Norwegian superfluid is now helping brain surgeons
The fluid, which resembles brain tissue, makes ultrasound images easier to interpret during an operation. This will make it easier for surgeons to remove brain tumours more accurately.
Health
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New technique yields healthier blood vessels after heart surgery
Surgeons often take a blood vessel from your leg to graft onto your heart during a coronary bypass surgery. The practice can lead to scarring in many patients, which in turn can cause another heart attack. A new technique under development may help prevent this problem.
Support, comfort from online weigh-loss group
Online weight loss forums protect participants from public fat shaming, and offer them a place to speak out without being confronted by normal-weight individuals, medical science or the authorities.
Physically active children are less depressed
Children benefit from physical activity. And it can even help children cope with depression.
Using Big Data to understand immune system responses
An enzyme found in many bacteria, including the bacterium that gives us strep throat, has given mankind a cheap and effective tool with which to edit our own genes. This technology, called CRISPR, is also being used to understand how the immune system responds to a viral attack.
Too little food from animal sources may increase risk of preterm birth
Pregnant women increase their chances of vitamin B12 deficiency if they don’t consume enough meat, milk or eggs. This vitamin is found only in animal products. A deficiency of the vitamin during pregnancy could have dramatic consequences for the foetus.
Removable airway stent could revolutionize surgery
A knitted rag sock inspired this professor and MD to develop a stent that can be removed.
Babies exposed to stimulation get brain boost
A century-old theory still affects how we treat our babies and can affect children’s learning, according to an NTNU neuroscientist.
A cure for social anxiety disorders
Social phobia is the most common anxiety disorder of our time. But the current treatment regimen for patients with this diagnosis has not proven very effective. Now NTNU researchers believe they have found a cure for social anxiety disorders.
Contraception influences sexual desire in committed relationships
How often women in heterosexual couples desire sex depends on how committed the relationship is and what type of birth control the woman uses.
Smartphones can alert caregivers when seniors fall
A smartphone can be an aid for an elderly person who takes a tumble at home. It can capture the sound of the fall from up to five meters away and thus eliminates the need for elders to actually wear equipment or sensors.
Almost half of childcare children had respiratory virus
Forty-three per cent of children at two daycare centres researchers studied had at least one virus in their respiratory tract.
What makes print more readable for the visually impaired?
Type size is the most critical factor in being able to read printed text, but it doesn’t have to be as big as you might think.
The weeds that settlers spread
Why has ragweed – a highly allergenic plant – been spreading so quickly?
GPs must play their part in palliative treatment
Hospitals typically provide excellent end-of-life care for their patients. But when GPs assume responsibility for terminal patients, things don’t always go so well.
Heart disease – more serious for women?
On average, women live longer than men. But for women with cardiovascular disease who undergo open-heart surgery, it’s different.
Exergames for the elderly
Interactive computer games that encourage people to move can be more than just fun. They can help in rehabilitation and in encouraging the elderly to exercise.
Personalised care for dementia sufferers
The company Noen AS runs courses for its helpers to enable them to establish close relationships with their dementia patients. The aim is to increase the patients’ quality of life. Researchers have developed an IT tool to help the company demonstrate that its approach is on the right lines.
Does it matter how long you sit—if you are fit?
It may not be enough just to meet public health guidelines for physical activity if you want to stave off the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle, especially if you are older.
A need for more medical alert response centres
Medical alert systems are going to enable you and I to live longer at home. Researchers have recently been looking closely at these systems with a view to improving them.
Show your fingers to a neuroscientist
By comparing your index and ring fingers, a neuroscientist can tell if you are likely to be anxious, or if you are likely to be a good athlete.
Rare disease challenges ICT researchers
People with cystic fibrosis (CF) need help to ensure they are getting correct nutrition and the right amount of enzymes. They also need constant reminders. Researchers are now developing a digital support device to promote autonomy, but are finding that this is no easy task.
That pizza may be worse for you if you have diabetes
The heart has to work harder in the hours following an unhealthy meal, especially if you have type 2 diabetes.
New ears from algae
Scientists are using alginate from seaweed to try to get cells to form new body parts.