iblog

Rushda: A new survey coordinated by Which? has suggested that many people who get eye tests may be coming away with the wrong prescriptions and even damaging their health. For the study, a total of 39 eye examinations were studied by student optometrists posing as patients in different parts of the country. It was found that as many as 17 missed essential tests such as retinoscopy and ones for astigmatism, and questions about the patient's health and family history were left out, and hence weren't as accurate as they should have been. Prescriptions being accurate is clearly a very important issue as even if it's slightly wrong it can lead to side effects. Therefore what is most concerning is that as many as 7 of the examinations studied led to inaccurate prescriptions which may not only cause blurred vision in the patient but are likely to cause headaches as well. These results are disputed by The General Optical Council (GOC) regulatory body which insists that there are much fewer complaints than in previous years. In 2006-2007 there were 17.5m eye tests and only 129 complaints, which is a significant improvement from the previous year. They also stated that it is impossible for anyone to say whether key tests were missed out because each eye exam is tailored to the individual patient and so the examiner has to make judgements on what is required. The College of Optometrists advise that:

"It is for the practitioner to satisfy him/herself that procedures are included or excluded according to the patient's clinical need. There cannot be a one-size fits all approach to the eye test."

The study also showed that many of the eye tests weren't as long as they should have been, with some even lasting under 10 minutes (30 being the advised amount). GUC advise that though they cannot check all the opticians' practices in the country, they do carry out regular checks. If a patient is concerned, they can ask how long the test will last in advance of the appointment. Finally, whatever the results of the survey, what is most reassuring by far is that in none of the tests were patients who did not require glasses prescribed them, this shattering a common myth that every optician will try and sell glasses!

Rushda: Romantics across the country may be pleased to hear that the divorce rate in England and Wales has reached the lowest number in 22 years, according to official statistics. Although it may be shocking that 132,562 couples split up over the last year (12.2 per 1000 married couples), the divorce rate has plummeted in recent years, the number being 7% lower than in 2005 and, in fact, the lowest number of recorded breakups since 1984. The results have been taken from the Office for National Statistics, which has revealed lots of interesting facts about marriage over the past few years. For example, though the figures above might be positive it is worth noting that there are less marriages occurring nowadays and split ups have been more difficult to record. Furthermore, it has also been shown that the most likely age group to get a divorce are men and women in their 20s, yet the average age for divorces in the early 40s for both men and women, and the average divorce occurs 11 years after marriage. What is particularly saddening is that more than half of the divorces involved at least one child under the age of 16 - that means 125,000 children were affected, with over a fifth even being under the age of five. This has devastated many families across the country. As Claire Tyler, chief executive of relationship counselling service Relate has said:

"Whilst it is encouraging that the divorce rate has fallen we must not forget that divorce is still a reality for many families living in the UK today and the emotional fallout can be devastating. For the fifth consecutive year men and women in their late 20s have the highest divorce rates, many of whom will have young children."

As for the falling number of marriages, there are many reasons for this. One of the main reasons could be that the payout sums in cases of divorce have scared people from committing too soon - such reasons mean there are more couples simply cohabiting instead of tying the legal knot. Whatever the reasons for the drop, it is still clear that marriage is a huge decision which has been taken lightly by many and causes trauma to many lives when it ends in divorce.

Rushda: Ever wanted to scale vertical walls like Spiderman? Well, according to a fascinating new study, humans may be able to achieve this using a special "spider-man" suit in future. Scientists have long been studying the natural abilities in spiders and geckos which adhere to walls and climb them at ease, and now researchers believe that we may indeed be able to reproduce such technology for humans and even allow them to hang upside down in the same way. American scientists in 2002 showed that creatures like spiders have billions of tiny hairs which allow them to stick to surfaces and even support hundreds of times their own body weight. Now, research from Polytechnic of Turin in Italy has calculated how the same kind of stickiness could be generated for humans. This is obviously difficult to achieve as we are significantly larger than a spider or gecko and so would require an even higher adhesion strength. But, as head of research Professor Pugno explains:

"If we are able to make a surface a little bit stronger, so that the size effect vanishes, we might be able to make a suit with the same adhesion as a gecko."

He proposes that we can replicate the effects of the hairs by using tiny carbon nanotubes which measure only a few billionths of metres across and are very strong. He also says that there are three requirements for any spider-man suit to work in humans: it must be strongly adhesive, be able to attach and detach from walls easily and also clean itself (so that dirt doesn't get in the way). Such a rare combination of properties may seem impossible but we have already seen it work in scaling creatures. As Pugno says:

"To have all these mechanisms working together is difficult, because they are in competition with one another. But geckos and spiders provide a natural demonstration that this can be done."

Now that research has shown us exactly what kind of material needs to be used, perhaps the days are not far away when humans will be able to demonstrate the powers their favourite superhero.

