Playing virtual reality computer games could provide the answer to combating motion sickness.
Scientists are looking at how feelings of nausea can be induced in people who are put into a virtual reality environment. By putting them back into that environment on a frequent basis the researchers are hoping to find out if they become accustomed to the conditions and overcome the symptoms of motion sickness.
The research is being carried out by scientists at Loughborough Univers
Scientists believe that they have found a chemical responsible for increasing cardiovascular risk, it was revealed. And crucially they have identified how it is made and destroyed in the body raising the possibilty that new drugs to reduce the risk of heart disease are around the corner. A team of scientists based at the new British Heart Foundation (BHF) Laboratories at UCL first identified ADMA as a naturally occurring substance that blocks the production of a gas made by the body – Nitric Oxide. N
The herbal extract, butterbur, is as effective as antihistamines for treating hay fever, and does not have the sedative effects often associated with these drugs, finds a study in this week’s BMJ.
Researchers in Switzerland identified 125 patients with a history of hay fever. Patients received either butterbur extract tablets or a commonly used non-sedating antihistamine (cetirizine) as recommended by the manufacturers.
After two weeks, the effects of butterbur and cetirizine were s
Cellular attack tactic keeps virus at bay.
A new AIDS vaccine could be one of the most promising yet. The drug’s effects in monkeys suggest that killing virus-laden cells may form a key part of future vaccination strategies.
Vaccinated monkeys survived a usually lethal infection with a monkey-human hybrid virus, SHIV. Their primed immune system kept virus levels below detection, Emilio Emini of Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, Pennsylvania, and his team now report
A new type of Earth ecosystem could be found on other planets.
Scientists have found a community of microbes unlike anything else on Earth. Conditions in this ecosystem could mimic those on Earth when life began, and might exist elsewhere in today’s Solar System.
Home to the microbes is a hot spring 200 metres beneath the US state of Idaho. Their lives owe nothing to the Sun. They generate energy by combining hydrogen from rocks with carbon dioxide, releasing methane as a by
Researchers finally measure the subtle quantum effects of fourth fundamental force.
Far from falling smoothly, objects moving under gravity do so in lurching, quantum leaps, a French experiment has revealed 1 . The finding confirms that gravity, like the Universe’s three other fundamental forces, can have a quantum effect.
Particles, such as electrons confined to their orbital shells around the nucleus of an atom, are restricted by the rules of quantum mechan
Middle aged men should be heartened to know that frequent sex is not likely to increase their risk of stroke. It may actually reduce the risk of sudden death, suggests research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The Caerphilly study, which takes its name from a former mining town in South Wales, involves tracking the development of heart disease in almost 3000 men. All were aged between 45 and 59 when recruited to the study between 1979 and 1983.
Just under 1000 m
Adolescents from families where mealtimes and other activities are shared seem to have fewer mental health problems, reports a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Researchers assessed the family habits and rituals of 82 first time users, aged between 14 and 23, of mental health services in one metropolitan area. Anxiety and depression were the main problems for which treatment was sought. Family practices in 177 young people within the same age band from various educa
Scientists have manufactured a microscale bicycle chain comprised of silicon links thinner than a human hair that behaves just like its regular-sized counterpart. The tiny chain system could one day help power microscopic devices.
Ed Vernon, a technologist at Sandia National Laboratories, designed and patented the 50-link silicon microchain (see image), which was built by the lab’s Microelectronics Development Laboratory (MDL). The centers of the tiny links are separated by just 50 mic
Women who hold back feelings of anger may end up more irate in the long run. According to new research, women experience a rebound effect when they suppress angry emotions, which can result in greater feelings of fury.
In the study, Judith Hosie and Alan Milne of the University of Aberdeen compared different methods of regulating anger and sadness in subjects exposed to footage from emotional films. The researchers instructed one group of men and women to express any feelings of anger brou
Natural randomness punctuated past ice ages with warm spells.
Natural randomness in the world’s climate system may have caused the frequent, fast and fleeting returns to warm conditions during past ice ages, say two German scientists 1 .
Andrey Ganopolski and Stefan Rahmstorf at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research think that the flickering character of ice-age climate is a signature of stochastic resonance. This is the counter-intuitive phenome
In the first weeks of the New Year a team of European scientists drilled successfully through 2002 metres of ice at Dome Concordia, high on East Antarctica`s plateau – one of the most hostile places on the planet. A specially created laboratory on the ice enabled scientists to analyse, for the first time, past climate shifts within hours of each 3 m length of core being drilled – rather than waiting months or years for detailed study back in European labs. The team, working on a seven-year Antarctic
Shared names prompt good deeds.
When seeking help from a stranger, ask someone who shares your name: people are more likely to assist a namesake, an e-mail study has revealed 1 .
A shared name indicates two people are likely to share genes, so evolution may have taught us to be nice to our namesakes, suggests psychologist Margo Wilson who carried out the study at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Unusual names are particularly good a
Belt tightening cloud could have silver-lining for Europe’s planet hunters
European planet hunters are rallying round a beleaguered effort to launch the first spacecraft that might detect Earth-like planets beyond our own Solar System. Meeting in London last week they agreed that the low-cost, low-risk mission has a lot to offer.
The planet-spotting mission Eddington has been approved by the European Space Agency (ESA), but is currently on hold awaiting funds; unless they ma
Missing protein leaves mice impervious to pain
Researchers have a new lead for treating pain. A protein called DREAM appears to play a key role in how mice respond to heat, touch and inflammation 1 .
Mice lacking DREAM seem oblivious to all types of pain, find Josef Penninger and his colleagues at The AMGEN Institute, Toronto, Canada. The animals can bear acute pain – the kind caused for example by heat, pressure, or injections as well as chronic inflammatory
Radiologists in Nottingham have discovered a fast and accurate technique to diagnose deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which may be particularly helpful to pregnant women and travellers at risk of developing dangerous blood clots.
In a study funded by the British Heart Foundation and published this week in the American journal, the Annals of Internal Medicine, (15 January 2002, volume 136, number 2) Professor Alan Moody and his team in the department of academic radiology at the University of Nott
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