Quirky Science

Photo Courtesy: University of Oxford

Fruit flies show mark of intelligence in thinking before they act, study suggests

Fruit flies 'think' before they act, a study by researchers from the University of Oxford's Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour suggests. The neuroscientists showed that fruit flies take longer to make more difficult decisions.
Gathering information before making a decision has been considered a sign of higher intelligence, like that shown by primates and humans.
'Freedom of action from automatic impulses is considered a hallmark of cognition or intelligence,' writes Professor Gero Miesenböck, in whose laboratory the new research was performed. 'What our findings show is that fruit flies have a surprising mental capacity that has previously been unrecognised.'
The researchers also showed that the gene FoxP, active in a small set of around 200 neurons, is involved in the decision-making process in the fruit fly brain.The team reports its findings in the journal Science.

Engineers build world's smallest, fastest nanomotor: Can fit inside a single cell

Photo Courtesy: University of Texas at Austin

Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have built the smallest, fastest and longest-running tiny synthetic motor to date. The team's nanomotor is an important step toward developing miniature machines that could one day move through the body to administer insulin for diabetics when needed, or target and treat cancer cells without harming good cells.
With the goal of powering these yet-to-be invented devices, UT Austin engineers focused on building a reliable, ultra-high-speed nanomotor that can convert electrical energy into mechanical motion on a scale 500 times smaller than a grain of salt.

E-cigarettes expose people to more than harmless vapor, should be regulated

In a major scientific review of research on e-cigarettes, UC San Francisco scientists found that industry claims about the devices are unsupported by the evidence to date, including claims that e-cigarettes help smokers quit.
The devices, which are rapidly gaining a foothold in popular culture particularly among youth, are marketed as a healthier alternative to tobacco smoking, as an effective tool to stop smoking, and as a way to circumvent smoke-free laws by allowing users to "smoke anywhere." Often the ads stress that e-cigarettes produce only "harmless water vapor."
But in their analysis of the marketing, health and behavioral effects of the products, which are unregulated, the UCSF scientists found that e-cigarette use is associated with significantly lower odds of quitting cigarettes. They also found that while the data are still limited, e-cigarette emissions "are not merely 'harmless water vapor,' as is frequently claimed, and can be a source of indoor air pollution.”
The long-term biological effects of use are still unknown, the authors said.

Lifelong premature ejaculation can be treated by pelvic floor exercises

A trial presented at the European Congress of Urology in Stockholm reports for the first time that pelvic floor exercises can be effective in treating premature ejaculation in men who have had lifelong problems.
A team led by Dr Antonio Pastore (Sapienza University of Rome), group took 40 men (aged 19-46) who were suffering from PE and trained them to exercise their pelvic floor muscles over a 12 week period. They also measured their time-to-orgasm over this period. Previously, the men had tried a variety of therapies, without any significant improvement. At the start of the trial the average ejaculation time was 31.7 seconds, but by the end of the 12-weeks of pelvic floor exercises this had risen to 146.2 seconds2- a more than 4-fold increase.