Everything you need to know about the latest research, the newest discoveries and the strangest science.
By John Naish
Times OnlineTHROW out those painkillers: the secret to salving physical aches may lie in using a pair of binoculars the wrong way round, claims research performed at Oxford University.
The study, published in Current Biology, reveals how powerfully pain and even swelling can be a product of our mental attitude.
Researchers asked ten people who suffered chronic pain in one arm to move the limb around while looking at it through a pair of binoculars that were either the right or wrong way round.
When they saw their arm magnified to double its size, the patients reported that their levels of pain increased, but when they exercised the arm while watching a minimized image of it through inverted binoculars, their pain levels were cut significantly.
But it was not only their perceived pain levels that changed, says the lead researcher, G. Lorimer Moseley. Their levels of physical swelling in the affected areas were also reduced through using the backwards-binocular trick.
Moseley says he is not sure how this phenomenon works in terms of specific neurons firing, but he believes that the brain changes its protective responses according to its perception of danger levels. "If it looks bigger, it looks sorer, therefore the brain acts to protect it," he explains.
Moseley hopes that the optical-trick discovery will lead to a practical method for lowering pain and trauma levels in hospitals.
In effect, the binocular trick offers a much simpler and cheaper version of a pain-lowering brain-scan method pioneered by American researchers. Scientists at Omneuron, a California-based company, are using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine to treat chronic pain. Patients are placed in the scanner and asked to watch a computer-generated flame projected on the screen of virtual-reality goggles. The flame's intensity reflects the neural activity of regions of the brain involved in the perception of pain.
By concentrating on a variety of mental techniques - such as imagining that a painful area is being flooded with soothing chemicals or marching soldiers - most people can make the flame wane. As the image of the flame wanes, the patient starts to feel less pain.
A 2005 study of eight patients with recalcitrant pain felt their discomfort reduced by as much as 64 per cent by using Omneuron's technology. Christopher deCharms, the chief executive of Omneuron, says, "We believe that people will use real-time fMRI feedback to hone cognitive strategies that will increase activation of brain regions."
He adds that, with practice and repetition, this could lead to "long-term changes in the brain".
Alternatively, of course, pain patients could simply try playing around with an old pair of binoculars.
Wriggly gumA
SUPERGLUE secreted by sand worms may offer a rapid way to repair shattered bones in our faces and limbs, say investigators at Utah University.
They have created a synthetic version of the glue that sandcastle worms secrete in order to build sand and shell fragments into tube-shaped homes that can withstand strong tides.
The developers report, in Macromolecular Biosciences, that they hope the biological glue will be able to fix tricky bone breaks, such as those at the end of joints or in faces. that can't be wired or screwed together
The glue may also carry drugs such as antibiotics, growth enhancers and even stem cells to sites where bone fragments are glued.
Pip, pip, hoorayPOMEGRANATE would be a far better superfood if it weren't for the pesky, offputting pith and pips. Now Spanish scientists have invented a high-tech computerised scanner system to separate all the seeds, pips and pulp.
A pomegranate holds 40per cent of our daily vitamin C requirement, and has three times the antioxidant power of red wine or green tea. A pilot study in the International Journal of Impotence Research even reports that pomegranate juice may have beneficial effects on erectile dysfunction.
Now a team of engineers from Valencia's Institute of Agrarian Research has made healthy living easier, using EU money to develop a special machine with computerised vision to distinguish and sort the different parts of this fruit, reports a study published online by the Journal of Food Engineering.
Pure thoughtsWASHING your hands over a problem may really make you less morally judgmental, says a Plymouth University study.
The study asked 40 students to watch a film, then to rate a series of moral dilemmas, such as eating a fellow plane-crash survivor or faking a CV. Half the students were asked to wash their hands after watching the film.
Simone Schnall, the lead researcher, says the students with clean hands made far less severe judgments. She reports in Psychological Science that being cleansed reduced their propensity to respond with disgust: "We think we're making conscious, rational decisions in moral judgments, but are influenced by how clean or pure we feel."
Herbal highA
BOUNTIFUL yet neglected source of MRSA-killing plants has been discovered in the Himalayan hills - fields of wild oregano that the locals call "useless grass".
Bristol-based researchers report that the Himalayan oregano plant is high in an essential compound called carvacol - a powerful antimicrobial that has proved more effective at killing MRSA than 18 antibiotics.
The scientists, from the University of the West of England, say the herb grows wild across Himachal Pradesh and can be harvested without damage. The locals don't eat it and nor do their cattle, but harvesting it could now be lucrative. The project, which has just won a United Nations award for sustainability, aims to use the oregano to make soaps and surface cleaners for use in British hospitals.
Radiator rageDOES your car tell other road users if you are submissive or dominant? A Florida State University study of 40 drivers has found almost complete agreement over which cars look pushy or a pushover, based on whether their lights, radiators and bonnets are set in a smile or a frown.
The Human Nature report says the consensus reflects how our caveman brains see the road as a human jungle - and we may drive as if it is covered in roaming beasts.
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