How can heavy metal music be beneficial?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteHAVE you listened to heavy metal songs before? Do bands such as Metallica, Slipknot or Avenged Sevenfold ring a bell? According to an article in the Journal of Psychology of Popular Media Culture, heavy metal music is characterised by loud and powerful sounds along with emotional vocals. A sub-genre of extreme music, individuals who indulge […]
Scientists rewarm large-scale tissues preserved at freezing temperatures
Reading Time: 2 minutesA research team led by the University of Minnesota, has discovered a groundbreaking process to successfully rewarm large-scale animal heart valves and blood vessels preserved at very low temperatures. The discovery is a major step forward in saving millions of human lives by increasing the availability of organs and tissues for transplantation through the establishment of […]
Rectal surgery made easy through latest speculum
Reading Time: 2 minutesSERDANG: Surgeons will find it easy to examine human rectum and conduct operation by using a tool, named Self Retaining Anal Speculum (SRAS), an innovative product developed by researchers from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). When this bio-composite tool is inserted from the anal lining to the rectum of a patient, SRAS will open up the […]
Study of 52,000 men uncovers the genetics underlying male pattern baldness
Reading Time: 2 minutesA GENOMIC study of baldness identified more than 200 genetic regions involved in this common but potentially embarrassing condition. These genetic variants could be used to predict a man’s chance of severe hair loss. The study, led by Saskia Hagenaars and W. David Hill of The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, is published on February […]
Chatty viruses provide new insight for developing novel anti-viral drugs
Reading Time: < 1 minuteSCIENTISTS from Israel have ‘accidentally’ made a remarkable discovery that viruses could talk to one another. Viruses generally hijack the “machinery” of bacterial cells and multiply themselves until the cells explode and die. In other instances, they simply inject their genetic material into the bacteria, stay dormant and multiply only when triggered by any environmental […]
When skin cells go rogue: The onset of melanoma
Reading Time: 3 minutesMELANOMA is a deadly type of skin cancer due to its aggressive and therapy-resistant nature. An initial melanoma tumour is well known to break away and invade other organs in the body, a process known as metastasis. The evolution of melanoma occurs in five stages based on the Clark model (see accompanying image). The first […]
Fighting dengue with the Wolbachia warriors
Reading Time: 3 minutesSINCE recently, several nations have been battling the dengue menace using the Wolbachia-infused mosquitoes with remarkable success. Malaysia has now joined this league of nations with a soon-to-be launched pilot project using these special mosquitoes to fight dengue. The notorious Aedes aegypti which spreads the dengue and other viruses is reported to have killed hundreds […]
Why do we have food cravings?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteCAN’T stop thinking about that bag of potato chips all day? Chocolate bar? Doughnuts? So why do we crave for the food we crave? What is the science behind food cravings? More often than not, food cravings are associated with one’s desire and emotional needs. For instance, carb cravings arise when we are stressed or […]
What is the resolution of human eye?
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA 576-megapixel resolution means that in order to create a screen with a picture so sharp and clear that you can’t distinguish the individual pixels, you would have to pack 576 million pixels into an area the size of your field of view. You only see high resolution in a very small area in the […]