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@techspresso
'Botox' improves appearance of facial scars in reconstructive surgery
In patients undergoing reconstructive surgery of the face, treatment with botulinum toxin A (BTX-A, or 'Botox') can improve the final appearance of surgical scars. from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2COnob5
Brain mechanisms that give The Iceman unusual resistance to cold
Dutch adventurer Wim Hof is known as 'The Iceman' for good reason. Hof established several world records for prolonged resistance to cold exposure, an ability he attributes to a self-developed set of techniques of breathing and meditation -- known as the Wim Hof Method. Yet, how his brain responds during cold exposure and what brain mechanisms may endow him with this resistance have not been studied -- until now. from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2F2q3nK
Lithium treatment for bipolar disorder linked to lowest risk of rehospitalization
Individuals with bipolar disorder have the lowest risk of rehospitalization if treated with lithium, according to a new study. Long-acting injections of antipsychotics were also effective, reducing the risk of rehospitalization by 30 per cent compared with their oral counterparts. from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2FeBMyA
The fine-tuning of two-dimensional materials
Scientists have a new understanding of why synthetic 2-D materials often perform orders of magnitude worse than predicted. They searched for ways to improve these materials' performance in future electronics, photonics, and memory storage applications. from Top Technology News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2CNvJMl
Brain mechanisms that give The Iceman unusual resistance to cold
Dutch adventurer Wim Hof is known as 'The Iceman' for good reason. Hof established several world records for prolonged resistance to cold exposure, an ability he attributes to a self-developed set of techniques of breathing and meditation -- known as the Wim Hof Method. Yet, how his brain responds during cold exposure and what brain mechanisms may endow him with this resistance have not been studied -- until now. from All Top News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2F2q3nK
Patients may live longer after hip replacement, study suggests
Hip replacement surgery not only improves quality of life but is also associated with increased life expectancy, compared to people of similar age and sex, according to a new report. from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2FegEIO
Obesity not a risk factor for acute respiratory illnesses, study finds
Although obesity has been considered a risk factor for more-severe cases of the flu, a new study found that it is not a risk factor for severe acute respiratory illnesses, including the flu, in children or adults. from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2COuuwl
New mathematical framework establishes the risk of dramatic collapses of real networks
A theoretical framework explaining the risk of rare events causing major disruptions in complex networks, such as a blackout in a power grid, has been proposed by a mathematician in a new paper. from Top Technology News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2FexEyA
Glowing molecule can reveal live tuberculosis bacteria
A new technique may one day allow fast, simple detection of the bacteria that causes TB, as well as a way to monitor whether drugs are working. from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2FIAA4A
Wanna Clone Your Dog Like Barbara Streisand? Here Are Four Things You Need to Know.
This week, a Variety cover story broke the most newsworthy animal cloning story since Dolly the sheep. Before Samantha, Barbra Streisandâs well-loved Coton de TulĂŠar, passed away in 2017 at the age of 14, her owner had her clonedânot once, but twice. Cells from the dogâs mouth and stomach were used to create the two clones, which are called Miss Scarlett and Miss Violet.
If youâre thinking about following Streisandâs example and are dead-set on bringing Fido back to life, hereâs are a few things you should know.
Itâs Not Cheap
Streisand didnât reveal which company she entrusted with cloning her pet, but the options currently available are rather expensive. A South Korean lab called Sooam Biotech has reportedly carried out the procedure over 600 times, and charges $100,000 per attempt, while the Texas-based ViaGen Pets asks for a more reasonable $50,000 each time, according to a report from the New York Times.
Itâs Not Fool-proof
That price tag is even more distressing when you learn that making a genetic copy of your pup is far from a guarantee. Sooam Biotech estimates that its cloning process works about a third of the time, per NPR. Other dogs are used as surrogates, and provide eggs, and their welfare has to be taken into account when we consider the ethics of cloning â is it really fine to have a dog miscarry unnecessarily?
The Cloned Dog Might Not Act The Same
Our genes do not dictate who we are. Identical twins can sometimes act, or even look, pretty different. The same is true for cloned dogs. Pet cloning company My Friend Again writes on the FAQ on its web site: âIf the new clone grows up in the same environment as the original dog than the personality will be the same or closely similar.â Closely similar.Â
Donât Leave it Too Late
Still thinking of cloning your dog? Itâs best to plan ahead.
If your dog is still alive, you can take it to the vet to get the biopsy sample required for cloning â an eight-millimeter piece of skin from its abdomen, according to Business Insider. If itâs already passed away, youâre not completely out of luck, but youâll need to wrap its body in wet towels and keep it in the refrigerator until you can take it to a vet and get those samples. Not exactly letting Fido rest in peace.
