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What It Is: The “Hollywood EGF Facial”, otherwise known as the “Penis Facial” thanks to stars like Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, who both swear by it for radiant, glowy skin Who Tried It: Jillian Ruffo, Associate Beauty Editor Why We Tried It: Let me ask you this: Would you pass up the chance to have skin that looks as smooth as Blanchett or Bullock’s? (We didn’t think so.) Level of Difficulty: 2, if you factor in very mild pain and upkeep It all started back in March, when Blanchett opened up about her skincare secret: a special facial at...

The microbes make a compound that disrupts DNA formation in tumor cellsCertain skin-dwelling microbes may be anticancer superheroes, reining in uncontrolled cell growth. This surprise discovery could one day lead to drugs that treat or maybe even prevent skin cancer. The bacteria’s secret weapon is a chemical compound that stops DNA formation in its tracks. Mice slathered with one strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis that makes the compound developed fewer tumors after exposure to damaging ultraviolet radiation compared with those treated with a strain lacking the compound, researchers report online February 28 in Science Advances. The findings highlight “the potential of...

"The brave women of Fort Collins, who for years have been struggling against the cruel oppression of breasts imprisoned in clothing, were cheered when last February U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson agreed with them. The law, said the judge, is based on gender discrimination, and violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of “the equal protection of the laws.”

The boy had a rare, incurable skin disease called junctional epidermolysis bullosa, caused by genetic mutations. People with the disease lack critical proteins that attach the outer layer of the skin to the inner layer, resulting in fragile skin with almost constant blisters and open sores. To fix that, the doctors took a small piece of the boy’s skin from an area that was OK. In the lab, they added a normal version of his bad gene to his skin cells. They grew sheets of the boy’s skin, in much the same way skin grafts are grown for burn victims....

“Men are visually stimulated and unwanted stimulation should meet the basic definition of assault,” Shoesmith said, asserting that women who dress in a suggestive manner are “guilty of indecent visual assault on a man’s imagination, which does cause mental anguish and torment.” “When a man sees a naked or partially dressed woman, a chemical reaction happens in his brain,” he continued. “Neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin are released, giving him an involuntary surge of pleasure. Notice the word ‘involuntary’ … Men are in a state of constant sexual assault by women who either don’t understand the severity of what they...

The Skinny On Skin Tweet Mon, 2015-05-04 11:56 -- llancaster Collagen in its twisted, curly form with no skin stress. Image credit:  The Jacob School of Engineering at UC SD What makes skin so tough? Originally published:  May 4 2015 - 11:45am By:  Lisa Marie Potter, Contributor (Inside Science) -- Skin has to be flexible enough to jump, crawl, and kick with us. It also has to be resilient enough to withstand our falls, scrapes, and cuts. Scientists have marveled at skin's strength for years without knowing why it's so durable.Now, scientists have identified the mechanical properties that give skin...

The smart skin, which in photos appears to drape a prosthetic hand like a see-through glove, is made of a soft polymer known as elastomer, and contains pressure, temperature and humidity sensors and stretchable electrodes that stimulate the existing nerves. The researchers were able to demonstrate how the skin could sense pressure from catching a ball as well as the temperature of a cup of hot or cold water. It could tell wet from dry, and the skin's heat sensors responded when it touched a baby doll warmed to body temperature.

They want to look nice for the prom. They want to “put down a good base” for their upcoming Shore trip. They want to do it because it’s free on Tuesdays. While most nationwide teenagers appear to be heeding the warning to avoid tanning beds, nearly a third of white high-school girls still use indoor tanning devices.

Camouflaged clothing that mimics squid skin is being developed to hide soldiers from night vision equipment.Most camouflage materials used to disguise soldiers and vehicles during the day show up easily when viewed through night vision goggles and infrared cameras. This is because leaves and other foliage reflect infrared light in a different way to other fabrics and materials. However, scientists at the University of California Irvine have created a new “stealth” coating that can change the way it reflects infrared light on command. The films, which are around 100,000 times thinner than a human hair, can be switched on and...

