That's a wrap

Tape in one form or another has been used in both athletic performance and rehabilitation for many years. The popularity of Kinesio taping is relatively recent and although the literature suggests that it was formally introduced by a forward thinking Chiropractor, ‘Kenzo Kase’ in the 1970’s it wasn’t until high profile athletes like beech volleyball exponent Kerry Walsh in the 2008 Beijing Olympics used it in front of the worlds media that interest in this modality really took off. Since then it has really gathered steam with ever self respecting high profile athlete to weekend warrior have considered or used it at some point. Not that there is anything wrong with the other type of tapes, its simply understanding what’s best for the job rather than what looks more aesthetically pleasing

Health Expert Joins in Debate on Skinny Jeans

The recent report on how ‘skinny jeans’ can lead to ‘compartment syndrome’ is unusual and of course we don’t know the other factors that may have contributed to this case. In reality, superficial nerve compression, mild circulatory occlusion, impedance of digestinal flow and skin irritation are far more likely symptoms. Skinny jeans or just tight fitting jeans worn for prolonged periods which are not designed to change circumference can lead to real health risks which many people might not realise and shrug off as unimportant

Sensitivity of Black Phosphorus to O2 and Atmosphere Measured by Macroscopic Four-Point Probe

Scientific interest in black phosphorus, a two-dimensional semiconducting allotrope of phosphorus, has increased in the last few years, since it was shown in 2014 to have very good properties for fieldeffect transistors. Unfortunately, practical use of the material is delayed because of its tendency to degrade into a phosphoric oxide when left in air. In this thesis I present the effects of atmospheric air and pure oxygen on the transport properties of bulk black phosphorus with and without light exposure. For continuous measurements carried out by millimeter-scale four-point probe, we see no change in the resistance of bulk samples exposed to air and oxygen, with or without light. I argue that even though we see an intensity shift in the Raman spectroscopy data, indicating oxidation of the black phosphorus samples, our measured resistances remain constant because the surface layers are nearly negligible in four-point measurements of bulk crystals. I then show an estimation for the upper bound of the number of layers affected by degradation as probed by this method, with a maximum of 900 out of 660,000 total probed layers, or about 0.1%

Immigration statistics: is the tanker turning around?

At last the Home Office has ‘good news’ to report on lower net migration figures. Don Flynn asks whether this is a measure of successful policies, or just a measure of how deep the economic mire we are all in

Ambiguous Bodies, Biopower and the Ideologies of Science Fiction

Contemporary Hollywood film narrates the fear of monstrous science; attending to the modulations of medicine, capital and the body. The filmic body is employed to illustrate the power of the new biotechnologies to create and sustain life and the new sets of social relations which are a consequence of the marriage of capital and medicine. In the Hollywood film, persons who do not fit the ideal healthy persona have a moral duty to pursue repair and transformation. Constructed as inherently lacking, the unhealthy body becomes a repository for social anxieties about control and vulnerability, vis-à-vis the enormous and exponentially expanding science and technology fields. Hierarchies of embodiment are played out on the Big Screen as imperfect bodies are excluded from public life, power and status and urged to strive for “optimization”. Late modern societies present the possibility of new technologies which have the potential to radicalize bodies. However, these potential modulations are ultimately derived from a set of ideologies around the body and the power of the individual to enact an individualized solution. Contemporary narratives circulate around ownership of capital and the price of “repair.” This marriage of science and capital in popular narratives may be indicative of concerns for our future, as the power to make and repair life seems to rest increasingly in the hands of an elite