Scientists develop fast recharging material for lithium-ion batteries

A group of South Korean scientists has developed a new material for a secondary or rechargeable battery that can be fully recharged in just a matter of minutes, the science ministry said Monday.The development of such a battery could significantly raise the popularity of electric vehicles whose lithium-ion batteries currently take hours to recharge, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.Conventional batteries use only powdered nanoparticle materials to form a dense, mult

Aug. 13, 2012

Study: Men equally affectionate as wives

A study by the University of Texas found husbands and wives are equally romantic, but they express their feelings in different ways.Researchers at the university interviewed 168 couples at four points in their marriage, Britain‘s The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.Husbands and wives were questioned separately about how close and attached they felt to their partners, as well as a number of questions about each other’s behavior over the past 24 hours.Researchers found wives “seem to show love b

Aug. 12, 2012

Study: Eyes tell the story on sex arousal

(123rf)Researchers at Cornell University in New York say they have developed a less intrusive method of determining whether someone is sexually aroused. While most previous work on what turns people on has involved measuring their genital responses, Gerulf Rieger, a researcher at Cornell, said measuring dilation or widening of the pupil in the eye can achieve the same goal, HealthDay reports. In f

Aug. 12, 2012

Baby's, toddler's diets linked to IQ

(MCT)Australian researchers found children given a healthy diet up to age 24 months had a higher IQ when tested at age 8. Dr. Lisa Smithers of the University of Adelaide and colleagues studied 7,000 children compared a range of dietary patterns, including traditional and contemporary home-prepared food, ready-prepared baby foods, breastfeeding and 'discretionary' or junk foods on children from bir

Aug. 11, 2012

More than 1 million visit SKT pavilion at Yeosu Expo

SK Telecom’s pavilion for the Yeosu Expo has attracted more than 1 million visitors since it opened in May, company officials said.The officials said the pavilion received its 1 millionth visitor Friday, two days before the Expo ends its three-month run in the southern coastal area on Sunday.Expo organizers expect the number of visitors to reach 8 million as targeted by the organizing committee. Bureau International des Expositions secretary-general Vincete Gonzalez Loscertales called the exposi

Aug. 10, 2012

Soft robot mimics earthworm movement

U.S. researchers say they‘ve developed a “soft” robot that inches along like an earthworm and can keep working even after taking a pounding from a hammer.Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Seoul National University have engineered a soft autonomous robot that moves across surfaces by contracting segments of its body, a process called peristalsis.Such a soft robot could be useful for navigating rough terrain or squeezing through tight spaces, MIT mecha

Aug. 10, 2012

Cholesterol levels of U.S. children down significantly

WASHINGTON ― Against the drumbeat of bad news on obesity and diabetes among children, researchers have uncovered a cause for cautious optimism: a steady and significant improvement in the cholesterol profiles of American kids over the last 20 years.The proportion of young people ages 6 to 19 with high total cholesterol dropped 28 percent between the two time periods sampled in the report, from 11.3 percent in 1988-94 down to 8.1 percent in 2007-10, the new study found.At the same time, the avera

Aug. 9, 2012

Healthy blood vessels for a longer life

Blood vessels are literally the vessels through which our blood flows. There are essential substances such as nutrients and oxygen in the blood, and the vessels function as a carrier of these substances throughout the body. Therefore, it is easy to understand that the blood has to flow smoothly for a healthy life. Blood vessels can be narrowed or obstructed due to many reasons including aging, disease, diet and smoking. If so, the body sends an SOS signal and in severe cases, the person’s life i

Aug. 9, 2012

Gender test is Olympic hurdle

Of all the obstacles athletes have had to overcome to compete in the Olympics, perhaps the most controversial has been the gender test.Originally designed to prevent men from competing in women’s events, it is based on the premise that competitors can be sorted into two categories via established scientific rules. But the biological boundaries of gender aren’t always clear.Consider the Spanish hurdler Maria Jose Martinez-Patino. A gender test revealed that she had a Y chromosome, which normally

Aug. 9, 2012

Drug combination lifts breast cancer survival rates, study says

SEATTLE ― Women with metastatic breast cancer treated with a combination of two estrogen-blocking drugs survived more than six months longer than those treated with just one of the drugs or one followed by the other, according to a study involving nearly 700 women.It’s the first time such improvement in overall survival has been seen in trials of first-line hormonal therapy for hormone-receptive metastatic breast cancer, the study authors said.“We’re finding a lot of other ways of treating these

Aug. 9, 2012

Heat wave threatens public health

The prolonged scorching weather is putting people at risk of not only heat-related illnesses but waterborne diseases as well. Seoul City has been gripped by a weeks-long heat wave, with the mercury often soaring above 35 degrees Celsius and nighttime highs staying above 25 C, resulting in 13 consecutive tropical nights since July 27.A total of 89 people have been taken to the hospital for heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke and dehydration since June, whereas 27 people suffered from such i

Aug. 9, 2012

Men prefer heavier women when stressed: study

A new study indicates that putting men under stress can lead them to find overweight women more attractive.The new study, led by researchers Viren Swami of the University of Westminster and Martin Tovee of Newcastle University, alleges that men who are put under stress have a higher preference toward overweight women than men who are relaxed.Swami and Tovee randomly selected a group of men and asked them to take part in a mock interview designed to elevate their stress levels. The control group,

Aug. 9, 2012

Fossil find shows other human cousins

 Fossils show two additional species of our genus Homo lived alongside our direct ancestral species in Africa almost 2 million years ago, scientists say.The discovery near Lake Turkana in Kenya confirms that a fossil skull found 40 years ago was a different species of early Homo living alongside Homo erectus during the Pleistocene epoch.That skull, dubbed KNM-ER 1470, missing the teeth and lower jaw but distinguished by a large brain size and long flat face, started a longstanding debate about j

Aug. 9, 2012