Last week, the United States Preventative Services Task Force released new guidelines for routine mammography screening in women, suggesting that women should start regular breast cancer screening at age 50 and that women aged 50 to 74 should get a mammogram once every two years. The same group previously stated that women should have mammograms every one to two years starting at age 40. The controversy that has arisen from these new guidelines underscores the need for effective interpretation of health statistics across the board. [continue reading…]
November 2009
People need to eat, like to eat and are programmed to eat. Australian neuroscientists took these truths to be self-evident before embarking on a radically new direction in weight loss research.
Current drug-based weight loss therapies try to stop the brain from sending hunger signals to the body. These therapies tend to be fairly ineffective, researchers reasoned, so why not reverse the approach and stop the body from receiving signals from the brain? So that’s what they did, and it worked. In mice at least. [continue reading…]
The Big Personality Test is designed to answer the question: do our personalities shape our lives or do our lives shape our personalities? A big question like this requires a lot of people to answer it, which is why Child of Our Time and Lab UK are inviting everyone in Britain to take part in this groundbreaking experiment.
By answering simple questions about things like your lifestyle, preferences, relationships and background, you will be helping scientists to understand to what extent our personalities are shaped by a whole range of influences.
(And at the end of the test you get detailed video feedback from Professor Robert Winston, in addition to a range of other fascinating insights about what makes you you.) link to find out more about the test and Child of our Time
Source: BBC News **the test is only available to UK residents
Most of us in the developed world now have relationships with computers – and access to information and entertainment – that we could not have dreamed about even a decade or so ago. We spend our days sifting emails and browsing the internet, then relax by tweeting or networking online and playing computer games, sometimes all at the same time.
All this, according to Dr Gary Small of UCLA, is changing us. Dr Small, one of America’s leading neurologists, has written a book, iBrain – Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind. If you think our incessant use of the Internet, Blackberrys, iPods, text-messaging and video games has changed our lives and our children’s lives, here’s some breaking news: Technology has not only altered our lives, it’s altered our brains.
Dr. Gary Small on CBS News
Neuroscientist Gary Small tells CBS News’ Daniel Sieberg how technology may be making us smarter.
Source: drgarysmall.com
