Tag: HEALTH

A recent study claims that smokers who received personal phone calls from counselors for 18 months and participated in QuitNet.com, an online smoking cessation program, had double the quit rates of smokers who only used the online program. According to a Reuters report, about 2,000 smokers participated in the large-scale study, which was conducted at the American Legacy Foundation's Schroeder ...

Share In the midst of a particularly frigid and brutal winter, fighting the debilitating effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) grows increasingly difficult. A group of scientists believe a new device could eradicate that darkness-induced depression, though, by blasting the brain with a warm and comforting glow. Created by scientists from Finland's University of Oulu, the Valkee reportedly ...

For many people, the mere sound of a dentist's drill starting up is enough to make them sweat and panic. But researchers have created a new device that cancels out the drill's high-pitched whir while allowing patients to hear the dentist's voice. According to BBC News, the device, which was developed jointly at King's College London, Brunel University and London South Bank University, contains ...

British researchers have developed a new formula capable of predicting any couple's chances of having a baby through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) with up to 99-percent accuracy. Devised by researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Bristol, the calculator is already available online, and will soon be available as an app for iPhone and Android. According to research leader Scott Nelson, a ...

Share Do you open your laptop as soon as you wake up? Do you sneak out of the office to tweet from your smartphone? Do you get the shakes if you go several hours without visiting Switched? If so, you're not alone, because, according to a new study, we're all physically addicted to the meth of new media. The study, titled 'Unplugged,' was undertaken by the University of Maryland's International ...

Only months before the 3DS launches in Japan and the U.S., Nintendo is now warning customers on its Japanese site that children under 6 years old shouldn't use the 3-D console, because it might damage the development of their eyes. The 3DS, which features 3-D gameplay without glasses, will have the option to lock into 2-D mode so younger kids can safely play, according to Engadget. While ...

Last summer, researchers from the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston concluded that teen hearing loss has drastically increased over the last 20 years. The scientists based their conclusions on separate, extensive studies conducted for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The first survey analyzed the hearing capabilities of 2,500 adolescents between ...

Security expert Dan Kaminsky was catapulted into the national spotlight in 2008 -- and again in 2009 -- because of his significant roles in the DNS and Conficker conflicts. Kaminsky, who admittedly likes "fixing things," now hopes to address another issue, but this problem serves as actually physical, and common, affliction. Inspired by a recent 'Star Trek' showing, and his colorblind friend's ...

Implantable chips offer seemingly infinite healing possibilities, particularly for the blind, the disabled and those who suffer from Parkinson's Disease. Australian scientists now believe a developmental chip could offer tantalizing benefits for sufferers of another affliction. According to Popular Science, National ICT Australia recently revealed its design for "a smart chip that, when embedded ...

In studying cell phones' effects on human health, University of California Los Angeles researchers have concluded that pregnant mothers who use cell phones are more likely to have children with behavioral problems. Although lead researcher and epidemiologist Dr. Leeka Kheifets is reticent to say that cell phone exposure causes such problems, she did tell Reuters: "It is hard to understand how such ...

With its astronomically high skin-cancer rate, Australia has decided to inform its people about sun safety with a new iPhone app. Called 'SunSmart,' the free app gives users a daily forecast of UV levels, helping -- the government hopes -- to dissuade Aussies from exposing their skin to carcinogenic levels of sun. We'd think just showing them all a picture of Snooki would do the trick, though. ...

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a new retinal prosthetic that allows blind mice to clearly see an image of a baby's face. According to Science News, Sheila Nirenberg and Chethan Pandarinath used the prosthetic to mimic the actions of the retina's photoreceptor cells, which serve as key links between the eye and the brain. In a healthy eye, these cells convert every image viewed ...

Prosthetic limb technology continues to advance at an astounding rate. Despite incredible developments like mind-control capabilities and super-hero implants, two -- albeit incredibly different -- areas still remain vastly underdeveloped: animal-inspired limbs and submersible prosthetic swimming equipment. Bionic paws for cats do already exist, and scientists actually fitted one double-amputee ...

Today, a cardiologist in England will attempt to become the world's first doctor to execute a heart operation via a remotely controlled robotic arm and advanced 3-D mapping technology. The doctor, André Ng, is scheduled to perform an operation to correct an irregular heart rhythm, called atrial fibrillation (AF), in a 63-year-old man. To pull off the feat, he'll be using the Amigo ...

Scientists persistently pursue the development of effective robotic caretakers, and the Georgia Institute of Technology just significantly upgraded the capabilities of such service-bots. The Georgia Tech engineers reportedly utilized a "Segway omnidirectional mobile base, two anthropomorphic arms with seven degrees of freedom and wrists equipped with 6-axis force/torque sensors" to create Cody the ...