American doctors confessed they give their patients so-called placebo treatment that has no therapeutic effect. Although the doctors now admitted the fact, they've been using this kind of therapy for a long time, prescribing medically neutral drugs. Physiologically, however, placebo effect is beneficial. Patient's trust in medicine often brings long-awaited "recovery". Full story

You have probably noticed how choosing between various bijous in the store or just looking over beads and earrings already at home may cut down on stress. It is not for nothing that not only shopping, but also window-shopping help get rid of negative emotions. The scientists have recently found the evidence proving that bijouterie has a sedative effect on women's psyche. Full story

Cerebral hemispheres and divergent thinking are more developed in pro musicians than in other people, scientists say. Divergent thinking is a creative thought process that involves generating many possible solutions to the same problem. Scientific study showed that musicians think differently. The reseachers studied the ability of musicians to solve problems that call for creativity. The experiment involved 20 music students and 20 non-musicians. Full story

Guess what country has the highest obesity rate? Most people would mistakenly name the United States. The study at Baker Heart Institute showed Australia has a higher proportion of obese people than the US. According to scientists, 4 millions of Australians (26% of population) are overweight. The US obesity rate is 25%. Full story

Scientists continue to make shocking discoveries that often contradict their earlier ones. According to the latest studies conducted by the researchers at Copenhagen University, there is no conclusive evidence supporting life prolonging benefits of antioxidants. On the contrary, vitamins A and E may weaken body's natural defense mechanisms. "Even more, beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E seem to increase mortality," - Danish scientists’ review says. Full story

Australian government issued the world’s first license for human embryo cloning. The cloning process will be performed by local in vitro fertilization company Sydney IVF. At the present moment, though, the license allows only development of early-stage embryos, known as therapeutic cloning, since embryo implantation into the womb is restricted by law. During the cloning process the scientists are going to use somatic cell nuclear transfer technique, in which nucleus of a donor somatic cell is removed, and then replaced with a nucleus containing required DNA information. It is to be recalled that the same technique was used when cloning Dolly in 1996. Full story

Which nation do you think is the healthiest one? Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences held a study to measure health index across nations. 45 largest nations of the world caught the researchers' attention. Those countries account for 90% of the world's GDP and 77% of the world's population. Finns occurred to be the healthiest nation in the world. Full story

American scientist Charles Gerba from Arizona University believes that typical office equipment, such as phones, keyboards, and mice can present a serious danger to the health of people working with it. According to the results of the study conducted by Gerba, some desktops are hundreds times dirtier than the public washrooms. For instance, a mouse which hasn’t been cleaned for a few weeks can contain up to 1676 germs per square inch, while the same area on the keyboard will host around 3300 microbes. Full story

Like their unborn babies, pregnant women should listen to lullabies. Sweet melodies and nature sounds before bed can reduce stress, depression and anxiety related to pregnancy. This has been shown by the study of Taiwanese scientists. They studied two groups of women aged 30, who were between 18 and 34 weeks pregnant. One group was asked to listen to CDs featuring lullabies, classical music, nature sounds, and Chinese nursery rhymes and songs for 30 minutes every day. Full story

Researchers at Monell Chemical Senses Center, USA, discovered new taste sensation. It turned out that along with basic sensations of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter, we are able to detect a taste of calcium. Experimenting on rats, the scientists found two receptors (CaSR and Tas1r3) that are involved in tasting calcium in food. Full story

Sitting with your back straight can be bad for your health, according to the claim made by Canadian scientists. A study conducted by radiologist Waseem Amir Bashir and his colleagues from the Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging at the University of Alberta Hospital, Canada, showed that when the person sits with the back straight (so that the angle between the thighs and the trunk is about 90 degrees), this position can eventually lead to experiencing some pain. Full story

Pursuit of cleanliness is an asset. But too much water drowned the miller, as they say. Scientists found that chasing dirt may increase the risk of various diseases. According to statistical data, there was a sharp increase in type 1 diabetes among children for the last 5 years. Scientists have been unable to explain the upsurge for a long time until they finally found the link between the diabetes in kids and their parents’ unreasonable pursuit of cleanliness. Full story

New research of fast food has shockingly revealed that a doner kebab contains the equivalent of a vine glassful of cooking oil, and other junk foods are not far behind. Dietitians claim that eating two of these high fat meals per week can result in a heart attack within 10 years. Full story

Young people struggle against the lack of independency, while elderly - from the idea of approaching of death. But the ones who go through the hardest times are, as scientists believe, those "over 40". Moreover, the peak of this crisis takes place around the age of 44. Earlier studies in this area showed that psychological health of the person does not depend on the person's age. Yet, specialists from University of Warwick, Dartmouth College in the U.S. opposed those results. Full story

"Sex and the City: The Movie DVD" launch party happened Thursday night in New York. At the press conference writer-director Michael Patrick King and actress Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed there could be another big screen sequel. All "Sex and the City" fans, who are lots of throughout the world, can be happy. Full story

Physiologists and sociologists already found the gloomiest and the happiest days of the year (January, 21 and June, 20 respectively). Now they got down to the days of week. They finally figured out that the hardest day is Wednesday, not Monday as we all believe. Full story

Good news for dog-loving people. Finish veterinarians promise to help dogs that are allergic to their owners. "While we know that 15% of people are allergic to pets, nobody cares about pets being allergic to their owners", - Dr. Minne Rayamyaki from the University of Helsinki says. Full story

Have you ever wondered about the effect that mental work has on our figure, on the amount of calories we consume, and on what we feel like eating? Scientist from Laval University, Canada, decided to do a special experiment just to establish the effect that mental work has on appetite and consumed calories. The results were quite worth the effort. Full story

Sidney saw another high heel race with the record number of runners – 265 women. Wearing three-inch high heels, ladies competed on a 80 meter race track. Australian Britney McGlone who is a professional 400 meters hurdle runner finished first to take home AUD 5000 prize fund (USD 4267). Full story

Egyptian scientists for the umpteenth time refuted the widespread belief that smoking hookah is less harmful than smoking cigarettes. Let me remind you that tobacco smoke in the hookah was formerly believed to be less harmful than the one coming from cigarettes. It was argued that the smoke in hookah undergoes water filtration and cools down before reaching the smoker’s lungs. Full story