World's first root canal treatment on working elephant

World's first root canal treatment on working elephant

Dentists in South India have performed a root canal surgery on the gigantic scale to rid a 27-year-old elephant suffering from chronic tusk pain, officials said Friday. 

A team of three dental surgeons assisted by a veterinarian surgeon carried a two and a half hours of surgery on a male pachyderm, who developed a cavity in one of his tusks, they said. The operation took place in early November after the owner of the pet elephant brought the animal for diagnose of infection, which has damaged its tusk.  


The dentist Sunil Kumar told the AFP reporter in the capital Trivandrum as “We decided to use the traditional root canal process as a remedy,” He said the elephant was a perfect patient as the dentists drilled and pumped resin into a large cavity in chipped tusk. 


Sunil also said “We needed extra-large instruments and equipment and large quantity of resin to fill the crack,” “For humans, we use only four grams of resin to fill a cavity but we had to use 188 grams (0.41 pounds)) of resin to fill the crack in the elephant’s tusk,” said one of the dentist. 


Sunil Kumar reported to said that, the tusk was 50 inches (1.65 meters) tall, although the hole was six inches deep. The doctor added by saying “During the surgery, the tusker was not tranquilized and he was very cooperative and obeyed his handler,” Elephants are of great importance in Kerala, as they use it for various ceremonies, and also used in religious processions, weddings and social celebrations.

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7 high tech medical gadgets that just might save your life

7 high tech medical gadgets that just might save your life 

Everyone likes to play doctors and nurses. Patients and surgeons? Not so much, unless you're some kind of sicko or Jigsaw from Saw.

Luckily your actual hospitals have moved on apace since the chloroform, rusty saw and sawdust days.

The Novalis Tx by Varian Medical Systems

Now you'll find all kinds of high tech instruments that'll poke, prod, slice and dice you in more ways you can possibly imagine.

Now just slip this green gown on and lie on that comfy table. Nurse! The two-handed saw, please.

1. daVinci Si HD System

The trouble with humans is that they're all icky and squelchy inside which is why surgeons are increasingly turning to robots to do the dirty work for them.

The da Vinci Si System from Intuitive Surgical helps that happen by giving doctors a high definition 3D view of your bits and bobs, while multiple robot arms armed with scissors, scalpels and other horror movie nasties go to work.

And just like a very gory games console, the da Vinci Si System has a two-player mode so two surgeons can have a go at once. Devices like the da Vinci Si System offer all kinds of possibilities to medics, including remote surgery where doctors in one country work on the patient lying in hospital in another, as happened with the Lindbergh Operation last year.

2. CyberKnife

Now this is more like it. The Accuray CyberKnife is a massive medical instrument that does away with scalpels and drills in favour of targeting bits of your body with highly focused beams of radiation. Yes, we said radiation.

Because it's non-invasive, the CyberKnife helps patients recover more quickly from the effects of surgery that the other more old-fashioned kind, although patients usually have to undergo several treatments to totally eradicate tumours.

You can go under the CyberKnife at several locations across the UK, including the aptly named CyberKnife Centre London and at The London Clinic, which has just opened a new £80 million specialist cancer treatment centre. The Novalis Tx by Varian Medical Systems offers similar benefits.

3. InnerCool RTx Endovascular System

Most of us try to avoid hypothermia like the plague (medical term), but Philips InnerCool RTx system actually does the opposite - chiefly to help neuro and cardiac surgeons work on patients in the operating theatre - something known as Temperature Modulation Therapy.

Instead of old-fashioned ice packs and blankets, InnerCool RTx cools patients from the inside using a catheter with temperature sensor, which is placed next to the femoral artery below the heart.

In practice, the InnerCool RTx works a bit like a heat exchanger - reducing body heat by transferring it to a cooling cart using a saline solution. All of this is especially good news for brain surgeons, who can keep their patients conscious and responsive while they work on them.

4. Olympus VisiGlide

There's no easy way to put this. Surgeons dealing with tummy troubles often resort to endoscopy - a kind of medical procedure that ends up with them sticking a tube up into a body cavity (your nose, mouth, bum) with all kinds of cameras, scalpels, clamps and other implements on the end.

The Olympus VisiGlide is more specialised kind of instrument designed to make access to the pancreatic and bile ducts easier. Measuring just 0.025-inches in diameter, it's made from a kink-resistant super elastic alloy and covered with a hydrophilic coating, which makes it easier to move around. Thank goodness for that.

