Are you prone to swearing after you've stubbed your toe or taken a knock while playing football? Chillout. Relax. Swear as much as you like; it's nature's natural painkiller.

That's the new finding from a study by the Keele University, whose research confirms that swearing can be an effective form of relief.

However, there is a stipulation to go along with the findings; according to Richard Stephens of Keele's School of Psychology, those who swear the most are likely to be able to withstand the least amount of pain.

While he admitted there was no "recommended daily swearing allowance", the team did state in America's Journal of Pain that those who controlled their outbursts also managed their pain better. Using the "ice-water challenge" to test subjects' pain-thresholds, researchers found that those who swore just a few times a day could handle the icy pain for twice as long. Those who swore frequently, pushing as many as 60 foul words out a day, found no benefits from their tirades.

According to the scientists, the relief comes from an emotional response called "stress-induced analgesia", also known as "fight or flight", which produces adrenalin. Swearing is an emotional manifestation of your desire to fight the pain, and your body reacts accordingly. Frequent swearers no longer associate their outburts with the same emotional response, and so don't reap the same benefits.

So, the next time you head down to the doctors with a sprained ankle, perhaps ask for a list of super-strong swear words to shout rather than a packet of paracetamol, providing you haven't the potty mouth of a South Park character.

Via: The Independent

Today car giant Ford announced that it is developing one of the world's first digital human child body models as part of their program to make car travel for young people safer.

The company has won numerous awards for the safety of their cars and now wants to increase their knowledge of how to create a safe travel environment for people of all ages from adults to young children. Specifically focusing on the impact of injuries to younger travellers are different to those of older passengers.

Dr Stephen Rouhana, Senior Technical Leader for Safety at Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, said "Our restraint systems are developed to help reduce serious injuries and fatalities in the field, and they have proven to be very effective. But crash injuries still occur. The more we know about the human body, the more we can consider how to make our restraint systems even better."

Digital bodies are very hard to make, the work on Ford's adult human body took a staggering 11 years to complete. They aren't replacing test crash dummies, the digital bodies are used in research laboratories to further understand the effects of injuries caused by accidents and how they can be avoided.

The digital bodies take so long to create because a very large amount of information is included in every bone and organ included in the body and how it works and effected. The data is gathered with lots of different medical scans taken from patients, and the research team can build a perfect copy to research with.

With the child's body Rouhana said, "Building a digital human model of a child will help us design future systems that offer better protection for our young passengers."

Of course, test crash dummies are still used in testing and development, and they have been for the past 70 years with Ford, the original design being created for the US Airforce to test ejector seats in jet fighters. However more modern crash test dummies have vinyl skin, a steel ribcage, a spine made of metal discs, moveable neck and knees that are designed to respond like the human equivalent. No longer are they just plastic figures bent into shapes.

Each test dummy has a variety of sensors built into the surface of the object to record impact crashes and pressure levels,"Today's crash test dummies are very complex devices, a Hybrid III costs approximately 34,000 Euros but with full instrumentation this can rise to more than 50,000 Euros." explained Senior Engineer for Safety Jake Head

It is life saving research that the team are doing and with these more insightful tools and equipment researchers will be looking for way to save more lives in the future and make it safer for everyone in cars.

Despite having their budget cut to the bare bones NASA is still determined to go where no man has gone before, or in this case send a rover where no rover has gone before.

November 25th will see NASA launch their new rover mission to Mars. The new car sized robot called Curiosity will launch with an eye to land in August 2012. At 10 metres long and weighing in at 1 tonne this is the largest rover ever to go up into space as part of the mars missions.

Onboard the rover will be a 7ft mast which will carry cameras and laser firing equipment which will enable the robot to carry out a variety of tasks, or for a more personal approach it has a 7ft fitted arm to examine soil and rock samples.

It is being sent to Mars to further investigate the possibility of Mars one day being habitable. The sorts of experiments it will carry out while on the surface of the red planet will include studying soil and rock composition, gather weather information and test the radiation levels of the surface.

