Red wine could also help fight cavities
Washington: Researchers have said that red wine could help ward off dental diseases with fewer side effects.
M. Victoria Moreno-Arribas and colleagues explain that dental diseases are extremely common throughoutthe world. Cavities, periodontal disease and tooth loss affect an estimated 60 to 90 percent of the global population. The problems start when certain bacteria in the mouth get together and form biofilms, which are communities of bacteria that are difficult to kill. They form plaque and produce acid, which starts damaging teeth. Brushing, fluoride in toothpaste and water and other methods can help get rid of bacterial plaques, but the effects are limited. In addition, currently used antimicrobial rinses can change the color of the gums and alter taste, so people are less likely to use them for as long as they should.
Some research has suggested that polyphenols, grape seed extract and wine can slow bacterial growth, so Moreno-Arribas' team decided to test them under realistic conditions for the first time.
They grew cultures of bacteria responsible for dental diseases as a biofilm. They dipped the biofilms for a couple of minutes in different liquids, including red wine, red wine without the alcohol, red wine spiked with grape seed extract, and water and 12 percent ethanol for comparison.
Red wine with or without alcohol and wine with grape seed extract were the most effective at getting rid of the bacteria.
|
Thursday 29 May 2014
Red wine could also help fight cavities
Technology History Facts
Fact 1: The first hard drive by IBM
The first hard drive was made by IBM in 1956 and was called IBM Model 350 Disk File. The first-generation storage unit was huge, with a cabinet the size of a cupboard that held 50 24-inch disks and held an impressive 5MB of data.
Fact 2: RadioShack
RadioShack was one of the first companies to start the PC revolution in the mid 70′s with its TRS-80.
What most people don’t know is that RadioShack used to be called “Tandy Radio Shack & Leather” after it was acquired by Tandy, a leather goods company, in 1963.
Fact 3: The first palmtop computer
The Atari Portfolio was released in 1989 and was the world’s first palmtop computer. Two years later it appeared in the film Terminator 2, where it was used by John Connor to hack an ATM and retrieve the key to the vault in the Cyberdyne lab.
Fact 4: The first mouse
Many think the first mouse was invented in 1970 at Xerox PARC. However, the first mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1963. It was a wooden shell with two metal wheels.
This fact was suggested by Tiarnan Branson.
Fact 5: The digital circuit
Claude Shannon, the “Father of information theory”, invented the digital circuit when he was only 21, during his master’s degree.
Shannon loved inventions – check out his “Ultimate Machine“. When you turn on the switch, an arm pops out and turns it back off. 
Fact 6: The Apolo 11 computers
How powerful were the computers that took us to the moon? Turns out that the Apolo 11 computers had less processing power than a modern cellphone!
Do you have a really interesting fact that you would like to share?
just write it in the comments.
|
Wednesday 21 May 2014
Smart Lighter Will Help You Quit Smoking
Smart Lighter Will Help You Quit Smoking
 A new Internet-connected lighter called Quitbit will light your cigarette, but wean you off a smoking habit too. A new Kickstarter campaign called Quitbit takes the same monitoring principles embedded into fitness trackers and helps users track and cutdown on smoking. In a nod to the name, it’s like a Fitbit for smoking.  Users can set custom plans — so they can trim on intake at whatever pace they want — and see much money they’ve saved by cutting back on packs along the way. It also reveals the time since your last smoke, how many were consumed within a certain period of time and lets you call out the times you shared a cigarette with a friend (or let someone borrow the lighter). Although there are countless apps on the market that help smokers quit, this is the first solution that includes hardware. |
Bacteria in saliva may help diagnose pancreatic cancer
| Even bacteria present in a person's saliva can help doctors identify pancreatic cancer and other pancreatic diseases, a promising study indicates. Patients with pancreatic cancer have a different and distinct profile of specific bacteria in their saliva compared to healthy controls and even patients with other cancers or pancreatic diseases, researchers claimed. "The findings suggest that ratios of particular types of bacteria found in saliva may be indicative of pancreatic cancer," said Pedro Torres from San Diego State University in the US. Patients diagnosed in the early stages of pancreatic cancer have a five-year survival rate of 21.5 per cent. Unfortunately symptoms do not appear until after the cancer has become untreatable in the vast majority of cases, Torres cautioned. In the study, Torres and his team compared the diversity of saliva bacteria across 131 patients, 63 female and 68 male. Of these patients, 14 had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, 13 with pancreatic disease, 22 with other forms of cancer and 10 disease free. Results showed that patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer had higher levels of two particular oral bacteria, Leptotrichia and Campylobacter. Those with pancreatic cancer also had lower levels of Streptococcus, Treponema and Veillonella form of bacteria. We may be able to detect pancreatic cancer at its early stages by taking individuals' saliva and looking at the ratios of these bacteria, Torres told the gathering at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology recently. |
Scientists turns light into matter
In a breakthrough, scientists have for the first time discovered a revolutionary technique to turn light into matter, a feat thought impossible when the idea was first theorised 80 years ago. Three physicists at the Imperial College London's Blackett Physics Laboratory worked out a relatively simple way to physically prove a theory first devised by scientists Breit and Wheeler in 1934.
