The Korea Herald

Remote-controlled chip implant delivers bone drug

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Medication via remote-control instead of a shot? Scientists implanted microchips in seven women that did just that, oozing out the right dose of a bone-strengthening drug once a day without them even noticing.Implanted medicine is a hot field, aiming to help patients better stick

Feb. 17, 2012

Samsung faces U.S. class action lawsuit over defective TVs

U.S. consumers have filed class action suits against Samsung Electronics Co. as some of its TV models sold in the U.S. are found to have problems with power failures, the South Korean firm said Thursday.U.S. consumers have been complaining about some types of Samsung’s flat-screen TVs sold between 2006 and 2008 as they found problems with a power storage device called a capacitor, making it difficult for the TVs to power up.U.S. consumers have lodged class action lawsuits against the world’s lar

Feb. 16, 2012

Doctors telling more adults: Get out and exercise

ATLANTA (AP) ― More and more U.S. adults are being told by their doctor to get out and exercise, according to government survey released Thursday.Nearly 33 percent of adults who saw a doctor in the previous year said they were told to exercise. That was up from about 23 percent in 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.The report also found more women got that advice than men. And among people with chronic health problems, diabetics, were the most likely to get the advice

Feb. 16, 2012

Family input to detect dementia earlier

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Alexis McKenzie’s mother had mild dementia, but things sounded OK when she phoned home: Dad was with her, finishing his wife’s sentences as they talked about puttering through the day and a drive to the store.Then their phone service was cut off. “I mailed that check,” McKenzie’s father insisted. No, he’d mailed the phone company a bank deposit slip instead. McKenzie visited and discovered spoiling food. Dad the caregiver was in trouble, too.Dementia can sneak up on families. I

Feb. 16, 2012

Mouth ulcers and oral herpes

Aphthous stomatitis, commonly known as “thrush on the tongue,” is a disease where a shallow ulcer is formed in the mouth. Despite an unknown etiology, its occurrence is reportedly associated with the involvement of factors such as viral infection, bacterial infection, malnutrition, immune disorder, stress, trauma, generic factors, hormonal imbalance and other systemic diseases. It is therefore probable that the accumulated fatigue during summer might be one of the causative factors of common mou

Feb. 16, 2012

Chemo safe for pregnant women

LONDON (AP) ― Researchers have encouraging news for women who find themselves in a very frightening situation: having cancer while pregnant. Studies suggest that these women can be treated almost the same as other cancer patients are, with minimal risk to the fetus.Only about 1 in 1,000 pregnant women face this dilemma, but doctors fear that more will because the risk of cancer rises with age, and more women are delaying having children until they’re older.Doctors have long worried about how to

Feb. 16, 2012

Medical fees fixed for 7 procedures

From July, medical fees for seven procedures will be fixed and covered by the national health insurance scheme, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday, as a committee of government officials, doctors and other field insiders approved the plan.The seven treatments are caesarian section, hysterectomy and cataract, hemorrhoid, tonsil, hernia and appendix removal.The plan will be applied at local clinics and small hospitals from July and will be extended to general hospitals and top-tier tea

Feb. 16, 2012

Samsung launches ‘Hello Mom’ service

Samsung Seoul Hospital launched a “Hello Mom” service providing assistance for parents or guardians who come with child patients. Staff workers will give assistance at each stage of processing from booking to escorting to preliminary examination rooms and children-only emergency room. The parents will not have to wait in line unless another parent gets in the queue. The hospital said the program was approved of by 48 of 50 parents after a weeklong test run. “Large hospitals can be scary and unco

Feb. 16, 2012

Simultaneous transplant of seven organs ‘successful’

Local doctors have successfully transplanted seven organs to a 7-year-old girl last fall, Asan Medical Center revealed Thursday. It is the first simultaneous transplant in Korea involving that many organs, and the sign of a new era of treatments for hard-to-cure disease, the medics said.According to

Feb. 16, 2012

U.S. military seek to weaponize ‘battlefield illusions’

