ECSTASY- ALTERED - PROBABLE NEW DRUG FOR LEUKAEMIA!!!

Altering the chemistry of recreational drug ‘ecstasy’ could help kill certain types of blood cancers, suggests new research.

Ecstasy or Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) was discovered in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a ‘party drug’ because it could induce euphoria.

Matthew Piggott, associate professor at the University of Western Australia, says while researching the use of MDMA in Parkinson’s disease, they came across a paper suggesting that it may also be potent against blood cancer.

So they collaborated with John Gordon, professor at the University of Birmingham, to increase the toxicity of the drug toward blood cancer cell lines, according to a Western Australia statement.

Now, Piggott says MDMA’s structure can be “tinkered with” to create MDMA analogues (compounds structurally similar to MDMA) that could have improved therapeutic properties.

“Professor Gordon found MDMA to be weakly toxic to certain types of blood cancer cell lines, so he presented the idea of ‘redesigning the designer drug,’” he says.

“We contacted him and he was very keen to test our analogues — initially created for Parkinson’s disease treatment research — on his cell lines.

“Initially six compounds were screened but most were not very active. However, there was one that was 10 times more potent, and this became the basis for the next batch of analogues,” says Piggott.

“We are currently at the process of making analogues of the best ‘lead’ compound we have discovered so far — which is 100—fold more potent.”

Piggott says the compounds are being evaluated using in vitro cell lines, but the next step would be testing them in an animal model of blood cancer.

FRUIT PILL THAT PREVENTS GREY HAIR !!!

Grey hair could soon be a passe, thanks to scientists who claim to have created a pill from a fruit extract...

After more than a decade of trials, the daily drug -- developed by a team at global cosmetics giant L’Oreal -- is expected to go on sale within four years, a newspaper reported.

L’Oreal hopes it will lead it to victory in the race for the world’s eight billion pounds hair colour market, in which both sexes reach for bottles of dye.

Bruno Bernard, head of hair biology at the company, said: “We think it will have a market among men as well as women. We intend people to take it in the same way as a dietary supplement. It won’t be expensive.”

The drug uses a compound from an unidentified fruit that mimics tyrosinase-related protein 2, an enzyme that protects pigmentation production; it aims to prevent a process called oxidative stress, when hair cells succumb to harmful anti-oxidants and go grey, say the scientists.

Bernard added: “Ideally you would take it for your whole life but realistically we would encourage people to start using it before their hair goes grey because we don’t think it can reverse the process once it has started.”

Hundreds of volunteers have been helping to test the safety of the pill. But, the team says it will only be able to demonstrate its true effectiveness after it has been on the market for at least a decade.

The formula is expected to be unveiled at a science conference in May 2013 but it is already sparking interest among experts. 

JOKES !!

Old Dr. Carver still made house calls. One afternoon he was called to the Tuttle house. Mrs. Tuttle was in terrible pain. The doctor came out of the bedroom a minute after he'd gone in and asked Mr. Tuttle, "Do you have a hammer?" A puzzled Mr. Tuttle went to the garage, and returned with a hammer. The doctor thanked him and went back into the bedroom. A moment later, he came out and asked, "Do you have a chisel?" Mr. Tuttle complied with the request. In the next ten minutes, Dr. Carver asked for and received a pair of pliers a screwdriver and a hacksaw. The last request got to Mr. Tuttle. He asked, "What are you doing to my wife?" "Not a thing," replied old doc Carver. "I can't get my instrument bag open."

Plan to fortify milk, oil with vitamin D under consideration!!!!

The National Institute of Nutrition is considering a proposal to fortify milk and oil with vitamin D, its Director B. Sesisekaran said here on Monday.

Dr. Sesisekaran was concerned about the huge burden of Vitamin D deficiency in the country, despite the abundance of sunshine in most parts. It would be easy to fortify substances rich in fat, oil and milk, with Vitamin D so that an extra dose of the vitamin can be consumed easily.

Earlier, vanaspati used to be fortified with Vitamin D, but its consumption had dropped over the years. He also pointed out that the flip side of it was that there was very little milk consumption in rural areas; as far as oil goes, the recommendation is to lower the quantity of oil consumed.

