A government-funded study in Japan has revealed that e-cigarettes – electronic devices designed to replace traditional cigarettes – contain high levels of chemicals that have been linked to the development of cancer. E-cigarettes contain flavoured liquid, which is heated electronically and the resulting vapour inhaled to produce a tobacco flavour without the harmful smoke. According to Justin McCurry at The Guardian, researchers from the Health Ministry of Japan decided to investigate this liquid by testing several brand of e-cigarettes using a machine that inhaled 10 sets of 15 puffs. They discovered that several brands contain the known carcinogens formaldehyde and Continue Reading →

Ghostly presences – the feeling of someone near you when there’s no one there – could be down to your brain trying to make sense of conflicting information. For the first time, the brain regions involved in such hallucinations have been identified – and a ghost presence induced in healthy people. The work sheds light on why some people with conditions such as schizophrenia and epilepsy feel an alien presence nearby, and may also explain why mountain climbers often report being accompanied by the presence of what’s called “the third man”. In 1933, when British explorer Frank Smythe came close Continue Reading →

DON’T mind the gap. A woman has reached the age of 24 without anyone realising she was missing a large part of her brain. The case highlights just how adaptable the organ is. The discovery was made when the woman was admitted to the Chinese PLA General Hospital of Jinan Military Area Command in Shandong Province complaining of dizziness and nausea. She told doctors she’d had problems walking steadily for most of her life, and her mother reported that she hadn’t walked until she was 7 and that her speech only became intelligible at the age of 6. Doctors did Continue Reading →

As the global population tips over 7 billion, it’s becoming increasingly crucial that we think about what all those people and their children are going to be eating over the next century and beyond. According to a report last year by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the meat industry is one of the biggest threats to the environment, contributing to 14.5 percent of human-related greenhouse gas emissions. And this is only going to increase as developing countries continue to grow and establish more sustainable economies, which will facilitate more opportunties for people to afford expensive, meat-laden Continue Reading →