h+ Magazine

Consciousness is a Whole Brain Deal. That was the title of the message I got on Jack Sarfatti’s mailing list this weekend, along with the link below, and I can’t really improve on it.

From New Scientist: "Signals from electrodes seem to show that consciousness arises from the coordinated activity of the entire brain. The signals also take us closer to finding an objective "consciousness signature" that could be used to probe the process in animals and people with brain damage without inserting electrodes."

Two scientists at the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew SeniorLife are part of an international team of investigators that has identified genes that influence the start of menstruation, a milestone of female reproductive health that has lifelong influences on overall health. The breakthrough was published online in Nature Genetics, one of the world’s leading scientific journals.

For the past century, changes in the Western diet have altered the consumption of omega-6 fatty acids (w6, found in meat and vegetable oils) compared with omega-3 fatty acids (w3, found in flax and fish oil). Many studies seem to indicate this shift has brought about an increased risk of inflammation (associated with autoimmunity and allergy), and now using a controlled diet study with human volunteers, researchers may have teased out a biological basis for these reported changes.

They’ll be laughing at that stupid thing you posted right before the heat death of the universe…  if any.

"Scientists are reporting an advance toward… a new computer memory device that can store thousands of times more data than conventional silicon chips with an estimated lifetime of more than one billion years."

Author and democracy activist Frances Moore Lappé says we already know how to solve the pressing issues of our time, such as climate change and world hunger.

University at Buffalo researchers have demonstrated for the first time that injecting adult bone marrow stem cells into skeletal muscle can repair cardiac tissue, reversing heart failure.

Just as our world buzzes with distractions — from phone calls to e-mails to tweets — the neurons in our brain are bombarded with messages. Research has shown that when we pay attention, some of these neurons begin firing in unison, like a chorus rising above the noise. Now, a study in the May 29 issue of Science reveals the likely brain center that serves as the conductor of this neural chorus.

A dog born with a deadly disease that prevents the body from using stored sugar has survived 20 months and is still healthy after receiving gene therapy at the University of Florida — putting scientists a step closer to finding a cure for the disorder in children.

Earthquakes are a fact of life in Japan and so is a fascination with robotics.

At the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Professor Shigeo Hirose is developing a robot that could help rescue survivors after an earthquake.

The BBC’s Richard Black took the opportunity to take a look at the robot and some of the professor’s other creations.

An experimental drug derived from cottonseed shows promise in treating the recurrence of glioblastoma multiforme, widely considered the most lethal brain cancer, said researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).