People tend to trust labels to be accurate and complete, but time and time again actual studies of ingredients within even brand-name and big-box-store herbal supplement pills has shown fraudulent and sometimes hazardous contents.

Earlier this year, The New York State Attorney General’s Office demanded that GNC, Walmart, Walgreens, and Target remove store brand supplements like ginseng and valerian root after they were found to contain everything from powdered rice and asparagus to bits of houseplants. All parties have since agreed to work with the FDA more closely, but given the broad abuses to date it is hard to say whether future supplements will ever be trustworthy again.

Some of these are relatively harmless, at least to most of the population, but others could trigger violent or even deadly reactions in people with specific allergies to things like peanuts or soybeans. A rundown of the findings shows an incredible array of misrepresentations:

“At GNC, the agency found a number of unlisted fillers, including powdered legumes—a potentially significant hazard for those with peanut or soybean allergies. At Target, ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort and valerian root contained none of the advertised ingredients, and instead were made up of powdered rice, beans, peas, and wild carrots. In other words, a fairly healthy diet if freshly cooked. At Walgreens, ginseng pills are quite simply powdered rice and garlic. At Walmart, ginkgo biloba was made up of powdered radish, houseplants, and wheat, while being labelled as wheat- and gluten-free.”

The post Supplement Scam: FDA Found Filler in Brand-Name Herbals first appeared on Gajitz.

Cybernetics doesn’t have to mean high-tech or complex, as this handy LED display that slaps right onto your hand or arm demonstrates with easy, helped by stretchy circuitry.

A team of researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed an ultra-thin and ultra-flexible film which works as a lightweight display, effectively creating an electronic skin. It has obvious potential applications for fun but also for monitoring vitals right on a patient or athlete.

The leap here is going from millimeters to micrometers in thickness, making for something flexible, easy to wear and ultimately see-through as well as stable in the air. Using alternating layers of organic and inorganic material, the researchers were able to create transparent electrodes while preventing water and oxygen interfering with the behavior of the device. The result is able to crumple and bend without damage.

“The advent of mobile phones has changed the way we communicate,” said professo Takao Someya of the University of Tokyo. “While these communication tools are getting smaller and smaller, they are still discrete devices that we have to carry with us.”

“What would the world be like if we had displays that could adhere to our bodies and even show our emotions or level of stress or unease? In addition to not having to carry a device with us at all times, they might enhance the way we interact with those around us or add a whole new dimension to how we communicate.”

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Putting sensors into brains is a difficult and dangerous process, in some cases requiring tethers to keep track of them or invasive surgery (with infection risk) to remove them, hence the development of this small dissolvable device to relay data then disappear when it is done.

The transient sensors can measure pressure, temperature, pH, motion, flow, and specific biomolecules, transmitting their results wirelessly back to doctors. Proposed and tested (so far in rats) by Rory Murphy of Washington University School of Medicine and John Rogers’ group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the system employs a biodegradable, silicon-based material that can be coated with materials that break down at different rates, allowing variable lifespans for sensors.

Currently, the devices can last for days in various biofluids, then dissolve harmlessly when the coatings wear through. Dissolvable molybdenum wires are used to make wireless transmission possible. Next steps include: optimization, further testing and ultimately clinical trials – the creators hope to have these in non-test humans within the next few years.

The post Dissolving Electronics to Monitor Brain Then Melt Away first appeared on Gajitz.

Designed to make walking with mobility assistance less painful and more comfortable, these crutches employs flexible armbands that are easier to hold in place and distribute weight to parts of the body more capable of carrying it.

Users are are not locked or strapped into the staffs but rather slipped into place; they also make it easy for people to go into a hands-free mode for holding phones, drinks or other objects as well as opening doors.

Flexible straps can be moved along the length of the cradle, customized to user preference. Lifting arms and shifting positions is also made easy. None of this setup requires any kind of specialized tools or complex procedures for operation – the focus with each component, and the whole, is on usability and flexibility of use.

More from the makers: “the ‘m+d crutch’ comes with a standard foot designed to absorb some of the shock of each step. the tread and material flexibility allow the crutch’s foot to conform to the ground and grip it to prevent slipping.”

“The standard foot can be easily removed and replaced with other feet designed for various terrains and activities. alternative feet will be available in the future.”

The post Rest Elbows Not Armpits: Ergonomic Arm-Friendly Crutches first appeared on Gajitz.

A revolutionary new cheap, easy and effective method uses shockwaves for desalinating water, separating salt out by applying electric current in a process dubbed electrodialysis, thanks to Martin Bazant, engineering and mathematics professor at MIT, and his team.

Unlike straining and boiling, the process is not prone to clogs or energy-intensive. Salt-enriched and salt-depleted water separates when electrodes are attached to porous ‘frit’ made of small glass particles. The resulting flows are separated so the freshwater can be collected for use. Effectively, when the current is increased to a certain point, it generates a shockwave between these two zones, sharply dividing the streams and allowing the fresh and salty regions to be separated by a simple physical barrier at the center of the flow.

The current can kill problematic bacteria as well, helping filter as well as desalinate if needed in areas with contaminated water. This approach is “a fundamentally new and different separation system,” Bazant says. And unlike most other approaches to desalination or water purification, he adds, this one performs a “membraneless separation” of ions and particles (via Fastco and Inhabitat).

The post New MIT Desalination Tech ‘Shocks’ the Salt Out of Water first appeared on Gajitz.