Category: New Discoveries

Impact Lab > New Discoveries
Breakthrough Thinking, Food, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Medical Breakthrough, New Discoveries

Chocolate Compound Beats Codeine for Cough-Suppression

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Chocolate to help a cough?

A compound found in chocolate outperforms over-the-counter and codeine-based cough-suppressants in clinical trials. The compound, theobromine, was written up in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal following a small placebo-controlled study at Imperial College London. Our GP told us that the best thing for a cough was a spoonful of honey, and it’s pretty much all we use around our house (well, that and the vile, repulsive, disgusting, incredibly effective Buckley’s Mixture — but that’s a last resort).

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Analysis, Crazy Stuff, Culture, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

One In Three US Citizens Live 50 Miles Or Less From A Nuclear Reactor

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All manner of wonderful graphics are being created from the newly-available 2010 US Census data. A new sort of nuclear family, for example, is portrayed with this mouse-over map showing the population density inside 10 and 50 mile evacuation radii around the US’ 65 nuclear power plants (containing a total of 104 reactors).

The upshot: One in every three Americans currently resides less than 50 miles from an operating nuclear reactor. MSNBC mapped the details in Nuclear neighbors: Population rises near US reactors …

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries

Phonetic Clues Hint Language Is Africa-Born

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Is this the origin of language?

A researcher analyzing the sounds in languages spoken around the world has detected an ancient signal that points to southern Africa as the place where modern human language originated. The finding fits well with the evidence from fossil skulls and DNA that modern humans originated in Africa. It also implies, though does not prove, that modern language originated only once, an issue of considerable controversy among linguists…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Latest News, New Discoveries

Whale “Pop Song” Sweeps the Ocean

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Listening for one Whale of a song.

Just like humans, whales also have “pop songs,” complete with music mania that sweeps across the ocean:

The findings are based on 11 years of recordings from underwater microphones slung over the sides of boats, which were collected by marine biologist Ellen Garland of the University of Queensland in Australia and colleagues. Picking out the patterns took a while; the team had to listen to 745 songs in total from six whale populations across the South Pacific over the 11-year period. The researchers identified 11 distinctly different styles (audio). Sometimes the “hit song” contained snippets from previous seasons, sometimes it was entirely revolutionary…

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Animals, Globalism, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

Oceans Noise Pollution Causing Massive Trauma to Squids & Octopuses

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Oceanic noise pollution causes problems with invertebrates too.

The effects of noise pollution in the oceans, such as from powerful sonars that can make dolphins go deaf, are still being uncovered by researchers. The latest victims are squids and octopuses (including the ‘cheeky’ ones…), which are affected by low-frequency soundwaves produced by human offshore activities…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Current Events, DIY, Globalism, Health & Fitness, Hot Issues, Medical Breakthrough, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Scientists Created Embryonic Eye in Test Tube

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Eye see you!

Scientists from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan cultivated embryonic stem cells in a test tube and added proteins to coax them into developing. They had wanted it to form a recognizable organ, but were stunned to find that over 10 days, the stem cells had formed an embryonic eye:

Professor Yoshiki Sasai, lead author said: “What we’ve been able to do in this study is resolve a nearly century-old problem in embryology, by showing that retinal precursors have the inherent ability to give rise to the complex structure of the optic cup.”

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Great New Product, Green Friendly, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Revolution Self Recharging Digital Camera to End Charging Woes

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The camera Revolution is about to begin.

While on the move, what if any of your gadgets, such as a phone, laptop or iPod, run out of energy? Since it’s not always possible to carry a charger everywhere you go, what one can do wait for a power supply nearby. So, if such a situation arises, you can’t do much but wait till you get back home to pump life into your gadgets. But Revolution designed by Carl McGreavy is here to change this theory. Revolution is a self recharging digital camera which will get all the powers to function by a Dynamo…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, Health & Fitness, Human Behavior, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Advances In Magnification

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It’s called the Eye Card.

If you are wearing glasses but still have a hard time in reading a few letters or words, then stick on this new eye card. It is a perfect tool to read diminutive letters clearly without giving any stress and difficulty to your eyes. The eye card is designed in such a manner that a person wearing them can effortlessly focus on every single tiny word. It is not like any regular spectacles as you feel more comfort in reading and watching nearby things…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Health & Fitness, Human Behavior, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

What’s Your Dominant Eye?

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Which way do you see?

Ocular dominance, sometimes called eye dominance, is the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other. In normal binocular vision there is an effect of parallax, and therefore the dominant eye is the one that is primarily relied on for precise positional information. This may be especially important in sports which require aim, such as archery, darts or shooting sports…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Entertainment, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Medical Breakthrough, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

Test Subjects With Electrode Implants Use Mind Control To Move A Cursor

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What kind of future technology will come from this breakthrough?

As trippy as mind-control still seems to us, we’ve already seen it implemented in everything from wheelchairs to pricey gaming (and car driving!) headsets. But the problem is that they measure brain activity outside the skull — you know, the thing we’ve evolved to shield the murky goings-on in our minds from prying EEG sensors.

Now, though, a team of Washington University researchers appears to have happened upon a more effective — albeit, invasive — approach…

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