New study suggests that Testosterone does not increase risky behavior

The common wisdom regarding testosterone has said that it increases aggressive, risk-taking behavior. Some have even gone so far as to link the economic crisis to high testosterone in lenders and stock brokers (causing them to make riskier deals). However, a new study from Switzerland and the UK suggests otherwise.
In the experiment researchers gave 121 women 0.5 milligrams of testosterone or a placebo. They then proceeded to play an ultimatum bargaining game with real money. The women with added testosterone were expected to take riskier, egocentric strategies (offering only a small amount of the money). Results however, were counter-intuitive; the women with testosterone actually gave more generous offers than those with the placebo. The researchers wondered if this was the result of an increase in altruism, or an increased desire for acceptance. The altruism hypothesis was ruled out as the second player did not accept lass generous offers if they had the testosterone. The researchers decided (after a bit more experimenting) that the change in behavior was due to an increase in acceptance-seeking behavior. This results from the individuals valuing reputation over monetary gain.
We cannot discount the effects of testosterone on bargaining however, as one interesting twist in the experiment showed that women who strongly thought they had the testosteroen were more likely to act riskily and aggressively.

Original Article

Cell Phones and Cancer

In the last few years, people have begun to investigate relationships between the use of electronic devices and cancer. There have been many studies that have surmised that electronic devices emit waves of radiation that, with a prolonged exposure, can cause cancer. One of the main targets of these studies has been the cellular telephone. Since its release in the 1990s the cell phone has become a routine part of the life of almost every American person. Many of the scientists predicted that the rise in cell phone use would lead to a rise in brain tumors. However, a team of European scientists recently carried out a study to discover whether or not the brain cancer rate has risen in the ten years since cell phones became a part of mass culture.

Their results were very interesting. They discovered that the rate of brain cancer in cell phone users has remained more or less constant over the last ten years. While this is somewhat good news it does not mean that cell phone users are out of the woods yet. There were many sources of error in the experiment such as different types of cell phones and a lake of understanding of cancer. It would be nearly impossible for them to predict that cell phones will be of no detriment to a person’s health in the long run. Many of the scientists believe that there will be an increase in cancer, but it will occur in the next ten to twenty years. At this point, it is simply too soon to tell.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cancer-cells-brain-tumor

Paper Batteries will Dominate Technology

With the intent to create lighter and more energy efficient batteries, scientist Yi Cui of Stanford University and his colleagues recently created a new battery (at least an improvement of an older model) that appears to achieve this goal. The main difference between these batteries and the conventional ones is that these batteries are made out of regular office paper. Since paper is flexible, lightweight, and easily affordable, it makes for an ideal material for the objective.
These batteries are made by coating paper with a thin layer of an ink/carbon nanotube mixture. Then the electrodes are applied to the material and the entire product is soaked in a chemical solution. The result is a battery that is about 20% lighter and can hold 20 times as much energy as the conventional battery.
One thing that I cannot figure out is what these figures are being compared to? A car battery? The AAA battery? Either way, the “rechargeable” paper battery would be a great improvement to technology. Plus, it is “greener” too. I think that at a larger scale these batteries could be used to replace those in cars. The article mentions that they could easily replace those found in computers and cell phones, but I wonder if they could be used in larger applications too, like industrial machines?

(article here)

People Hear with Their Skin, As Well As Their Ears

Recent research into the science of hearing has revealed some pretty interesting information. While it's long been documented that sight plays an important role in hearing (it's much easier to understand someone when you can see his lips), scientists have just found out that feeling may actually help us hear better, too. Normally, when we say words with "p" "t" and "k" sounds, we make tiny, nearly unnoticeable, puffs of air. This puff of air distinguishes these sounds from the similar sounds of "b" "d" and "g." Our skin is covered in mechanoreceptors that sense movement created by the little puff of air. In an experiment, participants were blindfolded and listened to the sounds "ba" and "da," sounds that produce no puff of air, and "ta" and "pa," sounds that do make a puff. However, scientists put small tubes over the hand, neck, or ear of the participants, and these tubes would produce a puff only half as strong as the puff of air a person would make in regular conversation. Most people didn't even notice the puffs, yet participants still mistook the "ba" and "da" sounds for "pa" and "ta" nearly 30-40 percent of the time if the sounds was accompanied by a puff of air.

In the future, this type of information might be incorporated into devices such as hearing aids. The hearing aid could deliver a small puff of air to the neck of the person wearing the device when the person hears a certain sound, helping them distinguish similar sounds. I thought this article was interesting because it shows how many different mechanisms our bodies have for perceiving our environment. It kind of reminded me of how cats use whiskers to sense their surroundings.

