16-year-old Wins $75,000 for Her Award-Winning Discovery That Could Help Revolutionize Biomedical Implants

Grace Sun, credit – Society for Science

First prize in the USA’s largest and most prestigious science fair has gone to a 16-year-old girl who found new ways to optimize the components of biomedical implants, promising a future of safer, faster, and longer-lasting versions of these critical devices.

It’s not the work of science fiction; bioelectronic implants like the pacemaker have been around for decades, but also suffer from compatibility issues interfacing with the human body.

On Friday, Grace Sun from Lexington, Kentukcy, pocketed $75,000 and was recognized among 2,000 of the nation and the world’s top STEM students as having produced the “number one project.”

The award was given through the Society for Science’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, one of the largest and most prestigious in the world.

Sun’s work focused on improving the capabilities of organic electrochemical transistors or OECTs, which like other devices made of silicon, are soft, flexible, and present the possibility of more complex implants for use in the brain or the heart.

“They have performance issues right now,” Sun told Business Insider of the devices. “They have instability in the body. You don’t want some sort of implanted bioelectronic to degrade in your body.”

Sensitive OECTs could detect proteins or nucleic acids in sweat, blood, or other transporters that correspond to diseases in their earliest stages. They could replace more invasive implants like the aforementioned pacemaker, and offer unprecedented ways to track biomarkers such as blood glucose, circulating white blood cell count, or blood-alcohol content, which could be useful for people with autoimmunity, epilepsy, or diabetes.

“This was our number one project, without a shadow of a doubt,” Ian Jandrell, a judging co-chair for the materials science category at ISEF, told Business Insider about Sun’s research.

“It was crystal clear that that room was convinced that this was a significant project and worthy of consideration for a very top award because of the contribution that was made.”Sun says she is looking to develop the OECTs further, hoping to start a business in the not-too-distant future as a means of getting them out into the world and impacting real people as fast as possible. 16-year-old Wins $75,000 for Her Award-Winning Discovery That Could Help Revolutionize Biomedical Implants

Read More........→July 29, 2025

No link between vaccination and sudden cardiac death in youth: Dr Randeep Guleria

New Delhi, (IANS) Former AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria on Friday said that recent studies by ICMR and AIIMS have clearly shown there is no link between COVID-19 vaccination and sudden cardiac deaths among young people.

In an exclusive conversation with IANS, he addressed concerns that have been circulating in various sections of society regarding heart-related deaths after vaccination.

Here are excerpts of the interview:

IANS: The joint study of ICMR and AIIMS has concluded that there’s no link between COVID-19 vaccines and sudden cardiac arrests in youth. How do you see this outcome?

Dr Randeep Guleria: Yes, there has been a lot of concern recently about young people dying from sudden heart problems. Many were wondering if it could be due to the COVID vaccine. But now, studies by ICMR and AIIMS have clearly shown there is no such connection.

From my personal experience as well, we have seen young people suffering from heart issues even before COVID. These were usually linked to genetic factors and major lifestyle changes.

Our eating habits have become unhealthy. The traditional diet of green leafy vegetables and fruits has been replaced by fast food. Physical activity has decreased, especially as more young people now do desk jobs.

This has led to weight gain and obesity. Due to such lifestyle and genetic reasons, heart attacks in our population are happening 10 years earlier than in western countries. So, vaccination is not responsible. The causes are different.

IANS: When and why did people start linking vaccines to heart problems? Do vaccines have any negative effects on the body?

Dr Randeep Guleria: Every medicine, including vaccines, can have some side effects. But since vaccines are given to healthy people, their side effects are monitored very closely.

There are dedicated systems set up by the government, WHO, and other organisations to track this. According to all this data, the side effects of COVID vaccines are very minimal, and the benefits are much greater.

In fact, India was able to fight COVID-19 effectively because of its strong vaccination programme. Two vaccines were launched quickly, and this helped save many lives. So, I would say vaccines were extremely helpful, not harmful.

IANS: What about cases where no clear cause of death is found? The person’s heart and lungs were functioning fine.

