It mightn’t quite be Doctor McCoy’s medical diagnostic tricorder, but a new breathalyzer-like device has been developed that can detect the faint chemical signatures produced in the body as a response to various diseases — all from a simple breath sample.

"This is a new and promising direction for diagnosis and classification of diseases, which is characterized not only by considerable accuracy but also by low cost, low electricity consumption, miniaturization, comfort and the possibility of repeating the test easily,” explains to the development team’s leader, Professor Hossam Haick.
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Most of us are familiar with the theories that as humans, we’ve lost some a number of the natural senses that our ancient ancestors used to employ, ranging from our current concept of a "sixth sense", to the 360 senses described in ancient Egyptian writings. While many of us get by with only five senses to guide us, a company called Cyborg Nest is developing an implant that will hopefully re-enable one of these ancient abilities.
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Silicon is the second most common element in the Earth’s crust, after oxygen. However, aside from its non-organic use by certain sea sponges and microorganisms, very little silicon is used by Earth’s biology, despite making heavy use of other common elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, iron, magnesium and oxygen. This has presented a long-standing puzzle for scientists: why would nature ignore such an otherwise useful substance?
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Due to a regional drought in 2007, a previously-unexplored portion of the ancient Greek city of Bathonea, situated on the shore of Lake Kucukcekmece in modern-day Turkey, was exposed, and is now accessible for archaeologists to excavate. One of the major finds made through the dig at Bathonea was the verification of a previously-unsubstantiated story of an invasion from the Avar Empire in 646 A.D. But, wars long forgotten aside, the site also yielded evidence of far more beneficial activities: the large-scale production of medicines, including some that are still in use today.
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