Breit and Wheeler suggested that it should be possible to turn light into matter by smashing together only two particles of light (photons), to create an electron and a positron - the simplest method of turning light into matter ever predicted. The calculation was found to be theoretically sound but Breit and Wheeler said that they never expected anybody to physically demonstrate their prediction. It has never been observed in the laboratory and past experiments to test it have required the addition of massive high-energy particles.
The new research, published in Nature Photonics, shows for the first time how Breit and Wheeler's theory could be proven in practice. This 'photon-photon collider', which would convert light directly into matter using technology that is already available, would be a new type of high-energy physics experiment. This experiment would recreate a process that was important in the first 100 seconds of the universe and that is also seen in gamma ray bursts, which are the biggest explosions in the universe and one of physics' greatest unsolved mysteries.
The scientists had been investigating unrelated problems in fusion energy when they realised what they were working on could be applied to the Breit-Wheeler theory. The breakthrough was achieved in collaboration with a fellow theoretical physicist from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, who happened to be visiting.
"Despite all physicists accepting the theory to be true, when Breit and Wheeler first proposed the theory, they said that they never expected it be shown in the laboratory. Today, nearly 80 years later, we prove them wrong. What was so surprising to us was the discovery of how we can create matter directly from light using the technology that we have today in the UK. As we are theorists we are now talking to others who can use our ideas to undertake this landmark experiment," said Steve Rose from the Department of Physics at Imperial College London.
The collider experiment that the scientists have proposed involves two key steps. First, the scientists would use an extremely powerful high-intensity laser to speed up electrons to just below the speed of light. They would then fire these electrons into a slab of gold to create a beam of photons a billion times more energetic than visible light.
The next stage of the experiment involves a tiny gold can called a hohlraum (German for 'empty room'). Scientists would fire a high-energy laser at the inner surface of this gold can, to create a thermal radiation field, generating light similar to the light emitted by stars.
They would then direct the photon beam from the first stage of the experiment through the centre of the can, causing the photons from the two sources to collide and form electrons and positrons. It would then be possible to detect the formation of the electrons and positrons when they exited the can.
"Although the theory is conceptually simple, it has been very difficult to verify experimentally. We were able to develop the idea for the collider very quickly, but the experimental design we propose can be carried out with relative ease and with existing technology. Within a few hours of looking for applications of hohlraums outside their traditional role in fusion energy research, we were astonished to find they provided the perfect conditions for creating a photon collider," Lead researcher Oliver Pike said.
Breit and Wheeler suggested that it should be possible to turn light into matter by smashing together only two particles of light (photons), to create an electron and a positron - the simplest method of turning light into matter ever predicted. The calculation was found to be theoretically sound but Breit and Wheeler said that they never expected anybody to physically demonstrate their prediction. It has never been observed in the laboratory and past experiments to test it have required the addition of massive high-energy particles.
The new research, published in Nature Photonics, shows for the first time how Breit and Wheeler's theory could be proven in practice. This 'photon-photon collider', which would convert light directly into matter using technology that is already available, would be a new type of high-energy physics experiment. This experiment would recreate a process that was important in the first 100 seconds of the universe and that is also seen in gamma ray bursts, which are the biggest explosions in the universe and one of physics' greatest unsolved mysteries.
The scientists had been investigating unrelated problems in fusion energy when they realised what they were working on could be applied to the Breit-Wheeler theory. The breakthrough was achieved in collaboration with a fellow theoretical physicist from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, who happened to be visiting.