Maybe Consider Adoption
By bringing another animal into the world, you might be leaving one more to die. Every year, around 1.5 million shelter animals are euthanized in the U.S. alone because nobody wants them. Also, itâs way cheaper to adopt from a shelter, or even from a breeder, than to clone the family canine.
The post Wanna Clone Your Dog Like Barbara Streisand? Here Are Four Things You Need to Know. appeared first on Futurism.
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Employees of Agency Regulating Crypto Futures Can Now Trade Crypto
A few weeks ago, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), tasked with maintaining open and safe markets, became involved for the first time with cryptocurrency. The agency is now tasked with overseeing bitcoin futuresâthe market in which investors bet on the value of bitcoin without actually investing in the currency itself. Now, the CFTC is letting its employees get in on the actionâthey are now allowed to invest and trade cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reports.
The CFTC doesnât regulate cryptocurrency per se, but gets involved whenever any cryptocurrency is involved in fraud, or if itâs traded illegally. Because bitcoin is the most popular, the agency has largely focused its efforts on it.
This new rule comes after the commissionâs ethics office received a number of internal inquiries about the possibility to buy and trade crypto, the report continues.
The new rule doesnât mean that employees will get to do whatever they want, the CFTC insists. Employees wonât be allowed to invest in the bitcoin futures the CFTC oversees, because that would represent a clear conflict of interest. They are also forbidden to buy or trade crypto coins taking advantage of the confidential information they can access through their jobs, because thatâs insider trading, which is illegal.
CFTC employees can now buy and trade bitcoin. Image Credit: mohamed_hassan / pixabay
But itâs easy to see how conflicts of interest could easily arise, and they might be impossible to trace or regulate. Insider trading might be obvious if someone got rich quick just as the value of a particular cryptocurrency skyrocketed, but at the lowest levels the anonymity of the blockchain might work in their favor. Employees could also make policy decisions based on their own holdings. All with little fear of getting caught.
âThis is actually mind-boggling that they are allowing investing in this at all. It could absolutely skew their regulatory decisions,â Angela Walch, a digital currency and financial stability expert, told Bloomberg.
The CFTC, for its part, has indicated that it is not encouraging conflicts of interest. A spokesperson for CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo told Bloomberg: âThe chairman has made it clear that staff members who own Bitcoin should not participate in matters related to Bitcoin, as it presents a conflict of interest.â âShould notâ doesnât indicate what the punishment would be if someone did so, however.
As the fluctuations of cryptocurrencies play larger roles in the overall economy, the U.S. government has yet to put forth a comprehensive policy about cryptocurrencies. But it hasnât prohibited them, either. This new rule indicates that cryptocurrencies may be moving towards the mainstream, and that they may be here to stay.
Disclosure: Several members of the Futurism team, including the editors of this piece, are personal investors in a number of cryptocurrency markets. Their personal investment perspectives have no impact on editorial content.
The post Employees of Agency Regulating Crypto Futures Can Now Trade Crypto appeared first on Futurism.
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Scientists Now Know When the First Stars Formed in the Universe
Using a compact radio antenna 10 years in the making, researchers have discovered evidence of the oldest suns in the known universe. Theyâve published their findings in Nature.
When we look at stars, we see them as they were, not as they are. Thatâs because the light takes time to travel from its source to our eyes. With powerful enough telescopes, we could directly see the very oldest stars in the universe. Unfortunately, those telescopes donât exist.
Instead, we have to rely on indirect evidence. So thatâs what a team of astronomers from Arizona State University (ASU), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Colorado at Boulder set out to find. Their search was part of the Experiment to Detect the Global EoR (Epoch of Reionization) Signature (EDGES) project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)
The researchers posited that the earliest stars likely changed the universeâs background electromagnetic radiation, also known as cosmic microwave background (CMB). Although they knew what they were looking for â a small change in the intensity of CMB radio signals between certain wavelengths â finding it wasnât going to be easy, considering everything else going on in the universe.
âSources of noise can be 10,000 times brighter than the signal â itâs like being in the middle of a hurricane and trying to hear the flap of a hummingbirdâs wing,â Peter Kurczynski, an NSF program director, noted in a press release.
Based on previous research, the team also knew that the universeâs earliest stars released large quantities of ultraviolet (UV) light. When this light interacted with hydrogen atoms, it would absorb CMB photons, leaving a signal in radio frequencies; an indication that stars were forming.
Using a customized radio antenna in the Australian desert, the team collected radio wave data until, at last, they found what theyâd been looking for: a clear dip in CMB intensity. This dip indicated that ancient suns first emerged about 180 million years post-Big Bang. For several years the researchers checked and rechecked the data before concluding its validity.
