Health and Wellbeing

It’s no big secret that wearing in-ear devices, such as stereo earphones or hearing aids, can cause the ears to hurt over time. According to the engineers at Colorado’s Asius Technologies, however, this isn’t due simply to a poor fit or high volume levels. Instead, it’s caused by an “acoustic reflex,” that no amount of earbud-reshaping or decreases in volume will alleviate. There are reportedly ways of minimizing or even eliminating what’s known as “listener fatigue,” though – these include a flexible membrane, and even an inflatable ear-tip device created by Asius. Read More

The results of three recent studies have found that children exposed to organophosphates (OPs) in the womb have a lower IQ at seven years than those that have not. Indoor use of two OPs (chlorpyrifos and diazinon) known to be neurotoxicants have been phased out over the past decade because of health risks, however they are still approved for use in agricultural pesticides and are widely used on food crops. Increasingly scientists are finding that prenatal exposure to pesticides may lead to later health impacts. Read More

One of the theories regarding the cause of schizophrenia suggests that, due to an excessive release of dopamine, the brain remembers too many irrelevant things. Schizophrenics are then overwhelmed by the vast amounts of facts, thoughts and memories all crammed together in their heads, and start processing them into conclusions that aren't based in reality. It's called the hyperlearning hypothesis, and researchers at the University of Texas in Austin recently tried to see if they could simulate it – in a computer. Read More

Whether caused by strokes in seniors or hypoxia in newborn infants, brain injuries can cause the brain to overheat, which in turn causes its cells to die. While there are cooling therapies that can bring its temperature down, doctors first need to establish that the brain is indeed warmer than the rest of the patient’s body. While doing so has previously involved invasive techniques, researchers from Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CHKD) in Norfolk, Virginia have recently created a small device that sits on top of the patient’s head, and measures their brain’s temperature non-invasively. Read More

Being able to quickly confirm the presence of infectious bacteria in a patient’s bloodstream, and then identifying the specific species and strain, can make the difference between life and death for that patient. While traditional detection and identification methods are fairly accurate, they can also take too long to perform. A chemist from the University of Illinois, however, has developed an inexpensive new system that is much quicker – and it works by sniffing out the harmful bacteria. Read More

In this age of laser-etched microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices that analyze samples of bodily fluids on the spot, it's kind of ... fun, perhaps, to hear about a similar device that could conceivably be assembled by a grade school student, using their allowance money. The matchbox-sized sensor, developed by scientists from The University of Texas at Austin, is designed to detect acute pancreatitis using blood samples. Important as its purpose may be, though, the materials used to build the device include things like household aluminum foil, milk, a 12-cent LED bulb, and JELL-O. Read More

When the use of a hand is lost due to a stroke, it’s important to get that paralyzed hand moving again – this allows the brain and the body to “relearn” how to use it. A new approach to this problem has emerged in recent years with the development of powered devices like the Amadeo or the Rehabilitation Glove that enable patients to exercise passively until they recover sufficiently to start moving on their own. Now four students from Montreal’s McGill University have created a prototype stroke recovery glove that would cost relatively little to produce, and that patients can use at home through a video game interface. Read More

Absence not only makes the heart grow fonder, it can also make for a pretty unfulfilling sex life. While technology has allowed lovers to bridge the tyranny of distance in terms of sight and sound, getting touchy feely is a different matter. Men and women have been looked after separately with devices like RealTouch and the OhMiBod, but we haven't really seen technology designed to allow couples to engage in remote sex. Hong Kong-based Remote Pleasure is looking to change that with a set of sex toys that can be controlled by your partner over the internet. Read More

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario have discovered a new strategy for helping the body make blood vessels in vulnerable or damaged tissue. The approach, which has implications for the treatment of victims of coronary artery disease, involves the use of a protein named fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) to assist the "supporting" cells of new blood vessels as they are formed by the body. Read More