"Despite all physicists accepting the theory to be true, when Breit and Wheeler first proposed the theory, they said that they never expected it be shown in the laboratory. Today, nearly 80 years later, we prove them wrong. What was so surprising to us was the discovery of how we can create matter directly from light using the technology that we have today in the UK. As we are theorists we are now talking to others who can use our ideas to undertake this landmark experiment," said Steve Rose from the Department of Physics at Imperial College London.
The collider experiment that the scientists have proposed involves two key steps. First, the scientists would use an extremely powerful high-intensity laser to speed up electrons to just below the speed of light. They would then fire these electrons into a slab of gold to create a beam of photons a billion times more energetic than visible light.
The next stage of the experiment involves a tiny gold can called a hohlraum (German for 'empty room'). Scientists would fire a high-energy laser at the inner surface of this gold can, to create a thermal radiation field, generating light similar to the light emitted by stars.
They would then direct the photon beam from the first stage of the experiment through the centre of the can, causing the photons from the two sources to collide and form electrons and positrons. It would then be possible to detect the formation of the electrons and positrons when they exited the can.
"Although the theory is conceptually simple, it has been very difficult to verify experimentally. We were able to develop the idea for the collider very quickly, but the experimental design we propose can be carried out with relative ease and with existing technology. Within a few hours of looking for applications of hohlraums outside their traditional role in fusion energy research, we were astonished to find they provided the perfect conditions for creating a photon collider," Lead researcher Oliver Pike said.
Tuesday 20 May 2014
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Sunday 18 May 2014
Sugar is the culprit behind heart diseases
Research Fellow with Otago's Department of Human Nutrition Dr Lisa Te Morenga, Professor Jim Mann and colleagues have conducted a review and meta-analysis of all international studies that compared the effects of higher versus lower added sugar consumption on blood pressure and lipids (blood fats or cholesterol) - both of which are important cardiovascular risk-factors.
They located dietary intervention trials published in English-speaking journals between 1965 and 2013, comparing diets where the only intended differences were the amount of sugars and non-sugar carbohydrates consumed by the participants, and which measured the effects of these diets on lipids and blood pressure.
They found 37 trials reporting effects on lipids and 12 reporting effects on blood pressure. The findings from the individual trials were then pooled to determine the overall effects from all the studies.
Dr Te Morenga says previous research showed that there did not appear to be any special metabolic effect of sugars making people more likely to gain weight on high-suar diets compared with low sugar diets when the total amount of carbohydrates and energy remains the same.
Laser KeyBoards
Without your computer keyboard, whether it's part of a desktop or a laptop, it might've been fairly difficult to get to this article. Sure, maybe you've bookmarked the Web site and you used your mouse to click around between several links, but most of the time, you probably type the Web site address into your browser to get here. Most of us with personal computers use a keyboard almost every day to compose e-mails, type out word processing documents, visit Web sites and perform searches. And as easy as it may seem, typing is a skill we have to learn and practice in order to perform properly. Most students take typing classes as early as elementary school, and word processing is one of the most common skills listed on a job-seeker's resume.
Without keyboards, communicating between family, friends and businesses would be a much less streamlined affair. Today, even smartphones come equipped with smaller keyboards. Phones that are more focused on e-mail and text messaging, like the BlackBerry or several of the slider phones, offer these as a more straightforward way of typing out text. On a typical cell phone with a three-by-four numeric keypad, for instance, where at least three letters are assigned to a number, you often have to punch through each key several times to get one word on the screen. Some people are remarkably adept at this -- just watch some people on a train or at the airport rifle through several text messages in a matter of no time -- but for some, the act is cumbersome and takes far too long. Miniature keyboards, however, attempt to solve that problem by giving users a complete QWERTY setup to type e-mails, text messages and reminders.
Laser keyboard is an innovative product that lets you convert any surface into a keyboard. The keyboard connects to any device with a bluetooth such as your iPad or cellphone.
Whats your opinion on this innovation?
Quick fixes to Android’s 6 common problems
Given the open nature of Android, users tend to experiment, slowing down the device after some time.
Here are six tips to get your Android device back in tip-top shape without too much fuss.
1. Free up storage space
Over time, your device’s internal storage gets occupied by cache files, apps and files leftover when you remove apps. One of the simplest ways to get this storage space back is by moving apps to the microSD card. We recommend the free AppMgr III app as it supports batch moving of apps from internal storage to microSD card and vice versa.
Also, camera images eat up lot of storage, so move your existing images to the memory card. In camera settings opt to save images on the memory card to save internal storage space.
