From London (Reuters) -

A molecule found in a curry ingredient can kill esophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, suggesting it might be developed as an anti-cancer treatment, scientists said on Wednesday.

Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how HIV spreads through the human body after filming the process for the first time ever.

Read the story at the Telegraph. Link to Video.

I found this short video documentary on compulsive hoarders (wikipedia), people whose lives are dominated by their relationship to possessions. The video is fascinating in a clinical sense, but could be scary or possibly revolting if you’re lacking in empathy for these folks because clearly there’s a psychological issue going on here.

The video is called ‘Possessed’, is about 20 minutes long and you meet 4 very different hoarders. If you enjoy watching medical mysteries or science shows, then I highly recommend watching it.

From Scientific American, a quick discussion on a report that recently came out indicating that a key compound in soy bean called phytoestrogens, mimics the female hormone estrogen. Estrogen has been shown to reduce testosterone levels in men.

In this study, half a serving of soy, on average, lowered sperm counts by 34 million per milliliter compared to those that ‘abstained’ from soy.

Is it odd for a silicon vendor like Intel to get into the medical device business that they have to market and service as opposed to allowing another OEM to rebrand or license Intel’s IP?

I guess I need to look into this a little more, but that’s exactly what Intel has done. The device just received FDA approval and is called the “Intel Health Guide”. It’s considered a personal health system or a care management tool for healthcare professionals who manage patients with chronic conditions.

Essentially, your doctor sends you home with this, the patient can have the device take readings from the in-home patient (like blood pressure), then uploads the results to the Dr. who has a device or software on the backend to make assessments of the patient’s state.

I can definitely see a great use for this, especially for the elderly, but I would like to know the cost and what kind of revenue stream they’ll see from it since this is a gamble on their part.