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A mind reading machine has edged closer to reality after scientists found a way of converting thoughts into words. Researchers were able to render brain signals into speech for the first time, relying on sensors attached to the brain surface. The breakthrough, which is up to 90 percent accurate, will be a boon for paralysed patients who cannot speak and could help read anyone’s thoughts ultimately, reports the Telegraph.
Health : Breakthrough: sensors that can convert thoughts into speech
Western Europeans suffer a heavy toll of death and disability through exposure to excessive noise, making it second only to air pollution as an environmental cause of ill health. That's the conclusion of the world's first comprehensive report on the health effects of noise, published this week by the World Health Organization and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre .
Noise kills, and blights lives in Europe - environment - 31 March 2011
Large Hadron Collider: A Russian Scientist Accidently Put His Head Inside a Particle Accelerator and Didn't develop Super Powers or Die | Gifts and Free Advice
With all the news about the Large Hadron Collider I thought readers of this blog would be interested in what happened to a Russian Scientist named Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski in 1978. As a 36 year old researcher at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Bugorski used to work with the largest Soviet particle accelerator, the synchrotron U-70.
UCSB scientists discover how the brain encodes memories at a cellular level
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have made a major discovery in how the brain encodes memories. The finding, published in the December 24 issue of the journal could eventually lead to the development of new drugs to aid memory.PRESCRIPTIONS of placebos are booming in Germany and Switzerland, reveals a report released last week by the German Medical Association (GMA) . For example, 53 per cent of the doctors from the Medical University of Hannover said they would prescribe placebos such as vitamin pills and homeopathic remedies.
Half of Germany's doctors prescribe placebos - health - 13 March 2011
CANCER remains a formidable foe even 40 years after Richard Nixon officially declared war on it. A new and controversial hypothesis now offers hope that the war can ultimately be won. It suggests tumours have a limited ability to evade modern therapies - a consequence of the idea that cancer is our most distant animal ancestor, a "living fossil" from over 600 million years ago.
Tumours could be the ancestors of animals - health - 11 March 2011
WHAT is your cellphone doing to your brain? The latest study shows that long calls boost brain activity, though whether this is harmful is not known.
Mobile phones boost brain activity - health - 23 February 2011
SOARING rates of alcohol abuse and liver disease in the UK can be reversed by copying French and Italian strategies of cutting cheap booze from supermarkets. So say a group of health researchers, whose analysis shows that since 1986, UK death rates from liver disease, 80 per cent of which is alcohol-related, have more than doubled from 4.9 to 11.4 per 100,000 people.
Raise alcohol prices to save British livers - health - 25 February 2011
Sandrine Ceurstemont, video producer You may think only aliens could have multiple limbs.
New Scientist TV: Body morph illusions: How to become superhuman
A PIONEERING hormone treatment may be the secret to an easy life for diabetics, consigning insulin shots and regular glucose monitoring to the medical history books. Most people associate diabetes with insulin, the pancreatic hormone that dictates how much glucose circulates in blood.
Diabetics: is it time to bin the insulin? - health - 24 February 2011
ALL-NIGHT ravers who take ecstasy might not be harming their brains any more than drug-free party animals. So say John Halpern and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who argue that many studies apparently showing that ecstasy use can lead to memory loss and depression were flawed as they did not take account of the rave culture associated with ecstasy use.
Is lack of sleep and water giving ecstasy a bad name? - health - 24 February 2011
Like the mute button on the TV remote control, our brains filter out unwanted noise so we can focus on what we’re listening to.