2. Free up RAM
All running apps take up some amount of RAM. You don’t need this step if your device has 2GB or more of RAM, but with 1GB or less — you will notice slowdowns if you install too many apps. Some apps (system apps for instance) need to stay on for the device to work, others don't.
Clean Master (by KS Mobile) is a great app that can keep your Android device in peak condition. Not only does it free up device RAM, it can also clean up internal memory, help with app uninstalls and remove temporary files. A one-click ‘boost’ button widget is automatically added to your home screen.
3. Boost the performance
After a few months, most Android users notice a drop in performance. It may become slower to navigate, take longer to open apps while games and video playback shows random frame drops. To regain lost performance, there are a number of things you can do. Remove any unwanted apps and widgets as they eat up your resources by running in the background. You can also stop all the fancy menu animation effects (usually in Settings > Developer options > Window and Transition Animations).
You can also use a task killer such as Super Task Killer Free. It kills running tasks after a set period of time or via the desktop idget to speed up phone performance. Using launchers like Nova, Nemus or Lightning will also make your device a lot faster. These launchers consume fewer resources and are highly customisable to suit a user’s requirements. You can even use the free AVG Antivirus app to boost performance. It has a built-in task killer, battery optimiser and a data usage monitor.
4. Remove bloatware
Bloatware is the collective term given to pre-installed apps on your device that you never asked for (and you may never use). Unfortunately, these apps remain on the device even if you perform a factory data reset. This may include apps from the device manufacturer itself, third-party (sponsored) apps or even Google apps that you don’t use. You can’t uninstall them, but one simple method to make sure that these apps don’t bother you is to disable them.
Head to the application manager in Settings, click on all and click on the apps you want to disable. The only available option to completely remove them is to root the device and use an app like Titanium Backup. Even flashing a custom ROM to replace the original Android OS will remove all bloatware. However, rooting and custom ROMs will void warranty.
5. Fix random crashes/freezing
There are a number of ways your Android device can get infected by malicious apps that slowdown your device and lead to random apps crashes. Direct download of apk files from websites /forums and at times fake apps from the Play Store itself (remember the fake BBM apps a few weeks back?) can corrupt your device. Install the free Clueful app and run it to identify the risk levels of apps installed on your device.
The app classifies apps according to high, moderate or low risk — you can uninstall the high-risk apps immediately to get rid of any conflicts the app is causing. The mobile Security and Antivirus app by Avast comes with a Privacy advisor along with a powerful virus /malware scanner. It identifies and provides detailed information about apps installed on your device to help identify a reason for crashes.
6. Improve battery life
It’s unfortunate that battery technology has simply not kept pace with hardware. Given limitations of weight and size, most manufacturers use batteries that should last most users a day (roughly 10 to 12 hours of use). You may find that over time, battery life does decrease -- partly because of normal battery wear & tear and partly because of your usage.
An app called Battery Doctor (by KS Mobile) has enough options to satisfy both casual and power users. You can better manage remaining battery life using the included widgets. Advanced users can configure various battery saver modes and schedule functions to save more power. If this doesn't work for you, try Easy Battery Saver (by 2Easy Team).
Here are six tips to get your Android device back in tip-top shape without too much fuss.
1. Free up storage space
Over time, your device’s internal storage gets occupied by cache files, apps and files leftover when you remove apps. One of the simplest ways to get this storage space back is by moving apps to the microSD card. We recommend the free AppMgr III app as it supports batch moving of apps from internal storage to microSD card and vice versa.
Also, camera images eat up lot of storage, so move your existing images to the memory card. In camera settings opt to save images on the memory card to save internal storage space.
2. Free up RAM
All running apps take up some amount of RAM. You don’t need this step if your device has 2GB or more of RAM, but with 1GB or less — you will notice slowdowns if you install too many apps. Some apps (system apps for instance) need to stay on for the device to work, others don't.
Clean Master (by KS Mobile) is a great app that can keep your Android device in peak condition. Not only does it free up device RAM, it can also clean up internal memory, help with app uninstalls and remove temporary files. A one-click ‘boost’ button widget is automatically added to your home screen.
3. Boost the performance
After a few months, most Android users notice a drop in performance. It may become slower to navigate, take longer to open apps while games and video playback shows random frame drops. To regain lost performance, there are a number of things you can do. Remove any unwanted apps and widgets as they eat up your resources by running in the background. You can also stop all the fancy menu animation effects (usually in Settings > Developer options > Window and Transition Animations).