This experiment will lead the way to a manned mission to Mars in the future but also try to answer questions scientists have always wanted to know, the main one being whether life every existed on Mars.

Geologists are warning of major shortages of certain types of metals as an "inexorable demand for consumer goods" such as smartphones and laptops is meaning that gadget manufacturers are using up the resources far more quickly than they can be mined.

A report in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience following a meeting of leading geologists warns of bottlenecks and low reserve stocks of key resources such as copper, nickel, silver and zinc.

Dr. Gawen Jenkin of the Department of Geology, University of Leicester, and lead convenor of the Fermor Meeting of the Geological Society of London, voiced concerns:

"Mobile phones contain copper, nickel, silver and zinc, aluminium, gold, lead, manganese, palladium, platinum and tin. More than a billion people will buy a mobile in a year - so that's quite a lot of metal. And then there's the neodymium in your laptop, the iron in your car, the aluminium in that soft drinks can - the list goes on...

"With ever-greater use of these metals, are we running out? That was one of the questions we addressed at our meeting. It is reassuring that there's no immediate danger of 'peak metal' as there's quite a lot in the ground, still - but there will be shortages and bottlenecks of some metals like indium due to increased demand."

Though the shortages lie in the near-future rather than the immediate present, Dr Jenkin still believes there is a pressing need for economic geologists to address the problem before it gets out of hand.

"Exploration for metal commodities is now a key skill. It's never been a better time to become an economic geologist, working with a mining company. It's one of the better-kept secrets of employment in a recession-hit world," concluded Jenkin.

The Formula One Mercedes GP Petronas team have helped a British teenager improve his quality of life by helping him grab an expensive bionic arm from Touch Bionics.

14-year-old Matthew James was born without a left hand, and had been using a crude bionic arm which he described as "like a claw", which only allowed for simple gripping techniques.

He'd been dreaming of having an i-Limb Pulse from Touch Bionics fitted, a far more advanced arm and hand combo that allowed for individual finger movements. However, priced at £30,000 and unavailable through the NHS, the teen seemed out of luck.

That was until he came up with the ingenious plan of approaching the Mercedes team for funding, in exchange for advertising space on the side of his futuristic limb.

While Mercedes declined the advertising offer, they did manage to broker a deal for £25,000 off the price of the arm for Matthew by offering an exhcange of technologies between themselves and Touch Bionics. Mercedes are also helping raise the final £5,000 needed.

A great feel good story, with a sci-fi happy ending.

Well almost; Matthew one regret:

"Unfortunately there's one downside to it, I'm having to do more chores," he said.

Via: BBC

We're suckers for robots, cyborgs and visions of the future here at Tech Digest, so we jumped at the chance to get a closer look at the new Futur Fusion exhibition taking place in London's Covent Garden area. A showcase of sculpture, illustration and photography, the exhibition explores issues surrounding nanotechnology, bio-technology and sustainability, with a healthy dose of sci-fi chic thrown in for good measure.

Collecting work from illustrator Sebastian Clark, photographer Stephane Grand and sculptor Dominic Elvin (whose previous work includes the world famous design of Camden's Cyberdog store) it's a vibrant, futuristic exhibition galaxies apart from the sort of work you'd find in the Tate Britain.

"I'm obsessed with frontier science," enthused Elvin, "so I try to incorporate its ideas into my work."

"Isaac Asimov (pioneering sci-fi author - Ed.) was my original inspiration though, going back to when I was 12 or 13. My father gave me the Asimov "Foundation" books, and they transported me to this incredible world, filling me with ideas that never left my mind."

As much as the exhibition revels in visions of the future, the artists exhibiting also have one eye firmly fixed on the present. Specifically, Futur Fusion also looks at the way we're still failing to take green issues seriously.

As a result, much of Elvin's work uses recycled and reclaimed materials, the percentage of which in each work he proudly presents alongside his pieces.

