Double helix conductors and their ‘extraordinary promise’ (new patents)

Medical Energetics Ltd. of Galway, Ireland, has just been granted (Nov. 2018) a US patent for the invention of ‘Agricultural applications of a double helix conductor’ (DHC) The extraordinariness of which can probably only be appreciated by reading the patent document [click link or image above]. The company has also applied for another patent (March […]

Mental Health Effects Caused by Red Imported Fire Ant Attacks? [research study]

Stings by imported red fire ants don’t (though maybe do) induce some mental health problems in humans—the yes or no of it depending on one’s inclination and interpretation—suggests this study: “Mental Health Effects Caused by Red Imported Fire Ant Attacks (Solenopsis invicta),” Lei Wang, Yongyue Lu, Ripeng Li, Ling Zeng, Junling Du, Xiong Huang, Yijuan […]

Automated password generation of offensive expressions

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) offers users an online ‘Choose and Book’ service for making appointments. When a user creates an account, the software automatically creates a two word passphrase – but not everyone is happy. Professor Simon de Lusignan MSc MD FBCS CITP FRCGP for instance (currently Professor of Primary Care & Clinical […]

Government warning about Slime

The French government has issued an official warning about Slime. The warning comes from ANSES [Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail]. It bears the headline “Le Slime, une pâte très prisée mais pas sans risque.” Here’s a machine-translation of the first paragraph: “ANSES and the DGCCRF alert consumers to […]

The Glossiness of Grackles (and other birds)

“The glossy sheen of healthy hair is an ideal of human beauty; however, glossiness has never been quantified in the context of non-human animal signaling. Glossiness, the specular reflectance characteristic of polished surfaces, has the potential to act as a signal of quality because it depends upon material integrity and cleanliness.” For those reasons, Matthew […]

An authoritative answer to the coffee/health question

A question may be difficult (or impossible) to really answer, but that difficulty does not prevent authoritative people from supplying authoritative answers. A November 16, 2015 press release brews up a new authoritative answer to the question “Is drinking coffee good or bad for your health”: Moderate coffee drinking may lower risk of premature death […]

Is coffee-drinking good for you? How to say “It’s complicated” in 192 words.

Scientists continue to struggle, or at least write, on the question: Is coffee-drinking good or bad for a person’s health? One scientist found a new way to say — using only 192 words — “It’s complicated”. That summary appears in the study: “Toward systems epidemiology of coffee and health,” Marilyn C. Cornelis, vol. 26, no. 1, Current Opinions in […]