Dr Randeep Guleria: Such deaths are unfortunate and worrying. But most of them are still linked to lifestyle problems like unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. Young people need to become more aware. They should exercise, eat healthily, and maintain a good weight. We should return to our traditional Indian food instead of western-style fast food.

As I said earlier, there is no link between the COVID vaccine and such deaths. But yes, it is true that heart problems among young people are rising, and we need to talk more openly and responsibly about this issue.

IANS: What is your view on anti-aging medicines? Should they be banned?

Dr Randeep Guleria: Anti-aging medicine is becoming very popular but it's mostly unregulated. Many of these products are sold without proper scientific studies to prove they work. Some may even have harmful side effects, especially if taken for long periods.

There is definitely a need to regulate such medicines. If there’s no proper evidence about their safety or usefulness, and they are found to be harmful, then yes -- they should be banned. The same applies to other medicines, like muscle-building drugs that are often misused.cardiac death No link between vaccination and sudden cardiac death in youth: Dr Randeep Guleria | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→July 15, 2025

Young, women more likely to suffer from multiple sclerosis: Experts

New Delhi, (IANS) Young adults and women are more likely to suffer from multiple sclerosis, said experts on Saturday.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a complex, chronic, autoimmune, and neurological disease that primarily affects the central nervous system, leading to a range of symptoms and health issues.

Data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate that over 1.8 million people worldwide live with MS.

The prevalence of MS in India ranges from 7 to 30 per 100,000 people, according to various studies.

“MS can strike anyone at any age, however, persons between the ages of 20 and 40 are the ones who are diagnosed with it most frequently. Women are disproportionately affected since they are two to three times more likely than men to have the condition,” Dr. Himanshu Champaneri Senior Consultant- Department of Neurosciences and Neurosurgery, Marengo Asia Hospitals, Gurugram, told IANS.

Common symptoms include numbness or sensory loss, paraesthesia in limbs or face, vision loss, weakness in one or more limbs, double vision, imbalance while walking, and bladder problems such as difficulty holding or passing urine.

In addition, some patients experience a current-like sensation running down the spine with neck movements.

These symptoms typically develop over a few days to weeks, differentiating them from stroke symptoms, which have a rapid onset within seconds to minutes.

Dr Neeraj Balaini, Consultant – Neurology, Aster RV Hospital, told IANS that the exact cause of MS is not fully understood.

“Risk factors for MS include genetic predisposition, certain viral infections (such as Epstein-Barr virus and Human herpes virus-6), smoking, and vitamin D deficiency,” he said.

The doctor further explained that in MS, there is a loss of myelin -- the insulating covering around nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

This demyelination disrupts the electrical signals in the nerves, leading to the various symptoms of MS.

“Severe myelin damage can also result in the loss of nerve fibres themselves,” Dr. Neeraj said.

“MS is treatable but not curable. Without treatment, patients may accumulate disabilities from repeated attacks or enter a progressive phase where disability increases gradually without new attacks.

“Clinical depression is more frequent in people with MS due to both the psychological impact of the disease and potential neuroendocrine changes caused by MS,” he noted.

Along with medications, the experts stressed a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle to manage MS.

Eating a healthy and nutritious diet, managing weight, avoiding alcohol and tobacco, maintaining a balanced diet, ensuring good sleep hygiene, and managing hypertension and diabetes, can help preserve healthy neurons and support overall health.

Physical exercise is also important in managing MS and improving quality of life.In addition, “taking preventative measures to avoid infections may be helpful as some viral infections are known to trigger MS and genetic counselling may be helpful for those with a family history of the disease,” Dr. Himanshu said. Young, women more likely to suffer from multiple sclerosis: Experts | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→July 08, 2024

“Mozart effect”, or can music make you smarter?