5. PillCam

If you're feeling queasy at the thought of having a regular endoscopy, then why not try the PillCam instead? Shaped like a medicine capsule, this 11mm x 26mm device slips down your throat with glug of water and enables surgeons to get a good look at your insides without having to poke you up the bum or open you up using a knife.

Maker GivenImaging offers three different variants to surgeons, enabling it to detect things like internal bleeding, bowel tumours and Crohn's Disease. Eight hours after you swallow the PillCam it pops back out again. We'll leave it to you to guess how.

6. Siemens SOMATOM Definition Flash

Dicky ticker? The Siemens SOMATOM Definition Flash CT scanner can find out what's wrong in less than half a heartbeat. It uses a very low dose of radiation to image your heart - and you don't even need to be taking beta blockers or hold your breath while it works. In fact the scanner can image your whole chest region in less than 0.6 seconds - and there's already one example doing its thing in a UK hospital. That's another load off, eh?

7. Antenna Pill

Also trying the high tech pill route is the University of Florida, which has come up with the Antenna Pill - a capsule that has a dose of your medicine at one end and a tiny radio microchip at the other.

Swallow the pill and the non-toxic chip transmits a signal to a monitor around your neck, which it's hoped, will eventually be built-in to mobile phones and / or a wristwatch so doctors and family members can tell when you've had your medicine. The Antenna Pill is currently at the prototype stage. Check out the video at redOrbit.

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Black rice may relieve inflammation caused by allergies, asthma

Scientists have reported that black rice - a little-known variety of the grain - may help soothe the inflammation involved in allergies, asthma, and other diseases.

Bran is the outer husk of the grain, which is removed during the processing of brown rice to produce the familiar white rice. Those experiments, which were done in cell cultures, hinted that black rice bran suppressed the release of histamine, which causes inflammation.

Mendel Friedman and colleagues injected the extract into the mice, it reduced skin inflammation by about 32 percent compared to control animals and also decreased production of certain substances known to promote inflammation.

Brown rice bran extract did not have these effects, they say. When the scientists fed the mice a diet containing 10 percent black rice bran, it reduced swelling associated with allergic contact dermatitis, a common type of skin irritation.

The findings "further demonstrate the potential value of black rice bran as an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic food ingredient and possibly also as a therapeutic agent for the treatment and prevention of diseases associated with chronic inflammation," the article noted.

Their study appears in ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 

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A hormone that ups longevity if you're rich

A hormone that ups longevity if you're rich

LONDON: British scientists have identified a hormone which they claim helps you live longer — but only if you are rich. Researchers at the University College London found that higher levels of the hormone, called DHEAS, help boost memory and ability to cope with stress, particularly in men aged over 50 years. 

But the levels of DHEAS, secreted by the adrenal glands that sit on top of the kidneys, are found to be higher among those who exercise more and have an active life with lots of pastimes, interests , friends and family — all of which tend to come with wealth. 

The findings, according to the researchers, could pave the way for new class of drugs, patches or injections which will help boost the DHEAS level. Michael Marmot , who led the study, said it's too early to say higher level of DHEAS is a result of being rich. 

But, factors such as a better diet, greater control over life, less stress, more travel and involvement in the wider world through hobbies, sport or other interests — which all are benefits of wealth — seem to be encouraging the body to create DHEAS, he said. Improving the level of the hormone is not a simple matter of popping a pill. "In my view, it is a much bigger issue and involves the package of choices that wealth opens up," he said. 

Production of DHEAS is greatest in childhood and teenage years, before gradually declining through adult life. By the age of 80 it could be just 10% of the peak teen level. The two hormones help control reactions to stress and regulate various body processes including digestion, the immune system, mood and energy, the experts said.



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Moon has water and its own water cycle: NASA

Moon has water and its own water cycle: NASA

WASHINGTON: A year after announcing the discovery of water molecules on the moon, NASA scientists have now said the earth's satellite is not only rich in useful materials, it has a water cycle of its own.

In fact, new studies suggest that there is a lot more water on the moon than earlier thought.

The new data uncovered by NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO found evidence that the lunar soil within shadowy craters is rich in useful materials, and the moon is chemically active and has a water cycle.

Scientists also confirmed the water was in the form of mostly pure ice crystals in some places. The results are featured in six papers published in the October 22 issue of Science.

"NASA has convincingly confirmed the presence of water ice and characterised its patchy distribution in permanently shadowed regions of the moon," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The twin impacts of LCROSS and a companion rocket stage in the moon's Cabeus crater on October 9, 2009, lifted a plume of material that might not have seen direct sunlight for billions of years.