âFinding this minuscule signal has opened a new window on the early universe,â said lead investigator Judd Bowman, an ASU cosmologist, in the press release. âItâs unlikely weâll be able to see any earlier into the history of stars in our lifetime.â
Image Credit: N.R.Fuller, National Science Foundation
Not only does this discovery give us a glimpse of the universeâs earliest stars, it may also help us solve one of its greatest mysteries: the nature of dark matter.
The signal at the center of the EDGES project was twice as intense as expected, indicating that the absorbing hydrogen atoms were colder than researchers thought theyâd be. One possible explanation could be an interaction with dark matter.
âIf that idea is confirmed, then weâve learned something new and fundamental about the mysterious dark matter that makes up 85 percent of the matter in the universe,â said Bowman. âThis would provide the first glimpse of physics beyond the standard model.â
Even without the possible dark matter connection, the discovery is groundbreaking. The EDGES project teamâs follow-up projects, designed to build off this remarkable research, are already in the works.
The post Scientists Now Know When the First Stars Formed in the Universe appeared first on Futurism.
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Tailor-Made Medicine is Pretty Biased
Prejudiced Precision
A new report from the Data & Society Research Institute in New York suggests precision medicine â the practice of tailoring medical treatment and products to specific patients, factoring in everything from genetics to lifestyle â could do more harm than good, with high risks that it will discriminate against multiple groups of people.
The authors of the study, Data & Society Postdoctoral Scholar Kadija Ferryman and Data & Society Researcher Mikaela Pitcan, spent one year researching the possibility of biased and discriminatory outcomes in precision medicine. This included interviewing 21 people working with health data and precision medicine research, such as biomedical researchers, bioethicists, and patient advocates.
In the end, the researchersâ study revealed that one specific group of people would benefit from tailor-made medicines: rich, white men who could easily afford decent health insurance and live a good lifestyle. Other groups, like minorities, women, immigrants, and those who arenât as âhealth literate,â or able to join studies, be active, and take up personalized recommendations would not be supported by the medical system.
Karriem Watson, an academic researcher at the University of Chicago who specializes in recruiting minorities for clinical trials, was one person Ferryman and Pitcan spoke with. Watson revealed how historical data is a source that can work against minorities, despite the years of information it contains. For example, the guidelines for lung cancer screenings in the United States are based on a study involving 53,000 people, yet only 4 percent of those participants were African American.
âSo now, when I do lung cancer screenings in [African American communities], most of the community members that we screen donât qualify because on the front end, the upstream research that led to this, wasnât precise for the people who carry the greater burden for the disease,â explained Watson in the report.
Fairer Future
Ferryman and Pitcan state there are serious challenges to overcome if precision medicine is to become the future of medicine and medical treatment. One such obstacle is the publicâs understanding of what precision medicine is; currently, differing opinions and mistrust built off of historical abuse are undercutting the conversations people could be having about it.
Thereâs also the need for new research into the barriers facing women, minorities, and more, as well as new policies that ensure âthe insights derived will not later be used to surveil and marginalize vulnerable populations.â
Patients and the general public also need to be more involved in precision medicine if it is to succeed. Perhaps more importantly, the public must be able to address missteps taken by those handling their medical data. These changes arenât impossible, but Ferryman and Pitcan call it a âlofty endeavor.â
Itâs in everyoneâs best interest to ensure precision medicine is a practice everyone can benefit from, though. Medicine is on the verge of a radical change, from developments ranging from selling our genome using blockchain technology, to using genetic report cards to predict diseases. Itâs becoming clear that the future of medicine hinges on the public becoming involved, rather than remaining a somewhat passive participant.
The post Tailor-Made Medicine is Pretty Biased appeared first on Futurism.
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Nut consumption may aid colon cancer survival
People with stage III colon cancer who regularly eat nuts are at significantly lower risk of cancer recurrence and mortality than those who don't, according to a new, large study. from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2oJp80z
Can our eyes help predict who will develop memory loss?
People whose eyes show signs of small changes in blood vessels at age 60 may be more likely to develop thinking and memory problems by the time they are 80 than people with healthy eyes, according to a new study. from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2HVITL6
Fish oil and probiotic supplements in pregnancy may reduce risk of childhood allergies
Women who take fish oil supplements and probiotics in later pregnancy may reduce their child's risk of food allergy and eczema, according to new research. from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2oFeTKB
Six decades of cosmology
An expert shares his personal reminiscences of the evolution of the subject of cosmology over six decades. He tells of the increase in our confidence in the standard model of cosmology to the extent that it has become a dogma. from Top Technology News -- ScienceDaily http://ift.tt/2FFcCqV