Speaking at a national conference on ‘Nutrition in Metabolic Disorders,' organised jointly by Women's Christian College and Nestle Nutrition Institute, Dr. Sesisekaran said there was a powerful interplay between nutrition and metabolic alterations that lead to metabolic disorders.

Metabolic disorders may be inborn or inherited and include disorders such as diabetes, cardio vascular disease, thyroid dysfunction and metabolic bone diseases. A large proportion of metabolic disorders go largely undetected due to lack of awareness.

D. Prabhakaran, Executive Director, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Initiative for Cardiovascular Health Research in the Developing Countries, New Delhi, said unlike in developed countries, endocrine and metabolic disorders were predominantly caused by environmental factors in India. Metabolic disorders have been found to have a disproportionately high prevalence in the Indian population.

Finding a proper diet based on healthy foods is, hence, imperative, he added. 

JOKES !!

An elderly man complains to his wife about feeling a little worse for wear and after a lot of persuasion agrees to go and see a doctor. The doctor checks him out and asks the man to return a few days later for the results. The doctor turns to the patient and says, "I have some good news and some bad news for you. The bad news is that you have terminal cancer, polio and have tested HIV+. But the good news is you also have Alzheimers disease so in about 10 seconds you'll have completely forgotten about it." "Ooh good" said the patient. "What was the bad news then?"

TEENAGERS WITH SLEEP DEPRIVATION - MAY RISK PERMANENT BRAIN DAMAGE!!!!

A new study has claimed sleep deficiency could affect their brains later in life.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have carried out the study and found that sleep-deprived teenagers are at risk of long-term damage to wiring of their brains, the ’Daily Mail’ reported.

They found that short-term sleep restriction prevents the balanced growth and depletion of brain synapses, which are the connections between nerve cells where communication occurs.

“One possible implication of our study is that if you lose too much sleep during adolescence, especially chronically, there may be lasting consequences in terms of the wiring of the brain,” said lead researcher Dr Chiara Cirelli.

Mental illnesses such as schizophrenia tend to start during adolescence but the exact reasons remain unclear, say the researchers.

“Adolescence is a sensitive period of development during which the brain changes dramatically. There is a massive remodelling of nerve circuits, with many new synapses formed and then eliminated,” she said.

For their study, the researchers analysed the brains of mice. They wanted to see how alterations to the sleep-wake cycle affected the anatomy of the developing adolescent brain in the animals.

Using a two-photon microscope, the researchers indirectly followed the growth and retraction of synapses by counting dendritic spines, the elongated structures that contain synapses and thus allow brain cells to receive impulses from other brain cells.

They compared adolescent mice that for eight to 10 hours were spontaneously awake, allowed to sleep or forced to stay awake. The live images showed that being asleep or awake made a difference in the dynamic adolescent mouse brain - the overall density of dendritic spines fell during sleep and rose during spontaneous or forced wakefulness.

“These results using acute manipulations of just eight to 10 hours show that the time spent asleep or awake affects how many synapses are being formed or removed in the adolescent brain,” Prof Cirelli said.

She added: “The important next question is what happens with chronic sleep restriction, a condition that many adolescents are often experiencing. It could be that the changes are benign, temporary and reversible or there could be lasting consequences for brain maturation and functioning.”  

Cell Phone use can cause brain cancer : WHO says

May 31, 2011 — The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer. According to the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), radiofrequency electromagnetic fields have been classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans (group 2B) on the basis of an increased risk for glioma that some studies have associated with the use of wireless phones.

Tai Chi Beats Back Depression in the Elderly, Study Shows

 The numbers are, well, depressing: More than 2 million people age 65 and older suffer from depression, including 50 percent of those living in nursing homes. The suicide rate among white men over 85 is the highest in the country -- six times the national rate.

And we're not getting any younger. In the next 35 years, the number of Americans over 65 will double and the number of those over 85 will triple.

So the question becomes, how to help elderly depressed individuals?

Researchers at UCLA turned to a gentle, Westernized version of tai chi chih, a 2,000-year-old Chinese martial art. When they combined a weekly tai chi exercise class with a standard depression treatment for a group of depressed elderly adults, they found greater improvement in the level of depression -- along with improved quality of life, better memory and cognition, and more overall energy -- than among a different group in which the standard treatment was paired with a weekly health education class.