"We're trying to show people that recycled art pieces don't have to be old washing machines looking like clunky robots, it can be really polished and cool. It's also about seeing materials in a different way - rubbish doesn't always have to be landfill waste," said Elvin.

Likewise, photographer Stephane Grand's work often acts to highlight the wasteful, destructive nature of consumerism, with a playful installation called "Mr Splatz" mimicking a chalk-line crime scene with garbage materials.

Despite the serious issues explored, the Futur Fusion team still exude playful enthusiasm for the works on show, keen to stress that the exhibit is fun and suitable for the whole family.

"Yesterday we had a big group of fifty kids with their teachers come in. They went crazy, you'd have thought they were at Disney Land! The teachers were really positive too as they're increasingly teaching about sustainability in lessons," said Elvin.

"For me that sort of response is fantastic, because they're exactly the people we're doing this for. They're the next generation, and they're going to have to pick up the shit left by this generation."

The exhibition kicked off on June 13th and runs until Saturday 18th June 2011. The Futur Fusion collection can be found at I.N.C Space, 9-13 Grape Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 8ED and is open to the public, free of charge, from 9am to 7pm.

For more info on the event, visit www.facebook.com/futurfusion. Alternatively, send the Futur Fusion team a message via Twitter by using the #FuturFusion hashtag.

The first comprehensive gene mapping of the human brain has been carried out by the The Allen Institute for Brain Science, showing that our think-boxes are far more similar than anyone first thought.

Working with two normal adult brains, the team discovered that there is a 94% similarity in the bio-chemistry of human brains, which could potentially lead to great advances in the treatment of degenerative brain diseases. The team also found that 82% of all human genes can be found within the brain, further highlighting just how complex an organ it is.

"Until now, a definitive map of the human brain, at this level of detail, simply hasn't existed," said Allan Jones, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. "The Allen Human Brain Atlas provides never-before-seen views into our most complex and most important organ. Understanding how our genes are used in our brains will help scientists and the medical community better understand and discover new treatments for the full spectrum of brain diseases and disorders, from mental illness and drug addiction, to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, multiple sclerosis, autism and more."

For more info, visit www.brain-map.org.

Jules Verne would be proud of Richard Branson's latest venture: the Virgin Oceanic submarine.

The project aims to explore "the last frontiers of our own Blue Planet: the very bottom of our seas". Google is even involved with its mapping technology:

"Using their mapping technology, Google hopes to chronicle the dives as they happen and share discoveries, footage and record breaking achievements with the world" Richard Branson said in a statement.

Along with explorer Chris Welsh, Branson intends to take a solo piloted submarine to the deepest points in each of the world's five oceans. It is the first time anyone has ever attempted to do this. It includes diving into the 36,201ft deep Mariana Trench, and the 28,232ft deep Puerto Rico Trench.

Unreached depths
It may not be possible to go this deep - and if Branson is successful there is no way of knowing what is down there. Millions of year's worth of biological "soup" is expected to be the bottom of these deep trenches though.

Branson's submarine utilises the latest in composite technology, including a unique wing to "fly" within the Ocean environment.

Branson said:

"What if I were to tell you about a planet, inhabited by 'intelligent' beings that had, in the 21st Century, physically explored 0% of its deepest points and mapped only 3% of its oceans by unmanned craft, when 70% of that planet's surface was made up of water. Then I tried to convince you that only 10% of the life forms inhabiting that unknown world, are known to those on the surface - you'd think I'd fallen asleep watching the latest sci-fi blockbuster! Then you discover that planet is Earth..."

Well we can't have that can we! Bon Voyage, Sir Richard!

Awesome news from Kansas State University and their, eh, glue department - an adhesive that doesn't go brittle when it dries.

Usually, glue loses its stickiness when it loses moisture, but not anymore! This will make it so much easier to glue things in outer space.

