Video Games Used in New Treatment That May Fix 'Lazy Eye' in Older Children

A new study conducted in an eye clinic in India found that correction of amblyopia, also called "lazy eye," can be achieved in many older children, if they stick to a regimen that includes playing video games along with standard amblyopia treatment. At the 115th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Dr. Somen Ghosh will report on the approaches that allowed about a third of his study participants, who were between 10 and 18 years old, to make significant vision gains.By the end of the one year study, nearly 30 percent of the 100 participants achieved significant vision gains. About 60 percent showed at least some improvement. Significant gains were more likely in children who participated in Groups 3 or 4 of the four treatment regimens. Treatment Group 3 completed...

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For Midwesterners, More Boxcars Mean Cleaner Air

Shifting a fraction of truck-borne freight onto trains would have an outsized impact on air quality in the Midwest, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Much of that impact boils down to simple efficiency, according to Erica Bickford, a graduate student in UW-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. For each ton they carry, long-distance trucks go about 150 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel. Trains can move a ton more than 400 miles per gallon. Shifting from road to rail 500 million tons of the freight passing through or to the Midwest would make a large dent in the carbon dioxide spilled into the air by the movement of goods. "There's a 31 percent decrease in carbon dioxide produced by freight shipping in the region, and that's straight from...

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British Butterfly Is Evolving to Respond to Climate Change

As global temperatures rise and climatic zones move polewards, species will need to find different environments to prevent extinction. New research, recently published in the journal Molecular Ecology, has revealed that climate change is causing certain species to move and adapt to a range of new habitats.The study, led by academics at the Universities of Bristol and Sheffield, aimed to understand the role of evolution in helping a species to successfully track ongoing climate change. With climate warming many species are moving further north in the UK, however, this may mean crossing a landscape with increasingly less of their preferred...

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