Author: Diane Shipley

Staff Writer Diane is especially interested in high-tech medical advances, weird and interesting uses of science, new gadgets, and the intersection of tech and lifestyle. When not working, she reads the internet, listens to podcasts, watches American TV, and thinks about leaving the house.

Some dogs are natural pessimists, says study (aww)

Contrary to their reputation for being tail-wagging people-pleasers who are always up for a W-A-L-K, some dogs are apparently real pessimists. Dr Melissa Starling, from the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, and her team put together a trial where they taught dogs to associate two different sounds with whether they would…

The StudentLife app wants to track stress… by monitoring everything

Computer scientists have built an app that monitors students' wellbeing by using their phone to measure as many variables as possible, from mood to sleep quality to how sociable they are. As New Scientist reports, the aim isn’t to totally invade their privacy, but to identify and help people at risk of dropping out for…

A new urine test can detect cervical cancer

A new urine test can detect HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, according to New Scientist. For women who avoid smear tests like the plague, this could be a useful, non-invasive first step in screening. It might also be useful in developing countries where it’s far easier to test a sample than look at…

How well we pick up language is in our genes

Our genes affect how well we pick up language as children, according to a new study. We usually start to speak at around 9-18 months old, going from a vocabulary of 50 words to more than 50,000 by the time we’re 16. Aside from some lone prodigies, we begin by babbling to replicate speech before…
Wearable

Researchers ask: do wearable activity monitors really work?

Wearables are increasingly advanced and increasingly popular (the market is expected to be worth $8.36 billion by 2018), but are they as helpful consumers hope? A group of scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch wanted to find out whether wearable activity monitors live up to their promises – and if they could be…

The Clearsmile machine wants to change the way we clean our teeth

The inventor of a new teeth-cleaning device claims we could all end up using it instead of toothbrushes, floss, and mouthwash. The Clearsmile consists of a mouthpiece that fits to the teeth, attached to a small container. To use, you add a special soluble tablet to the container along with some water and it froths…

The Flame Base Layer is a wearable that’ll control your temperature

Just in time for winter, here’s a new wearable that can heat you up when it’s cold outside (or inside, for that matter) and then cool you down again once your body’s adjusted. Unsurprisingly, it comes to us from Canada. (And from Engadget, where we first spotted it.) Alex Huang and Jason Yakimovich, engineers from…

Now China has a special mobiles-only pavement lane

A street in the Chinese city of Chongqing has designated a pavement lane for chatters, texters and tweeters (or Weibo-ers, more likely), according to Engadget. A local publication first flagged up the innovation, which has a sign announcing 'First mobile phone sidewalks in China'. And we probably shouldn't be surprised, given that China is now…

Botox could stunt your emotional growth

How are you feeling today? If you’ve had a lot of Botox, you might not even know. At least, that’s according to nurse practitioner Helen Collier, who undertook research into whether face-freezing injections can affect our emotional state. As the BBC reports, she says that there’s a growing demand for Botox from women 25 and…