High-Tech Device Allows Quadriplegic Man to Take Medication Without a Nurse’s Help

Four Johns Hopkins undergraduates have a designed and constructed a computer-guided pill dispensing machine that will enable a quadriplegic man to lead a more independent life. Using a mouth stick, Robert Arthur Williams will be able to order one of up to 12 different medications stored inside the machine. Then, when Williams taps a “slam switch” (he has limited mobility in his right arm), the mac

In the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins researchers report that injection of human stem cells into the fluid around the spinal cord of each of 15 paralyzed rats clearly improved the animals’ ability to control their hind limbs — but not at all in the way the scientists had expected.

“Our first hypothesis was that functional recovery came from human cells reconstituting the nerve circuits destroyed by the paralysis-inducing virus we gave the rats,” says first

Pelvic floor exercises for men have been found to be highly effective in restoring erectile function according to recently published research. Research at the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of the West of England, Bristol, shows that pelvic floor exercises result in the same overall improvement rate seen in a large trial of men taking Viagra.

Fifty-five men with an average age of 59 years who had experienced erectile dysfunction for 6 months or more took part in the tri

Stop smoking and leave your car at home. Encouraging people in cities to make simple lifestyle changes, such as using alternative forms of transport to the car, can significantly reduce their exposure to harmful air pollutants. The findings of the first in a series of Europe-wide air quality studies was announced today in Brussels by European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin and Didier Gosuin, Environment Minister of the Brussels-Capital Region. The first phase of the “Population Exposure to Ai

Research by Austrian geneticists has raised the possibility that stem cells[1] could be isolated from amniotic fluid – the protective ’bath water’ that surrounds the unborn baby.

Geneticist Professor Markus Hengstschläger and his team at the University of Vienna have isolated a subgroup of cells from amniotic fluid that express a protein called Oct-4 – known to be a key marker for human pluripotent stem cells.

Reporting the findings today (Monday 30 June) in Europe’

When staff at the Reptile House in London Zoo thought they had an unidentified species of cobra on their hands, they turned to an expert in snake species identification- Dr Wolfgang Wüster of the University of Wales, Bangor’s School of Biological Sciences for assistance.

Dr Wüster, who has been involved in the identification of three other new snake species, agreed with keepers at the Zoo that this spitting cobra species was different to the red spitting cobra which it was originally thought