As the plume traveled nearly 10 miles above the rim of Cabeus, instruments aboard LCROSS and LRO made observations of the crater and debris and vapour clouds.

After the impacts, grains of mostly pure water ice were lofted into the sunlight in the vacuum of space, NASA said.

"Seeing mostly pure water ice grains in the plume means water ice was somehow delivered to the moon in the past, or chemical processes have been causing ice to accumulate in large quantities," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

"Also, the diversity and abundance of certain materials called volatiles in the plume, suggest a variety of sources, like comets and asteroids, and an active water cycle within the lunar shadow," he said.

Volatiles are compounds that freeze and are trapped in the cold lunar craters and vaporise when warmed by the sun.

The existence of mostly pure water ice could mean future human explorers would not have to retrieve the water out of the soil in order to use it for valuable life support resources.

In addition, an abundant presence of hydrogen gas, ammonia and methane could be exploited to produce fuel, it said.

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coming soon-take a back up of your memories and store in hard drive

coming soon-take a back up of your memories and store in hard drive

LONDON: Similar to the computer file back-up system, humans will also be able to back up of their brains and all memories contained in them within the next two decades, a leading scientist has claimed. 

    Dr.Raymond Kurzweil
Speaking at a science conference , Raymond Kurzweil, the award-winning American inventor and futurist, said that the human brain backup was now already technically possible. The 62-year-old scientist , who has pioneered in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-tospeech synthesis, speech recognition technology, said humans can achieve this feat within the next 20 years. 

By that time, "We will have thousands of nanobot computer machines in our blood that will heal our bodies, improve our performance, and even be able to back up all the contents of our brains, just as you backup your files on a computer," he told a gathering of 500 guests at a "future talk" event in Vienna, Austria. 

"That means they would back up every thought, every experience, everything that makes us an individual," he was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. "It may sound farfetched but in the early 1980s, people thought I was crazy for predicting the emergence of the world wide web by the middle of the 1990s; but it happened , and on the schedule I predicted." 

At the age of 15, Kurzweil created a programme that could recreate music in the style of the great composers. He also built the first machine that could read written speech for the blind for his friend Stevie Wonder — for whom he also later made a revolutionary musical synthesiser capable of recreating real instruments .

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inflatable collar that can replace helmet

inflatable collar that can replace helmet 
LONDON: Now, an inflatable collar which can protect bikers and cyclists who have been crying out for alternative to the helmet. 



Before inflation, the collar's kind of stylin'.

Designers in Sweden have made the `Hvvding` helmet which is an airbag `collar` that springs into action within 0.1 seconds, covering the skull and neck of a rider in the event of an impact, the Daily Mail reported. Roughly translated into English as the "Chieftain" — the Hvvding was      designed over some six years by two industrial design students. 

After inflation: Well, looking a bit like an alien is a small price to pay to keep your head intact.

A small helium gas cylinder inflates the collar and it remains inflated for several seconds after impact. Designer Anna Haupt said the airbag will first cost around 260 pounds. She said the colour of the collar can even be changed to match whatever outfit the cyclist is wearing.

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innnovation: plastic from milk protein and clay

innnovation: plastic from milk protein and clay

Bangalore, Oct 21 (IANS) Scientists have reported development of a new ultra-light bio-degradable foam plastic material made from two unlikely ingredients -- the protein in milk and ordinary clay.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) said the news comes amid ongoing concern about plastic waste accumulating in municipal landfills causing environmental pollution, and reliance on imported oil to make plastics.

The new lighter-than-a-feather plastic could become a new bio-degradable substitute for Styrofoam - which is a trademark of Dow Chemical Company for polystyrene foam, the ACS said in a press release Wednesday.

David Schiraldi of Case Western Reserve University and co-workers reported the discovery in 'Biomacromolecules', a monthly journal published by the ACS.

'The new environment friendly substance could be used in furniture cushions, insulation, packaging and other products,' the ACS said.

Schiraldi and colleagues explained that 80 percent of the protein in cow milk is a substance called casein, which finds uses in making adhesives and paper coatings. But casein is not very strong, and water can wash it away.

To strengthen casein and boost its resistance to water, the scientists blended in a small amount of clay (sodium montmorillonite) and a reactive molecule called glyceraldehyde which links casein's protein molecules together.

The scientists freeze-dried the resulting mixture, removing the water to produce a spongy aerogel -- a substance very light and airy.