You can also use a task killer such as Super Task Killer Free. It kills running tasks after a set period of time or via the desktop idget to speed up phone performance. Using launchers like Nova, Nemus or Lightning will also make your device a lot faster. These launchers consume fewer resources and are highly customisable to suit a user’s requirements. You can even use the free AVG Antivirus app to boost performance. It has a built-in task killer, battery optimiser and a data usage monitor.
4. Remove bloatware
Bloatware is the collective term given to pre-installed apps on your device that you never asked for (and you may never use). Unfortunately, these apps remain on the device even if you perform a factory data reset. This may include apps from the device manufacturer itself, third-party (sponsored) apps or even Google apps that you don’t use. You can’t uninstall them, but one simple method to make sure that these apps don’t bother you is to disable them.
Head to the application manager in Settings, click on all and click on the apps you want to disable. The only available option to completely remove them is to root the device and use an app like Titanium Backup. Even flashing a custom ROM to replace the original Android OS will remove all bloatware. However, rooting and custom ROMs will void warranty.
5. Fix random crashes/freezing
There are a number of ways your Android device can get infected by malicious apps that slowdown your device and lead to random apps crashes. Direct download of apk files from websites /forums and at times fake apps from the Play Store itself (remember the fake BBM apps a few weeks back?) can corrupt your device. Install the free Clueful app and run it to identify the risk levels of apps installed on your device.
The app classifies apps according to high, moderate or low risk — you can uninstall the high-risk apps immediately to get rid of any conflicts the app is causing. The mobile Security and Antivirus app by Avast comes with a Privacy advisor along with a powerful virus /malware scanner. It identifies and provides detailed information about apps installed on your device to help identify a reason for crashes.
6. Improve battery life
It’s unfortunate that battery technology has simply not kept pace with hardware. Given limitations of weight and size, most manufacturers use batteries that should last most users a day (roughly 10 to 12 hours of use). You may find that over time, battery life does decrease -- partly because of normal battery wear & tear and partly because of your usage.
An app called Battery Doctor (by KS Mobile) has enough options to satisfy both casual and power users. You can better manage remaining battery life using the included widgets. Advanced users can configure various battery saver modes and schedule functions to save more power. If this doesn't work for you, try Easy Battery Saver (by 2Easy Team).
Saturday 17 May 2014
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Wednesday 14 May 2014
Dolphins originated 6 million years earlier than thought
Dolphins may have been swimming the Earth's oceans for six million years longer than previously thought and they might have had their origins in the Pacific Ocean, a new study suggests.Dolphins are the most diverse family of living marine mammals and include species such as the bottle-nose dolphin and the killer whale.
However, their early evolution and fossil record has been steeped in mystery due to lack of good specimens.
A new paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology re-describes the oldest species of dolphin with a new name: Eodelphis kabatensis.
The re-description has important implications for the evolutionary history of dolphins, researchers said.
The skull of Eodelphis kabatensis was originally collected from a small tributary of the Oshirarika River in Hakkaido, Japan from an outcrop of the Mashike Formation.
Researchers working on the specimen have narrowed its age to the late Miocene (13-8.5 million years ago), making it the earliest true dolphin species described.
"The early evolution of true dolphins is still covered in mystery. Eodelphis kabatensis informs us about the morphology of early dolphins," said lead author Mizuki Murakami.
Eodelphis is an important link in the evolutionary history of dolphins.
Prior to this study, there was inconsistency between the fossil record of the dolphins and molecular-based studies.
The oldest true dolphin fossils found were less than 6 million years old, while molecular studies suggested they originated and started to diversify between 9-12 million years ago.
"Eodelphis kabatensis, being discovered from sediments that were deposited 8-13 million years ago, has largely resolved this discrepancy and provides the best glimpse yet of what the skull of the first dolphins may have looked like," said Jonathan Geisler, a marine mammal paleontologist at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine.
In addition to its importance as the earliest true dolphin, the study also incorporates the most comprehensive analysis of the relationships within the Delphinoidea, the group that encompasses toothed whales.
By including Eodelphis in the analysis, the authors were able to get a much clearer picture of the evolution of the toothed whales.
Furthermore, the presence of Eodelphis in the Pacific Ocean during the late Miocene has implications for the geographic history of dolphins.
While more specimens need to be discovered, the study suggests that dolphins might have had their origins in the Pacific.
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