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From time to time there appear in the public domain stories and advertisements about revolutionary consumer products and their technical underpinnings. These communications make outlandish, but very exciting, claims. Many of these involve promises of huge dollar savings to the consumer. These opportunistic authors use the interesting technique of attaching their literally incredible claims to credible science. The incredible is pulled along by the coattails of the credible. If such stories and theories are not addressed by rational scientific...
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A lot happened in 2016, but one of the biggest cultural shifts was the rise of fake news – where claims with no evidence behind them (e.g. the world is flat) get shared as fact alongside evidence-based, peer-reviewed findings (e.g. climate change is happening).
Researchers have coined this trend the ‘anti-enlightenment movement’, and there’s been a lot of frustration and finger-pointing over who or what’s to blame. But a team of psychologists has identified some of the key factors that can cause people to reject...
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“When someone wants to get a tattoo, they are often very careful in choosing a parlour where they use sterile needles that haven’t been used previously. No one checks the chemical composition of the colours, but our study shows that maybe they should”, explains Hiram Castillo, one of the authors of the study and scientist at the ESRF.
The reality is that little is known about the potential impurities in the colour mixture applied to the skin. Most tattoo inks contain organic pigments, but also include preservatives and contaminants...
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Game of Thrones has suffered multiple leaks, ruining the story for many and making the lead up to the finales pointless.
As such, no one can be trusted. Neither the cast nor the crew. Definitely not the locals gathering to watch the shoot.
Following in the footsteps of shows like Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, etc, multiple endings will be shot for the series finale so as to avoid the true enemy, spoilers.
Yes, you read that right. Extra money will be shelled out and production will be elongated just so that the actual ending can remain a...
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1. Race
A 2008 starring film is a perfect example of a suspense thriller that will get you wrong in all of your predictions about the story! Saif Ali Khan really came out on top in this movie with his rough bearded look which puts a shade on his childish characters in the movies like Hum-Tum, Dil Chahta Hai and more.
2. Talaash
A movie starring ‘The Perfectionist’ of the Bollywood. That’s right, Amir Khan was the lead actor along with Kareena Kapoor and the story flows like a sea until the end! That’s...
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It’s no secret that developing and clinically testing drugs to treat conditions like cancer is a long and rigorous process. But the financial costs could be dramatically less than many people think.
An oft-quoted figure used by the pharmaceutical industry and once even referenced by President Trump puts the outlay at about US$2.7 billion in 2017 dollars to bring a drug to market, but a new analysis suggests that’s way more than what it actually costs.
Researchers investigated US Securities and Exchange Commission filings for...
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It’s fair to say parasites are generally bad for their hosts. Many cause disease and death so, like most species, we humans usually try to avoid infection at all costs.
But it turns out that some parasites, although potentially harmful in isolation, can in fact help hosts to cope with more deadly infections.
Understanding when parasitism is beneficial has important implications for how we manage infectious diseases, but we currently know very little about this phenomenon.
Our new study, published in Evolution Letters, tells us that...
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Bill and Melinda Gates have released their first-annual “Goalkeepers” report, a celebration of key milestones in public health and a look at which issues are still most pressing.
The wins include sizeable declines in childhood mortality and HIV infection rates, while the ongoing struggles include family planning and equality for women.
In a recent conference call with reporters, Bill Gates named infectious and chronic disease as the two biggest public health concerns in the coming decade.
“The chronic diseases, including...
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For the first time, science has confirmed that nanoparticles from your tattoos will end up in your lymph nodes.
Humans have been permanently decorating our skin with ink for at least 5,000 years, but we still don’t really know what effect, if any, they have on our bodies.
Now, for the first time, scientists have found evidence that both pigments and impurities from the tattoo ink can travel around your body as nanoparticles.
How tattoos work is actually pretty brilliant. The ink is precisely deposited via a needle below both the...