The results of the study appear in the current online edition of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

"This is the first study to demonstrate the benefits of tai chi in the management of late-life depression, and we were encouraged by the results," said first author Dr. Helen Lavretsky, a UCLA professor-in-residence of psychiatry. "We know that nearly two-thirds of elderly patients who seek treatment for their depression fail to achieve relief with a prescribed medication."

Excessive Swimming Causes Cancer !!!!

Excessive swimming or taking long baths in chlorinated water may increasethe riskof developing bladder cancer , a new study has claimed .

A team of Spanish scientists found that cancer-causing chemicals called trihalomethanes (THM), which are created as a byproduct of chlorinating water , can be absorbed through the skin . And people who regularly swim in chlorinated pools or take lots of showers or long baths are actually absorbing too much THM, putting themselves at risk of developing cancer , the Daily Mail reported .

For their study , the researchers examined 1,270 people and found those, who drank more bottled water to avoid the health risks posed by drinking tap water , actually lose the beneficial effects by swimming more and taking more showers . "People with more money and more education may think that they're reducing their risk of exposure to water contaminants by drinking bottledwater ," saidGemma Castaqo-Vinyals from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Castilla La Mancha , Spain .

"However , despite being apparently cleaner andtaking more exercise , a result of taking more frequent and longer baths , and using swimming pools more often — they are actually increasing their risk of THM exposure ."

However Castaqo-Vinyals added that the additional risk of developing bladder cancer through the water contaminants was "small" . The new findings were reported in the online journal BioMed Central .

While it is true that chlorine water can be used to make water safe because it kills bacteria , it can also be dangerous . Water treatment plants use chlorine to kill bacteria , as well as algae that can clog up the pipes . However , it is used not because it is the most effectivesolution ,butbecauseitis the cheapest . It is also widely used by industry as a bleaching agent , which means that there is bleach in the water that comes out of the tap to be drunk or used in swimming pools . And chlorinated water does not have to be drunk in order to enter the body . It can be readily absorbedby theskin while swimming . Although chlorine is great for killing bacteria , it cannot differentiate between good bacteria and bad ones .

JOKE !!!!

A motorcycle patrolman was rushed to the hospital with an inflamed appendix. The doctors operated and advised him that all was well. However, the patrolman kept feeling something pulling at the hairs on his chest. Worried that it might be a second surgery the doctors hadn't told him about, he finally got enough energy to pull his hospital gown down enough so he could look at what was making him so uncomfortable.

Taped firmly across his hairy chest were three wide strips of adhesive tape, the kind that doesn't come off easily. Written in large black letters was the sentence.


"Get well quick..... from the nurse you gave a ticket to last week."

ZINC FOR COLD !!!!

According to a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library, zinc supplements reduce the severity and duration of illness caused by the common cold.

The findings could help reduce the amount of time lost from work and school due to colds.

The common cold places a heavy burden on society, accounting for approximately 40 per cent of time taken off work and millions of days of school missed by children each year.

The idea that zinc might be effective against the common cold came from a study carried out in 1984, which showed that zinc lozenges could reduce how long symptoms lasted. Since then, trials have produced conflicting results and although several biological explanations for the effect have been proposed, none have been confirmed.

The review updates a previous Cochrane Systematic Review, carried out in 1999, with data from several new trials. In total, data from 15 trials, involving 1,360 people, were included.

According to the results, zinc syrup, lozenges or tablets taken within a day of the onset of cold symptoms reduce the severity and length of illness.

At seven days, more of the patients who took zinc had cleared their symptoms compared with those who took placebos. Children who took zinc syrup or lozenges for five months or longer caught fewer colds and took less time off school. Zinc also reduced antibiotic use in children, which is important because overuse has implications for antibiotic resistance.

“This review strengthens the evidence for zinc as a treatment for the common cold,” said lead researcher Meenu Singh of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India.

“However, at the moment, it is still difficult to make a general recommendation, because we do not know very much about the optimum dose, formulation or length of treatment.”

Further research should focus on the benefits of zinc in defined populations, the review suggests. “Our review only looked at zinc supplementation in healthy people,” said Singh.

