baldness
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Baldness cure is no reason to quit a'stressin
If you think of baldness as a disease then you'll want to pay close attention to some research that's being conducted in collaboration with teams from UCLA, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and the Oregon Health and Sciences University. The group seems to have accidentally stumbled on the cure for baldness while researching the relationship between stress and the gastrointestinal tract. The teams were testing the effects of a peptide called "astressin-B" on mice genetically engineered to be hyper-stressed (and bald as a result). Miraculously, the bald mice regrew the lost hair and the respect of women who drive Minis. They even maintained the re-hair for up to four months after receiving just one dose a day for five consecutive days -- that's 20 percent of a mouse's two-year lifespan. Oh sure, the regrowth was on their backs but we're sure they'll sort out your preference for location by the time this begins human trials.
Men prefer hair over gadgets
While all of us at Engadget are mostly dreaming of a digital Chrismahanukwanzakah, apparently a good number of our male readers are looking for something a little closer to home that will boost their self-esteem and sex appeal. (We know, we were surprised too.) Indeed, according to a study sponsored by Merck and conducted by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, over half of more than 2,000 balding men surveyed said that they would trade something from their collection of consumer electronics for more hair on their head. Of those surveyed, 26 percent said they'd trade a stereo system for a more beefy coiffure -- ok, that seems pretty fair. However, 17 percent said they'd trade their laptop (huh?), while another 17 percent said they'd give up an "expensive car" (wha?) for more follicles on the ol' chrome dome. But what we were most surprised about is that 13 percent of men surveyed said they'd trade their prized plasma TVs (have you guys seen the stuff on Engadget HD lately?), and a final six percent would trade a boat (are you guys nuts?) for some of the hairy stuff. Assuming these numbers are accurate, if we had Rumpelstiltskin-style machine -- that is, one that could turn silicon into hair -- we'd quit this whole blogging thing in a second.
British robots to help treat baldness
A British firm has just secured government funding from the "Technology Programme" to build a robotic system aiming to speed up the process of multiplying hair cells to help treat baldness in males and alopecia for both genders. The firm, Intercytex, extracts hair follicles from the neck, multiplies the cells, and then reimplants them in bald spots three weeks later. The £1.85 million grant ($3.48 million) will be used to process various cell samples using robots in a "reliable, effcient" way.Read - Intercytex press releaseRead - BBCRead - Reuters
