SciTechBits – Interesting Bits of Science & Technoglogy Served For You!

Fritz Kahn a doctor born in Germany produced several illustrations (1920s) that explained the human physiology using operations of machines. It was a wonderful imagination to think of the human anatomy as a various mechanical components. These illustrations have provided great insight in a simplistic way to understand the human physiology. Recently, Henning Lederer a graphics artist and animator attempted to use modern techniques to convert & adapt the work of Kahn into an interactive product.

Given below is an animation created by Lederer and the original poster (Der Mensch als Industriepalast [Man as Industrial Palace]) created by Kahn in 1926.

Feb 4, 2010 marked the World Cancer Day. The message got out to the world was all in sync – a good percentage of cancers are preventable.


Cancer is a leading cause of death, contributing to about one in every eight deaths worldwide and that is HIV, malaria and TB combined. While the fear for this killer is omnipresent, awareness about prevention is not. While cancer by itself is noncommunicable, about twenty-one percent of cancers are due to infections. Cervical and liver cancers are mainly due to such infections.

Ask anyone who suffers from migraine headaches what they do when they’re having an attack, and you’re likely to hear “go into a dark room.” And although it’s long been known that light makes migraines worse, the reason why has been unclear.


Now scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have identified a new visual pathway that underlies sensitivity to light during migraine in both blind individuals and in individuals with normal eyesight. The findings, which appear today in the Advance On-line issue of Nature Neuroscience, help explain the mechanism behind this widespread condition.

A one-sided, throbbing headache associated with a number of symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and fatigue, migraines are notoriously debilitating and surprisingly widespread, affecting more than 30 million individuals in the U.S. alone. Migraine pain is believed to develop when the meninges, the system of membranes surrounding the brain and central nervous system, becomes irritated, which stimulates pain receptors and triggers a series of events that lead to the prolonged activation of groups of sensory neurons.

A group of researchers attempted to see “Are people really aroused physiologically when their mind thinks so”. The answer to this question showed clear difference between the sexes. Men really mean it, while women do not.

Human sexual response is a complex of physiological, emotional and cognitive responses. Researchers identified 134 previous studies which dealt with similar research, to perform a meta-analysis. This included 2,500 women and 1,900 men. The participants were exposed to various sexual stimuli and were asked how aroused they felt. At the same time their physiological reaction (erection for men and genital blood flow for women) was measured.

Statistical analysis showed that men were able to clearly sync their mind with the body ie., when they told they were horny, their penis was really erect, however women often reported of being horny, while the physiological measure did not match it.

However, this measurement was done at different time points. When measured during the participants were receiving the stimuli, there was no significant difference between the sexes. The difference was when the participants were asked to rank their arousal at the end of the stimuli.

The researchers believe that, accurate measurement of arousal will play a significant part in the improvement of sexual science.

So guys, she is not only faking her orgasm, she doesn’t even know if she is horny at all!

Journal Reference: doi:10.1007/s10508-009-9556-9

Researchers have found that, people with Alzheimer’s are least likely to develop cancer and people with cancer are least likely to develop Alzheimer’s. Though the reason is unknown, this finding coupled with an earlier research focused on cancer and Parkinson’s disease, shows a clear trend – cancer is linked to neurodegeneration.


A group of researchers recruited 3,020 people aged 65 and older, of which 164 people (5.4%) already had Alzheimer’s disease and 522 people (17.3%) already had a cancer diagnosis. All of them followed up for an average of 5 years to see whether they developed dementia and an average of 8 years to see whether they developed cancer. During the study, 478 people developed dementia and 376 people developed invasive cancer. Surprisingly, for people who had Alzheimer’s disease at the start of the study, the risk of future cancer hospitalization was reduced by 69% compared to those who did not have Alzheimer’s disease when the study started. For Caucasian people who had cancer when the study started, their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease was reduced by 43% compared to people who did not have cancer at the start of the study.

The premise that hunger makes food look more appealing is a widely held belief – just ask those who cruise grocery store aisles on an empty stomach, only to go home with a full basket and an empty wallet.


Prior research studies have suggested that the so-called hunger hormone ghrelin, which the body produces when it’s hungry, might act on the brain to trigger this behavior. New research in mice by UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists suggest that ghrelin might also work in the brain to make some people keep eating “pleasurable” foods when they’re already full.

“What we show is that there may be situations where we are driven to seek out and eat very rewarding foods, even if we’re full, for no other reason than our brain tells us to,” said Dr. Jeffrey Zigman, assistant professor of internal medicine and psychiatry at UT Southwestern and co-senior author of the study appearing online and in a future edition of Biological Psychiatry.

Research and media have been significantly focused on Green Tea, highlighting its health benefits. Black Tea (the regular tea consumed at homes) has now been researched and proved that it can directly influence the lifespan. Specifically, experiments on fruit flies have shown that, more than 4% extension of lifespan is possible.

Gerontology researchers have been increasingly addressing the relationship between diet and aging. It is shown that moderate calorie restriction or altering the composition of nutrients in the diet affects the lifespan and aging of organisms.

Dietary antioxidants have become popular supplements in prevention of aging. Briefly, oxygen we intake generates ‘reactive oxygen species’ (ROS), which is one of the causes for aging. Dietary antioxidants work towards scavenging the ROS in cells and build a defense base to limit the formation of new free radicals and slow down the ageing process.

As people get older, their arms and legs become thinner, making them weak with more chances for falls and fractures.  Research is now showing why this is happening and how to handle it.

Researchers from Nottingham have been researching about this and had already shown that the food intake by the elderly cannot convert to muscles as fast as in their younger counter parts. Newer research by the same team, has now found that the suppression of muscle breakdown, which also happens during feeding, is blunted with age. They belive that a ‘double whammy’ affects people aged over 65. However the team think that weight training may “rejuvenate” muscle blood flow and help retain muscle for older people.

When they eat they don’t build enough muscle with the protein in food; also, the insulin fails to shut down the muscle breakdown that rises between meals and overnight. Normally, in young people, insulin acts to slow muscle breakdown. Common to these problems may be a failure to deliver nutrients and hormones to muscle because of a poorer blood supply.