“But it would be interesting to find out whether zinc supplementation could help asthmatics, whose asthma symptoms tend to get worse when they catch a cold.”

Extra Inches Around the Waist Increase Death Risk

Older adults who are carrying extra inches around the waist are at an increased risk of dying compared to people with normal waist size, according to a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Men and women with the biggest waist circumference had twice the risk of dying over a ten-year period compared with people with the smallest tummies. Surprisingly, a bigger waist is associated with a greater risk of death even for people whose weight is considered normal when measured by body mass index (BMI).

It’s estimated that more than half of older men and more than 70% of older women have a waist size that is bigger than recommended. In fact, the average waist line in the U.S. has been increasing by about one inch per decade since the 1960s. Other research has linked waist size to asthma, breast cancer, heart disease, and even dementia. One explanation for this may be that belly fat secretes proteins and hormones that contribute to inflammation.

For people who are looking for ways to trim their waist lines, eating fewer calories and increasing physical activity are the keys to getting rid of belly fat.
Reference: Arch Intern Med 2010; 170(15): 1293-1301

Diet Soda May Prevent Some Kidney Stones

Kidney stones from when the urine contains more crystal-forming substances, such as calcium, uric acid, and oxalate, than the body can dilute with the available fluid. Most kidney stones contain a combination of calcium and oxalate. According to new research published in the June issue of the Journal of Urology, drinking diet soda may present the most common type of kidney stones.




Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and their colleagues conducted a study to determine whether any commercially available drinks could help to prevent kidney stones. They found that diet versions of citrus-flavored sodas contain relatively high amounts of citrate, a compound which is known to inhibit the formation of calcium oxalate kidney stones. Some people are at a higher risk for kidney stones because their urine contains low levels of citrate, so these sodas might serve as a form of citrate supplementation Although dark colas have little or no citrate, citrus-flavored sodas such as Diet Sunkist Orange, Diet 7Up, Sprite Zero, Diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Sierra Mist Free, Diet Orange Crush, Fresca, and Diet Mountain Dew, contain moderate amounts of citrate.

Potassium citrate supplements have long been used as a treatment for preventing calcium oxalate kidney stones. Based on this new research, citrus-flavored sodas might be useful in preventing kidney stones among people with low urinary levels of citrate, as well. However, further research is needed to determine whether drinking these sodas actually prevents formation of kidney stones, so it is still too early to advise those who suffer from kidney stones to drink these sodas as a form of preventive treatment.

Source:

Journal of Urology. 2010; 183(6): 2419-2423.

DENGUE VACCINE...

Thai scientists have successfully produced the world's first dengue hemorrhagic fever vaccine and will let the private sector improve it for the effective treatment of patients.

The Thailand Ministry of Science and Technology has introduced the world's first live attenuated dengue hemorrhagic fever vaccine developed by Thailand researchers.

Thai Science and Technology Minister Virachai Virameteekul said that the number of dengue hemorrhagic fever patients in Thailand has risen, exceeding 100,000 last year and adding some 1,200 cases in January 2011.

Dr Suthee Yoksarn, a lecturer of Mahidol University, together with his team and Chiang Mai University have jointly developed four stereotypes of the live attenuated vaccine.

This was achieved by combining attenuated DNA with a protein structure that stimulates immunity against the dengue hemorrhagic fever — caused by the present strain of the dengue virus.

The newly developed vaccine is expected to better protect people from the dengue hemorrhagic fever.

The Real Scorpion King -An Indian who revolutionized the treatment for Scorpion Sting

Scorpion stings are a major public health problem in many  tropical countries, especially Sahelian Africa, South India, the Middle East, Mexico, and South Latin America. The estimated annual number of scorpion stings is 1.2 million ( there could be million more unrecorded data ) .

Scorpion Sting leads to sudden heart failure and accumulation of fluids in the lungs which leads to death . The traditional treatment used to be Lytic cocktail ( Nothing to do with the cocktail that one drinks in the bar ! ) Lytic cocktail consists of drugs like pethidine , chlorpromazine , promethazine .

The traditional treatment did cost alot of patient"s life . One study done in Western India highlight's this issue . About 30 % of patients eventually died (i.e almost 1 out of 3 patients died !! ) . This was a major concern among paediatricians , emergency physicians ,  general physicians and offcourse for the parents ( children being the most common victims ) !! .

