To Mars and back - in just tank fill of fuel

Graphical illustration of how an ion thruster works by hurling particles backwards so that a spacecraft can be propelled forwards

A Ph D student at University of Sydney Australia has come up with an idea that may revolutionise space travel - specially man's quest to travel to distant planets like Mars.

Paddy Neumann has created a new type of ion space drive that could take humans to Mars and back on a single tank of fuel and believes his ion space drive Nasa's shatters current fuel efficiency record. 

The Neumann ion drive works by bombarding the fuel source with electric arcs, which causes ions be discarded. 

The innovative part of Neumann's drive is the type of fuel that was used. While HiPEP system runs on xenon gas, Neumann's ion drive can instead run on various metals many of which can be found in space junk.

Via | Source

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Long time use of Paracetamol linked to heart attack risk

It has recently been found out by researchers in Great Britain that high doses of paracetamol for a long time can increase the risk of heart attack. The research finds that those taking drug for long periods up to 63% more likely to die suddenly.

The study also warns that those using paracetamol for a long time have their risk of a heart attack or a stroke is also up to 68% higher.

The study finds indicate that paracetamol may be causing illness by preventing the action of an enzyme in the body called COX-2.

Read more at Daily Mail

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Is our Universe coming to a grinding halt?

The end of the world by 2012 and many theories of our universe coming to an end abound rumor filled news every day.

But now a latest and radical theory by academics suggests that time itself could be slowing down - and may eventually grind to a halt altogether.

The latest mind-bending findings - put forward by researchers working at two Spanish universities - proposes that we have all been fooled into thinking the universe is expanding. In fact, they say, time itself is slowing down until eventually, in billions of years time, it will cease altogether.

Read details: Daily Mail

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Faster-than-light theory completely debunked

Five different teams of physicists have now independently verified that elusive subatomic particles called neutrinos do not travel faster than light.

New results, announced in Japan, contradict those announced last September by a 170-member crew working with the Opera particle detector in Italy's subterranean Gran Sasso National Laboratory.

The Opera team made headlines after they suggested neutrinos travelled 0.002 per cent faster than light, thus violating Einstein's theory of special relativity.

read details: Stuff

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Sharp rise in newborns with opiate withdrawal in USA

The number of babies born in the US showing symptoms of opiate withdrawal increased threefold in the 10 years up to 2009, a medical study has found.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said one in every 1,000 newborns was affected in 2009.

The number of pregnant women testing positive for illegal or legal opiates increased fivefold in the same period.

The report says abuse of prescription painkillers is partly to blame. The study, the first of its kind in the US, was based on records from more than 4,000 hospitals across the country.

It found that in 2009, about 13,500 babies were born with withdrawal symptoms - roughly one every hour.

Read details: BBC News USA & Canada

Related: What is Opiate Withdrawal

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How accurate are Leonardo da Vinci's anatomy drawings?

Awhile ago, I posted news about cracking of the codes hidden in the masterpiece of all paintings the Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa by an armature artist.  Now here is something about the anatomical drawings of the Vinci which were drawn more than 500 hundred years ago and are being considered far ahead of its time.

The largest exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of the human body goes on display in the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace this week. So how accurate were they?

During his lifetime, Leonardo made thousands of pages of notes and drawings on the human body.

He wanted to understand how the body was composed and how it worked. But at his death in 1519, his great treatise on the body was incomplete and his scientific papers were unpublished.

Based on what survives, clinical anatomists believe that Leonardo's anatomical work was hundreds of years ahead of its time, and in some respects it can still help us understand the body today.

So how do these drawings, sketched more than 500 years ago, compare to what digital imaging technology can tell us today?

Find out at: BBC News Magazine

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'Blind' mice eyesight treated with transplanted cells

British scientists have restored the sight of blind mice by transplanting light-sensitive photoreceptor cells into their eyes.

The work is a step towards a new treatment for patients with degenerative eye diseases.

Scientists at University College London Institute of Ophthalmology injected cells from young healthy mice directly into the retinas of adult mice that had night-blindness.

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The findings are published in Nature.

Read details: BBC News

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Who do you call 1%

Full Story: BBC News / Magazine 24 Nov

The Occupy Wall Street campaign has divided us between 99% and 1% - but how should we differentiate between the two. Even a man in a brand new Mercedez considers him part of 99% when something better and more expensive whiz by him. So the question remains:

Caroline McClatchey of BBC has put in some research work on the issue. According to her "findings":

In 1880 a rich person would have had £100,000 in assets or an income of £10,000 a year, he says. About a hundred people a year died leaving £100,000 and by 1910 this was 250 - "a microscopic fraction of the number of deaths at the time".

Prof Rubinstein thinks annual earnings of £250,000 is the cut-off point today and says the rich-poor divide has always been tolerable only as long as the poor have opportunities.

Read full story to find more on definition of 1% and the "remaining." 

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Exposure to industrial solvent may cause Parkinson

Full Story: BBC Health 14 November 2011

Parkinson - a very painful and annoying disease, has long since been under scrutiny and research to find out its root cause  Now researchers say that have a reason to believe that exposure to industrial solvent may lead to Parkinson.

The study on the subject found a six-fold increase in the risk of developing Parkinson's in individuals exposed in the workplace to six solvents including trichloroethylene (TCE).

It may be added that Parkinson's can result in limb tremors, slowed movement and speech impairment, but the exact cause of the disease is still unknown, and there is no cure.

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Did prostate cancer kill Egyptian mummies?

Full Story: Pravda 12 November 2011

A rare revelation has come to surface during a research undertaken on three Egyptian mummies in Lisbon's National Archaeological Museum in Belém. The research has revealed the first known case of prostate cancer in an Egyptian mummy. The discovery was made by the three entities participating in the Lisbon Mummy Project - MNA, IMI and Siemens, reports Pravda.

The study was performed using 64-cut multicut CAT-scan and Digital X-Ray technology using Siemens systems at the premises of IMI in Lisbon. The subjects under investigation were two closed sarcophagi from the third to first centuries BC and the ninth to eighth centuries BC and a bound/embalmed Ptolomaic mummy (305 to 30 BC). 

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