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Using Ultrasonic Scans To Diagnose The Crohn’s Disease

15. October 2011

Crohn's disease diagram. (Photo: d-symptoms.com)

The Crohn’s disease is an often fatal disease of the intestine, which eventually escalates by infecting all other related organs like the mouth or the anus. This disease often occurs when the body’s immune system turns against the intestine, thus causing a great disruption in their functioning and mechanism. During the first days of infection, they tend to cause grave gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea and abdominal pain, and if left untreated, they tend to affect the rest of the body, causing illnesses that range from bone fractures to destruction of the body’s immune system.

While they have known to spread genetically, they affect more than 400,000+ people in North America alone. To make matters worse, the body tries to heal itself by fibrosis, which creates so much unwanted connective tissues, that they tend to do more harm than good. This in turn also puts the patients into a great risk by the current diagnoses methods. But according to a recent study by the university of Michigan, Ultrasonic elastic scan may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for doctors who want to diagnose the Crohn’s disease.

The scientist who worked on this project claimed that while traditional MRI and CT scans are more effective than their ultrasonic counterparts, they are not really helpful in distinguishing the fibrosis tissue from the actual disease, which puts the patient at a higher risk of being wrongly diagnosed. However, since a connective fibrosis tissue is known to be more hard and lumpy compared to the tissue formed by the crohn’s disease, an ultrasonic sound wave from an ultrasonic elastic scan can help the doctors pick out this difference as using their high frequency levels.

Ultrasonic scanning may not be a new concept, but they are taken so much for granted that they find very little real use in the medical industry of today, which is why people forget that they can actually used to detect the nature of of a tumorous tissue, without an expensive medical procedure. However, even if the scientists are able to successfully diagnose this disease, curing them takes a whole new level, but that is a different story.

(rockefellernews/yk)

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How Psychopaths Can Be Identified By Analyzing Their Speech

15. October 2011

Ted Bundy: Infamous Psychopath. (Photo: wikipedia.com)

A psychopath is a person who shows absolutely zero empathy towards people in general and who shows no remorse in harming them in anyway. While in the movies, psychopaths like Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs or Patrick Bateman from American psycho are traditionally depicted as being charismatic albeit ruthless murderers who can smooth talk their victims, psychopaths in real life are much more complicated than their movie counterparts as for one, some of them are merely antisocial and not cold blooded murderers.

As for those who indeed are killers, must of them are social outcasts who have been long isolated from humanity and lack any form of charisma. The point being, psycho-analyzing the mind of these people has been a herculean task for experts for years, with none of them coming up with answers that are satisfying enough. However, a study embarked by the university of Columbia and Cornell university shows that speech pattern analysis are one of the most effective but overlooked methods, for psycho-analyzing.

For the purpose of this research, Dr Hancock from the university of Cornell and his colleagues, personally handpicked a team of 10 psychopathic criminals who have been awaited trails for gruesome crimes and 38-40 other non-psychopathic criminals. These researchers, then took each criminal separately and had a brief chat with them regarding their crimes.

After the session, the researchers realized that the psychopaths were more likely to use vindicating pronouns like ‘because’ or ‘so that’ and had the astounding ability to recall every trivial detail of their crime with great accuracy, suggesting that psychopath were more likely to justify their crimes, due to their peculiar sense of entitlement towards the crime itself.If things did not get any weirder, the researchers probed further and saw that these people were much more likely to give pompous and non-fluent answers to their questions, again possibly suggesting their desperation to impress others.

However, while this study does show that psychopathic murders have a distinct way of speaking than the rest of us, always remember that correlation does not result in causation, which means that judging someone by their way of talking is just plain wrong. Instead, this study paves way for new therapy methods to treat people from becoming into murderers.

(rockefellernews/yk)

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Man In Deep Trouble For Hacking E-Mail IDs Of Celebrities

13. October 2011

Scarlett Johansson. (Photo: Guxed.com)

What do celebrities like Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake have in common,? well for once, they all have been victims to a serial hacker and have had their private photos and privacy compromised as a result. This 30 something hacker, who goes by the name of Christopher Chaney has been accused by the L.A police department for illegally snooping around the email ids of these celebrities, in order to find juicy scopes for celebrity blogs or magazines and make money by selling the candid photos to them.

