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Researchers have made great strides when it comes to figuring out how to stick things together. They’ve also figured out how things get tangled up when we don’t WANT them to.

Cellophane tape was invented in 1929 by engineer Richard G. Drew, who had already invented masking tape 4 years earlier. It took him 5 years to figure it out, but he finally succeeded. LiveScience.com reports that the tape got its name when an auto painter complained that it wasn’t sticky enough and said, “Take this back to your stingy Scotch bosses and tell them to put more adhesive on it.” Now the amount of Scotch Tape sold every year could circle the earth 165 times.
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Owning an iPod can be dangerous?in more ways than one. Crime statistics released by the FBI show that violent crime increased in 2005 and 2006, and they think that thefts of iPods may have triggered the spike, since adolescents are most often the victims.

Their power to distract users gives thieves an advantage. The iPod’s popularity among young people may make it a special target for juvenile offenders, and indeed youth robbery arrests jumped 11% in 2005 and 21% in 2006. Adult robbery arrests rose only 1% in 2005 and 5% the following year.
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Your immune system, which protects you from disease, likes you to be dirty and happy (or does it)? A new study shows that men who are hostile and prone to frequent intense feelings of anger and depression could be harming their immune systems, making them more vulnerable to health problems like heart disease.

Researcher Steven Boyle studied over 300 male Vietnam veterans who were part of a larger 20-year study on the effects of Agent Orange. For the study, besides physical tests, the vets underwent a standard psychological test used to assess hostility, depression and anger.
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The first European victim of a deadly new mosquito-borne disease was bitten while in the United States and is in a coma.

This virus is known as Eastern Equine Encephalitis or Triple E. The victim, Michael Nicholson, was bitten by a mosquito when he spent 6 weeks in Rhode Island and New Hampshire this summer. The disease is found mostly along the East Coast and has a 35% mortality rate and develops 10 days after being bitten. It has flu-like symptoms, which eventually lead to brain inflammation, coma and death.

BBC News quotes Nicholson’s sister as saying, “There is no cure and there is no vaccine, so all you can do is try and prevent yourself being bitten.”

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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