Australia pipped by US in the race to rollout the bionic eye

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5 March 2011
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In Health, Science
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Australia’s aim to be world leaders in commercialising the bionic eye has been dealt a blow with a US company gaining approval to sell its device this year.

Los Angeles-based Second Sight Medical Products said Australia was now one of a series of countries “on its radar” for marketing and transplanting its bionic eye, which this week received commercial go-ahead in Europe.

Second Sight’s bionic eye, the Argus II, will be available commercially after it attained the required CE Certification in Europe — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Plague Death Came Within Hours, Spurred by Scientist’s Medical Condition

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5 March 2011
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In Science
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University of Chicago infectious disease specialist Ken Alexander still remembers the shock he felt almost 18 months ago when his pager shook with the message that a colleague had died from the plague.

A half-hour later, Alexander was sitting at a table in the dean’s office with researchers, lawyers, administrators and campus security officers, he recalled in an interview. The stricken colleague, Malcolm Casadaban, a 60-year-old genetics and cell biology professor, had checked into a hospital five days earlier and died within hours. Lab results were positive for the plague, and the university’s biosafety fire alarm had been triggered, Alexander said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Plastic fantastic! Carrier bags ‘not eco-villains after all’

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5 March 2011
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In Politics, Science
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Unpublished Government research suggests the plastic carrier may not be an eco villain after all – but, whisper it, an unsung hero. Hated by environmentalists and shunned by shoppers, the disposable plastic bag is piling up in a shame-filled corner of retail history. But a draft report by the Environment Agency, obtained by the Independent on Sunday, has found that ordinary high density polythene (HDPE) bags used by shops are actually greener than supposedly low impact choices.

HDPE bags are, for each use, almost 200 times less damaging to the climate than cotton hold-alls favoured by environmentalists, and have less than one third of the Co2 emissions than paper bags which are given out by retailers such as Primark — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Ibuprofen may reduce risk of getting Parkinson’s disease by a third

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5 March 2011
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Regular use of the painkiller and anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen may reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease by a third, a major study has found.

People who took the drug at least twice a week had a 38% lower risk of developing the condition than those who used other painkillers, such as aspirin, scientists said.

The findings, based on a review of 136,000 patient records, build on previous studies that also reported an apparent protective effect in those who took the drug — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Prehistoric giant hyena’s bone-cracking habit

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5 March 2011
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In History, Science, Wildlife
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Scientists have established how the largest bone-cracking carnivore to have ever lived went about its business.

The giant hyena, Pachycrocuta brevirostris, roamed Africa more than 2.5 million years ago.

Using new evidence uncovered from recently unearthed fossils, and a biomechanical analysis of the hyena’s jaws, scientists have worked out what it ate and how — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Dog rescued from inside a refrigerator

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5 March 2011
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In Weird, Wildlife
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Firefighters are occasionally sent out on unusual animal rescues. It is just part of the job. But none may be more unusual than the animal rescue call Yuma firefighters responded to last week.

According to Mike Erfert, spokesman for the Yuma Fire Department, firefighters were sent to the El Encanto Apartments, 2652 S 8th Ave, at about 8 pm on Friday regarding a dog stuck inside a refrigerator — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Why Some People Steal Content

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5 March 2011
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In Rights, Technology
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Before a business trip to the US, I wanted a copy of the film Veronica Guerin, a journalistic biopic starring Cate Blanchett, to show my journalism students in my stead. My university library did not carry the film, so I turned to Amazon.com for a digital copy. None available. Netflix, which won’t stream content in most places outside the US, wasn’t an option. I haven’t been able to buy any iTunes content outside the US for several months, so Apple was out, too. I told my research assistant to just show the students All the President’s Men instead.

I teach journalism ethics, so I didn’t download a pirated copy of the 2003 film, but it would be hard to blame another global content seeker for doing so — via sean-easter.newsvine.com

Robert Soloway Exits Prison, Disavows ‘Spam King’ Ways

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4 March 2011
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In Technology
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America, beware. Robert Soloway is free to e-mail again.

After three years, eight months and 27 days, Soloway — the internet villain dubbed the Spam King by federal prosecutors — is allowed back online.

In his first interview since release from the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Oregon, Soloway swears his spamming days are over. If I send out spam e-mails, that’s a violation of my probation. End of story, he says. I’m being very careful. If I send out an e-mail, I’m not even going probably to CC it. I’ll send a unique e-mail to each person — via redwolf.newsvine.com

How to train your mouse to be a wine snob

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4 March 2011
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In Food, Science, Wildlife
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Performance of mice in discrimination of liquor odors: behavioral evidence for olfactory attention.

We examined performance of mice in discrimination of liquor odors by Y-maze behavioral assays. Thirsty mice were initially trained to choose the odor of a red wine in the Y-maze. After successful training (>70% concordance for each trained mouse), the individual mice were able to discriminate the learned red wine from other liquors, including white wine, rosé wine, sake, and plum liqueur — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Lord West urges e-mail snooping crackdown

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4 March 2011
40 second read
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In Politics, Rights, Technology, World
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Ministers must do more to stop internet service providers (ISPs) snooping on private e-mails without consent, an ex-cyber security minister has said. Some ISPs have trialled software that intercepts and scans e-mails to target ads.

They are meant to ask permission first – but former Labour minister Lord West says it is too easy to flout the rules — via dungbeetlemania.newsvine.com

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