Dr.H.S.Bawasker , revolutionized the treatment for scorpion sting in 1999. With his discovery he brought down the death rate from 30 % to less than 1 % .

He discovered that the use of tablet Prazosin did the magic . Prazosin counteracted the heart failure and the accumulation of fluids in lungs thereby saving the victim . Hats off to him  . He soon shot to fame with his discovery among doctors around the world .  His article was published in all the prestigious medical journals . British medical journal appreciated his article by publishing in the front cover !!

Click here to read the article

WILMA RUDOLPH- AN INSPIRATION TO ALL!!!

When Wilma Rudolph was four years old, she had a disease called polio. To make matters worse, her family was poor and could not afford good medical care. She was from a large family. She was the 20th child of 22 children. Her father was a railroad porter and her mother was a maid.

Her mother decided she would do everything she could to help Wilma to walk again. The doctors had said she would not be able to walk. She took her every week on a long bus trip to a hospital to receive therapy. It didn't help, but the doctors said she needed to give Wilma a massage every day by rubbing her legs. She taught the brothers and sisters how to do it, and they also rubbed her legs four times a day.

By the time she was 8, she could walk with a leg brace. After that, she used a high-topped shoe to support her foot. She played basketball with her brothers every day.

Three years later, her mother came home to find her playing basketball by herself bare-footed. She didn't even have to use the special shoe.

A track coach encouraged her to start running. She ran so well that during her senior year in high school, she qualified for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. She won a bronze medal in the women's 400-meter relay.

In 1959, she qualified for the 1960 Olympic Games * in Rome by setting a world's record in the 200-meter race. At the Olympics that year she won two gold medals; one for the 100-meter race and one for the 200-meter race.

Then she sprained her ankle, but she ignored the pain and helped her team to win another gold medal for the 400-meter relay! In the picture above you see the three gold medals she won at the Rome Olympics.

She retired from running when she was 22 years old, but she went on to coach women's track teams and encourage young people.

Wilma thought God had a greater purpose for her than to win three gold medals. She started the Wilma Rudolph Foundation to help children learn about discipline and hard work.

She died of brain cancer in 1994. Even though she is no longer alive, her influence still lives on in the lives of many young people who look up to her.

BOOSTING IMMUNITY - KEY TO HIV CURE !!!

Scientists in Australia have shown that boosting the immune system in mice can rid them of HIV-like infection.

The research team, led by Dr Marc Pellegrini from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, showed that a cell signaling hormone called interleukin-7 (IL-7) reinvigorates the immune response to chronic viral infection, allowing the host to completely clear virus.

Pellegrini said the finding could lead to a cure for chronic viral infections such as HIV, hepatitis B and C, and bacterial infections such as tuberculosis, which are significant economic and global health burdens.

The team investigated the role of IL-7, a naturally-occurring immune hormone, in a mouse model of HIV infection. IL-7 is a cytokine (cell signalling hormone) that plays a critical role in immune system development and maintenance.

"We found that IL-7 boosted the immune response in a pretty profound fashion, such that animals were able to gradually clear the virus without too much collateral tissue damage," Pellegrini said.

Further investigations revealed that, at the molecular level, IL-7 switched off a gene called SOCS-3.

"In an overwhelming infection, SOCS-3 becomes highly activated and suppresses the immune response, probably as a natural precaution to prevent 'out-of-control' responses that cause collateral damage to body tissue," Pellegrini said.
"In the case of these overwhelming infections, the immune system effectively slams on the brakes too early, and the infection persists," Pellegrini added.

Preston, who worked on the SOCS-3 studies, said that switching off the SOCS-3 gene boosted the immune system and helped the animals to completely eliminate the infection.

Ben stiller and BPD !!!!

