New Scientist: "A simple computer program that teaches children to distinguish between sounds can dramatically boost their listening skills. It can allow them to progress by the equivalent of two years in just a few weeks, the game's creator claims."

Users Discover Pros and Cons in Stair-Climbing Wheelchair

Users Discover Pros and Cons in Stair-Climbing Wheelchair

New Scientist: "The first game-playing DNA computer has been revealed - an enzyme-powered tic-tac-toe machine that cannot be beaten."

Annual Physical Checkup May Be an Empty Ritual: "Yet in a series of reports that began in 1989 and is still continuing, an expert committee sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, found little support for many of the tests commonly included in a typical physical exam for symptomless people."

Wired News: Med Students to Make Mouse Calls: "The program, which will debut this year at England's Hull York Medical School, incorporates virtual case studies of patients to test students' diagnostic skills. Smith, who helped develop the program, plans to incorporate the case studies into a broader curriculum allowing students to complete the first half of medical school remotely, combining online courses with training at local clinics."

Wired News: Luxury Loo: The Seat Also Rises: "Toilets are available with automatic lid openers. And, once the lid opens, if one continues to linger hopefully in front of the toilet, the seat -- which can be set to warm and massage modes -- automatically rises also."

New Scientist: "The race to develop cost-effective solar power has sped up with the announcement of the world's most efficient photovoltaic cell yet."

New Scientist: "The first comprehensive model of the human spine is challenging our assumptions about the causes of back pain."

Wired News: Bone Marrow Mends Broken Hearts: "The cells, genetically engineered to make them stronger and more likely to survive, restored the heart's pumping capacity by 80 percent to 90 percent in rats, a team from Brigham and Women's Hospital said in the journal Nature Medicine."

Rx for Poor Penmanship at Hand for Doctors?

Call it neo-Cubism: Not only is Rubik's little toy back, but nimble-fingered players can unscramble the puzzle in no time flat

Economist.com | Aeroplane technology

Wired News: Claim: RFID Will Stop Terrorists

Ford Foundation

Wired News: Glove Won't Speak for the Deaf

Readerware Corporation - Tools for book lovers and collectors library system for $50, includes palm support

Hope Rises for Patient Cooling Therapy

Scientific American: Perception of Musical Pitch Uses Separate Parts of Brain

New Scientist: "What mothers eat during pregancy could have a fundamental and lifelong effect on the genes of their children, suggests an intriguing new study in mice."

Power from blood could lead to 'human batteries' - smh.com.au: "A device that produces electricity from blood could be used to turn people into 'human batteries'.

Researchers in Japan are developing a method of drawing power from blood glucose, mimicking the way the body generates energy from food."

Press Releases: "AMD Demonstrates Linux-based PDA at LinuxWorld"

Singing Horses: ""

FOXNews.com: "In what could be considered a striking statement, Robinson said that, as historically taught in the church, 'marriage is between a man and a woman.'"

Welcome to Viper's Lair - MSI MEGA 651 PC, Page 1/9: "a Home Theater PC (HTPC)"

Videogame Virtue: "All of this research points in the same direction. Leaving aside questions of content, video games are good for kids—within limits—because game play helps them to adapt to the demands of the new information environment. Surgeons are already using video games to refine their hand-eye coordination for the ever more exacting demands of contemporary procedures. The military uses games to rehearse the complexity of coordinating group actions in an environment where participants cannot see each other. And all of us can use games to learn how to function in the era of continuous partial attention."

Open Directory - Reference: Libraries: Library and Information Science: Technical Services: Cataloguing: Bibliographic Utilities

oss4lib -- home -- Open Source Systems for Libraries

Scientific American: Musical Training Aids Memory: "children with training in music have better verbal memory skills than do their peers who haven't received musical instruction."

New Scientist: "Peter McCarron, at Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and colleagues examined the medical records of nearly 10,000 male graduates of Glasgow University. The researchers found that science, engineering and medical students had a substantially lower risk of mortality than arts students.

However, medical students went on to have the largest number of alcohol-related deaths and death from suicide or violent means. They were also the heaviest smokers as students, followed by lawyers."

Three Universities Join Researcher to Develop Drugs: "'It's not enough any longer to cure cancer in the mouse,' said Dr. Edward W. Holmes, vice chancellor for health sciences at the University of California at San Diego, and dean of its medical school. 'We really do need to move the science into the clinic.'"

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