Home — Tekh Decoded

A Scarier Predator: Great White Sharks Have Been Fearfully Avoiding Their Normal Gathering Place

Lead Image: Lead author Alison Towner with the carcass of a Great White Shark washed up on shore following an Orca attack. Credit: Marine Dynamics/ Dyer Island Conservation Trust. Image by Hennie Otto The new research adds to our knowledge of how Great Whites employ their “flight” instincts to evade predators over long periods of time and in groups. Large numbers of Great White Sharks have been driven away from their normal gathering place by a pair of Orca (Killer Whales) who have been terrorizing and slaughtering the sharks off the coast of South Africa since 2017. New research published…

It’s a Myth That Sunscreen Prevents Melanoma Skin Cancer in People of Color – A Dermatologist Explains

Lead Image: There is very little evidence that sunscreen reduces melanoma in dark-skinned people. Melanoma is a potentially deadly form of skin cancer that affects people of every racial and ethnic group. Exposure to ultraviolet, or UV, rays from the sun is the risk factor most closely linked to developing melanoma. In fact, sunburns have been associated with doubling one’s risk of melanoma. Because sunscreen can block UV rays and therefore reduce the risk of sunburns, it ultimately may reduce the risk of developing melanoma. Therefore, the promotion of sunscreen as an effective melanoma prevention strategy is a reasonable public…

MIT’s Tiny Robotic Lightning Bugs Take Flight

Lead Image: Inspired by fireflies, MIT scientists have created soft actuators that can emit light in different colors or patterns. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers Inspired by fireflies, scientists create insect-scale robots that can emit light when they fly, which enables motion tracking and communication. Lightning bugs that light up dusky backyards on warm summer evenings use their luminescence for communication — to attract a mate, ward off predators, or lure prey. These glimmering fireflies also sparked the inspiration of researchers at MIT. Taking a cue from nature, they constructed electroluminescent soft artificial muscles for flying, insect-scale robots. The tiny…

B Vitamins May Be Inexpensive Treatment for Advanced Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Singapore scientists find hyperhomocysteinemia strongly correlates with the severity of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, have discovered that elevated blood levels of an amino acid called homocysteine correlate strongly with the severity of an advanced form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. They also found vitamin B12 and folic acid (vitamin B9) could be used to prevent and/or delay disease progression. A mechanism that leads to an advanced form of fatty liver disease has been uncovered by scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. It turns out that vitamin B12 and folic acid supplements could reverse this process.…

Water: Do You Really Need 8 Glasses a Day?

You’ve probably heard that you should drink eight glasses of water every day — that’s about half a gallon (2 liters) of fluid. This claim has become widely accepted, but is it actually just a myth? This article looks at where this recommendation originated and how much water we really should be drinking each day. The making of a myth The idea that we should all drink eight glasses of water per day has been around for decades but when you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense. Surely a 6-year-old primary schooler, no matter how rambunctious, doesn’t need…