Scientist Stumped by Actual Dinosaur Skin by Brian Thomas, M.S. * Being the first ever to examine a dinosaur fossil long buried in sedimentary rock is thrilling enough for a field researcher. But a team working in Canada found an exhilarating bonus on a hadrosaur fossil fragment—it had actual skin still attached. They found the duck-bill dinosaur fossil near Grand Prairie, Alberta. University of Regina physicist Mauricio Barbi operates state-of-the art synchrotron equipment that can detect and identify chemical signatures without destroying samples. He plans to use the technology to investigate the special fossil and its skin. He told Canadian...

The Washington Redskins will NEVER change their name, insists owner as he breaks silence on 'racist' term The owner of the Washington Redskins has insisted that the name of the team will never change despite growing controversy over its origins as a derogatory term for Native Americans. Daniel Snyder told USA Today : ‘We’ll never change the name. It’s simple. NEVER’. The team has been under fire from some critics who say the term is a racial slur because of its origins in bounties placed on the scalps of Native Americans by British settlers. The director of the National Museum...

In an April 26 forum at The McCain Institute for International Leadership, Vice President Joe Biden expressed his admiration for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in his own irreverent fashion. In a conversation with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Biden said that he would do whatever he could to help Graham win his reelection bid next year. The vice president said he would be happy to campaign for him or against him, promising Graham that he would “rip your skin off” if that would cement his reputation as an enemy of the Obama administration among South Carolina’s Republican primary voters.

Enlarge Image Cutting edge. After it was divided with a scalpel, a new polymer was able to heal itself, restoring most of its mechanical and electrical properties in 15 seconds. Credit: Benjamin Tee and Chao Wang Human skin is a special material: It needs to be flexible, so that it doesn't crack every time a user clenches his fist. It needs to be sensitive to stimuli like touch and pressure—which are measured as electrical signals, so it needs to conduct electricity. Crucially, if it's to survive the wear and tear it's put through every day, it needs to be...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is declining to renew the endorsement he gave Barack Obama four years ago, when he called Mr. Obama “a transformational figure.” ... Mr. Powell called presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney a viable candidate and said he’s “still listening” to Republican proposals. Mr. Powell, who served under President George W. Bush, also said, “I don’t want to throw my weight behind someone” at this point in the campaign.

Swedish cheap-and-chic fashion giant H&M on Thursday apologized over a swimwear campaign featuring a deeply tanned model that sparked outrage among cancer groups.

This is bullet-proof human skin - made from spider silk and goat milk. Yes, really. Jalila Essaidi is testing the limits of human endurance, and it starts by having to milk spider-goats. Spider goats are otherwise innocent-looking goats that have been genetically engineered to produce milk packed with the protein made in spider's silk. (There is no definitive proof that this also gives them a propensity to skitter up walls or hide out in your sock drawer, but I think it does.) Once the goats are milked, Essaidi spins the protein into fiber that is ten times stronger than steel,...

Robots will soon be able to feel heat or gentle touching on their surfaces. Researchers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen are now producing small hexagonal plates which when joined together form a sensitive skin for "machines with brains." This will not only help robots to better navigate in their environments, it will also enable robot self-perception for the first time. A single robotic arm has already been partially equipped with sensors and proves that the concept works.Our skin is a communicative wonder: The nerves convey temperature, pressure, shear forces and vibrations – from the finest breath of air to touch to...

A research breakthrough has proven that it is possible to reprogram mature cells from human skin directly into brain cells, without passing through the stem cell stage. The unexpectedly simple technique involves activating three genes in the skin cells; genes which are already known to be active in the formation of brain cells at the fetal stage. The new technique avoids many of the ethical dilemmas that stem cell research has faced. For the first time, a research group at Lund University in Sweden has succeeded in creating specific types of nerve cells from human skin. By reprogramming connective tissue...

I'll leave it as link-only because I'm unaware of their sharing policies.

Children, like adults, use three visible cues—race, gender and age—to arrange their social world. They prefer to make friends with kids similar to them on these traits. New research shows that verbal accents may be equally important in guiding youngsters’ social decisions—in fact, accents may be even more important than race. ...Going one step further, Kinzler and her team showed that an accent is more meaningful than race in signifying whether someone belongs in your social group. Replicating previous research, they found that under silent conditions children chose as potential friends children of the same race. Yet when the potential...