To make the gossamer foam strong, they cured it in an oven and then tested its sturdiness. The researchers found that their spongy material was strong enough for commercial uses. It was bio-degradable 'with almost a third of the material breaking down within 30 days', the report said.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, more than 29 million tons of non-biodegradable plastic waste ends up in landfills each year in the US. Once in the landfill, it does not bio-degrade.

According to ACS, the technology to create bio-degradable plastics from biomass, such as corn and soybeans, has been around for more than 70 years. But plastics made from these sources are expensive.

The ACS said that US scientists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute have also been finding ways to create bio-degradable plastics from agricultural byproducts such as poultry feathers and eggs that would be comparable to petroleum-based plastics. The protein 'keratin' found in feathers is a major component of hair and nails - making them hard and strong.

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Macbook Air review: Apple's new supercomputer

Apple's walking on Air with the latest version of its new ultra-slim, lightweight laptop

Apple's new Macbook Air is just 17mm thin

On Wednesday night, Steve Jobs launched Apple’s latest uber-gadget. But the world’s most famous chief executive brandished not an iPhone or an iPad – instead it was a laptop that took the “one last thing” slot in which Jobs always announces his company’s flagship products.

The new Macbook Air, however, is no ordinary laptop – it seeks to apply the lessons Apple has learnt from its iPad to more traditional computing, and the result is as exceptional in its appearance as it is in its performance.

So the Air offers a battery that lasts for up to 30 days in standby mode, and runs for up to seven hours. Waking it from that standby mode is instant, and booting up from cold takes just 12 seconds.

All of this is in a package that, for the smaller 11-inch model weighs hardly a kilogram, is never more than 17mm thick and costs from a surprisingly reasonable £849. It may not quite be a computer for austerity Britain, but it shows Apple offering its genuinely premium experience at prices less than many equivalent Sony models.

That standard of service is about more than the little things, such as the Air coming fully charged – what makes the Air innovative is its combination of tiny size, low-weight and high performance. According to repairs website iFixit, inside the new Air is a previously unseen connector that makes very slim hard drives more possible than before. That means smaller, lighter computers, incorporating “solid-state” hard drives that are both faster and more reliable.

This is not to say that the MacBook Air is perfect – indeed, iFixit observed that its paltry 2gb of memory was so small as to require upgrading on the point of purchase. And a computer with all Apple’s trademark shininess demands a case to keep it pristine. But these are very small points, and the memory certainly doesn’t feel inadequate on use. In fact, perhaps even more so than with the iPad, owning and using the new Air feels both luxurious and productive.

At the same keynote speech, Jobs also announced updates to the popular iPhoto and iMovie programmes that help users store and manipulate pictures and video.

Photos, for instance, can now be automatically turned into a slideshow that scrolls rapidly across the globe, identifying where pictures were taken and when.

Integration with Facebook, too, demonstrates that Apple is keen to make its products work with others. Physical photobooks and cards can be ordered in increasing numbers of configurations; all of them feel like products that just a few years ago would have been prohibitively expensive.

Movies and sound can now be more easily tweaked in iMovie, which even has a tongue-in-cheek trailer template that can turn the dullest footage into an advert for a blockbuster.

The cumulative effect of this is not to make other laptops or photo websites redundant – but it is to emphasise that Apple’s expertise ranges far beyond one phone and tablet computer.

Small wonder their profits are spiralling ever upwards – in an increasingly crowded market, Apple is still holding its own.

our rating: 5/5

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Logitech's new gadgets at tech expo 2010

Logitech's new gadgets at tech expo 2010

The technological world is progressing rapidly and the demand for HD products is on a tremendous hike. Logitech has displayed its enthralling HD and captivating lifestyle products at the ongoing Com IT Expo. The company rolled out its HD Pro C910 and HD C510 web cameras and M950 Darkfield mouse.

The HD Pro C910 Webcam comes equipped with Logitech Vid HD technology which promises to put forth enhanced HD video calling experience. Owners can effortlessly upload their images or videos onto Facebook and YouTube. The Logitech M950 mouse allures users with excellent precision and can be purchased for AUD $199.95 (approx Rs. 8,748).

“In a time where the technology is changing rapidly and hi –definition products are being chosen by the consumers, they are demanding for the same experience on their computing devices. We are extremely happy to offer our latest range of computer peripherals that offer consumers in India a hi-definition experience. We believe that Logitech’s technology will continue to offer users in India the high value and experience they have come to expect from us,” commented Subrotah Biswas, Country Manager – India & South West Asia.

The Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 tagged at $79.99 (approx Rs. 3,567) is as sleek as 7mm and is powered by lights even indoors. The Logitech Speaker System Z506 which augments the audio experience with its 75 watts room-filling sound and efficient sub-woofer can be snapped up for $99.99 (approx Rs. 4,459).

The Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 priced at $79.99 (approx Rs. 3,567) comes equipped with Carl Zeiss optics with auto-focus and a 2MP sensor. The Pro 9000 offers fun-filled video effects and vibrant HD video recording. It works seamlessly with Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and other popular instant messaging applications.

The Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 costs $99.99 (approx Rs. 4,459) and captures exceptional HD videos and enables users to easily upload them on various SNS. Featuring Logitech RightLight 2 technology, the solution enhances video calling even in faint or poorly backlit settings. The Logitech Anywhere Mouse M905, price tagged at AUD $149.95 (approx Rs. 6,565), sports a leave-in receiver and Darkfield Laser Tracking. Crafted with great ergonomics, the peripheral puts forth improved navigation experience.

The company also displays other products like the Logitech Z305 laptop speaker tagged at $59.99 (approx Rs. 2,675), HD C510 at $59.99 (approx Rs. 2,675), S715I iPod speaker at $149.99 (approx Rs. 6,688) and wireless illuminated keyboard K800 at $99.99 (approx Rs. 4,459).

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Revoltingly unnatural concept-frozen embryos

Revoltingly unnatural concept-frozen embryos

Scientists have announced that a baby boy was born recently to a 42-year-old woman from an embryo frozen 20 years ago. Not surprisingly, the idea of frozen embryos has found instant takers. Its votaries defend it on the ground that it will allow greater freedom to career-oriented women to decide about their pregnancy. 

However, there cannot be a more bankrupt idea where the joy of motherhood is postponed for the sake of a career. That's especially the case when medical science shows that greater complications can be associated with late motherhood. Moreover, a society which privileges career over parenthood cannot prosper. Let's not disturb a healthy natural process such as birth. A positive childbirth is not only spiritually more fulfilling, but can also strengthen the mother-child bond. Also, the difference between consuming a medicine and a meal ought to be maintained. In vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer were designed as medical procedures to give infertile couples a chance to establish a pregnancy. What should have been an elective therapy to be used in extraordinary situations is now becoming a norm. 

Furthermore, there are ethical questions surrounding the future of leftover embryos. They are living beings that are not implanted but are frozen. How do we dispose of such human lives, which now run into millions in advanced countries like the UK and US? Even worse, the inter-generational donation will complicate and spoil family relations. For instance, how do we cope up with situations when an infertile daughter uses the eggs of her mother to give birth to her own half brother or sister? How would we answer a daughter who questions why she was left frozen as an embryo for decades? It is difficult to evade such ethical and religious questions. Society must make laws regulating this domain. 


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Bilingualism is good for brain

Speaking two languages on a regular basis is associated with certain types of improved mental performances, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest in Toronto.

Bilingualism can delay Alzheimer’s disease symptoms by a span of four to five years, the study confirms.

The longer a person has spoken two or more languages, the greater the cognitive effects.

The effects are much stronger in case of kids and older people as compared to youngsters.

"Being able to use two languages and never knowing which one you're going to use right now rewires your brain," said Ellen Bialystok of YorkUniversity in Toronto, Canada, whose work Diamond cited repeatedly in the article.

"The attentional executive system which is crucial for all higher thought -- it's the most important cognitive piece in how we think -- that system seems to be enhanced," she noted.

The study details

The study looked at 100 people who could speak two languages and 100 people who could speak only one language.

The bilingual people have an ability to stop irrelevant or interfering information to enter their brain, allowing them to concentrate on relevant information only, the researchers explained.

This ability applies to language, wherein bilingual people focus on the language they are using and damp down on the one they are not using.

"We have demonstrated in at least two separate studies of several hundred people altogether that -- all else being equal -- people who have spent their lives speaking two languages are better able to cope with the pathology of Alzheimer's," Ellen said.

"They show symptoms of the disease up to four years later than monolinguals. Once the disease starts to destroy areas of the brain, bilinguals are able to keep functioning," he added.

Compensates for degeneration
Bilingualism does not hamper brain degeneration, in fact it provides a compensation for the degeneration.

It is similar to what happens when older people do crossword puzzles and Sudoku to keep cognitively active.

A cognitive reserve is produced in people speaking two languages, which scientists believe is linked with increased connections in the brain between neurons. That connectivity normally declines with age.

The study has been published today in the journal 'Science.'

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