Find the original article here.

Pandas

Dogs, cats, ferrets, and pigs can contract that H1N1 virus, but it's unclear whether it can spread to other animals, like giant pandas, as well. Last week, rather than waiting to find out, visitors were disallowed from the panda section of the Shaanxi Wild Animal Rescue and Research Center due to a sudden increase in human H1N1 cases in the area. The only people allowed into the panda section are the panda's 5 full-time caregivers and 2 veterinarians and even they must wear masks and gloves and be checked twice a day for flu symptoms. The Shaanxi Center is home to giant pandas as well as 21 pandas that belong to a subspecies of panda called Qinling. They are slightly different than giant pandas and even less common. There are approximately 300 Qinling pandas in the world and 1300 giant pandas.

Find the original article here.

No More Bad Smell

In 1909, Eugene Schuller created the first commercial hair dye. Ammonia was a key ingredient in the process of dying hair. Many stylists and users complained and got headaches because of the rather potent smell that comes along with ammonia. Soon, however, this will no longer be a problem. L'Oreal is launching a new type of hair dye where the ammonia is replaced with an odorless subsitute. The brand will be called INOA, which stands for "Innovation No Ammonia." Instead, their product relies on the alkaline, monoethanolamine (MEA). MEA reacts with the hair and opens the hair cuticle, the first step in the dyeing process. MEA products are not new, however. The problem is that they are not as effective. L'OReals' new product, though, pairs MEA with a mineral oil gel, Oleogel, which act as emulsifiers. This is important for the dye to penetrate the hair, and combined they function just as well as ammonia. Besides just lack of smell, INOA is supposedly better and less harsh for those with sensitive scalps. So if you're into hair dye, come 2010 you can buy INOA without the ammonia smell.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=hair-dye-will-debut-soon-in-us-that-2009-12-07

New Anti-Cancer Methods Form

Obviously cancer in all its forms is pernicious. The treatment can be extremely painful, degrading, and ineffective a large percentage of the time. But now, researchers have begun developing a possibly less destructive and more efficient weapon against cancer: vaccines and nano-disks. While vaccines have been created in the past to lackluster results, there's a lot of hope for the nano-discs. Obviously the science behind these new methods is very complicated but basically the nando-discs "are saturated with dendritic cells and antigens specifically tuned to go after tumor cells." These discs work in a similar fashion to the vaccination method (prompt your body to attack invading cells) but the discs survive longer and hurt cancerous areas more effectively than vaccination. Insertion of these discs should be very simple, just inserted underneath the skin anywhere on the body. But more work needs to be done

Another more creative method being worked on, is nano-scale magnets. There has been some research done into the effectiveness that magnetic fields have on cancer cells. But there is still much debate about this method since its more dangerous and much newer. Researchers remain hopeful but realistic about the situation. These methods are exciting but could take quite some time to reach regular cancer patients.

Article here

Early Puberty and Breast Cancer

Puberty, Edvard Munch, 1894
Because researchers have found a link between the stage in life at which women reach puberty and their risk of breast cancer, they have begun to question and investigate why puberty is now coming so much earlier for many girls than in the past. More than a quarter million women have been diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States just this year. As the researcher concluded, it seems that "breast cancer is made, not born." Environmental factors must be a major cause since hereditary genes account for only 5 to 10 percent of cases.

The link between puberty and breast cancer is an increase in estrogen. Many chemical compounds mimic estrogen, functioning as endocrine disruptors in the human body. These include compounds like bisphenol-A (found in common foods and plastics) and phthalates (found in personal care products and food packaging), which, while prevalent throughout the population, are most rampant in the age group of 6 - 11-year-olds, leading some to speculate on their role in the onset of puberty. While the average age of menarche has remained constant for several decades at around 12 years (beginning menstruation before that age increases one's risk of breast cancer by 30%), first breast development now occurs on average more than a year earlier (at 9.86 years) than it did 15 years ago. In fact, 13% of girls now begin developing by age 7.

The article didn't explain the relationship between breast development and risk of breast cancer, but I would imagine they are related through the increase of estrogen that cause both. I found this article interesting because breast cancer is such a talked about issue in our culture today, and affects so many women. Frequently, though, to me (as a complete bystander, not as an expert), the issue seems to be simplified for the public, and it takes on a certain superficiality. For instance, a corporation proclaims, "Let's raise money for breast cancer!" without describing a concrete plan of action. I know that finding a cure for cancer isn't exactly easy, but I appreciate studies like this that are investigating causes and potential environmental factors. I imagine that this approach might be more difficult to swallow for a corporation who, while still wanting to attract the support of women, might make use of products that contain these chemical compounds -- or any other products that, directly or indirectly, cause breast cancer. At the same time, I often find myself irritated when I hear about yet something else that causes cancer. It seems that everything causes cancer, and in our type of society these common items are hard to avoid.

