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Carkoon – car seat that envelops your child in a Kevlar cocoon upon impact

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbmkGb5EH1c&hd=1[/youtube]

If you are worried about the safety rating of your child’s car seat maybe you should swaddle your child in a protective Kevlar cocoon. The Carkoon is a new child seat developed by British company Cool Technologies that wraps your child in protective Kevlar and a fireproof Nomex airbag upon impact. It even calls emergency services for you.

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Demand your personal data from Google and Facebook urges Tim Berners-Lee

Berners-Lee

Tim Berners-Lee

Inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, has urged internet users to demand their personal data from online giants such as Google and Facebook to usher in a new era of highly personalized computer services “with tremendous potential to help humanity”.

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Scientific retractions increasing exponentially

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In an article in today’s New York Times, “A sharp rise in retractions prompts calls for reform,” Carl Zimmer documents and analyzes the sharp increase in the proportion of papers retracted in the scientific literature. From 2000-2009 the trend is disturbing (pictured above).

The article notes:

In October 2011, for example, the journal Nature reported that published retractions had increased tenfold over the past decade, while the number of published papers had increased by just 44 percent. In 2010 The Journal of Medical Ethics published a study finding the new raft of recent retractions was a mix of misconduct and honest scientific mistakes…
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Analysis, Brain, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Brain scans can predict who will gain weight or have sex in the next 6 months

brain scan

Women whose nucleus accumbens reacts strongly to pictures of appealing food are more likely to gain weight in the next six months.

The activity in the nucleus accumbens, a region of the brain associated with reward, can predict who will gain weight or have sex in the next six months, according to new research.

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Analysis, Business, Internet, Science & Technology News

Digital coupons rival print in effectiveness

online-coupons

Consumers perform online product research, make purchases.

Price-conscious consumers have been driven online by the battered US economy to do research before making a purchase, and eMarketer estimates that there will be 92.5 million online coupon users by the end of 2012. Those savings-savvy consumers will no doubt be helped by electronic circulars, which now rival their print counterparts in penetration, according to a November 2011 study of US internet users by Yahoo! and Ipsos.

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Analysis, Business, Science & Technology News

Wearable computing devices are next big thing

wearable computers

Wearable computers

A report released by Forrester Research says that the wearable computing wars are about to begin. They predict that consumers will begin experimenting more with wearable computers over the coming year, specifically around health and fitness, navigation, social networking and gaming. This new theme among consumers will hasten big tech companies to begin creating wearable computing products.

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Medical helicopter increases odds of survival for trauma victims: Study

Medical helicopter

Medical helicopter beats ambulance for trauma victims.

For the critically injured, there are two choices for getting to a hospital – ground ambulance or helicopter.   While many critics decry the use of helicopters for emergency transportation because of cost and potential crashes, it turns out a trip to the ER via the sky may actually improve a person’s chances for survival.

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Analysis, Brain, Health & Fitness, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

New blood test can screen teens for depression: Study

teen depression

Scientists showed that teenage depression could be diagnosed through a panel of 11 genetic markers.

One day a simple blood test may be all that’s needed to help parents figure out whether a child is suffering from clinical depression or normal teenage angst, according to a new study.

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Dual-Action wind turbine generates power and water

eolewater turbine 3214123

Wind can create both power and water?

Throughout the developing world, millions of people struggle with a shortage of clean water and steady electricity. This wind turbine could solve both problems in one shot by pulling both power and water straight from the wind.

The WMS1000 Wind Turbine was invented by Marc Parent and is built by the French start-up Eole Water. Sitting atop a 24-meter mast, the machine generates electricity with a conventional 30kW direct-drive turbine in a 12-ton nacelle with a 13-meter blade diameter. The WMS1000 can self-regulate the energy it produces, allowing it to provide a steady stream of power even in gusty or choppy winds. Installing an array of the turbines, which each have a service life of 30 years, creates a small-scale, decentralized power grid perfect for remote areas…

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Engineered stem cells seek out and kill HIV in living mice

hiv 4r56789

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Expanding on previous research providing proof-of-principle that human stem cells can be genetically engineered into HIV-fighting cells, a team of UCLA researchers have now demonstrated that these cells can actually attack HIV-infected cells in a living organism.
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