Washington, Feb 10 : Practice makes perfect is an old truism. And now science is proving that those who practise tasks repeatedly, especially after mastering them, exert less energy, performing with greater ease and efficiency.

Whether you are an athlete, a musician or a stroke patient learning to walk again, practice may not only make you perfect, but also more efficient, says a new study from the University of Colorado Boulder.

London, Feb 10 : Parents could be putting their children at risk if they upload digital photos that are automatically "geotagged" by their camera, a study reveals.

Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media, including photographs. The tools are often built into camera and camera phones and either use the mobile networks or global positioning system (GPS) to pinpoint a given photo.

Sydney, Feb 10 : Physical activity can help offsprings undo the negative metabolic effects passed on to them by their obese mothers, a study reveals.

An overweight mother can powerfully impact the next generation, altering central appetite circuits in the brain and contributing to increased fat deposits and metabolic disease in their children.

Sydney, Feb 8 - The key to shedding pounds is cutting down on calories, not carbohydrates or proteins, especially among the overweight with type 2 diabetes, a study reveals.

London, Feb 8 - Men wishing to acquire a higher sex drive can benefit by exposing their body to the sun's rays, as a study by Austrian scientists has found sunshine increases level of male sex hormone testosterone.

According to the study at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, men with high blood vitamin D levels have significantly higher testosterone levels than men with less vitamin D, the Daily Express reported.

Washington, Feb 7 - In one year alone, over 4,500 children in the US were hospitalised due to child abuse, and 300 of them died of their injuries, a new study has said.

The report was prepared by researchers from the Yale School of Medicine, led by John Leventhal, professor of paediatrics and medical director of the Child Abuse and Child Abuse Prevention Programs at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital.

London, Feb 6 : Diabetes during pregnancy increases the risk of birth defects, such as congenital heart disease and spina bifida, by four-fold, researchers say.

National guidelines already recommend having good control over blood sugar levels before trying to conceive.

Mexico City, Feb 6 - A vaccine against heroin addiction that has been patented in Mexico will be ready for human use in around five years.

Health Secretary Salomon Chertorivski said laboratory experiments have been carried out on rats and "the next step is testing on humans".

New Delhi, Feb 6 - It's that time of the year when tension runs high, anxiety grips the minds of parents and students who are concerned about just one thing -- board exams! But help is just a call away as many helpline numbers are active to overcome exam stress.

Mexico City, Feb 6 - A total of 58 people have died of flu in Mexico so far this year. The deaths were caused by different strains of flu virus, the predominant one being swine flu.

As many as 2,815 alive patients have been confirmed to have the infection, the health secretariat said.

From Jan 1 to Feb 2, 93 percent of the deaths were caused by the AH1N1 swine flu, it said.

Of the current cases of infection, 90 percent have been due to the AH1N1 virus.

London, Feb 1 - Babies born to women who ate more fish during pregnancy scored higher in verbal intelligence and fine motor skill tests and also fared better socially.

The study, which presented these findings, was conducted under the auspices of the NUTRIMENTHE project (Effect of diet on offspring's cognitive development), coordinated by Cristina Campoy Folgoso, paediatrics professor at the University of Granada in Spain.

London, Jan 30 : Under stressful conditions, yeast cells become unstable, and readily rearrange their chromosomes to facilitate rapid adaptation, according to a new study.

This “panic” response drives them to quickly evolve resistance to drugs, the New Scientist reported.

London, Jan 30 : A charity has raised concerns that a generation of children are becoming living zombies from sleep deprivation due to computer game addiction.

Social workers at Wing South West say it has serious concerns over an increasing number of young computer gamers who are ‘stoned’ from sleep deprivation.

They said youngsters were in danger of losing empathy and the compassion of ‘genuine relationships’.

Melbourne, Jan 30 : In a startling medical breakthrough, scientists in Scotland have created brain tissue from skin samples of patients who are suffering from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression.

The latest achievement was made by researchers at Edinburgh’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine.

London, Jan 30 : People who struggle to sleep are six times more likely to develop diabetes and heart disease, according to a new research.

It found that the symptoms of diabetes developed after just three days of disrupted sleep, the Daily Mail reported.

The latest findings could help to explain previous research that has shown night shift workers are prone to type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Washington, Jan 30 : Researchers have identified thirty one regions of the genome that were associated with levels of circulating metabolites, i. e., small molecules that take part in various chemical reactions of the human body.

London, Jan 28 : Scientists have discovered how pre-menstrual tension, which affects an estimated 85 to 97 per cent of women of reproductive age, is caused.

The finding could lead to improved treatments for the often-agonising monthly condition.

Imbalances in levels of the female sex hormone have long been linked to the monthly blues.

London, Jan 28 : How good scratching an itch feels is related to where it is itching, an expert says.

Gil Yosipovitch, M. D., Ph. D., professor of dermatology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and a world-renowned itch expert, says all itches are not equal.

Melbourne, Jan 27 : An Australian company is developing a hair test to screen for breast cancer, and it says that the test could become a viable alternative to mammography.

SBC Research is conducting an 80-patient trial to test its hypothesis that women with breast cancer have higher levels of phospholipids in their bloodstream that can be detected in their hair.

Washington, Jan 27 : Asian women who consumed an average two cups of coffee daily had elevated estrogen levels as compared to those who consumed less.

However, Caucasian women who consumed an equivalent amount of caffeine a day had slightly lower estrogen levels than women who consumed less. Estrogen is the main sex hormone in women, essential for the menstruation and reproduction.

New Delhi, Jan 27 : As a two-year-old abandoned baby suffering from multiple injuries battled for life at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Friday, police were still trying to find her parents.

Baby girl Falak, who was admitted to AIIMS Jan 18, is showing signs of recovery, but her chances of survival are only 50 percent, say the doctors.

London, Jan 26 : Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding the causes of Alzheimer's disease, which could potentially lead to the development of new drugs to treat it.

London, Jan 25 : Scientists have found no clear evidence that pomegranate seed oil is effective at reducing menopause symptoms.

It was thought that because it is rich in plant compounds called phytoestrogens, these would mimic estrogen in the body.

Tokyo, Jan 25 - Even though the Japanese have the world's highest life expectancy, smoking and high blood pressure (BP) still remain the biggest health hazards, reveals a study.

An analytical study, led by Nayu Ikeda from the University of Tokyo, found that in 2007, tobacco smoking and high BP among adults aged 30 years and above accounted for 129,000 and 104,000 deaths respectively in Japan.

London, Jan 25 - For many people, the debate whether men or women handle pain better may remain unresolved, but scientists now say that females endure more pain.

Researchers have discovered that across a range of conditions from arthritis to digestive problems, women patients typically experience greater discomfort than men, the Daily Mail reported.