Read article here.

LHC finally operational

Ten days ago, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) reactivated the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which has been out of action for the past year due to a helium leak caused by a faulty electrical connection. The LHC arrived at its first major milestone on Monday, when it accelerated its twin beams of protons to 1.18 TeV (tera-electron volts; 1 TeV is equivalent to one trillion electron volts) of energy. This success nearly matched CERN’s goal of reaching 1.2 TeV and broke the previous record of 0.98 TeV held by Fermilab’s Tevatron. CERN scientists hope that the LHC will eventually be able to accelerate protons to 7 TeV of energy. At the LHC’s maximum strength, circulating particles are expected to carry energy equal to the kinetic energy of 900 cars traveling at 100km/h.
The LHC’s objective is to help improve our understanding of the origins of the universe, search for dark matter, and explain why particles have mass. If all goes according to plan, the LHC should allow scientists to explore the physics of the smallest scales (down to a nano-nanometer) and highest energies ever examined. I picked this article because I was curious about the current status of the LHC. It’s good to know that the world’s largest machine is now operational. The LHC has the potential to produce some groundbreaking discoveries in physics, and I think it would be interesting to learn more about the research taking place there.

This article can be found at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=large-hadron-collider-reaches-an-in-2009-11-30

Tissue Turning to Bone

A rare genetic disorder that effects 1 in a million people causes normal tissue to randomly ossify into bone. This means that the normally flexible parts of your body: skin, muscle and tendons, change into rigid and immobile bone tissue. Scientists have been working to uncover the cause of FOP (Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva) so that they can treat patients. Currently most individuals die from the disorder. Scientists are not certain as to what causes the seemingly random creation of bone tissue. One hypothesis posits that when muscle or tendon fibres tear, a common occurence during most physical activities, bone replaces the tissue instead of the correct tissue. The only sign of the disease in new borns is an odd curling of the toes. This indicates an early sign of deformed bones.

This disorder could be related to other bone disorders such as osteoperosis, a disorder in which bones do not form correctly and are weak. Researchers hope that understanding FOP will help treat these other disorders.

I picked this article because I had heard of this disease before and hadn't been sure if it was real or not, because it's so bizzare. Apparently it's very real

Original article

Why your health insurance provider wants you to get cancer:

According to recent accusations by Harvard doctors, one of the biggest owners of tobacco stock happens to be the health insurance industry. Collectively, health and life insurance companies in the United States and abroad have approximately 4.5 billion dollars invested in tobacco stock. When asked to comment on their policies regarding tobacco stock, Prudential, the largest investor with 1.5 billion dollars in tobacco stock, refused to give a statement. Sun Life Financial, the second largest investor, flatly denied ownership in stock. Doctors discovered the companies' stock assets using the software Osiris, and in the past their pursuits have actually caused companies like MetLife and Cigna to drastically reduce their ownership in tobacco stocks. Health insurance companies owning tobacco stocks poses serious ethical problems and reduces the likelihood of companies supporting anti-tobacco legislation and coalitions.

Personally, it doesn't take an idiot to figure out the conflict of interest going on here. Clearly these companies want their customers to purchase cigarettes so their stock levels will rise, and assuming that the companies make smokers pay higher premiums, than that means companies are especially interested in more people smoking so they can make money on both ends. I think this is another example of the many instances where companies are supposed to stand for one thing but secretly have interests in the opposite, like how PETA owns stock in Tyson and Mcdonalds. This is clearly a very serious issue, and I'm glad that people like the doctors in the article are taking the initiative to do something about it.


link here

Fishies School Wind Farmers

As of 2008 we are now number one! The US surpassed Germany to reach the top spot in producing energy using wind power. Being number one is not good enough for researchers at the California Institute of Technology, so they are trying to improve the efficiency of wind farms. And they turn to schools of fish for inspiration. Because the air is much like water, the way that fish arrange themselves in schools have given scientists ideas for arranging the wind turbines. When fish swim in schools, they leave whirlpools in their wake, which transfers energy to the other fish when they swim through the vortices. Using this information, scientists have generated wind farms on the computer using wind turbines that rotate on a vertical axis instead of the traditional horizontal axis. On the computer they have been able to place the turbines close enough together that the spinning of one directs the wind to neighboring turbines. This arrangement has the possibility to increase wind farm efficiency one hundred fold. And they are working towards the next step, which is a field test.

