News Blog: Scientific American Blogs

News Blog

Head-bangers, beware of injury, rocker scientists warn

By Jordan Lite | Dec 17, 2008 | 7

Because it's the first thing you consider when you go to a heavy-metal concert, we just thought you should know: Head-banging can be hazardous to your health.

That's right — depending on the tempo of the music and the range of motion of your noggin, you could be looking at a head or neck injury, Australian researchers report in today's British Medical Journal.

Andrew McIntosh, an associate professor of biomechanics at the School of Risk and Safety Sciences as the University of New South Wales, and his research assistant, Declan Patton, attended several hard rock and heavy-metal concerts, taking careful note of the most popular head-banging techniques in the audience.

Keep reading »

Brain, spinal cord injuries could be helped by nerve regrowth technique

By Jordan Lite | Nov 7, 2008 | 1

Scientists got nerve cells in mice to regenerate by knocking out genes that halt cell growth, a possible step toward treating brain and spinal cord injuries, according to new research.

Neurons in the central nervous system typically can't grow again once they've matured, and the pathway that regulates their development is silenced when those cells are injured. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston shut off two genes that inhibit cell growth, then watched to see whether crushed optic nerves in the mice would survive.

Two weeks later, up to 45 percent of the injured neurons were still alive, compared with about 20 percent in the mice that didn’t receive the gene deletions, according to the report in this week's Science. About 8 to 10 percent of the surviving neurons regenerated, an effect seen up to four weeks after the mice were injured.

Keep reading »

The cell phone rings in its 25th year

By Jordan Lite | Oct 30, 2008

Remember when there were no cell phones? Hint: It was 25 years ago this month that the first commercial mobile call was made from the U.S., ushering in the era of constant communication.

Fittingly enough, Bob Barnett, then-president of Ameritech Mobile Communications, rang up the great-grandson of telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell in Germany. Barnett placed the call on a so-called brick phone (a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X that weighed a hefty two pounds, was 13 inches long, and could only be used for 30 minutes of conversation) from a Chrysler convertible in the parking lot of Chicago's Soldier Field, according to the Wireless Association, the industry's Washington, D.C.-based trade group. It cost nearly $4,000, according to the Chicago Sun Times.