Much has been written on the “Mozart effect” - the theory that classical music can stimulate the listener's brain and make them cleverer. Further studies however have refuted the finding and have allegedly proved that the only real benefit to be gained from listening to music is pleasure. It now seems that this enjoyment could be of particular importance where health is concerned.
The “Mozart effect” has long been used as a marketing ploy to sell educational toys or child development materials such as CDs and DVDs. The basic idea was that children who listened to Mozart's music received a "brain boost" to improve their IQ. However, this theory is little more than a medical fairytale. According to Dr. Jessica Grahn, a cognitive scientist at Western University in London, Ontario: “The Mozart effect is a media-driven myth. One study in 1992 showed that undergraduate students who listened to Mozart before a test did better than students who sat in silence or listened to a relaxation tape.” Despite its appeal, the effect has never been confirmed by further studies. As Jessica Grahn said in an interview with the ‘Voice of Russia’: “Later studies showed that this improvement probably had nothing to do with Mozart at all, but instead happens anytime we do something that boosts mood and arousal.” In fact a beneficial effect might indeed be obtained from listening to Mozart; but other kinds of music have been shown to work just as well. What matters is the listener's taste. Dr. Glenn Schellenberg, a psychologist from the University of Toronto, said in an interview with the ‘Voice of Russia’ that: “It doesn’t matter if it's Mozart or Schubert. It is just that music makes you feel good. You can get lots of different effects like that with different kinds of stimulus, which make the listeners feel better.” A study on young children has shown, for example, the "Blur effect" similar to what Mozart was thought to achieve. The effect of music is not related to a specific musical genre. Dr. Glenn continued: “We’ve observed that with 9-11 year old children, pop music works better and on 5 year old kids, children's music works better. It actually depends on the listeners; on which music is going to make somebody feel good. The effects can be noticed with every kind of music, but not if the listener hates it!” Enjoyment is the key; examining the brains of people who were listening to music, scientists have discovered that, while the main effect is pleasure, movement is also involved. Dr. Grahn underlined that: “Several studies have shown that 'reward' areas of the brain, areas that respond to pleasurable things like food or sex, also respond when listening to pleasurable music, particularly if it is music that can give you chills”. Music makes you feel good, but it also makes you move, as Grahn added: “I have also found that when people listen to music, areas of the brain that are responsible for controlling movement are active. This suggests music engages our movement systems, even if we're staying perfectly still.”  Even so, music impacts ordinary listeners and musicians differently. As Jessica Grahn observed: “Many responses are similar across listeners and players. However, players sometimes show more responses in movement areas, perhaps because they are imagining playing along.” Moreover, several studies have proved that playing music regularly can improve IQ by a few points. Although listening to music doesn’t actually boost intelligence, it does make you feel good and in that way influences every aspect of life. Dr. Glenn Schellenberg observed that the effect of music on feelings should not be underestimated: “If you talk about a ‘mood effect’, you’re discounting the power that music has on well-being and health in general.” Music can have a crucial impact on health. “If people undergo an operation, if they’re listening to their favourite CD, then they need less medication. There are lots of examples of effects of music on health, and on well-being more generally. Music makes people feel good and how you feel really has a huge impact on every aspect of life,” Schellenberg stressed. The use of music as a complementary therapy is developing. Music is being utilised in hospitals and clinics around the world. More and more charities organise concerts in hospitals. Members of the British NGO“Music in Hospitals” play for patients all over the UK. Music can often minimise pain and increase a patient's well-being. For example, when people undergo surgery, the use of music as a part of their treatment eases anaesthesia, and helps to speed up the healing process.  Although music has no real impact on intelligence, it does seem to have an important role to play as a therapeutic tool which will probably boost your health, but probably not your IQ! Eva Bertrand. Source: Article