However, after a year long success, Chaney was finally arrested on October 12th for, not only trespassing and violating their privacy but also for playing a key role in the Johannson naked photo scandal that took place a month ago. But according to the L.A police spokesperson, they are gathering enough evidence to put him away for a great deal of time.

Chaney, who is the resident of Florida, explained his modus Operandi to the cops claiming that he would use a auto scripted software to scan the address books of these aforementioned celebrities, in order to find their e-mail address. Then using another software program, he would manipulate the e-mails by making them auto-forward all their incoming mail to his inbox, meaning that no matter how many times the celebrities tried to change their passwords, he could still keep a tab on them. However, he did not really go in much detail as to the type of software programs or methods he used for his hacking escapade, although the police and computer experts suspect the use of alias and fake ids.

Even though Chaney allegedly apologized for his misdeeds claiming ludicrous reasons, the judge of L.A court is not going to let him go easy as he will need to serve a 120 year+ life sentence, if he is found guilty for all his indicted crimes. However, for the time being, he is released on a 10k dollar bond and is scheduled to re-appear before the court on Friday, with an additional condition that he is absolutely forbidden to use any device that has an internet access. This sentence may seem a bit to harsh, but celebrities do need their personal space. Besides, it is high time people start taking cybercrime as seriously as any other crime.

(rockefellernews/yk)

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Gene Linked To Suicidal Behavior Found

09. October 2011

Hanging: common suicide method. (Photo: icooltv.com)

Sometimes in life, it so happens that there is absolutely no way out from our problems. The problems in question are not mere annoyances, but real life threatening problems where no amount of motivation or advice does the trick, so the only other option left is suicide or the act of killing oneself. Even though it is far from us to condone such an act, the actual motive for suicides is far more complicated in real life where people seemingly kill themselves for problems which only they can understand. The point being, suicidal behavior is a complicated subject which makes even the astute psychiatrists scratch their heads. However, the Center for addiction and mental health have discovered a gene that can serve as the missing link between all the people with suicidal tendencies.

The researchers from the aforementioned institute rounded info up 11 studies from various health institutes, where more than 1200 participants had been diagnosed with some sort of dementia related illness. After a couple of thought experiments and test, the researchers realized that from the group, the people with a high level of a non-polar amino acid called Methionine or met in their genes, should the highest affinity for suicidal thoughts and behavior. While Met is a protein based compound that is known to cause a stimulation and inhibition of the brain activity, its combination with the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) can actually cause the person’s mind to think suicidal thoughts. This BDNF gene was the same gene that was ruled out as the chief cause for suicide by previous studies.

According to Dr James Kennedy, while this study does show that suicidal behavior may be genetic after all, there are a lot of other factors like drugs or mental health that play a part in this, which makes the whole experiment even more complicated. But nevertheless, if suicide does turn out to have a strong connection with a person’s genetic factor, we may finally able to come up with medications and drugs that not only fight depression, but also suicide as a whole, just like one of those drugs that can potentially help us rid our gambling and alcohol addictions, but that is a different story.

(rockefellernews/yk)

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Former Apple Steve Jobs CEO Dies At The Age Of 56

06. October 2011

Steve jobs in a 2008 public appearance. (Photo: wikipedia.com)

Steve jobs, the revolutionary leader who is the co-founder of tech giant Apple, finally kicked the bucket on October 5 Wednesday after a decades long stint at being one of the best business leaders the world has seen. The company’s official website released an obituary about the late business leader claiming that the world ‘ had lost a great human being and visionary’ as he died peacefully surrounded by all his family member. However, neither the company spokesperson nor any friends or family members told any media sources about the actual cause of his death, although lot of people speculate that it has got to do about his pancreatic cancer, which he was diagnosed with and was undergoing treatment for almost a decade from now. But whatever is the reason, common people and business leaders alike are visibly expressing sympathy for his demise.

Steven Paul Jobs, who started out as an average nobody into becoming one of the most astute and influential business magnates, started Apple from the garage of his parents, in and around the year 1976 at age 21. After years of setbacks and struggle, the company finally saw light at the end of the tunnel during the early 2000s where it released its first i-pod, thus giving their naysayers and competitors a taste of their own medicine. After the subsequent release of more i-related products and several other services like the itunes, the company has thus grown into a $100 billion+ enterprise with more than $60 billion in annual revenue with 50,000 employees globally.

