Rates of skin cancer in Israel are some of the highest in the world, though the rest of the MENA region has significantly lower incidence, according to the World Health Organization. Conventional thinking suggests that the best way to avoid skin cancer is to use sunscreen, particularly one made from organic materials. New research, however, […]
He may appeal to the eyes, but what is all that computer use doing to his sperm? Infertility is a family affair. In the Middle East, the matter is often more than a medical concern. Larger families are the norm and in certain communities (for example, the more religious), a sign of honor and prestige. […]
An Arab scientist has developed an artificial testis to give infertile man a chance to sire their own children. In the western world couples who have trouble conceiving go to sperm banks when the male produces no viable sperm. And while these options are available in the Middle East, the more traditional male types here […]
Eco-lovers beware: Artificial light at night may be associated with an increased risk for breast and prostate cancers. Next time your partner suggests you keep the lights on in your bedroom, tell him his prostate and your breasts are better off under the illumination of the moon, and your want to make sure your personal […]
Under normal conditions, her baby has a slightly higher chance of being a boy, but new research suggests that exposure to radiation unnaturally skews the sex ratio. The Japan nuclear disaster confirmed what we already know for certain: radiation is dangerous to human populations. In particular, mutagenic effects have long been reported, and we also […]
Professor Onur Hamzaoğlu could face jail time for publishing a report that found poisonous metals and cancer risk.
The head of a Turkish university’s public health department was accused of “threatening to incite fear and panic” after he published a study showing high amounts of heavy metals in the local population. After he found high levels of mercury and arsenic in mother’s milk and babies’ excrement from Dilovası, an industrial town in the northwestern […]
Rola learns how space traveling from LA to Abu Dhabi could one day produce less greenhouse gas than commercial air carriers. Last week, in the historic large lecture theatre at the Royal Institution in London, the oldest independent research body in the world, Stephen Attenborough, the Commercial Director for Virgin Galactic, spent two uninterrupted hours mesmerizing […]
Looking to our octopus friends will help scientists build robots, maybe even goal keepers, for tomorrow. In case you thought that octopuses were smart only in guessing the outcome of soccer matches (remember the late Paul the octopus in Germany who picked all the right winners in last year’s world cup matches in Johannesburg?), scientists […]
Women undergoing In-Vitro Fertilization are understandably stressed, but now they may find something to smile about; new research out of Israeli hints at the value of ‘Medical Clowns’ towards improving IFV success rates. In a recent study of 219 women undergoing In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Israeli researchers found the odds of success were greater among women […]
Saudi researchers develop a new model for predicting flash floods in the Middle East. They cripple cities like Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and take lives each year in the Middle East: flash floods come without warning, and are hard to predict (check out our flash flood survival guide), but now Arab scientists at the King […]
Chinese biotech researchers hope consumers will develop a taste for their GM-altered bovine milk. Attitudes towards public breastfeeding in Israel are more relaxed, in general, than in the USA where the sight of mom’s nursing babies is often met with squeamishness (or worse) as various factions debate the utilitarian vs. pleasure functions of the female […]
Something as big as a whale shark should be easy to track, but Dubai-based marine biologists learn they are actually quite elusive. It’s so tempting to attribute anthropogenic qualities to fauna. Take the whale shark Rhincodon typus, sometimes referred to as gentle giants, the largest fish to plow through tropical seas with its wide mouth […]
Who says that academia has to be detached from the real world? The world of academia is notorious for being detached from the real world. There are plenty of good reasons why it’s called the “ivory tower”. Because sometimes you just don’t care why Jacques Derrida chose to spell the word difference as differance, and […]
Scientific heavyweights to scour the Mediterranean Sea Floor in a first of its kind research mission We worry about the possibility of a giant trash heap floating in the Mediterranean, and about the effect that this and Israel’s new gas fields will have on marine life. We are also concerned that various oil exploration projects […]