Read More........→December 23, 2013

Energy drinks start to destroy teenagers' teeth after 5 days: Study

Teenagers, the next time you down an energy drink, do give a second thought, for an Indian-origin researcher-led study claims these beverages start to destroy teeth after only five days of continuous consumption. In their study, Dr Poonam Jain at Southern Illinois University and colleagues charted an alarming increase in the consumption of both energy and sports drinks among young adults in the US. They said the habit is causing irreversible damage to teeth as the high acidity levels in the drinks erode tooth enamel, the glossy outer layer of the tooth, the 'Daily Mail' online reported. "Young adults consume these drinks assuming that they will improve their sports performance and energy levels and that they are 'better' for them than soda. Most of these patients are shocked to learn that these drinks are essentially bathing their teeth with acid," said Dr Jain. In fact, researchers examined the acidity levels in 13 sports drinks and nine energy drinks. They found that the acidity levels can vary between brands of beverages and flavors of the same brand. To test the effect of the acidity levels, the researchers immersed samples of human tooth enamel in each beverage for 15 minutes, followed by immersion in artificial saliva for two hours. This cycle was repeated four times a day for five days, and samples were kept in fresh artificial saliva other times. "This type of testing simulates the same exposure that a large proportion of American teens and young adults are subjecting their teeth to on a regular basis when they drink one of these beverages every few hours," Dr Jain said. The researchers found that damage to enamel was evident after only five days of exposure to sports or energy drinks, though energy drinks showed a significantly greater potential to damage teeth than sports drinks. In fact, they found that energy drinks caused twice as much damage to teeth as sports drinks. Damage caused to tooth enamel is irreversible, and without the protection of enamel, teeth become overly sensitive, prone to cavities, and more likely to decay. The findings have been published in the 'Academy of General Dentistry' journal. Source: Indian Express

Read More........→March 13, 2013

Bonobos comfort friends in distress

The consolation behavior of young bonobos are a sign of sensitivity to the emotions of others and the ability to take the perspective of another. Photo courtesy of Zanna Clay.

By Lisa Newbern, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Comforting a friend or relative in distress may be a more hard-wired behavior than previously thought, according to a new study of bonobos, which are great apes known for their empathy and close relation to humans and chimpanzees. The study provides key evolutionary insight into how critical social skills may develop in humans. The results were published by the journal PLOS , One. Researchers from Emory's Yerkes National Primate Research Center observed juvenile bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo engaging in consolation behavior more than their adult counterparts. Juvenile bonobos (three-to-seven years old) are equivalent in age to preschool or elementary school-aged children. Emory psychologists Zanna Clay and Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center at Yerkes, led the study. "Our findings suggest that for bonobos, sensitivity to the emotions of others emerges early and does not require advanced thought processes that develop only in adults," Clay says. Starting at around age two, human children usually display consolation behavior, a sign of sensitivity to the emotions of others and the ability to take the perspective of another. Consolation has been observed in humans, bonobos, chimpanzees and other animals, including dogs, elephants and some types of birds, but has not been seen in monkeys. At the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary, most bonobos come as juvenile or infant orphans because their parents are killed for meat or captured as pets. A minority of bonobos in the sanctuary is second generation and raised by their biological mothers. The researchers found bonobos raised by their own mothers were more likely to comfort others compared to orphaned bonobos. This may indicate early life stress interferes with development of consolation behavior, while a stable parental relationship encourages it, Clay says. Clay observed more than 350 conflicts between bonobos at the sanctuary during several months. Some conflicts involved violence, such as hitting, pushing or grabbing, while others only involved threats or chasing. Consolation occurred when a third bonobo — usually one that was close to the scene of conflict — comforted one of the parties in the conflict. Consolation behavior includes hugs, grooming and sometimes sexual behavior. Consolation appears to lower stress in the recipient, based on a reduction in the recipient’s rates of self-scratching and self-grooming, the authors write. "We found strong effects of friendship and kinship, with bonobos being more likely to comfort those they are emotionally close to," Clay says. "This is consistent with the idea that empathy and emotional sensitivity contribute to consolation behavior." In future research, Clay plans to take a closer look at the emergence of consolation behavior in bonobos at early ages. A process that may facilitate development of consolation behavior is when older bonobos use younger ones as teddy bears; their passive participation may get the younger bonobos used to the idea, she says. Source: eScienceCommons

