Science and Space - New Discoveries, Research, Studies And Breakthroughs

There is nothing more discouraging in human discourse than someone yawning in your face while you're speaking to him.  "Oh, excuse me," he might say, "I guess I'm just very tired."  (Yeah, sure!)

But now, scientists have evidence that your listener may not be bored at all; but just chilling... his brain.  

Arthritis is a joint disease that results in a progressive loss of cartilage, just as osteoporosis results in progressive loss of bone.  Though osteoporosis drugs are intended to regenerate bone growth, to date, arthritis drugs can only reduce inflammation and, thereby, reduce pain.  But observation of patients taking a certain osteoporosis drug, by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), led to the recent finding that this drug not only restored bone but cartilage as well.

In what is believed to be the first instance of electronic gamers reaching a scientific discovery before trained research scientists, University of Washington (UW) gamers did indeed produce a model of an enzyme in AIDS and other viruses that scientists have been trying to model for more than 10 years. This was not just an academic exercise to test the new UW Fold-it game; discovery of the AIDS molecule in question opens the door to a whole new line of retroviral drugs.

Learning to walk again after breaking a leg or hip, having a stroke, prosthetic, or partial paralysis depends on a lot of persistence and an excellent rehabilitation program that can guide you through gait training.  Movement scientist Dr. Melvyn Roerdink from The Netherlands has developed a super smart, oversized treadmill that helps rehab patients gain confidence in their new gaits, with bells, whistles, and even light shows.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revamped its healthy eating recommendations a few months ago with a new visual - an icon called 'MyPlate,' replacing the former healthy foods pyramid icon.  The Nutrition Source at the Harvard School of Public Health thinks the government's plate lacks a good bit of guidance as to which specific foods should be eaten - after all MyPlate offers no guidance.

For many of the 13 million Americans currently at risk for non-melanoma skin cancers, the VivoSight® Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scanner will be a blessing in their dermatologists' tool closet.  The device, just approved for clinical use by the FDA, offers real-time laser imaging of a patient's skin, enabling better, and sometimes immediate, treatment of basal or squamous cell cancers.