Rushda: New regulations from the Department of Health have recently stated that by the end of 2009 all tobacco products will not only carry text but they will also display pictures which highlight the dangers of smoking. A total of fifteen pictures have been chosen which range from mild to almost gruesome, and they will warn consumers of the risks of heart and lung disease. It is clear that the government is taking a much tougher line on smoking. First we had the smoking ban in all public places, and now even the smokers themselves will face pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. Not only this but only a month after the new pictures come into circulation, the minimum age for purchasing tobacco will be raised from 16 to 18 in both England and Wales. Health secretary Alan Johnson believes that moves such as picture warnings will help people give up the habit. He says:

"We do think it will help the number of people, who want to give up to smoking - the vast majority of smokers want to give up - and this will give them an extra push."

Most of the public agree with the new tougher measures to limit smoking, and indeed it has been shown that in countries such as Canada and Brazil where picture warnings have already been put in place, more people are aware of the risks and more people are quitting smoking. For example, a study from Canada earlier this year showed that 15% of Canadian smokers were persuaded to give up - this figure being almost double that of places such as US where only text warnings are used. However, some people, such as Neil Rafferty from Smokers' lobby group Forest, believe that the new measure is simply "victimising" smokers. He says:

"You could construct exactly the same argument for placing graphic images on bottles of alcohol, but because most people like to drink alcohol, the government doesn't want to offend the majority. The government are bullying smokers simply because they can get away with it."

It is indeed a controversial subject, but the law has been decided and from October next year all manufacturers of tobacco products will have to comply with the new rules.

Rushda: Many of us indulge in pipe dreams about what kind of house we would live in if we had lots of money. Well a new finding may come as a surprise as a survey has shown that most Britons would love to live in a detached country home, built from scratch. That means, historic dwellings such as castles, barns and vicarages are out, and large custom-made homes with open-plan sitting rooms are in. The buying of new homes rather than old ones is a relatively recent fashion, first started by wealthy home owners who had special requirements such as indoor pools. Now, everyone wants to be able to decide exactly how their home should look, putting modern conveniences over historical character. As Rupert Connell, of the property-buying consultancy Buying Solution says:

“There are clients who are willing to trade character for efficiency. They also do not want to compromise their requirements for such things as indoor swimming pools. Some are looking for existing houses that can be pulled down and replaced with a home built to their specifications.”

One such example of a dream home which sold recently for an incredible £12m is The House in the Wood, at Hindhead in Surrey. This stone mansion dates back to 2001 and comes complete with underfloor heating and a super integrated music system.

Rushda: It is a rather unusual phemonenon for a film's title to be kept secret until it is released, but that is the new strategy of Lost creator J.J. Abrams who due to the success of the baffling TV drama, has had fans and ordinary filmgoers alike squirming to work out what is going on behind his latest project. All we know is the codeword 'Cloverfield', the date January 18, 2008, and an almost creepy trailer of what appears to be an ordinary disaster movie. Or is it? Well, that's what Abrams seems to be trying to confuse people with by creating suspense in the form of viral marketing which is slowly spreading intense excitement through the Internet. The trailer for the film first started speculation by being shown in cinemas before the Transformers movie. The clip shows a happy bunch of teenagers who are suddenly witnessing catastrophes, including the head of the Statue of Liberty being blown off and landing at their feet. Paramount Pictures, which is financing the movie, refuses to give more details. Incredibly, even the potential actors for the film were apparently left in the dark, with none of the auditionees for the casting being shown the script until they were chosen. Ultimately what's most interesting is how Cloverfield, or whatever it is called, is probably a run-of-the-mill film but has turned into a puzzle, with thousands of people trying to grab clues from web searches and put together theories about what's going on. Abrams obviously has enough respect from determined fans for this to become something huge. Perhaps it is?

Rushda: For many avid downloaders of music who are conscious of the illegality of free downloads, nothing other than the iTunes music store will do - it is reliable and offers a huge library. However, worryingly ITunes has been dominating the world of music downloads for a long time now and there are a number of niggling problems with it. All tracks downloaded, for example, are in special format called Digital Rights Management (DRM) and so they cannot be transferred outside iTunes and Ipods with ease. Because of such problems, big names such as Universal and SonyBMG have started to release their own rival software that is supposedly better than what Apple has to offer. One of the best programs that is coming out of these initiatives is Gbox by Universal, which is becoming hugely popular. Gbox sells tracks without being formatted with the copy protection technology which is the ultimate downfall of iTunes tracks. Not only are the tracks more flexible in this way than those offered in the iTunes music store, but each track also costs less, at around 50p per track (whereas iTunes charges about 79p). As Gbox starts becoming more popular, it is also benefiting from special advertising with Google, whereby when particular songs are searched for with the search engine, adverts for Gbox will appear. As Universal Music Group chief executive Doug Morris says,

"We're committed to exploring new ways to expand the availability of our artists' music online, while offering consumers the most choice in how and where they purchase and enjoy our music."

