Washington, Mar 26 : Catheter technique is less invasive and risky than traditional brain surgery that involves cutting a large opening in the skull, according to new generation of neuroscientists.

Neuroscientists these days are increasingly using catheter technique to repair aneurysms, open clogged arteries, extract blood clots, and repair blood vessel malformations in the brain.

The technique is also used to opens blocked carotid arteries in the neck.

Washington, Mar 26 : Insomnia has previously been linked to poor health, including weight gain. Now, a new study has revealed why.

Sarosh Motivala, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues looked at two hormones that are primarily responsible for regulating the body''s energy balance, telling the body when it is hungry and when it is full.

They found that chronic insomnia disrupts one of these two hormones.

Washington, Mar 26 : Morbidly obese people are likely to remain sedentary for more than 99 percent of the day, leading to poor fitness and increased cardiovascular risk, according to a new study.

Morbidly obese individuals are those, whose body mass indexes are between 40.0 and 49.9.

On average, they walked less than 2,500 steps per day – far below healthy living guidelines of 10,000 steps per day.

Washington, Mar 26 : Researchers at Medical College of Georgia have found that circadian clocks that set the rhythmic motion of our bodies for wakeful days and sleepy nights can also set us up for vascular disease when broken.

During the study, they found that mice with mutated or missing ‘clock’ genes were prone to thick, inflexible blood vessels with narrow passageways, unhealthy changes typically associated with risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol.

London, Mar 26 : Sarcosine, an N-methyl derivative of the amino acid glycine, can distinguish between slow-growing prostate cancers and those likely to spread and become lethal, playing a major role in cancer detection, according to scientists at the University of Michigan.

Led by Dr. Arun Sreekumar, the study not only proves that sarcosine is a marker of cancer aggressiveness, but also that it is highly associated with tumour development as well.

For the study, the researchers looked at more than 1,000 small molecules in tissues associated with prostate cancer.

London, March 26 : DNA tests on Alfie Patten, the 13-year-old boy who was alleged to have become a father when he was just 12, show that he not the baby girl’s actual dad.

The 300-pound test was conducted on him after half a dozen boys claimed to have slept with schoolgirl pal Chantelle Stedman, 15.

Although Alfie was convinced he was the dad after a single night of unprotected sex with Chantelle, the DNA test proved the 4ft-tall pupil was not the father of her seven-week-old tot Maisie Roxanne.