Health

Caregivers of people with epilepsy and related disorders harbor a major fear: that a seizure could occur without their knowledge. Now, a wristwatch-style device aptly named the "SmartWatch" can detect seizures and alert caregivers within seven to 10 seconds, explained Stanford University pediatric ...

Johns Hopkins University scientists have deciphered the genetic code for a rare type of pancreatic cancer -- neuroendocrine or islet cell tumor -- that Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the world he'd been diagnosed with back in 2004. The discovery explains many of the cancer's troubling, highly variable pr...

Frantic parents concerned about their children's digital habits have found a new ally in the form of a study published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics. Roughly 10 percent of young video gamers suffer a pathological addiction to their games, the researchers found. "We aimed to measure t...

A University of Missouri professor has developed a "smart carpet" that monitors the movements of elderly persons and can detect the potential for a dangerous fall. The purpose of the flooring system is to help patients remain both independent and safe unobtrusively. With sensors under the carpet and...

With Google's announcement Thursday of the Body Browser, online mapping technology finally caught up with the medical crew of "Fantastic Voyage," miniaturized in the 1966 sci-fi flick to enter a renowned scientist's bloodstream and save his brain from a life-threatening blood clot. A Chrome-OS drive...

At least partly reversing Bush Administration aversion to emergent exotic biological research, President Barack Obama's 13-member Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues Thursday issued 18 recommendations on synthetic biology -- life, designed and built in the laboratory. "Our major recommenda...

Former President Bill Clinton's keynote speech Wednesday at Dreamforce 2010 in San Francisco was delayed because his flight came in late, so Salesforce.com Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff got entertainer Stevie Wonder on stage to talk about his life. When president Clinton finally appeared almost an h...

Here Comes the Holodeck

As if scripted for a "Star Trek" episode, news of a real-life, real-time hologram instantly projected images of holodecks in many a sci-fi fan's head, only to be dashed and challenged and revived again. The action opened with an announcement that a technological breakthrough by researchers at The Un...

Once upon a time, the word "hypertexting" referred to the process of linking one page of text to another through a specific Internet protocol. Now, public health researchers are using it to describe the practice of sending mobile phone text messages in the extreme: "hyper," as in lots, and "texting"...

Being tethered to a computer all day is bad for employees' health and for employers' profits, considering healthcare insurance premiums climb and productivity declines with every worker malady. The latest scientific evidence finds that productivity is reduced even when it appears to be unimpeded. Wo...

The very nature of humanity has been changed by the nature of modern work. Where once workers were lean, muscled and tan, now they are pudgy, stooped and wrist-warped. The problem comes from restricted movement over long stretches in the day. Computers have chained employees to one spot, effectively...

21st Century Western civilization bears the brunt of the greatest health threat since the black plague. Although not quite as dramatic -- there are no bodies in the street or mass graves of the afflicted, for example -- the death count is high and climbing, and the toll on company costs (from health...

Robots can be made made strong, robots can be made tireless, but a big problem with robots so far is that they can't be made to have a sense of touch as humans do. The same issue challenges designers of prosthetic limbs. Imitating the motor movements of joints and muscles is one thing, but imitating...

OPINION

Regulators Take Aim at Genomics

The genomics industry, which provides reports about disease risk, ancestry, and drug reactions based on one's DNA, came under fire last week as a Congressional Committee held hearings and the Government Accountability Office released an unscientific "study" of the sector. According to undercover d...

Just a few weeks ago, Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center learned a hard lesson. If you didn't see the news reports, the N.Y.-based healthcare provider notified over 130,000 individuals that their records -- including diagnostic information, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and other i...

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