Monthly Archives: November 2007
- November 28, 2007
- Can fish oils fight cancer?
By eating a serving of fatty fish once or twice a week, you can protect your heart and help ward off stroke. Now there is preliminary evidence that the omega-3 fatty acids found in cold-water fish may also be a useful adjunct to cancer treatment. Researchers at Louisiana State University found that fish oils slowed [...]
- November 26, 2007
- Why do you get hairier when you are pregnant?
Many women notice that the hair on their head is thicker during pregnancy. They also may notice some new growth on their chin, upper lip, cheeks, breasts, belly, arms, legs, and back. Don’t worry, this growth is often subtle, and you won’t end up looking like a Wookie.
Pregnancy-induced hair growth usually develops during the first [...]
- November 26, 2007
- How does keyhole surgery work?
When performing keyhole surgery on a knee, a surgeon inserts a small metal tube into the patient’s knee and passes fluid into the area to expand it. Next, a tiny telescope and a miniature video camera are inserted through tubes to project images from inside the knee onto a television screen. The surgeon performs the [...]
- November 25, 2007
- Who invented television?
In 1925 Scottish inventor, John Logie Baird, transmitted the first recognizable television image. Unfortunately, his mechanical television gave people headaches. Russian-born engineer Isaac Shoenberg came up with a better electronic system in 1936. But it was fellow Russian, Vladimir Zworykin, who added a cathode ray tube to create as well as display pictures.
- November 22, 2007
- How does a heart pacemaker work?
A pacemaker power unit is implanted under the skin of a patient’s body just above the rib cage. Wires, called electrodes, attach this battery-powered electric circuit to the heart. A healthy heart beats in response to natural electrical pulses and pumps blood around the body to keep a person alive. When a weak heart is [...]
- November 20, 2007
- How does laser eye surgery work?
Laser eye surgery permanently changes the shape of a person’s cornea – the transparent front covering of the eye – to improve the eye’s focus. During laser eye surgery, a thin, outer layer of the cornea is treated with alcohol to lift it away from the eye. Then laser rays are beamed at the cornea [...]
- November 20, 2007
- Can sleeping on your back hurt the baby?
When a pregnant woman arrives at the hospital in labor, we tell her to lie on her left side rather than lying flat on her back. The rationale behind this is that on your back, the baby can cause compression of the vena cava, a major blood vessel that passes under the uterus. During labor, [...]
- November 19, 2007
- What is a keyhole surgery?
Keyhole surgery is a technique where operations are carried out by surgeons without having to make large incisions, or cuts, to open up the body. Instead operations are performed through small holes with thin instruments and surgeons are able to see what they are doing with the help of a tiny video camera placed inside [...]
- November 19, 2007
- When was the guitar invented?
In the late 1830s, the Spanish guitar maker Antonio de Torres realized that the shape of the sound board and the size of the hollow body could improve the guitar’s sound. To prove it, he made a guitar with a thin arched wooden top and papier mâché back and sides.
Instead of a hollow sounding board, [...]
- November 17, 2007
- What is a wet dream?
A wet dream, otherwise known as a “nocturnal emission”, is the involuntary ejaculation of semen from the penis during sleep – an orgasm while you doze. They are most common when boys enter puberty and during the teenage years, but they can occur at any time during a man’s life. They are, like, totally normal. [...]
- November 15, 2007
- Do bees die after they sting people?
Only honeybees die after stinging, but not bumblebees or wasps. A honeybee’s barbed stinger is actually attached to its abdomen. When this stinger lodges in the flesh, and the bee tries to escape, the stinger is ripped from its body, tearing off most of the bee’s belly (along with a nerve ganglion, various muscles, a [...]
- November 15, 2007
- Why do you sneeze when you stare at the sun?
This is definitely one of those things that you don’t learn in medical school, and we were amazed when we found out that there was a real answer to this question.
Yes, some people do sneeze when they look at the sun. This is due to something called the photic sneeze reflex. It is also known [...]
- November 12, 2007
- Why do ears pop in an airplane?