According to PopSci, the new glue is made up of peptides, an amino acid, that become increasingly sticky when their pH reaches a level of about 9. Then these peptides form long fibrils that get tangled up in each other and the surfaces they are attached to.

It's not great for non-porous, smooth surfaces, and there are stronger glues out there. But next time you need to re-attach some heat-resistant tiles on the space shuttle, you will be a happy bunny indeed.

Dependant on the black stuff to get going in the morning? Me too. Here's a little something if you are finding it too hard to wait for your coffee to cool down enough for it to be drinkable (or should we say, gulpable): Coffee Joulies.

They are basically stainless steel coffee beans that you put in your drink - the secret is the insides of these metal nuggests, where some fancy material will suck up heat from the liquid and make it cool down three times faster than normal, apparently.

And! Once your drink has reached a certain cool, the clever little 'thermodynamic heat storage device' beans will then release back some of the heat, keeping your drink warmer for longer - twice as long as if you did nothing. It's the Goldilocks of coffee, this.

It's a dream that's been a long time coming - the flying car. The credit goes to Terrafugia, a US company, which has created the car called "Transition".

This is a "roadable aircraft", according to a company - so less a flying car than a drivable airplane, in fairness. You will need an airstrip to take off, but the wings will get folded up when you land and the engine will motor the wheels instead of the propellers as you whizz down the street.

The cost will be about £120,000 though, so it may be a while before we're all flying yet.

(Image via the Guardian)

(Guest post from Shiny Shiny)

In the Star Trek universe it was the Borg Queen who introduced Data to skin that meant he could feel touch - in reality this is now being developed right here on earth.

The sci-fi dream is taking place at Stanford University, where Professor Zhenan Bao is hard at work creating something she calls "super skin": ultra-sensitive electronic skin that can detect the lightest touch. Strictly speaking this isn't the same as what the Borg Queen offered up (trust a Trekkie to keep tabs on the details) but it's still early days and we're confident this will be sorted.

The solar-powered technology will also one day be able to detect small traces of chemicals - meaning there is the potential for this new, exciting technology to be used by law enforcement, human or otherwise.

On a brighter note, the same technology could also be used in medicine, as the "super skin" can also pick up markers of disease: "For any particular disease, there are usually one or more specific proteins associated with it - called biomarkers - that are akin to a 'smoking gun,' and detecting those protein biomarkers will allow us to diagnose the disease," Bao said to the Stanford University News.

(Image credit)

For the first time NASA has taken 3D images of the sun, using its Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) satellites.

The twin satellites, launched in 2006, were positioned on opposite sides of the sun to generate the images. Unlike the moon, which has a permanent far side, the sun rotates once about every 24.5 days. This means the whole surface is visible from earth over the course of a month, but if there is an event on the far side we would not become aware of this until at least another week later, if at all.

The STEREO satellites travelled 290 million miles to give scientists this unique view of the solar surface. From now on, solar structures and phenomena will be visible to scientists in three dimensions. This will aid their understanding of the star's physics, and improve their ability to predict space weather.

Eureka! The most important scientific discovery of all time has been reached; no more headaches, no more puking, the hangover has been cured!

Michael Oshinsky of Thomas Jefferson Universtiy in Philadelphia made the discovery after, well, getting a load of rats drunk.

His conclusion; drink lots of coffee and take some aspirin.

No seriously. If it takes a PhD to figure that one out, I might start walking around calling myself Doctor Lynch. But at least his reasoning seems solid. After speaking with Oshinsky, the Telegraph reported that:

Ethanol brings on headaches thanks to a chemical acetate it can produce and even low doses can affect some people more than others, said the study.

Professor Michael Oshinsky, of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, induced headaches in rats using small amounts of ethanol.

He then gave them doses of caffeine and anti-inflammatories to find it blocked the acetate and relieved the headaches.

No more raw-eggs-on-cornflakes-with-a-coke-vodka-red-bull-chaser for breakfast after a heavy night for me anymore then! God, I love science.