Read More........→February 06, 2013

Young Designer Dreams Up a Futuristic Mercedes-Benz Sports Car Concept

Ever wonder what cars of the future will look like? Sure you have, but the difference between us and transportation designers is that the latter can put their thoughts down on paper and even on actual materials. This concept for a Mercedes-Benz sports car is the work of aspiring automobile designer Oliver Elst from Germany, who has completed internships at Opel and Mercedes-Benz. It's worth mentioning that with this design thesis, Elst recently won the Lucky Strike Junior Design Award. Elst says he wanted to reduce both the visual and structural weight of the car with his design that utilizes “sandwiched”
materials in three layers, two for the interior and the other of the exterior. Below you will find Elst's description of the Mercedes concept along with a set of photos. Mercedes-Benz Concept by Oliver Elst: My project aims at finding a common denominator out of simplicity and lightness and put it into a creative approach, which as a result does not only include a new way visual appearance, but furthermore charts a sophisticated path forward technologically. The common denominator is reducing, it appears in the aesthetics of the surface, plus in the  implied light-weight structure. In current discussions about consumption economization reduction is regarded as one of the most difficult tasks in the automotive industry. However, new materials, just like carbon fiber, feature an interesting way to reduce the weight. During finding a concept I noticed current light-weight- construction- materials offer a high physical lightweight, nevertheless do not get across their characteristics to the observers. This is why I wanted to
create a new material, which on one hand epitomizes material light weight, but on the other hand optical light-weight as well. This innovative thinking is represented by a reinterpretation of a sandwich material, which is not used in the usual planar way, but is highlighted in each sandwich layer which creates the whole car-body. In the course of reduction the lightweight filling layer is built up by only one geometrical base body. The ball. In the Exterieur this lightweight- structure is used for cooling and lightning. Designer: Oliver Elst via Yankodesign, Source: Carscoop

Read More........→December 30, 2012

Young whales can speak

Young whales can imitate the voices of humans, according to a new paper that highlights the vocal mimicry skills of one whale in particular.

Dr Sam Ridgway, of the National Marine Mammal Foundation, studied the possibility of the marine mammal to copy the sound of people. It first happened to a young white whale, also known as a beluga, named NOC. It could make a sound similar to the human word “out”. Then it copied human words so well, that at first researchers thought they were hearing humans conversing in the distance. This study revealed an amplitude rhythm in NOC's vocalizations that was comparable to human speech. Fundamental frequencies in the whale's vocalizations were also in the same range of human speech and were several octaves lower than the whale's usual sounds. The whale NOC also went to a lot of trouble to make the sounds. The researchers explain that the whale had to vary the pressure in his nasal tract while making other muscular adjustments and inflating the vestibular sac in his blowhole. But when the whale turned 4 years he stopped his human vocal mimicry. Researchers say that there might be two reasons for this. The first is that hormonal changes related to sexual maturity may diminish a whale's urges to mimic. Another possible reason is that the novelty might have simply worn off for NOC. The findings open up the possibility of teaching white whales how to speak, Ridgway suggests. Voice of Russia, Discovery News,  Source: Voice of Russia, Image: flickr.com

Read More........→November 10, 2012

Higher-math skills entwined with lower-order magnitude sense

While many animals understand the concept of less and more, only humans can learn formal math.

By Carol Clark: The ability to learn complex, symbolic math is a uniquely human trait, but it is intricately connected to a primitive sense of magnitude that is shared by many animals, finds a study to be published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “Our results clearly show that uniquely human branches of mathematics interface with an evolutionarily primitive general magnitude system,” says lead authorStella Lourenco, a psychologist at Emory University. “We were able to show how variations in both advanced arithmetic and geometry skills specifically correlated with variations in our intuitive sense of magnitude.” Babies as young as six months can roughly distinguish between less and more, whether it’s for a number of objects, the size of objects, or the length of time they see the objects. This intuitive, non-verbal sense of magnitude, which may be innate, has also been demonstrated in non-human animals. When given a choice between a group of five bananas or two bananas, for example, monkeys will tend to take the bigger bunch. “It’s obviously of adaptive value for all animals to be able to discriminate between less and more,” Lourenco says. “The ability is widespread across the animal kingdom – fish, rodents and even insects show sensitivity to magnitude, such as the number of items in a set of objects.” Only humans, however, can learn formal math, including symbolic notations of number, quantitative concepts and computational operations. While the general magnitude system has been linked primarily to the brain’s intraparietal sulcus (IPS), higher math requires the use of more widely

The dot test shows variation in people's ability to intuit number and area.