When you take off in an airplane, the air pressure decreases as you ascend. The air trapped in your inner ear needs to escape and equalize the pressure between your inner ear and the atmosphere. The air escapes through the eustachian tube, a small passage between the inner ear and back of the nose/throat. This [...]
- November 12, 2007
- How to use a condom?
Instruction for using a condom
Tear along one side of the foil, be sure not to rip the condom inside and carefully remove the condom. Open the foil pack carefully to avoid snagging with fingernails and sharp objects such as jewellery, zips and buckles etc.
Take the rim of the condom; be sure the roll is on [...]
- November 9, 2007
- Should pregnant women avoid cats and kitty litter?
This is all about toxoplasmosis, an infection caused by a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. Cat feces and kitty litter are a major source of toxoplasmosis since cats are a natural host for this parasite that reproduces in their intestines. Toxoplasmosis can also be found in raw or undercooked meat or in contaminated soil. The Centers [...]
- November 9, 2007
- Can babies be born with teeth?
Sounds like a scene from a horror film. A baby is delivered and opens its mouth to reveal a full set of chompers. Then the little devil begins to chew his way through the delivery room staff….
It ain’t gonna happen! But scary as it sounds, babies can be born with teeth. They are called natal [...]
- November 8, 2007
- Is eye color genetic?
Did you fall asleep in the back of biology class or what? Don’t you remember Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk and his pea plants? Mendel was considered to be the Father of Genetics, and if you were listening in high school instead of shooting spitballs, you might remember his round and wrinkled pea pods and [...]
- November 8, 2007
- What is that sound a vagina makes after sex?
This is definitely an embarrassing question to both ask and answer, but we’ll give it a shot.
The sound occurs when air gets pushed into the vagina during sexual intercourse. After sex, when the penis is removed, air is released and you get some vaginal flatulence. “Queef” and “vart” are two colorful slang terms that are [...]
- November 7, 2007
- Does ginger have any medicinal qualities?
Ginger has been studied for a variety of medical purposes for many years. In China it is often prescribed for headaches, stomach problems, and the common cold. Indian practitioners of aryuvedic medicine also use it for digestion and arthritis. In the West, it is used most commonly for the prevention of nausea.
There are many scientific [...]
- November 6, 2007
- Can people die in a dream?
So here is the myth: if you are having a dream and you are about to die or be killed, you better wake up. If not, you will die in the dream and remain in that eternal slumber. The reality is that you can die in a dream and be perfectly okay. Death dreams [...]
- November 6, 2007
- Illinois Institute of Technology
Reputation and Mission
IIT is only about three miles from the third biggest city Chicago in U.S. As one of America’s top three institutes of technology, IIT has become a private PH.D.-granting university with comprehensive academic programs.
IIT’s mission is: to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, to educate students [...]
- November 4, 2007
- Do some people really have tails?
If you saw the move Shallow Hal, you might remember Jason Alexander’s (George from Seinfeld) character with his small, wagging tail. This is another example of how you can’t believe everything that you see in the movies.
This doesn’t mean that people can’t have tails. It’s just that they can’t wag them. Human tails or dorsal [...]
- November 2, 2007
- Why do boys’ breasts grow during puberty?
I guess you’re never too young to begin worrying about the dreaded “man-boobs”. Plus, there’d be no summer-camp comedies at the multiplex, unless bullies were able to mercilessly torment some poor, lovable schlub with a conspicuous cup size.
When those hormones produced in the testicles to fuel puberty begin kicking in, many boys will develop some [...]
- November 2, 2007
- How to teach your child to manage money and consume?
The traditional family are not willing to let their child get in touch with money. They think their child mind will be badly infected by the smelly money. This passive prevention will couse their child lack of economic consciousness. When they grow up, they will consume slavishly, and can not manage their money. In [...]
- November 1, 2007
- The World’s Top Ten Pedestrian Streets
No. 1: New York Fifth Avenue, U.S.A
Keyword: Vogue and Decent
Geographic Position: Manhattan, N.Y.
History: Fifth Avenue Institution came into existence in the year of 1907. For the sake of figuring out the expense of sowntown and government services, the owners of estate, economic leaseholders and retailers had collected probably 1,800,000 dollars within a year. The institution [...]
