A new study reported in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science found that UV-blocking contact lenses can reduce or eliminate the effects of the sun’s harmful UV radiation.

French researchers said Tuesday they had found a promising new target in the fight against Alzheimer’s, the debilitating brain disease that causes irreversible memory loss and dementia.

Yes, there is a lot of buzz — maybe too much for some and not enough for others — about Apple’s expected tablet. The reasons it’s generating excitement vary, and it’s not even clear whether everyone will want or need one — despite its Apple nameplate.

As gadget geeks get ready for an expected Apple reveal of its tablet, lets look at several other overyhyped tech products.

(PhysOrg.com) — Biodiversity in freshwater systems is impacted as much or more by environmental change than tropical rain forests, according to University of Oklahoma Professor Caryn Vaughn, who serves as director of the Oklahoma Biological Survey. `When we think about species becoming extinct, we don`t necessarily think of the common species in freshwater systems, many of which are declining,` says Vaughn.

(PhysOrg.com) — Psychologists Charles Brainerd and Valerie Reyna are looking for ways to identify people at risk for developing cognitive impairment - early on, when chances for successful intervention are highest.

Yes, 2010 has only just started, but these devices are the ones we think everyone will be ga ga over this year and will rack up big sales by the next holiday season.

Science editor Alan Boyle’s Weblog: Skyjumper Felix Baumgartner says he’s gearing up to break the 50-year-old record for the highest parachute jump this year. And he’s not the only one.

Considered a dermatological nuisance that was long gone, skin irritations caused by toilet seats appear to be making a comeback in pediatricians’ offices, according to research led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center investigator Bernard Cohen, M.D.

Young women and teenage girls often face efforts by male partners to sabotage birth control or coerce pregnancy — including damaging condoms and destroying contraceptives — and these efforts, defined as “reproductive coercion,” frequently are associated with physical or sexual violence, a study by a team of researchers led by UC Davis has found.

Since the best city planners around the world have not been able to end traffic jams, scientists are looking to a new group of experts: slime mold.

(AP) — After trudging through the wilds of western Thailand for several hours, the forest rangers thought they were finally onto something: the distant sound of crunching leaves.

(AP) — Rescuers in New Zealand managed to coax 33 beached whales back out into deep waters Sunday, but another 15 of the pod died, a conservation official said.

(AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has a new commandment for priests struggling to get their message across: Go forth and blog.

The head of the UN’s climate science panel said Saturday a doomsday prediction about the fate of Himalayan glaciers was “a regrettable error” but that he would not resign over the blunder.