distributed areas of the brain. For the PNAS study, the researchers wanted to build on work by others indicating that a lower-order sense of number is not just a separate function, but plays a role in the mental capacity for more complex math. The researchers recruited 65 undergraduate college students to participate in an experiment. To test their knack for estimating magnitude of numbers, participants were shown images of dots in two different colors, flashed for only 200 milliseconds on a computer screen. They then had to choose which color had the greater number of dots. Most people can quickly distinguish that a group of 10 dots is greater than a group of five, but some people have a finer-grained number sense that allows them to discriminate between 10 and nine dots. The participants were also shown dots of varying sizes and colors to test their ability to gauge magnitude of area. They then completed a battery of standardized math tests. The results showed that the more precise the participants’ abilities were at estimating the magnitude of a number, the better they scored in advanced arithmetic. The same correlation was found between precision at gauging magnitude of area and the geometry portion of the standardized math test. “By better understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying math abilities such as arithmetic and geometry, we hope to eventually inform how we come to learn symbolic math, and why some people are better at it than others,” says study co-author Justin Bonny, an Emory graduate student of psychology. “It may then be possible to develop early interventions for those who struggle with specific types of math.” U.S. teens lag in math skills compared to other industrialized countries. China ranked number one in math in 2010, the first year that the country participated in the Program for International Student Assessment, while the United States ranked number 31. “Falling behind in math is a huge problem,” Lourenco says, “given that we live in an increasingly technilogical society and a globally competitive world.”Source: eScienceCommons

Read More........→October 31, 2012

The Human Body is Designed to Move

The old saying is "Use it or lose it." In truth, it should be "Use it to keep it" or perhaps even ..."Use it right or lose it".  There is no one single right way to move, but if you let muscles and joints stop moving, over time the overall body loses the ability to move. If you want to move well when you are old, you must keep your body moving well as you age. Life is motion. When we stop moving, we stop living, which is why staying active is the number one desire of people as they age. When you talk to healthy people over 80, they will almost unanimously say their secret is"keeping active."  Motion is vital for health and aging well. Watch a normal child move. Youth is moving freely and with control. Watch someone who's sick move: they are stiff and consequently may be described as "looking old."  Our bodies and our muscles work best when.. they are worked, and then allowed to rest. When muscles are not rested they become tight, resulting in the chronic “tension” which plagues people who don’t move their body. Your body has a need to move. If you are typing at a computer for an hour, when you stand up your first instinct is to stretch. When people undergo surgery, they are now required to get up and move around as soon as possible (even though they don’t want

Read More........→July 08, 2012

How our earliest memories gel

Perri Klass, M.D. wrote about babies and memories in the New York Times Well blog. An excerpt: "Several decades ago it was thought that very young infants did not have the capacity for forming memories, said Patricia Bauer, a professor of psychology at Emory University. As techniques have been developed for testing infants and very young children, it has been found that 'the neural structures creating those representations in infancy are qualitatively the same as in older children and adults,' she said. "The crucial structure for episodic memory, the memory of autobiographical events, is the hippocampus, that little curved ridge in the middle of the brain whose shape reminded a 16th-century anatomist of a sea horse. Dr. Bauer compared memory forming to making gelatin: 'The experience is the liquid gelatin; you pour it into a mold. The mold is the hippocampus, and it has to go through a process of refrigeration known as consolidation.' "So memories can form in even very young children, it seems. But it is not clear that they can be retrieved. "Recent research suggests that some of those very early memories may actually be held into childhood, but then lost as children grow into adolescence. And research has also shown a strong cultural component to the question of how far back children remember." Source: eScienceCommons

Read More........→June 13, 2012

Are hugs the new drugs?

