Take A Walk to Protect Your Memory

Another study has joined the chorus that physical exercise may help prevent mental decline among older adults.

The latest research comes from the National Institute of Aging and was published in the October 13th online issue of the American Academy of Neurology's Neurology.

In the study, scientists recruited 299 dementia-free people. These respondents recorded the number of blocks they walked per week.

Nine years later, their brains were scanned to measure brain size. At this point, the results showed that participants who had walked at least 72 blocks per week, roughly equaling six to nine miles, had greater gray matter volume than people who didn't walk as much.

Walking more than 72 blocks didn't make brains any bigger.

Four years later, scientists returned again.

Tests were given to determine if anyone had developed dementia. Forty percent of the participants had developed cognitive impairment. However, those who had walked the most cut their risk of developing memory problems in half.

"Our results should encourage well-designed trials of physical exercise in older adults as a promising approach for preventing dementia and Alzheimer's disease," said study author Kirk I. Erickson with the University of Pittsburgh.

 

Inventors Killed By Their Own Inventions

1. Jimi Heselden (March 27, 1948 - Sept. 26, 2010)

Oct. 1, 2010 -- This week Jimi Heselden, owner of the British company Hesco Bastion that produces Segways, died in a tragic Segway accident. Police report that Heselden apparently fell off a cliff and into a river while out on a ride.

Although Heselden was not the inventor of the Segway, (Dean Kamen was; Heselden was merely the owner of the overseeing company that bought the scooter), the tragic irony of the man behind the invention being killed by his own life's work is not unheard of.

Follow along as we run down other notable men and women who pioneered new technology and paid the ultimate price

Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 - Oct. 31, 1926)

While it may not have been a traditional magic act, Harry Houdini died literally at the hands of a physical "trick" he performed -- and a bad case of appendicitis.

Before a performance, two college students reportedly asked Houdini to demonstrate his physical strength "trick" of being able to absorb numerous blows to the upper body without injury.

The impact on that particular day was enough to burst the famous magician's already inflamed appendix.

Houdini died on Halloween in 1926, after surgery failed to save him from the resulting peritonitis. He was laid to rest in the prop casket he used to perform his famous "buried alive" illusion. 

Marie Curie (Nov. 7, 1867 - July 4, 1934)

The first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, Madame Marie Curie was also, sadly, the victim of her own invention -- or perhaps experimentation.

Curie is credited with the discovery of radium and polonium -- two highly radioactive elements.

Although radon, the gas emitted by radium, was used by Curie and others as a medical treatment for injured soldiers during WWI, the elements would eventually be recognized for their deadly side effects, according the Institut Curie.

After spending a lifetime up to her elbows, literally, in radioactive material, Curie's health slowly deteriorated.

She died on July 4, 1934 at the age of 66. At the time, Curie’s cause of death was listed as aplastic anemia, a condition where bone marrow stops producing new blood cells.

Today we know that her condition was caused by radiation exposure.

Thomas Andrews (Feb. 7 1873 - April 15, 1912)

Irishman Thomas Andrews was one of the architects behind the infamous Titanic.

Andrews, as a dutiful shipbuilder, was, of course, aboard for the Titanic's maiden voyage.

The rest is, well, history.

Horace Lawson Hunley (June 20, 1823-Oct. 15, 1863)

A legislator, a lawyer and a marine engineer for the Confederate army, H.L. Hunley is famous for his invention of the submarine during the Civil War.

Hunley's invention didn't have a promising safety record; five out of nine crew members had died on the first submarine run.

Nevertheless, Hunley was on board for the second attempt to attack the Union Blockade in Charleston Harbor using his underwater contraption.

This time all crew members were killed, including Hunley.

The Confederate Army was able to recover the submarine and make a third attempt to attack the blockade. This time they were successful.

But the third time would not the charm for the crew. According to The Friends of the Hunley, the submarine sank inexplicably after successfully bringing down a Union ship.

Alexander Bogdanov (Aug. 22, 1873 - April 7, 1928)

Although few may know Alexander Bogdanov by name, many know the treatment he pioneered: the blood transfusion.

A jack of all trades -- an economist, professor, founder of Bolshevism and physician -- Bogdanov experimented with transfusions in attempt to create a kind of fountain of youth, according to the International Alexander Bogdanov Institute.

Bogdanov successfully gave himself 11 blood transfusions. The 12th proved fatal.

Scholars, however, disagree over what actually killed the pioneering physician. Theories include disease-infected blood, blood incompatibility and even suicide.

Lost for 132 years, the Hunley was eventually recovered at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, just outside Charleston Harbor.

William Bullock (1813 - April 21, 1867)

Native New Yorker William Bullock invented the Bullock rotary printing press -- a press fed by a continuous roll of paper.

Legend has it that Bullock either kicked his machine, or accidentally caught his leg in the mechanisms of one of his presses. The cut on his leg became infected and he died shortly thereafter from gangrene.

LIFE RAFT MAKES SEA WATER DRINKABLE

LIFE RAFT MAKES SEA WATER DRINKABLE

By Tracy Staedter

Aug. 24, 2010 -- As a young girl growing up in Massachusetts, Kim Hoffman spent many summers on her parent's sailboat. Sometimes she would stare at the water and think, "There's got to be a way to turn the seemingly endless ocean into viable drinking water."

In graduate school at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, she designed a life raft that could do just that. Hoffman's Sea Kettle, which recently made the shortlist of this year's James Dyson Award competition, could mean the difference between life and death for a person stranded at sea.

The Sea Kettle is meant to be an insulated, sturdy shelter able to turn sea water into fresh water. A person using the raft operates hand pumps within the cabin in order to draw sea water into a plastic reservoir on the roof. Heat from the sun causes the water to evaporate. The salt-free water vapor from the evaporated seawater can be captured and collected in containers within the raft's walls.

Hoffman says the desalination process she incorporated into the designed was inspired by the Watercone, a portable water desalination cone made by Mage Water Management. In their design, evaporating water from a bottom tray condenses onto the walls of a cone-shaped lid. The cone can be turned upside down in order to pour the potable water into a drinking vessel. By adding that concept to a conventional life raft design, Hoffman came up with the Sea Kettle.

 

However, the Sea Kettle design, the seawater is put into a reservoir in the roof. The condensed water droplets collect in one of four shafts and then flow down into pockets, which can be accessed from inside the raft by drinking through a rube. Hoffman says the raft can provide drinking water for up to five people on a daily basis.

The overall winner for the James Dyson Aware will be announced October 5 and will be awarded more than US $15,000.