But the life of Mr jobs was not so mundane either. After a power struggle in the year 1990 with John Schully, he was forced to give up all his duties and titles and was booted out of the very company he had started. However, instead of throwing the towel and living lavishly by his liquidated millions of dollars worth of Apple stock, he dusted himself to start a new computer company called NeXT computers, thus having the last laugh when the company was purchased by Apple which made him the CEO. However, in August 24 2011, Steve jobs decided to give up his title as the CEO and continue working as the chairman, as he felt he lacked the energy to run the company with the same amount of enthusiasm.

Mark zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, and even long time rival Bill Gates expressed a lot of sadness for the death of the business tycoon, and along with them, thousands of people, that consisted of employees, investors and the public, expressed their memories and condolences by thanking him for revolutionizing the tech industry and making the world a more inspiring and better place. Even though the man did have his fair share of haters and detractors, his legacy will inevitably continue to live on.

(rockefellernews/yk)

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Written by Romeo Braceros

Latest Gadgets Showcased In Japan Tech Fair

04. October 2011

Toshiba showcased what it calls "the world's thinnest and lightest" tablet computer, equipped with a 10.1-inch display that is just 7.7 millimetres (0.3 inches) thick and weighs 558 grams (19.5 ounces). (Photo: Yahoo.com)

Gadget loving souls, who wants to know the latest and coolest hi-tech gadgets available today, better heed now in Chiba, near Tokyo, Japan.

This developed after the said place is this year’s host of the biggest tech fair in Asia the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (Ceatec). Ceatec organizers said those people who wants to know the latest technological trends and products can find joy in the fair, participated in by some of the world’s leading technological companies.

Asia's biggest tech fair for 2011 is currently ongoing in Chiba, near Tokyo, Japan. (Photo: Yahoo.com)

The five-day fair which officially started on Tuesday hopes to gather 200,000 visitors all over the world.Among the newest and coolest products that will be unveiled in the event are smartphones that can detect bad breath and radiation, twistable remote controls and a super-thin tablet computer. Sounds very cool right? Exhibitor Electronics parts maker Murata Manufacturing also unveiled devices using a newly developed transparent organic film that can deliver instructions via twisting motions or pressure.

The exhibitors also participated in the event to show advanced gadgets to lure buyers to buy them in their year-end shopping season at a time when the global economy is showing signs of a slowdown as the debt crisis in Europe continues. Sony’s new lineup in the fair included binoculars capable of high-quality digital recording in 2D and 3D particularly useful for animal watchers, storm chasers and sports fans. So if you have the money and is living or near Japan, take time to visit the tech fair now!

(rockefellernews/rb)

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Creating A Mirage For Making Objects Appear Invisible

04. October 2011

A desert mirage. (Photo: flickr.com)

An optical illusion is a baffling phenomenon where the brain tricks us into seeing an object or an image that is substantially different from what we are supposed to see there, thanks to the change in the path of light. Most optical illusions are very subtle and require a lot of concentration to actually realize you are looking into one although some of them, like a mirage for instance, occurs naturally and spontaneously.

A mirage occurs when a ray of light passes away from the temperature gradient by passing from a phase of cool air to a phase of warm air. Since warm air is known to have a smaller refractive index as compared to cool air, it causes the light rays to bend, thus causing an image of a far away object appear nearby. So if in short a mirage can deceive people into seeing or hiding object, why not use it for scientific purposes?, fortunately this is exactly what a bunch of scientists from the university of Texas are planning to do.

These scientist plan on using nanoparticles of carbon, known as carbon nanotubes, for creating a mechanism that can produce man made mirages. Carbon nanotubes were preferred over other materials as they not only have the thickness of steel but they are no denser than a similar quantity of air and they also shown to be very good conductors of heat. So by using these nanotubes in a cylindrical shape, all the researchers had to do was cause them to be stimulated and heated by an external source. This in turn caused them to change the scalar direction and rate at which temperature is supposed to change, which resulted in the light rays to be bended away from the underlying object to another distant object, thus making the mind see things that are not really there and successfully making the actual object appear invisible to the eye.

It is important to take note that this does not involve any magic or any kind of hi fi science, all the scientists did was use the unique property of light to make an object look invisible. But just because this worked in the experiment it does not mean that it will work full proof regardless of what you are trying to make invisible. So far, this mechanism can only make water or liquids appear invisible and not any physical object, so the dreams of making the Harry potter cloak a reality will still have to wait.

