure could improve the life expectancy for a million Australians whose condition does not normalise with drugs. The procedure uses radio waves to muteness or destruct nerves in arteries supplying the kidneys. First results indicate a substantial decrease in blood pressure for most of the patients taking part in the study.

Cancer is one of the heaviest problems confusing modern medicine. Recently, Researchers have cracked the genetic code for two of the most common cancer types. This is the beginning of a global effort to catalog all the genes that go amiss among the many types of human cancer, the BBC reports. Too much time spent under the sun apparently leads to most of the 30,000 mutations contained within the DNA code for melanoma, or skin cancer. Outside experts told the BBC that no previous study has managed to link specific mutations to their causes. Researchers also discovered more than 23,000 errors in the lung cancer DNA code, most of them induced by cigarette smoke exposure. A heavy smoker could get one new mutation, potentially harmless but as well possibly a cancer trigger, for every 15 cigarettes that they smoke. The fresh cancer correspondences could conduct to better blood exams for diagnosing the respective cancers, also as better targeted drugs. Blood tests could even break the ...