Find the article here

Cigarettes and Bacteria

In the last 50 years, science has begun to explore the harmful effects of smoking. It has been proven that cigarettes can cause cancer throughout the body and are detrimental to almost every organ. However, over 1.2 billion people continue to smoke cigarettes worldwide. The majority of the research done thus far has surrounded the chemicals and toxins that are ingredients of cigarettes. Scientists recently began to investigate bacteria in cigarettes. It was discovered that cigarettes are a petri dish for many harmful types of bacteria. Before the discovery, cigarettes were not seen as a source of disease, but are now seen as possible causes for the common cold, influenza, asthma, bacterial pneumonia, and interstitial lung disease. The study found over 700 species of bacteria in some of the market’s most well-known brands. The large amount of bacteria comes from the fermentation process that turns the picked tobacco leaves into the tobacco that is present in cigarettes. So far, there has been no plan established to reduce the amount of bacteria in cigarettes.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cigarettes-smoking-bacteria-infection-pathogen

NFL Players Now Required to Consult with Neurologist

The NFL now requires players who have suffered a head injury are now required to be cleared by a neurosurgeon before they can play again, rather than just the team physician. The commission's rule change follows increasing amounts of controversy, including a study which found that former players have a higher rate of brain damage than the national average and a congressional hearing in which the NFL's denial of head injuries was compared to the tobacco lobby's denial of smoke causing cancer by one congress member. Personally, I think that having an outside force monitor these issues is a very good idea. The article also talked about how many players hide injuries so as to be able to keep playing and that the NFL hopes the new policy will encourage players to come forward if they are hurt, as a result of placing more emphasis on health before winning. I think that hiding injuries occurs even at the high school level, and my interest in this sort of machismo is the reason I selected this article. As a player, I have seen people play through minor injuries for important games at the risk of their own health, it is a dangerous practice but one I understand nevertheless.

Stem Cells Might be our Second Skin Option

According to this article, one of the many medical discoveries the science world has made concerning stem cells is that they can control the cells to grow as skin cells. This process would come in extraordinarily handy in the situation of a patient being badly burned as the cells could be ready before hand. The current options for a patient needing a skin graft are often rejected by the body whereas this new stem cell created skin replacement has low levels of the proteins the body resists and high levels of everything that the body accepts. By mimicking the environment of skin cells in a petri dish, the scientists add the stem cells which then react and create skin like concentrations which could possibly be frozen and then quickly on hand for the patients while they were waiting for their own skin to regrow. As always, anything involving stem cell research not only has its dangers but also its extreme controversial qualities. As someone ill educated on the topic, I find this possibility of a new medical discovery exciting although I am still skeptical of its validity as it has yet to be tried on humans. I will be interested to see both how this progresses as a medical concept and how people on both sides of the stem cell argument react to yet another possible progress in our society through the use of stem cells.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=stem-cells-could-offer-new-source-f-2009-11-25

Throw Out Your Psychologists

This new study will revolutionize the way studies on social relations are done. Instead of analyzing average behavior of an entire data set or the way subjects felt after the fact, in this study 350 Penn State students will use smart phones to record the way they feel after every social interaction they encounter in their daily lives. They will answer questions asking about the way they feel about their health, their general emotions regarding the encounter, and the way they perceived the other party. The reason why this is so important is because it represents a radical shift in the way scientific analysis is done, from examining the population to examining the individual. In the future, the researchers would like to monitor heart rate and other physiological phenomena, and as they collect data they could even send text messages offering advice as the participant gets involved in a potentially problematic situation. The beauty of this approach is that the individual will be able to get a very in-depth analysis of the way s/he reacts to a wide variety of different encounters and environments: the study will continue for a year and a half.

That, in my opinion, could be its most problematic aspect. It's very hard for humans to look at themselves as they truly are (I know I find trouble doing this), and ironically, the scientists tout their project as an attempt at improving or attaining overall happiness. I think it would ultimately be very helpful, but it would be hard to try to change behaviors that are already so deeply ingrained. However, I do find the approach very captivating. I think many studies analyzing human behavior tend to be very simplistic -- including several already discussed in this blog. They tend to use situations that wouldn't be found in real life, and measure the subjects in an artificial environment. This study doesn't do that. I find the focus on the individual to be really refreshing and almost necessary at this point (though I'm obviously not a scientist or anything). The last thing that I thought of was that a study like this might end up blurring the line between science and a for-profit venture, because I could see some people wanting to pay for the opportunity to learn more about the way they interact with the world. Obviously they are not doing this, but it could be a future prospect for someone else.

See article here.