Finally downloaders can rest assured that there are other programs available that will cut the cost of their downloaded tracks and make them easier to copy. Perhaps now that iTunes is losing its monopoly over music downloads, more people will be keener to stop music piracy by buying tracks at reasonable costs elsewhere.

Rushda: Out-of-body experiences are a common phenomenon people experience, especially in near-death scenarios. Many people in the past have claimed that they are genuine experiences of the paranormal. However, scientists have recently managed to recreate such feelings in a group of volunteers and are now able to provide explanations for this common phenomenon which affects a staggering one in ten people. The experiments, conducted by two teams, one from University College London in the UK and the other from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, consisted of using virtual reality goggles on each volunteer. These work by tricking the brain to think that it is somewhere else. When the volunteer's body was touched, they genuinely felt that they were outside the body as the sensation detached from their visual experience. From these studies, the scientists believe they have found a neurological explanation for such weird feelings. Indeed, they say that those who are depressed or not in tune with their own bodies are more likely to have such experiences. As Dr Henrik Ehrsson who led the team from London explains:

"This experiment suggests that the first-person visual perspective is critically important for the in-body experience. In other words, we feel that our self is located where the eyes are."

Many have regarded out-of-body experiences with great suspicion before, not believing their apparent supernatural nature, and now finally scientists are showing that they were correct, by recreating the phenomenon themselves. As psychologist Dr Susan Blackmore from the University of the West of England says:

"Scientists have long suspected that the clue to these extraordinary, and sometimes life-changing, experiences lies in disrupting our normal illusion of being a self behind our eyes, and replacing it with a new viewpoint from above or behind."

The results are fascinating and show great promise for science - the researchers say that with such technology in future we may we eventually be able to create computer games which accurately make you feel like you are part of the game. Not only this but the findings are finally shedding light on a mysterious phenomenon, often described by religious people, that may actually have a very ordinary explanation.

Rushda: New research using computer simulations has reached the incredible conclusion that the fastest creature on two legs was in fact a dinosaur, which could run up to speeds of 40mph. Lizard-like and the size of a cat, the Compsognathus would put all human athletes to shame if it was still alive, and is thought to have been much faster than the modern fastest biped, the ostrich. Even the Velociraptor, the previous dinosaur said to travel at amazing speeds has been found to be 15mph slower than this new little creature. The study showed that even the huge plodding T-Rex could run faster than a football player, though nowhere near as fast as the Compsognathus which travelled at speeds not previously heard before when talking about the mysterious extinct beasts. The study was carried out by biomechanics expert Bill Sellers and palaeontologist Philip Manning from the University of Manchester. As Bill Sellers explains about the small dinosaur:

“It is certainly by far the quickest in terms of our results...It would have done the 100 metres in about six seconds, leaving the Olympic champion well behind.”

I think it is fascinating how scientists have even been able to work out dinosaur speeds using fossil remains and computer estimations based on the creature's anatomy. Even more interesting is that whilst the world of dinosaurs is becoming clearer, so many mysteries are still unsolved. For example, what could have caused the Compsognathus to have to run at such speeds? Was it to run away from predators or to catch prey? The team of researchers aim to produce more sophisticated results in the near future which will be able to tell more precisely the motion and perhaps even the psychology of the prehistoric creatures.

Virgil: A recent survey conducted in the US of three thousand people aged 57 to 85 has revealed that a significant number of 70 and 80-year-olds maintain an active sex life. Whilst the common view on the subject seems to be that the older you get, the less sex drive you have, the study revealed that the most common barriers to intimacy were simply not having a partner at all or being too unhealthy; a lack of desire was generally not the problem. The study, maybe somewhat surprisingly for younger readers, found that three-quarters of people in their late fifties and early sixties were still having sex, whilst this figure dropped to a half for the early seventies, and a quarter for the early eighties. Leader of the study, Stacy Lindau, comments on the findings, saying:

"This suggests that, among older adults, there is an internal drive or need for sexual fulfilment. People are living longer. Many people have higher expectations for what ageing should be like ... yet we have no baseline data on sexuality in later life. These data will give people a sense of whether what they're experiencing is typical."

Indeed, half of the people surveyed described their sex problems as "bothersome", bringing to light just how important that aspect of life is even as you grow older. Of those surveyed, the ones who rated their health as worse were also less likely to be intimate, demonstrating how important health is in maintaining that kind of physical relationship. Professor Edward Laumann of the University of Chicago, who co-authored the report, notes that:

"There are a lot of people who feel that age is very tightly correlated with sexual activity or interest, but it turns out that healthy people are sexually active if they have a partner, and that this is an important part of the quality of life."

The study sheds some light on an area perhaps taboo, and brings with it a better perspective on the world of sexual relations, regardless of one's age.