That sounds like a completely absurd title, doesn’t it? New research has been done in bio mechanics that suggests young people are growing hornlike spikes in their skulls as a result of excessive phone usage, caused by the consistent and prolonged forward tilt of the head. Always tilting your head forward will shift weight to the back of the head, which – over time – results in bone growth.

Australian researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland have published academic papers that argue that the prevalence of bone growth is due to smartphones that require users to take up more unnatural postures. According to the researchers, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of technology resulting in a skeletal adaption in humans.

In the research, young people were studied, and the researchers bring up the point that if the effects can already be seen, what will they look like in several decades? After all, mobile phones are still a new invention, and their prevalence is still in its early days.

The size of the bone spurs that the researchers found were thought to be large if they were between 3 to 5 millimetres in length.

This is not a hastily put together research paper, as the authors have reportedly been working on it for the past 3 years. In that time, they have analyzed numerous neck X-rays.

This study highlights the importance of teaching correct posture. One can think back to the 70’s, for example, when the effect of soft drinks and dental hygiene was not properly understood. Now, these things are common knowledge. Perhaps in a few decades we’ll be looking back at today and wondering how our posture was so bad.

We will be following this story and posting any updates as they come.

Scientists can now detect Alzheimer’s disease early from the eyes. Due to reduced blood flow to capillaries at the back of the eyes, cognitive impairment can now be diagnosed early to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. People suffering from Alzheimer’s experience memory failure and then become unable to think or talk coherently and finally become completely helpless.

According to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE, the scientists found vascular changes in the human eyes without using eye dyes or MRI scanners. The non-invasive detection only required an infrared camera.

Using OCT angiography technology, scientists can view the back of the eye to evaluate changes in the tiny blood vessels with great detail and unparalleled resolution. This makes it possible for scientists to analyze what is going on in the brain via the eyes.

Alzheimer’s Therapies Are Effective If Applied before Cognitive Decline and Brain Damage Occur

Dr. Amani Fawzi, a professor of ophthalmology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine physician, said their findings need to be validated. With this, it will be super easy to obtain another biomarker for people who might soon develop Alzheimer’s.

Once these people are identified, they can be subjected to new therapies to reduce onset of Alzheimer’s and prevent the dementia that is associated with the disease.

Fawzi revealed that Alzheimer’s therapies are more effective if applied before cognitive decline and brain damage occur.

Sandra Weintraub, a professor of neurology and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Feinberg, said more research and larger participants are needed to validate their finding. The research team from the Northwestern Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease recruited 32 participants for the study.

Forgetful Cognitively Impaired Patients May Go On To Develop Alzheimer’s Disease

These people had cognitive impairment that made them very forgetful. They were subjected to eye imaging with OCT angiography.

Fawzi said their retinal findings will add to other brain indicators of cognitive impairment that could progress to Alzheimer’s disease. He added that further studies will establish if dramatic changes in the eye capillaries of forgetful cognitively impaired patients are certain proof of progression to Alzheimer’s.

The research was funded with grants from Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness and National Institutes of Health.

Researchers already know that mosquitoes target us by tracking our body heat and the carbon-dioxide emitted from our breath. Now they have also found out that mosquitoes locate us by detecting certain chemicals from our body sweats. A study published in the journal Current Biology states the offensive flying insects have an olfactory receptor in their antennae for detecting humans for a meal.

Mosquitoes are blood-suckers, and they transmit malaria, Zika virus and dengue among other tropical diseases. Understanding how they track us for a blood-meal is essential to developing protective techniques to foil their attacks.

Mosquitoes can detect human body heat from a distance, and they zero in on the heat signature to find humans and animals for a bite. They also detect the carbon-dioxide exhaled from human nostrils and emitted via the ear to know human bloodmeals are available for consumption. Having now perfected their sense of smell to detect the lactic acid and other chemicals in human sweat, mosquitoes have now evolved into a formidable human enemy.

Mosquitoes Attack Humans When Body Sweat, Body Odor and CO2 Are Emitted From People

Mathew DeGennaro of the Florida International University in Miami said it is exciting to know that mosquitoes have a receptor for human sweat. This they use to sense human odor and converge for blood.

The olfactory receptor is called Ir8a. Scientists found that blocking the function of this receptor made it impossible for mosquitoes to detect human sweat. During lab studies, researchers asked participants to place their hands on a device called an olfactometer. Mosquitoes can detect the olfactometer and the humans around it with ease. After genetically disabling the olfactory receptor in mosquitoes, the researchers found mosquitoes lost interest in detecting human presense.

Even after putting clothing worn by people during the day into the olfactometer, mutant mosquitoes found it hard to detect the sweat on the clothes. But normal mosquitoes did. Jeff Riffell, a biologist at the University of Washington, said it might make sense to create a spray perfume that masks human odor and throw mosquitoes off our trail.

However, disabling the ability of mosquitoes to sense human body odor does not entirely incapicitate them from detecting people – since they rely on other capabilities to still find their food.

An Effective and Lasting Solution Is Required To Destroy the Abilities of Mosquitoes to Find People

Larry Zwiebel, a biologist at Vanderbilt University, said mosquitoes are human-seeking machines because they possess an overlapping sensory system that goes beyond smell. He demonstrated that the insects can only detect the lactic acid in human sweat in the presence of carbon-dioxide and emitted heat.

“So it shows that in order for this process to really work effectively, and at its highest level, the mosquito wants to sense carbon dioxide, and that information makes the lactic acid information more valuable to the mosquito — more usable,” Zwiebel said.

According to him, when mosquitoes sense the combined presence of human odor, body heat and emitted CO2, they recieve the strongest degree of impulse to zero in on people and animal targets. Until a better and effective way is developed to permanently defeat mosquitoes in our environments, a powerful repellent that confuses their human-detection system might be a temporary solution.