Study shows pine bark reduces jetlag

Working in an Oil & Gas company with a rotation of 8 weeks / 2 weeks causes me to experience this so called “Jet Lag” every time I travel. Good news for those of you who also experience this, a research and study on how to reduce jet lag was published in the journal of Minerva Cardioangiologica on November 5, 2008 reveals Pycnogenol, pine bark extract from the French maritime pine tree, reduces jetlag in passengers by nearly 50 percent.

The two-part study, consisting of a brain CT scan and a scoring system, showed Pycnogenol lowered symptoms of jetlag such as fatigue, headaches, insomnia and brain edema (swelling) in both healthy individuals and hypertensive patients. Passengers also experienced minimal lower leg edema, a common condition associated with long flights.

Jetlag is a temporary disorder that causes a variety of temporary mental and physical impairments as a result of air travel across time zones. It is caused due to the body’s inability to immediately adjust to the time in a different zone while traveling. As the body struggles to cope with the new schedule, temporary conditions such as insomnia, fatigue, irritability and an impaired ability to concentrate may set in.

“This study could not have come at a better time for the upcoming holiday travel season,” said Gianni Belcaro, a lead researcher of the study. While more research needs to be conducted on this topic, Pycnogenol is emerging as natural, yet safe option for long distance travelers.

The researchers attributes Pycnogenol’s combined activities for better circulation and antioxidant potency to such remarkable results.

Source: Xinhua

Sony Alpha Digital SLR Cameras

Smart clothes could take photos

The researchers stretch out large fibres to make thin threads

Clothes could one day take snaps of everything happening around whoever is wearing them.

US researchers have made smart fabric that can detect the wavelength and direction of light falling on it.

The research team has found a way to accurately place sensors in each fibre and co-ordinate the electrical signals they send when light falls on them.

The results were a step towards “ambient light imaging fabrics” said the researchers.

Led by Dr Yoel Fink from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the researchers have extended earlier work that placed sensors in relatively large polymer fibres.

Dr Fink and colleagues found a way to stretch the 25mm strands of polymer into much thinner fibres while maintaining the relative positions of the sensors.

This earlier work has led to the creation of very long and flexible light and temperature sensors that may find a role in smart fabrics for soldiers or those working in hostile environments.

In their latest work, described in a paper in Nano Letters, these thinner strands were woven into a 0.1m square section of fabric. The careful creation of the fibres and positioning of the light-sensitive elements meant that the team knew which signals were being sent by which sensors.

This enabled the team to reconstruct, albeit crudely, an image projected onto the small square of fabric. The researchers said their work was an “important step” towards finding ways to get many nanoscale devices working together. Source

Bionic eye gives blind man sight

 

Ron explains how being fitted with a 'bionic eye' has changed his life

 A man who lost his sight 30 years ago says he can now see flashes of light after being fitted with a bionic eye.

Ron, 73, had the experimental surgery seven months ago at London’s Moorfield’s eye hospital.

He says he can now follow white lines on the road, and even sort socks, using the bionic eye, known as Argus II.

It uses a camera and video processor mounted on sunglasses to send captured images wirelessly to a tiny receiver on the outside of the eye.

In turn, the receiver passes on the data via a tiny cable to an array of electrodes which sit on the retina – the layer of specialised cells that normally respond to light found at the back of the eye.

When these electrodes are stimulated they send messages along the optic nerve to the brain, which is able to perceive patterns of light and dark spots corresponding to which electrodes have been stimulated.

The hope is that patients will learn to interpret the visual patterns produced into meaningful images.

The bionic eye has been developed by US company Second Sight. So far 18 patients across the world, including three at Moorfields, have been fitted with the device. Read more…..

Your own personal Codex: Oldest bible digitized for free access

Scattered across continents, the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus bible has been fully reunited in a digital version online today. Users can navigate through the text via chapter and verse, see a digital scan of each page and read English, German, Greek and Russian versions.

“If you would have liked to see it before, you would have had to travel to four countries in two continents,” British Library project curator, Juan Garces, said in an Associated Press report. “If you want to see the manuscript right now all you have to do is go online and experience it for yourself.” He noted that the overwhelming digital demand has already crashed the Web site.

The oldest known bible may hold some surprises for those familiar with today’s versions. About half of the Old Testament and Apocrypha are absent, and the New Testament books are in a different order (putting, for example, “Acts of the Apostles” between “the Pastoral” and “Catholic Epistles”). It also includes two additional early Christian writings, allegedly by Hermas (a second-century Roman) and the apostle Barnabas—as well as a smattering of corrections inserted throughout the centuries after its creation.

“There are certainly theological questions linked to this,” Garces told CNN. “Everybody should be encouraged to investigate for themselves.”

The ancient tome was discovered by a German scholar in the 19th century at the Monastery of St. Catherine in Egypt’s Sinai desert. The 400-plus-page volume was transcribed in Greek on animal-skin parchment.

The collaboration, made possible by the institutes that house the document’s pieces—the British Library, the National Library of Russia, Leipzig University Library and St. Catherine’s Monastery—is being celebrated with a conference at the British Library today and tomorrow. 

Image of text from a version of the Codex Sinaiticus’s Esther 1:20-21 courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (Source)

Daniel Dingel’s Amazing Water Car