Via: The Telegraph

With all the boffins over at the NASA Space Centre you'd think at least one of them would know how to properly wipe a PC's data, but apparently not it would appear. An audit of their equipment has enraged inspectors as it has been found that many PCs with sensitive data stored on them were thrown out without deleting all the information stored on them.

Hard drives and whole PCs had been offered to the public, while some were simply left in a public skip. Whole pallets worth of computers were also found, with the NASA IP address clearly displayed on the side.

Obviously, it's not a smart move. Even more remarkably, it according to the inspectors who noticed the slip up, they're not moving particularly quickly to fix it either. They remain "troubled that management's response does not reflect the sense of urgency we believe is required to address the serious security issues uncovered by our audit. Accordingly, we consider the recommendations to be unresolved."

So, next time you walk past an abandoned PC by NASA's HQ in Washington, why not take it home? It may have all the secrets of the known universe on it, and the blueprints for how to build a ship to get there. Forget WikiLeaks; if that isn't a security risk I don't know what is!

Via: The Register

On the run and out of favour with pretty much every governmental institution around the world, Julian Assange has had a very busy week. It could well be about to get even more crazy, as Assange has now confirmed that the unpublished remainder of his controversial cable documents make multiple mentions to unidentified flying objects.

Is he about to crack conspiracy theories the world over about the existence of little green men? Or perhaps just that George Bush enjoyed sitting down with a bag of popcorn and an Independence Day DVD? Here's what Assange had to say:

Many weirdos email us about UFOs or how they discovered that they were the anti-christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a garden party over a pot-plant. However, as yet they have not satisfied two of our publishing rules.

1) that the documents not be self-authored;

2) that they be original.

However, it is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs.

To be honest, anything as mind-shattering as alien life would probably have been WikiLeaks' first port of call, but I can live in hope, even if just so all my mates stop winding me up about my tinfoil hat.

Oh, and do read the whole Guardian Q and A with Assange linked below, it's fascinating and a little bit frightening too.

Via: Guardian

Oscar winning actress Helen Mirren has backed a new study into the potential benefits of using Nintendo's Wii gaming console as part of rehabilitation treatment for Parkinson's sufferers.

Mirren, who has a good friend diagnosed with the disease as well as featuring in the current round of Nintendo adverts, welcomed the news that the Parkinson's UK research group has awarded an innovation grant of nearly £35,000 to Dr Cathy Craig at the School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, who aims to investigate the potential benefits of the Nintendo Wii for people with Parkinson's.

Dr Craig said: "Our hope is to harness the benefits of the Wii technology to develop a system designed specifically for people with Parkinson's. If the project is successful the benefits could be twofold. It could allow us to develop a simple way to assess Parkinson's symptoms yet provide a safe and effective way for people with the condition to be more active and keep fit."

The research looks to find whether or not the use of the Wii system can improve the physical abilities and lifestyle of people with Parkinson's, and also whether the various games improve specific symptoms of Parkinson's including tremors, slowness of movement and balance.

Karen Rose is a Parkinson's sufferer, whos story is currently featured in a Wii TV advert. She said seems to think the Wii could have great potential as a treatment aid.

"Keeping moving is really important because of the stiffness. By doing the Wii I find that you loosen up the muscles that are constantly spasming, "she said.

"Most people with Parkinson's find that they lose their confidence. So I tend to do exercise at home. I've got all the benefits of a gym, but I can do it to fit in with my lifestyle and my medication. It gives you a burst somehow, and it makes you feel better, and then you have a better day."

