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Brother rat
"Rats get more mental illnesses than mice," The Boston Globe reports. "They metabolize drugs more like people do. Their heartbeats are more like ours. Yet since 1989, mice - not rats - have been the lab animal of choice, because it wasn't possible to manipulate the rat's genome. Scientific advances over the last three years have now made it feasible to easily tinker with rat genes, creating the possibility of far better models of certain human diseases, and potentially shortening the time it takes to develop medications."
How did the chicken die?
"American shoppers face a dizzying array of labels in the aisles of their [grocery stores] most designed to help them to make healthy choices. Soon they'll see yet another label - this one concerning the health of animals in the food chain," Georgina Gustin writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. " 'There's organic, there's fair trade, but "humane" is the next big thing,' said Phil Lempert, a supermarket and consumer behaviour analyst. 'We ask shoppers what they're looking for, and that's what they're telling us. … It's going to be very political,' he said. 'I also think it's going to be much more expensive. It might increase prices 20, 30, 40, 50 per cent. But you've got people who will pay more for the label.' "
Cloudy crystal balls
"Conscious efforts at futurology go back a long way," BBC News reports. "In 1931, to celebrate its 80th anniversary, The New York Times went to several prominent men for their predictions of what life would be like in 2011. There were 'hits.' William Mayo predicted a 70-plus-year lifespan. Other predictions about an aging population and less importance for national boundaries were promising. But there were bad misses - certainly for Michael Pupin, the physicist - who predicted the equitable distribution of wealth."
A stress-fighting pen?
"Move over smart phones, a new device - a pen - is said to measure if an individual is stressed out and provide individual biofeedback for assisting self-regulation," Psych Central News reports. "Researcher and designer Miguel Bruns Alonso has developed a pen which can measure the stress levels of the person using it, and can actually help to reduce that stress." His experiments showed that people tend to play with pens in their hands when they are tense. It also seems that when they are encouraged to check these nervous movements, or make more gentle movements, they can gain more control over a situation. "That is why I have developed a pen which can detect 'nervous' movements and determine whether the user is stressed," Mr. Alonso said. "The pen also provides a counterweight to these movements using built-in electronics and electromagnets. When it detects the quicker movements associated with stress, the pen gradually becomes more difficult to move around. This encourages users to move in a more relaxed way, which in turn makes the pen yield more easily again."
A pain in the neck
Dozens of cases of "text neck" - a condition linked to using mobile devices such as cellphones and MP3 players - are being reported each week, New Zealand's Chiropractors' Association says. It says the repetitive stress injury is on the rise in the country and is likely to get worse, especially in young people who look down at mobile devices for long periods of time. "It's believed that when someone has their head flexed forward while looking down at the screen on their hand-held device for long periods, the bones and muscles of the spine adapt to that posture and functional changes ensue," association spokesman Hayden Thomas told The New Zealand Herald. "These changes in the curve, supporting ligaments, tendons, musculature, as well as the bony segments, can eventually lead to nerve involvement, muscle spasms and pain."
Festivus goes global
In the 13 years since Festivus was introduced on an episode of Seinfeld, the made-up Dec. 23 "holiday for the rest of us" has moved well beyond the confines of American TV reruns to become globally recognized, according to The Christian Science Monitor. "While mostly noted … among Americans, Festivus was also inspiring a number of tweets from around the world and for much of the day [Dec. 23]was a top-10 most-tweeted phrase among tweeters worldwide. … Even in Indonesia the fake holiday was noted today, with Haddy Kustaman tweeting: 'Festivus Is Here: Time to Air Grievances.' And in Australia, Mik Morley tweeted: 'Look out, world, the countdown to #Festivus has begun, and I has some grievances."
Thought du jour
"One should photograph objects, not only for what they are, but for what else they are." - Minor White (1908-76), American photographer and poet