This is a good video uploaded to YouTube by National Geographic. It talks about the health hazard that you can get if you go too much to parties and clubs. Even if you don't drink there, just being there in a noisy environment alone can harm your hearing. Take a look at the video. It's short and good.
An article by Constance Holden with ScienceNOW says that the ratio of ring finger to index finger in men corresponds to the math skill of the individuals concerned while in women it corresponds to the verbal skills.
Boys with the longest ring fingers relative to their index fingers tend to excel in math, according to a new study. In girls, shorter ring fingers predict better verbal skills. The link, according to the researchers, is that testosterone levels in the womb influence both finger length and brain development.
The New York Times has it that the whole genome of Dr. Watson, who discovered the structure of the DNA (the hereditary material of all organisms), has been sequenced and made available for scientific research.
Dr. Rothberg’s company [,454 Life Sciences] makes an innovative DNA sequencing machine, the latest version of which proved capable of decoding Dr. Watson’s genome in two months at a cost of less than $1 million, said Michael Egholm, 454’s vice president for research. The sequence was verified and analyzed by Dr. Gibbs’s center in Houston.
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Some scientists believe that it will be medically useful to sequence patients’ genomes when the cost of sequencing falls to around $10,000 or less. Dr. Egholm said that with improvements already under way, the 454 sequencing machine will soon be able to sequence a human genome for $100,000. The cost of sequencing has been dropping so fast in the hands of groups like 454 Life Sciences and Solexa Inc. that some technologists predict the $10,000 genome will be attained in a few years.
A 'wonder drug' capable of revolutionising breast cancer treatment could be available within months.
Taken once a day at home, Tykerb tablets can halve the speed of the growth of the cancer, giving those in the late stages of the disease several precious extra months of life.
France is to ban smoking in all public places from next February, the prime minister has announced.
Public places include stations, museums, government offices and shops, but not streets or private places such as houses or hotel rooms.
Opinion polls in France - often considered a nation of smokers - suggest 70% of the people support the ban, says the BBC's Valerie Jones
in Paris.
Mr de Villepin made the announcement in a television interview.
"We started on the basis of a simple observation - two figures: 60,000 deaths a year in our country linked directly to tobacco consumption and
5,000 deaths linked to passive smoking.
"That makes more than 13 deaths a day. It is an unacceptable reality in our country in terms of public health," he said.
Too many cans of cola might mean bad news for your bones.
Some women drink diet cola to help keep the weight off, but a new study suggests that drinking diet, regular and decaffeinated cola can actually lower bone density and put women at increased risk for osteoporosis.
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