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Valor1016 writes "One MD reaches out to the medical community, urging them to take steps to combat what he sees as a virtual epidemic with very real effects.

An oregon pyschiatrist wants internet addiction recognized as mental illness.
    Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland wrote a controversial editorial, published in this month's issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, which calls upon the medical field to add internet addiction to psychiatry's official guidebook of mental disorders.
    Dr. Block describes internet addiction as "excessive gaming, sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging". Though stopping short of discussing what is classified as "excessive", Dr. Block states that these imbalances form a classic example of an obsessive compulsive disorder. He says that akin to other addictions, users go through cravings, urges, withdrawal and tolerance. These symptoms manifest themselves in desires for more and better hardware and software, as well as more hours online. The addiction can cause people to lose all track of time. He writes that addicts may neglect "basic drives" such as the need to eat and sleep. He states that relapse rates for this addiction are particularly high. Perhaps most controversially, he states that victims of the illness may need psychoactive medication to control their urges and may need to be hospitalized.

full story at http://www.dailytech.com/Oregon+Pyschiatrist+Wants+Internet+Addiction+Recognized+as+Mental+Illness/article11132.htm"

A group of researchers in California have developed an artifical muscle that heals itself and generates electricity.
"We've made an artificial muscle that, when you apply electricity to it, it expands, more than 200 percent, the motion and energy is a lot like human muscles" said Qibing Pei, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles and study author.
The researchers used flexible carbon nanotubes as electrodes instead of other materials, often metal-based, that fail after repeated use. If an area of the carbon nanotube fails, the region around it seals itself by becoming non-conductive and prevents the damage from spreading to other areas.

This material also conserves about 70% of the energy you put into it. As the material contracts after an expansion the rearranging of the carbon nanotubes generates a small electric current that can be captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery.

Valor1016 writes "Ever imagined playing a videogame with your mind? Well now you can as of december this year.
Emotiv Systems ( http://www.emotiv.com/ ) will be coming out with a device named "The Epoc". Which will allow you to play any game you like with your mind.

The technology is based on electroencephalography, more commonly known as EEG. EEG has been around for over 100 years and is currently used to study sleep patterns and epilepsy by analyzing electrical activity in the brain. Until recently, though, EEG readings were regarded as too broad for most applications. They developed a software algorithm to analyze the signals coming from your brian.

The cost of the device and the game bundled with it will be $299.99 avail this december."