An interesting line-up this week includes food that you breathe instead of eat, a tiny poisonous frog that can make your pain evaporate, and - perhaps the best news of all - a chocolate bar that prevents wrinkles! Excellent!
All of that, and more, in this week’s edition of News For Nerds! Read on…
It’s called the Phantasmal poison frog, and it would be a bad, bad mistake to disrespect the little guy because of his size. Found on the slopes of the Andes mountains in South America, the frogs never grow larger than about a centimeter, but they apparently have a Napoleon complex. Scientists tell us that they’re one of the most deadly amphibians on the planet, with a toxin that can kill by contact.
Why are they in the news, you might ask? Well, an aquarium in England has successfully bred the little guys in captivity, that’s why. And no, they’re not trying to play with fire and get someone killed; instead they’re hoping that they can develop an extract from the frogs’ skin to help fight pain in humans.
Turns out that the Phantasmal’s toxic skin secretes a chemical that can block pain up to 200 times more effectively than morphine. Not only that, but the guys in the lab coats say that the nasty little dude’s toxic juice can fight pain without the serious side effects we get from other medicines.
Just don’t pet them, okay?
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We love cool science videos here at Club Galahad, which is why we’re including this. One of the world’s largest airships (sometimes called a blimp) is preparing for its maiden voyage. It’s called the Bullet 580, and 235 feet long and 65 feet in diameter. When ready, it will be able to carry up to a ton in payload at an altitude of 20,000 feet, cruising along at 80 mph. The skin of the ship is only about one-sixteenth of an inch thick…and yet is stronger than steel.
NASA is already on board with some science experiments in mind. The Bullet can be flown using an actual crew, or piloted by remote control.
Before you worry about another catastrophe like the Hindenburg in 1937, you should know that the Bullet 580 will not be filled with hydrogen (the flammable gas that contributed to the Hindenburg’s fireball), but rather helium. Plus, it will have a Kevlar coating to protect it as well.
Here’s the cool part: This will take you to a time-lapse video where the initial 6-hour job of inflating the airship is condensed down to 2 minutes.
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Have you ever eaten a chocolate bar so quickly that you felt as if you’d almost inhaled it? Well, check it out: Le Whif is coming your way with the world’s first breathable food. Sniff that chocolate bar without absorbing any calories!
It’s a tube, about the shape of a lipstick container, and holds tiny little milligrams of food particles. The inhalers currently offer you chocolate, raspberry chocolate, mint chocolate (are we seeing a pattern here?) and a coffee flavor, too, which packs an espresso-sized dose of caffeine.
The guy behind this device does biomedical engineering at Harvard, and he says the idea is not to replace food, but rather to give you a chance to sample a few things before you actually order.
That will really look dignified in the restaurant, won’t it?
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There seems to be one rule regarding health stories: What we think is GOOD for us one day might have a completely different story the next day. One example is anti-bacterial soap.
The good people at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health decided to find out just how good these “super soaps” are for us. Well, it turns out that regular hand soap is just as effective. The only exception they could find involved volunteers who scrubbed with the anti-bacterial stuff for at least 30 seconds, and did this 18 times a day. Yes, 18!
Some researchers wonder if the rise of anti-bacterial soaps are even encouraging the nasty little bugs to evolve into drug-resistant critters, but this test could find no direct link. Whew, at least there’s SOME good news (so far).
Then there’s the study by the Environmental Working Group which claims that we’re being fooled by many of the companies who put out sunscreen products. Apparently the sun-protection banners are a bit misleading. The EWG tested 500 different sunscreen products and only 8% passed the group’s tough guidelines. One of the crimes: Over-rating their SPF.
And, to really make you groan, some of the products that have added vitamin A to the mix (supposedly to slow skin aging) are actually ACCELERATING skin damage and increasing the skin to the risk of cancer. Hoo boy.
Instead, stay inside and read a good book. I can think of one or two that you’d like… 
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Okay, enough doom and gloom. Let’s close with the good stuff!
A Swiss chocolate maker says they have come up with a chocolate bar that might fight wrinkles and slow the aging process! The study claims that a half-ounce of chocolate each day may help to prevent wrinkles by increasing the skin’s elasticity, as well as improving hydration.
We’ve already heard about the terrific benefits of dark chocolate and its antioxidants. Now it seems that the company has discovered a process that preserves the flavanols inside cocoa beans, which ultimately could help your blood flow and improve your skin.
I’m thinking that if HALF an ounce does that much good, why not double your pleasure and double your fun?!
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There you go! Tell your friends about News For Nerds, as well as the rest of the Club Galahad site. And never stop gettin’ your nerd on!