Bipolar disorder affects one out of every 83 individuals in the United States. Considered a neurological mood disorder, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are often debilitating and can often lead to an impairment in daily living activities, affect familial relationships and job performance and even impair the bipolar sufferer to such an extent that physical health is affected. However, in some cases of bipolar disorder, the outcome may be positive and lead to such a degree of creativity so as to allow the individual to make a significant impact on the world around them. Bipolar disorder crosses all genders, races, creeds and colors with examples of individuals who made an impact on society through the exhibition of their bipolar symptoms. One such well known actor is Ben Stiller  Born in 1965, son of the famous comic duo of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, is best known for his role in the hit films "There's Something About Mary","Meet the Fockers" and "Along Came Polly". ,. In August of 2001 he was quoted by a Hollywood.com writer as saying to GQ, "I have not been an easygoing guy. I think it's called bipolar manic depression. I've got a rich history of that in my family. I'm not proud of the fact that I lost my temper. Sometimes you just [expletive] up." The quote resulted from incidents occurring on the set of Zoolander, a movie he co-wrote, starred in and directed.

Both Ben Stiller's parents have spoken about their therapy for depression, though neither mentioned manic-depression in sources found. However, possible signs of bipolar disorder do exist in his mother's history: Anne Meara's mother committed suicide when Anne was 11, and Meara also admits to problem drinking in the past. She entered therapy in about 1989, and continued at least until 1995.

Stiller's famous parents helped him get a start in show business. He began acting at 10 but had few film and TV roles until the late 1980s. In 1993 his short-lived television series, The Ben Stiller Show, won an Emmy Award for outstanding writing in a variety or music program in spite of having run for only 12 episodes before being cancelled.
His other acting, directing and writing credits are too numerous to mention. In 2000 he married actress Christine Taylor; they have a daughter, Ella Olivia, who was born in August of 2002.



 

Folic acid, aspirin n heart attack....

Taking folic acid, a B vitamin, lowers homocysteine in the blood which, epidemiological evidence indicates, should lower the risk of heart attack, but clinical trials of folic acid have not shown the expected benefit.... WHY???

This perplexing medical paradox now has an explanation according to research undertaken at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

The explanation is surprisingly simple; lowering homocysteine prevents platelets sticking, which stops blood clots...something aspirin also does, so if people in the trials were already taking aspirin there would be no extra benefit in lowering homocysteine with folic acid. Aspirin was in fact widely used by participants in the trials because they were mainly conducted in patients who had already had a heart attack or other cardiovascular diseases.

Research led by Dr David Wald showed that there was a difference in the reduction in heart disease events between the five trials with the lowest aspirin use (60 per cent of the participants took aspirin) and the five trials with the highest use (91 per cent took aspirin). The observed risk reduction was six per cent but it would have been 15 per cent if no one had been taking aspirin.

"The explanation has important implications," said Dr David Wald, the lead author of the paper. "The negative clinical trial evidence should not close the door on folic acid - folic acid may still be of benefit in people who have not had a heart attack because they will generally not be taking aspirin".

THE EYES SAY IT ALL !!!

A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that a face has to be quite similar to a human face in order to appear alive, and that the cues are mainly in the eyes.

The face of a doll is clearly not human; the face of a human clearly is. Telling the difference allows us to pay attention to faces that belong to living things, which are capable of interacting with us. But where is the line at which a face appears to be alive?

Several movies have tried and failed to generate lifelike animations of humans. For example, the lifeless faces in Polar Express made people uncomfortable because they tried to emulate life but didn't get it quite right.

“There's something fundamentally important about seeing a face and knowing that the lights are on and someone is home,” says Thalia Wheatley of Dartmouth College, who cowrote the study with graduate student Christine Looser. Humans can see faces in anything — the moon, a piece of toast, two dots and a line for a nose — but we are much more discriminating when it comes to deciding what is alive and what is not.

Wheatley and Looser set out to pin down the point at which a face starts to look alive. Looser drove around New Hampshire visiting toy stores and taking pictures of dolls' faces. Looser then paired each doll face with a similar-looking human face and used morphing software to blend the two. This made a whole continuum of intermediate pictures that were part human, part doll.

Volunteers looked at each picture and decided which were human and which were dolls. Looser and Wheatley found that the tipping point, where people determined the faces to be alive, was about two-thirds of the way along the continuum, closer to the human side than to the doll side. Another experiment found that the eyes were the most important feature for determining life, according to an Association for Psychological Science press release.

The results suggest that people scrutinize faces, particularly the eyes, for evidence that a face is alive