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Keeping you mind really is about use it or lose it.  Langer had already shown that memory loss-a problem often blamed on aging-could be reversed by giving elderly people more reasons to remember facts; when success was rewarded with small gifts, or when researchers made efforts to create personal relationships with their subjects, elderly memory performance improved. she and Yale colleague Judith Rodin found that simply giving nursing-home residents plants to take care of, as well as control over certain decisions-where they would meet guests, what activities to do-not only improved their subjects' psychological and physical health, but also their longevity: a year and a half later, fewer of those residents had died. What she found, however, surprised even her own team of researchers.

The goal of NCHA research is to identify biological factors that determine good health at old age. NCHA integrates scientific disciplines, technological innovations and biomedical research in the largest collection of world-renowned human cohort studies. Rooted in the EU, NCHA has become a global player by large collaborative efforts with excellent scientific output. Activities in NCHA involve genetic en genomic discoveries all the way down to human intervention studies.

The health battles of millions, recorded digitally, open a world of virtual research. The antidepressant Paxil was approved for sale in 1992, the cholesterol-lowering drug Pravachol in 1996. Company studies proved that each drug, on its own, works and is safe. But what about when they are taken together? By mining tens of thousands of electronic patient records, researchers at Stanford University quickly discovered an unexpected answer: people who take both drugs have higher blood glucose levels. The effect was even greater in diabetics, for whom excess blood sugar is a health danger. 

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have fabricated superlenses from perovskite oxides that are simpler and easier to fabricate than metamaterials, and are ideal for capturing light in the mid-infrared range, which opens the door to highly sensitive biomedical detection and imaging. It is also possible that the superlensing effect can be selectively turned on/off, which would open the door to highly dense data writing and storage.

Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have found a new mechanism by which neurons migrate in the developing brain, suggesting how other types of cells, including cancer cells, may also travel within the body in metastasis.

Crowd funding for medical research. What a great new trend.

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Using a combination of microscopy methods, Harvard researchers have untangled part of the circuitry of the cerebral cortex, illuminating brain connections in 3-D. A new neural circuit model will allow researchers to crawl through the individual connections in a neural network.

Abstract Traditional microscopes have limitations in obtaining true 3D (three-dimensional) stereovision. Although some optical microscopes have been developed for 3D vision, many of them are complex, expensive, or limited to transparent samples. In this research, a freeform optical prism array was designed and fabricated to achieve 3D stereo imaging capability for microscope and machine vision applications. To form clear stereo images from multiple directions simultaneously, freeform optical surface design was applied to the prisms. In a ray tracing operation to determine the optical performance of the freeform prisms, Taylor series was used to calculate the surface shape. The virtual image spot diagrams were generated by using ray tracing methods for both the freeform prisms and the regular prisms. The results showed that all the light rays can be traced back to a single point for the freeform prism, and aberration was much smaller than that of the regular prism. The ray spots formed by the freeform prisms were adequate for image formation. Furthermore, the freeform prism array was fabricated by using a combined ultraprecision diamond turning and slow tool servo broaching process in a single, uninterrupted operation. The slow tool servo process ensured that the relative tolerance among prisms is guaranteed by the precision of the ultraprecision machine without the need for assembly. Finally 3D imaging tests were conducted to verify the freeform prism array's optical performance. The principle of the freeform prism array investigated in this research can be applied to microscopy, machine vision, robotic sensing, and many other areas.

In a stunning first for neuroscience, researchers have created an electronic link between the brains of two rats, and demonstrated that signals from the mind of one can help the second solve basic puzzles in real time - even when those animals are separated by thousands of miles.

Temporary electronic tattoos could soon help people fly drones with only thought and talk seemingly telepathically without speech over smartphones, researchers say. Electrical engineer Todd Coleman at the University of California at San Diego is devising noninvasive means of controlling machines via the mind, techniques virtually everyone might be able to use

 Circadian rhythms can boost the body's ability to fight intestinal bacterial infections, UC Irvine researchers have found.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that problems with a digestive process in cells can clog arteries.

Eat right and exercise is about as basic as medical advice gets. Follow it, and you'll benefit from better overall fitness, improved quality of life, and a reduced risk for chronic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. The American Cancer Society now says the evidence has piled up that diet and exercise can help cancer survivors manage, beat, and stay free of their disease, too. "There's just been an explosion of research in this area that gives us the confidence that these things matter," Colleen Doyle, director of nutrition and physical activity for ACS, tells Shots.

It turns out your brain is organized even if you're not. At least that's the conclusion of a study in Science that looked at the network of fibers that carry signals from one part of the brain to another. Researchers used cutting-edge imaging technology to look at places where these fibers intersect. And they found a remarkably organized three-dimensional grid, says Van Wedeen of Harvard Medical School, the study's lead author. The grid is a bit like Manhattan, Wedeen says, "with streets running in two dimensions and then the elevators in the buildings in the third dimension."

SNUBBING the outdoors for books, video games and TV is the reason up to nine in 10 school-leavers in big East Asian cities are near-sighted, according to a new study. Neither genes nor the mere increase in activities like reading and writing is to blame, the researchers suggest, but a simple lack of sunlight.

Dutch researchers recently demonstrated a new type of wireless body area network, or BAN for short. A BAN essentially gives the human body its own IP address, and the new techniques demonstrated at IMEC based in Eindhoven incorporate a dongle that plugs into the SD card slot of a cellphone, enabling the streaming of data from the sensors to the cellphone in real time.

Recent work in mice suggested that the immune system is involved in removing beta-amyloid, the main Alzheimer's-causing substance in the brain. Researchers have now shown for the first time that this may apply in humans

The oxygen and food we consume are converted into energy by tiny organelles present in each cell, the mitochondria. These 'power plants' must be continuously supplied with fuel, to maintain all vital functions. A team led by Jean-Claude Martinou, professor at the University of Geneva, has identified this fuel's carrier, baptized Mitochondrial Pyruvate Carrier. The study, published online by Science, henceforth allows the researchers to investigate how the activity of the carrier is modulated.