Like many Americans sliding into middle age, Kimberly McClain started worrying that her memory was beginning to slip.
"It was little things. I couldn't remember what I had for dinner the night before. I had to check to make sure I'd paid the insurance that month. I'd walk into a room and realize I had no idea why I was there," said the Los Angeles marriage counselor, who is 44.
Can't remember phone numbers, worried about an upcoming exam or desperately want to give up smoking? In future, the answer will be simple: just pop a pill. The idea that an array of easily available and addiction-free drugs could be used to improve memory or increase intelligence is the stuff of science fiction dystopia - in Brave New World, Aldous Huxley created a whole planet under the spell of a pleasure drug called Soma.
Healthy people, including children, might one day take drugs to boost their intelligence, scientists predict. The think-tank Foresight, outlined the scenario in an independent report looking at potential developments over the next 20 years. Such "cognitive enhancers" could become as "common as coffee", they suggest.
Scientists have grown fully mature brain cells in a laboratory for the first time, using a technique that mimics the natural process of brain regeneration. It promises to open the door to new ways of treating and possibly curing debilitating brain diseases such as Parkinson's, epilepsy and Alzheimer's.
Researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) found that a diet high in docosahexenoic acid, or DHA--an omega-3 fatty acid found in relatively high concentrations in cold-water fish--dramatically slowed the progression of Alzheimer's disease in mice. Specifically, DHA cut the harmful brain plaques that mark the disease.
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Katherine Moskwin, 71, a retired medical transcriptionist, started noticing that her short-term memory was shot awhile ago.
"I'd go into a room and forget what I was coming for," she said. "I'd be dialing the phone and stop and say 'Who am I dialing.' "
That's one reason Moskwin is trying out a new software program from San Francisco's Posit Science Corp.
Human beings are all the same kind of animal and much like many other animals. We exist along with an estimated 5 to 50 million other species which all evolved with survival and reproductive instincts that helped us to avoid danger and threats, and thus to perpetuate ourselves. We human animals are mainly social beings and most of us experience loss when others die, as well as fears of separation or loneliness.
A simple scratch and sniff test may help doctors identify patients with Alzheimer's disease, researchers said on Monday.They found that patients with early Alzheimer's disease may be unable to smell certain odors, including strawberry, smoke, soap and cloves."Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is critical for patients and their families to receive the most beneficial treatment and medications," said Dr.
Scientists at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering have synthesized the world's longest electrically conducting nanotubes. These 0.4 cm nanotubes are 10 times longer than previously created electrically conducting nanotubes. The breakthrough discovery will lead to the development of extremely strong, lightweight materials and ultradense nano-memory arrays for extremely powerful computers, ultralow-loss power transmission lines, and nano-biosensors for use in health care applications.
There have been rumblings in past days - especially in the blogosphere - on how to link a legacy for Ronald Reagan to stem cell or Alzheimer's research. Unfortunately, Alzheimer's is one of the few age-related conditions for which stem cell research does not offer potential therapies in the near future.