Those crazy kids over at Imperial College are at it again. Famed for their pioneering research into invisible sheds, they say they have applied the undetectable garden sanctum theory of metamaterials to produce a type of "space-time cloak." Which translates from geek speak into "Were making a cape that will produce the "illusion of a Star Trek transporter"

The leading the team of Start Trek fanatics is Professor Martin McCall. He explains how the new idea works stating:

"Light normally slows down as it enters a material, but it is theoretically possible to manipulate the light rays so that some parts speed up and others slow down...This would mean that downstream of the metamaterial there would be an interruption in beams of photons travelling through space - creating a "corridor" in which "energy, information or matter can be transported undetected...If you had someone moving along the corridor, it would appear to a distant observer as if they had relocated instantaneously, creating the illusion of a Star-Trek transporter,"

No word on when we might see this transporter, but we like to think that by 2050 our commute to work will become a breeze.

Take a look at this formula:

T = 40 M i K e (3e +M) (e +50M) / {(e2 +3M e +M2) (e +100M)}

Mean anything to you? Well it apparently holds the key to as much as £30,000 worth of secondary income locked away inside your brain.

If that equation looks a bit too much like secondary school homework, head over to VideoJug's Knowledge Calculator page by clicking here, which does all the tough maths bits for you.

They've commissioned a report that shows each UK resident could be making better use of their personal knowledge, potentially to the sum of £83 billion nationwide annually.

Frank Smith, Professor of Applied Mathematics at University College London, who created the formula behind the research said, "Each of us accumulates vast quantities of knowledge over our lifetime, much of which we don't actively use, yet we could be generating a personal income from."

However, if you're from the big-smoke areas of heavily populated cities like London, your knowledge my not be worth all that much.

Professor Frank Smith explains: "As we might expect, areas with bigger populations have a greater amount of total untapped knowledge. But at the individual level the value of unused knowledge per person is less in more densely populated areas. With more people living side by side there are more overlaps in knowledge; this creates an over-supply of knowledge which reduces the monetary value of your knowledge."

Click here for more info.

Patients suffering from the after-effects of surviving a stroke may soon find help in the most unlikely of places. A study conducted by a team at City University London seems to suggest that motion technologies found in the likes of Wii Remotes and Sony's PlayStation Move could soon play a vital role in the rehabilitation of stroke survivors.

The basic idea behind the Gesture Recognition in Aphasia Therapy (GReAT) study is that these relatively cheap technologies could be used by patients as part of ongoing treatments. Aphasia is a common side-effect of strokes that leads to limited spoken or written communication abilities, whose sufferers often learn to use gestures as an alternative to speech.

However, due to other stroke-side effects such as paralysis, helping stroke survivors to learn to use the gestures can lead to costly physio-therapy sessions. The ultimate aim of the project would be to use technology similar to that found in motion-gaming controllers to develop a system that could be used at home by the patients, delivering feedback on the how easily their gestures can be interpreted.

"Gesture tracking and recognition technologies are becoming a ubiquitous part of new computing and gaming environments, ranging from Apple's touchscreen iPad through the handheld Nintendo Wii Remote to Microsoft's forthcoming Kinect for the Xbox 360, which will track users' movements without the need for a handheld controller," says Stephanie Wilson, Senior Lecturer in HCID at City University London. "Whilst popular in gaming, we will evaluate the suitability of such technologies in aphasia rehabilitation."

Jane Marshall, Professor of Aphasiology at City University London, added: "Computer-based treatments have been shown to improve verbal language skills in previous studies, but this is the first time that gestures will be addressed. With 45,000 new cases in the UK each year, we hope that our work will help a wider range of aphasic people to regain communication skills."

The study, carried out in collaboration with The Stroke Association, has been made possible thanks to a £300,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Running for 18 months, the team will test a prototype system with the help of volunteers, who will report back on how effective the treatment is.

Dr Sharlin Ahmed, Research Liaison Officer at The Stroke Association, says: "Communication difficulties are the most frustrating disability that stroke survivors are left facing. This very exciting and intuitive project could go a long way towards helping breakdown some of the barriers of communication that people with aphasia have to tackle. 150,000 people have a stroke in the UK every year and the use of new technology could help them regain their lives, so The Stroke Association is very proud to be a part of this."