(rockefellernews/yk)

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Using Gravitational Waves To Measure The Universe

04. October 2011

A gravitational force field. (Photo: ligo.org)

If there is a force or energy that is the most consistent in our universe, it is gravity. Along with being one of the four most fundamental forces that binds our universe, it is omnipresent, which means that bodies of all masses and shapes tend to exert it on one and other. However, even though gravity has been studied by prominent scientists like Albert Einstein and Issac Newton in detail, even the top scientific minds of today know very little about it. But after some years of considerable research, a joint collaboration by the University of Hebrew Jerusalem and Tel Aviv university have shown that gravity waves can be used as a leading tool to study the vast universe.

The researchers who worked on this project, Dr Tsivi Piran of Jerusalem university and Dr Ehud Nakar or Tel Aviv university, explain that whenever a super cosmic event, like a super massive start collapse or a neutron star merger occurs, a gravitational wave force is ejected into space. So in a way, by measuring a couple of such waves in space, astronomers can now predict their underlying cosmic events and now with all the sophisticated gravitational wave telescopes being built, their work will be much easier.

But nevertheless, since the waves can be more than a billion light years away, even a force field of that level will just seem like a very faint sound for us. This flaw can lead to several potential complications where we may mistake natural sounds on earth, like rain or a small ripple in oceans, as a cosmic gravitational wave. So after looking a bit further, they were in for another surprise when they found out that when a cosmic even, like a the merger of two dense neutron stars occurred, the heat generated was enough to cause radio waves of very strong amplitude to be emitted and detected billions of light years away, thus causing a temporary solar flare.

These scientists postulated that while gravitational waves cannot be used as a lone indicator for such events, using them alongside these radio waves can not only help them measure the nature of the event, but also the distance from us. However, since it is not an exact science as many more indicators come into play, we may still have a long way to go, before we fully understand our universe. This research was funded by the European research council and the Israeli science foundation, among others.

(rockefellernews/yk)

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Artificial Leaf May Be The Next Breakthrough In Solar Energy

30. September 2011

Artificial leaf. (Photo: mit.edu.com)

As anybody who has finished elementary school will know, plants are one of the most versatile life forms on earth due to their ability to not only produce their own food but their own energy, by the process of photosynthesis and with the help of chlorophyll. However, no matter how much we try, we have never been able to come up with a inexpensive and viable way of producing eco-friendly energy. Even wind and solar energy, while green, are still relatively unused and undeveloped leaving us with a huge green energy supply deficit on a global scale. But now, a team of scientists from the Massachusetts institute of technology have invented a device that may be the answer to all the global green energy crisis: an artificial leaf that produces energy from the sun!

This artificial leaf will be no bigger than an ordinary leaf and will use the energy from the sun to create a chemical reaction that can store the resulting energy for later use. However, the significance of this gizmo is that it is completely operated by the sun’s energy and does not require any wires or external electrical sources to operate. It is also made very cheaply from some of the commonly occurring minerals like iron, silicon and cobalt. On a basic level, this artificial leaf will just be a thin plate of silicon with a cobalt based catalyst bound on its one side and a zinc alloy based catalyst bound on the other.

In order to operate this device, all you have to do is place it in a clear container of water and the chemical reactions will do the rest. Once the sunlight hits the silicon chip, it will cause it to release bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen on two different sides of the bowl, with the help of the aforementioned catalysts. The cobalt catalyst will be responsible for releasing oxygen bubbles and the zinc catalyst will oversee the release of hydrogen bubbles. Now that the water is bubbling with hydrogen and oxygen, all the scientists had to do was create a barrier in the water to separate the bubbles, which meant that they had free hydrogen and oxygen at their disposal for future energy usage.

While this device mostly operated without wires, Dr Daniel Nocera, who worked as a chief researcher on this project claimed that without wires, this device may convert 2.5 to 3 percent of all the sunlight into energy, but with the help of wires, the numbers could increase to 5 to 6 percent, which is quite and achievement considering this device is still in its beta stage.

But even though the device is still in its prototype form, it has still managed to perform all the tasks very well, which means that after some more development, it can be altered and be used on a nanoscale level which would create energy which much greater efficiency then its present form. Nevertheless, according to Nocera, the device still is not ready for commercial use and needs to get some bugs fixed. However, this invention may help us create a future where we will be able to solve all our energy related woes, without hurting the environment.

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