Remote controlled-’spider pill’ camera offers new way to scan for diseases

October 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While people are increasingly using household robots for chores, communication, entertainment and companionship, researchers have raised alarm over the security and privacy risks linked with these information-gathering objects that move around homes. A new University of Washington study discovered security weaknesses in three robots currently on the market.

October 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - It gives women control over their sex lives. But now it seems the contraceptive pill is changing women's taste in men.

September 18th, 2009 LONDON - Britons waste one month of their lives searching for the television remote control, a new study has found. After studying 4,000 individuals, the researchers found that the average viewer loses it an average of 3.2 times a week and spends more than four minutes looking for it each time, reports The Scotsman.

August 17th, 2009 ADELAIDE - Robot 'prostitutes' may feature as part of extreme future plans for tourists, a tourism conference has been told. Ian Yeoman, from New Zealand's University of Wellington, gave a sneak peak to what the world may hold in 2050, formed by factors like global warming, food, water and jet fuel supply problems and technological advances.

August 16th, 2009 LONDON - British police, for the first time, used a remote-controlled "flying saucer" at a demonstration in Codnor, Derbyshire. Officials turned to the aerial cameras to monitor the BNP's Red, White and Blue festival witnessing anti-fascist protests.

July 7th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have identified a species of spider that builds models of itself that it uses as decoys to distract predators, which may be the first example of an animal building a life-size replica of its own body. Many animals try to divert the attentions of predators by becoming masters of disguise.

June 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new once-in-the-month pill has been found to be effective in controlling both fleas and ticks in dogs and cats, say researchers. Peter Meinke and colleagues at Merck Research Laboratories obtained the flea and tick fighter from a substance found in a fungus.

June 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The CT scan of a 2,000-year-old mummy in Egypt, who was believed to be a woman, has revealed that the preserved corpse actually belongs to a man. The mummy has been kept at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

May 23rd, 2009 LONDON - Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have developed a microchip-sized digital camera that can provide vision for the US military's insect-sized aircraft. The researchers say that the tiny camera is so light that it can be easily carried by the tiny surveillance drones.

May 2nd, 2009 LONDON - A team of scientists has determined that by adding the metal titanium, spider silk can be made super tough, in fact 10 times as hard to snap. The team included Seung-Mo Lee and Mato Knez at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany.

April 23rd, 2009 3-time champion Lel fit to run London MarathonLONDON — Three-time champion Martin Lel should be fit for Sunday's London Marathon after a scan showed that his hip injury was not serious. The 30-year-old Kenyan, who won the event the past two years and in 2005, was diagnosed with a tendon inflammation following an MRI scan but has no problem with the hip bone, organizers said Thursday.

March 12th, 2009 LONDON - Dutch researchers have successfully reduced the fear response in human volunteers by administering them the beta-blocker propranolol. The study carried out by Merel Kindt, Marieke Soeter and Bram Vervliet at the Universiteit van Amsterdam showed that the weakened fear memories did not return over the course of time.

January 17th, 2009 LONDON - A large number of young women on the pill in Britain risk unprotected sex simply because they are unable to obtain a repeat prescription. In a new survey by Lloydspharmacy, based on online interviews with 1,956 women in December 2008, 25 percent of them aged between 18 and 24 years on the pill confessed to having sex without contraception just because they ran out of drugs.

January 16th, 2009 LONDON - Late actor Heath Ledger was the first choice to play 'Spider-Man', the dead star's longtime agent says. In a US magazine tribute to mark the first anniversary of Ledger's death Jan 22, 2008, agent Steve Alexander reveals Ledger was among those considered for the blockbuster role before Tobey Maguire stepped up to play the comic book web slinger, reports contactmusic.com.

December 23rd, 2008 LONDON - Making oral contraceptives available without prescription will not reduce unwanted pregnancies, according to an expert. Sarah Jarvis of the Royal College of Physicians argues that it is a lack of daily compliance with taking oral contraceptives which is partly responsible for the high rates of unintended teenage pregnancies in Britain.