Channel 42
Science is the answer to everything.

For the first time the mammalian retina has now shown the capacity to regenerate new neurons after damage. This research in mice shows that at least some types of retinal damage can be repaired. The loss of neurons in the retina in people in conditions like glaucoma or macular degeneration leads to visual loss and blindness. This new research shows there might someday be a way to restore vision in people with these conditions.

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Researchers working at NIST have demonstrated for the first time the existence of a key magnetic property of specially built semiconductor devices that raises hopes for even smaller and faster gadgets that could result from magnetic data storage in a semiconductor material.

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Researchers at NIST have proposed a new, economical method to allow LED and lighting manufacturers to obtain accurate, reproducible, and comparable measurements of LED brightness and color.

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A new “barcode chip” developed by researchers at the California Institute of Technology promises to revolutionize diagnostic medical testing. In less than 10 minutes, and using just a pinprick’s worth of blood, the chip can measure the concentrations of dozens of proteins, including those that herald the presence of diseases like cancer and heart disease.

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By manipulating the appearance of a chronically achy hand, researchers have found they could increase or decrease the pain and swelling in patients moving their symptomatic limbs. The findings — reported in the Nov. 25 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication — reveal a profound top-down effect of body image on body tissues, according to the researchers.

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Use of electronic health records may help reduce paid malpractice settlements for physicians.

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In human relationships, a certain “spark” often governs whether we prefer one person to another. Critical first impressions can occur within seconds. Researchers have found that cell-to-cell “friendships” operate in much the same way and that dysfunctional bonding is linked to the spread of cancer.

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For the first time, scientists have been able to map the disruption in neural circuitry of people suffering from congenital prosopagnosia, sometimes known as face blindness, and have been able to offer a biological explanation for this intriguing disorder. Currently thought to affect roughly two percent of the population, congenital prosopagnosia manifests as the lifelong failure to recognize faces in the absence of obvious neurological damage, and in individuals with intact vision and intelligence.

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Investigation of the fireball that lit up the skies of Alberta and Saskatchewan on Nov. 20 has determined that an asteroid fragment weighing approximately 10 tons entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the prairie provinces last Thursday evening.

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The US military provides its members with policies to help balance their work and family commitments. But a researcher at Kansas State University has found that simply providing programs might not be enough to maintain a supreme equilibrium.Satoris Culbertson, assistant professor of psychology at K-State, and colleagues have been studying how soldiers’ perceptions of a family-friendly environment relates to their physical fitness, confidence in task performance and intentions to remain in the military.

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