Research is showing that compassion meditation -- focused, warm thoughts about yourself and others -- may have positive effects on both your mental and physical well-being. Credit: iStockphoto.com

eScienceCommons: By Carol Clark : Basic empathy is a biological given. “If you talk with a sad person, you are going to adopt a sad posture, and if you talk to a happy person, by the end you will probably be laughing,” said Emory primatologist Frans de Waal. He explained that evolution has programmed us to mirror both the physical and emotional states of others. De Waal gave the opening remarks at a conference bringing together the Dalai Lama and scientists studying effects of compassion meditation on the brain, physical health and behavior. “Empathy is biased – it’s stronger for those that are close to you than those that are distant,” De Waal said. “Nature has built in rewards for the things that we need to do,

and being pro-social is  something that we need when we live in groups.” In order to get from empathy to compassion and altruism, you need to identify others as distinct from you. While it used to be assumed that altruistic tendencies were only possible in humans, de Waal said that targeted helping of others has recently been observed among apes and elephants. Photo by Frans de Waal shows a young chimpanzee consoling an adult male that just lost a fight. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist from the University of Wisconsin, recalled when he first began studying the effects of compassion meditation in 1992. He traveled to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and attached electrodes to the head of an expert practitioner. The other monks began laughing. “I thought it was because he looked so funny with the electrodes,” Davidson said. But it turned out the monks were amused that he was trying to study the effects of compassion by attaching electrodes to the practitioner’s head, rather than to his heart. Years later, Davidson is finding that the monks’ view may be on target. New research shows that the heart rates of expert practitioners beat more quickly while they are meditating than the hearts of novices. “We believe
that compassion meditation is facilitating communication between the heart and the mind,” Davidson said. Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill cited her research into the effects of “love and kindness meditation,” or LKM, on the vagus nerve. The nerve, which extends from the brain stem to the heart, helps regulate emotions and bodily systems. The effectiveness of the vagus nerve is measured by its tone, or fitness. The higher the vagal tone, the better the vagus nerve performs as a regulatory pathway. “With just six weeks of LKM training in novices, we see improvements in resting vagal tone,” Fredrickson said. “Just like physical exercise improves muscle tone, emotion training improves vagal tone.” High vagal tone is related to both a person’s physical health and their ability to feel loving connections with others, Fredrickson said. “In a way, our bodies are designed for love, because the more we love, the more healthy we become.” Emory researchers Charles Raison and Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi described their ongoing research into the effects of compassion meditation and depression. Negi developed a secular form of meditation for the research, based on the Tibetan Buddhist practice called “lojong.” Lojong uses an analytical approach to challenge a person’s thoughts
and emotions toward other  people, with the long-term goal of developing altruistic behavior. The pair collaborated on a 2005 study that showed that college students who regularly practice compassion meditation had a significant reduction in stress and physical responses to stress. They recently launched the Compassion and Attention Longitudinal Meditation Study (CALM), to explore the physical effects of different forms of meditation. “We’re trying to zero in on what is it about meditation that is useful for people’s health,” Raison said. Emory researchers are also getting positive preliminary results in compassion meditation studies involving schoolchildren ages six to eight and adolescents in the foster care system. “This seems like the dawning of a new day,” the Dalai Lama said. “We’ve heard about the benefits, and now we need to act to cultivate compassion from kindergarten to universities.” Source: eScienceCommons

Read More........→May 31, 2012

An Inconvenient Lawsuit: Teenagers Take Global Warming to the Courts

Industry giants say their case is misguided. But that isn't stopping a group of high school students from using the legal system to make environmental demands. Alec Loorz turns 18 at the end of this month. While finishing high school and playing Ultimate Frisbee on weekends, he's also suing the federal government in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The Ventura, California, teen and four other juvenile plaintiffs want government officials to do more to prevent the risks of climate change -- the dangerous storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, and food-supply disruptions that scientists warn will threaten their generation absent a major turnabout in global energy policy. Specifically, the students are demanding that the U.S. government start reducing national emissions of carbon dioxide by at least six percent per year beginning in 2013. Source: The Coming Crisis

Read More........→May 27, 2012

Music helps keep brain young

Credit: iStockphoto/LindaYolanda

eScienceCommons: Senior citizens who took music lessons as children for at least 10 years score higher on tests of memory and decision-making ability than non-musicians. In the video below, NBC Chicago reports on the findings by Emory neuropsychologist Brenda Hanna-Pladdy and the University of Kansas. “It’s

Read More........→April 23, 2012