The results of a 20-year old project started by the Boston Retinal Implant Project may soon allow degenerative blind patients to once again see their surroundings. A new bio-electronic optical implant is currently in the works and should be ready to roll out within a couple of years. You can check out the details of this technological breakthrough in our full article.

Talk about putting new meaning to the phrase "bare all." *chuckle* A recent report bannered researchers who've come up with a way to keep a fish species' time-limited, see-through features consistent throughout its entire life. And of course, they do this in the name of science - health science in particular - to study the growth of cancer cells and tumors on living organisms. This way, they could find more effective ways of combating cancer.

Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston have successfully developed and created a prototype for a new energy source called Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC). In essence, these are batteries running on microbes in solid waste.

The idea for the MFC was born from the desire to provide basic electric comforts to people living beyond the reach of power lines in rural areas. Farming communities in developing countries could be the primary beneficiaries of bacteria-powered mobile communications.

Using electricity produced by bacteria feeding on compounds in the solid waste of grass-eating animals, enough power could be generated to be used in mobile phones. This could provide a vital channel between urban facilities and industries to raw material producers in countrysides. Asian and African nations have been considered as the first testers of the technology.

An extension of the idea is the vision of waste treatment facilities running on their own power. This could open the door for self-sustaining plants which don't use up fuel and help rid the environment of agricultural excrement.

One of the possible weaknesses of the project could be costs. Analysts have suggested that the creation of a single cell could take significantly more resources than it would to create a traditional dry cell.

"We're using a non-platinum catalyst, so that allows us to lower the cost," counters MFC team member Gerardo la O' as he justifies that their technology is applicable to real-life implementation and could benefit countless communities globally.

The explanation apparently convinced the judges at the MADMEC contest where the MFC team signed up and entered their MFC prototype called BioVolt. "As a proof of concept, BioVolt is pretty extraordinary," says organizer Michael Tarkanian. "They used a lot of materials science to drive the price down."

Researchers have come to some data that suggests that there is a connection between drinking soft drinks and a medical condition known as Metabolic Syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a condition that entails increased risk to heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

Although researchers have no concrete proof as of yet, they have a case on association. Even if soft drinks aren't the cause of metabolic syndrome, it may still be a sign of something else. Dr Ramachandran Vasan, professor of Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, believes that while drinking soft drinks is a marker or how a subject likes sweet foods, it is not necessarily the cause of the syndrome itself.

Other factors may be the culprits, ranging from other types of food intake, lack of exercise and smoking. The research consisted of more than 6,000 participants. Four years of studying this group has shown that those who drink even one can of soft drinks a day is 44% more likely to get metabolic syndrome.

While drink soft drinks may not be the cause, Dr. Suzanne R. Steinbaum, director of Women and Heart Disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, says that it certainly doesn't help avoid it.

 Researchers at the Tufts University in Boston have conducted a new study that may lead to new knowledge on the prevention of blindness through dietary means. The key? Lowering sugar intake.

Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause for the loss of vision in America. It normally happens among people aged 50 to 80 and causes blindness by afflicting the retina which is deep in the center of the eye.

Some 4,100 respondents were observed in the study and eyes were all scanned for AMD. Most had no signs of the disease but more than 600 of them are at risk or had detectable signs. The scientists then checked the sugar levels of the patients and found that high glycogen levels coincided with those possessing signs.

Although there's no conclusive evidence yet of how exactly the disease is triggered by high sugar levels, the research team advises taking in carbohydrates without high glycogen content and vegetables which have antioxidants.

New treatments are available to stop and even restore vision for AMD patients but doctors say that the disease is easier prevented by balancing one's eating habits and making sure that sugar levels remain in check.

We reported before hat a drug called Propranolol, which was once used to treat heart conditions, is now being used by researchers at Harvard University in Boston to see if they can disrupt or altogether delete bad memories from trauma patients. The researchers say they're getting there and making quick progress.

Think, if you may, that the mind treats memories like glass when you recall them. They turn from a liquid state in the storage area of the brain to a More solid thought which usually overwhelms patients by triggering emotions. What the drug does, essentially, is it stops the memories from "hardening" and bringing up negative feelings, leaving conscious images intact without having patients lose control.

While the research looks promising for those who want to forget tough break-ups and embarrassing moments in their lives, the medical practitioners say that this isn't a drug healthy people can use at a whim. Those with psychiatric issues will be the primary receivers of the treatment if approved by sanctioning bodies.

Legislators are now on the drug's case and are pondering limitations and sanctions which will help regulate the use of the procedure which involves recalling the particular bad memory and getting an injection to shoot it down. Fears that the substance can be abused are also causing concerns in other sectors.

Parliaments are already making some headway into having the drug and all others which belong in the memory-blocking category restricted by pharmaceuticals through licensing to ensure the public's safety against misuse. Britain's Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology supported the initiative by publishing a report warning against the negative potential of the drug.

However, medical practitioners say that the regulators who have the teeth to enforce restrictions have been disappointingly quiet about the issue so far. "There is a need for someone to consider how to regulate these things," says Dr. Peter Border.

The American Academy of Neurology will hold its 59th annual meeting in Boston from April 28 to March 5. One of the more pressing topics that will be presented is the recent study saying how wars affect soldiers' and veterans' brain structure.

Accordingly, the change in brain structure is somehow related to multiple health symptoms. The study employed 36 veterans of the first Gulf War (1990-1991). Half of this population showed multiple problems such as joint pain, fatigue, forgetfulness, headaches, skin rash, nausea, and difficulty in concentrating. The other half had a lower number of symptoms.

The study found out that those veterans with more health problems had a significantly smaller (5%) cortex compared to those with lesser symptoms. The two areas of the brain connected to thinking and memory were also smaller. Even the rostral anterior cingulated gyrus was 6% smaller as well.

Authored by Boston University School of Public Health Dr. Roberta White, the study also revealed that those with smaller brain volume performed worse on learning and memory tests. White commented,

We don't know the cause of these differences in the veterans' brain volumes, but the hypothesis is that they are related to exposure to hazardous substances during the first Gulf War. Many troops were exposed to hazardous substances such as pesticides, and other studies have shown that exposures to these substances affect the central nervous system.

White will explain further the study a scientific poster session at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 1, 2007. The meeting will be held in Exhibit Hall A of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

Male chimps prefer more mature and experienced females over fresh and young ones. That is according to the study conducted by Boston University's Martin Muller, an American anthropologist. Apparently, after a year of observation, he concluded that male chimpanzees consistently chose older females among a troop of female chimps to be their screw buddy of sorts. Female chimps reached sexual maturity when they are about 10 years old.

So what if male chimps want to go after older females? Well, this discovery suggests that socialization has a larger role in male-female relations, especially when compared and contrasted with the sexual taste of humans. Muller adds that "the masculine preference for young woman is a derived human trait, probably due to the tendency to form long-term relationships between couples".

No wonder some primatologists think that chimps may not be that clever. But then again, experience counts for something, we suppose.