The United States military’s technology division is pushing to use “battlefield illusions” to confuse enemy troops, Britain’s Daily Mail reported Wednesday.The new project by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency works like existing measures that distract radar systems. The difference is that it works on people instead of machines, causing audio and visual hallucinations. By studying how the brain processes sensory input, DARPA said it aims to “demonstrate and assess the operational effe

Feb. 16, 2012

U.S. military seek to weaponize ‘battlefield illusions’

Eating at night

Snacking at night can cause reflux esophagitisFancy a snack at night? Many people do. From nibbles such as cookies and candy to heavy foods such as fried chicken, beer or pizza, many indulge in eating long after dinner. Night eating syndrome, or midnight hunger, is a commonly found “disorder” among Koreans. It refers to a lack of appetite in the morning and overeating at night.According to professor Park Gyeong-hee of Hallym University, about 10 percent of adults in Korea eat up to half of their

Feb. 16, 2012

TV channel for dogs launched in US

A television channel designed specifically to be watched by dogs Monday in San Diego for stay-home-canines while the owners are away at work or too busy to play. The first and only television network for dogs, DOGTV, scientifically developed and tested for four years, DOGTV, “a new channel for man‘s

Feb. 16, 2012

Apple considering smaller iPad?

Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers in Asia to test a new tablet computer with a screen smaller than the iPad, sources told The Wall Street Journal.Officials at some of Apple's suppliers, who asked to remain anonymous, said the company has shown them designs for a device with a screen siz

Feb. 16, 2012

15-minute-old newborn gets pacemaker for heart

A newborn became one of the smallest-ever recipients of a pacemaker, undergoing the procedure just 15 minutes after being born.Doctors at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital determined that Jaya Maharaj, born nine weeks premature, had only hours to live if they did not ope

Feb. 16, 2012

Electric cigarette explodes in U.S. man’s mouth

A man trying to kick the smoking habit was puffing on an electronic cigarette when a faulty battery caused it to explode in his mouth, taking out some of his front teeth and a chunk of his tongue and severely burning his face, fire officials said Wednesday.A man smokes an electric cigarette. (

Feb. 16, 2012

Electric cigarette explodes in U.S. man’s mouth

Japan's Elpida shares plunge on viability concerns

TOKYO (AFP) - Shares in Japanese microchip maker Elpida Memory plunged Wednesday after the firm said there were concerns over whether it remained a "going concern" amid fierce competition in the sector.Elpida, one of the world's largest makers of dynamic random-access memory(DRAM) chips used in mobi

Feb. 15, 2012

Japan's Elpida shares plunge on viability concerns

FBI background file has mixed reviews of Steve Jobs

SAN JOSE, California ― He had smoked pot and dropped LSD. He could be a pain to work with. He twisted the truth at times.Yet according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation background file released Thursday, former Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs would still have made a fine presidential appointee.The 1991 background check was conducted when then-President George H. W. Bush was considering Jobs for a spot on the President’s Export Council, a position he did not get. And while the file contain

Feb. 15, 2012

FBI background file has mixed reviews of Steve Jobs

Chey committed to reinvigorating Hynix

After more than a decade of trying to find a buyer, Hynix Semiconductor finally found a new owner in SK Telecom on Tuesday.With the board naming SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won the co-chief executive and SK Telecom president Ha Sung-min as the head of the board for Hynix, the buyout was completed.Chey, 52, chairman of the country’s No. 3 conglomerate, will officially direct the new Hynix, which could potentially be named SK Hynix, together with its current chief executive Kwon Oh-chul.“Chairman C

Feb. 15, 2012

Four top reasons why dieting is so hard

MELROSE PARK, Ill. (UPI) -- Two-thirds of Americans say they are on a diet to improve their health but relatively few are actually decreasing in size, a U.S. expert says.Dr. Jessica Bartfield, who specializes in nutrition and weight management at Loyola University Health System's Gottlieb Memorial H

Feb. 15, 2012

Love is like a drug, study finds

Love appears to use the same system in the brain that is activated when a person is addicted to drugs, recent research found. In the study, researchers at Stanford University showed 10 women and seven men photographs of loved ones. The researchers scanned and observed the participants’ bra

Feb. 15, 2012