Violent video games touted as learning tool.

Playing a video game - and you may be improving your vision and other brain functions, according to research presented Thursday at a New York University conference on games as a learning tool.

"People that play these fast-paced games have better vision, better attention and better cognition," said Daphne Bavelier, an assistant professor in the department of brain and cognitive science at the University of Rochester.

Bavelier was a presenter at Games for Learning, a daylong symposium on the educational uses of video games and computer games.

The event, the first of its kind, was an indication that electronic games are gaining legitimacy in the classroom.

Panelists discussed how people learn and how games can be engineered to be even more educational.

"People do learn from games," said J. Dexter Fletcher of the Institute for Defense Analyses.

Violent video games touted as learning tool.

Food allergy sufferers 'worst served' by medicine.

Article appeared on telegraph.co.uk

A review of research into the affliction found that up to three in ten people claim to have a food allergy of some sort, but blind testing reveals that fewer than ten per cent actually has one.

People were found to be avoiding certain foods because they incorrectly suspected they were allergic to them, while many parents refused to give their children certain foods even though most will overcome their allergies as they grow older.

Food allergy sufferers 'worst served' by medicine.

Hours of sitting down 'can affect your health'

Researchers in Sweden have carried out the study and found that being chair-bound for too long can raise a person's risk of high blood pressure, sluggish metabolism, weight gain and diabetes. With the average person sitting down for just under nine hours a day at the office, at home or in the car, even a daily workout is unlikely to offset the risks of being seated for too long, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

Hours of sitting down 'can affect your health'

If you are deaf, the you may hear now.Cure for deafness 'found'

In a major breakthrough which may pave the way for a permanent cure for deafness, scientists claim to have discovered the "Holy Grail" of hearing loss.

An international team, led by Stanford University School of Medicine, has actually found a way of re-creating the sensitive "hair cells", which are vital for hearing, using stem cell technology. And, according to the scientists, the finding could lead to a way for deaf people to regenerate their own inner ear sensory cells to cure the condition.

If you are deaf, the you may hear now.Cure for deafness 'found'

Women 'better navigators' than men

London (ANI): Men might be good at reading maps, but when it comes to recalling routes, it's the ladies who walk away with crown, according to a new study.

According to the research, women can be better navigators than men if they have visited a place before.

And according to researchers, it all goes back to the Pleistocene epoch - which began more than 2.5m years ago - when humans' route finding skills were honed differently for the distinct tasks of hunters and gatherers.

To test their hypothesis, the scientists used the population of a Mexican village.

Boffins "fitted with GPS (global positioning system) navigation systems and heart-rate monitors followed villagers to see how many mushrooms they gathered and how long it took. The GPS system mapped all the routes taken, and the heart-rate monitors detailed the energy expended."

Women 'better navigators' than men

Under the Microscope: How fast can a human run?

Article appeared on independent.co.uk

Answered by: Professor Craig Williams, School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Exeter
Interview by Holly Williams

Speed limits

Researchers think 30mph could be the human limit. Most use the 100m to calculate how fast we can run. The current record for the 100m is 9.58 seconds, by Usain Bolt in 2009. That gives a speed of 23.3mph. But interestingly, during the 60-80m stretch of the race Bolt averaged a speed of 27.8mph.

However, as Neils Bohr, the distinguished physicist, said: "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it is about the future". Many commentators previously suggested under 10s was unbreakable; now Bolt's coach is aiming for 9.4s. The 100m record now held by a woman would have beaten the fastest male back in the Fifties.

Under the Microscope: How fast can a human run?

Improbable research: The repetitive physics of Om

Article appeared on guardian.co.uk

Indian scientists wield sophisticated mathematics to dissect and analyse the traditional meditation chanting sound 'Om'.

Two Indian scientists are wielding sophisticated mathematics to dissect and analyse the traditional meditation chanting sound "Om". The Om team has published six monographs in academic journals. These plumb certain acoustic subtleties of Om, which these researchers say is "the divine sound".

Om has many variations. In a study published in the International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, the researchers explain: "It may be very fast, several cycles per second. Or it may be slower, several seconds for each cycling of [the] Om mantra. Or it might become extremely slow, with the mmmmmm sound continuing in the mind for much longer periods but still pulsing at that slow rate. It is somewhat like one of these vibrations:

'OMmmOMmmOMmm...

'OMmmmmOMmmmmOMmmmm...

'OMmmmmmmmOMmmmmmmmOMmm'."

Improbable research: The repetitive physics of Om