International News Desk – At Home: Flexible Care – Around the World: The Invisible Man

International News Desk – At Home: Flexible Care – Around the World: The Invisible Man

At Home: Flexible Care

Parents who work or attend school need child care options, but more often than not, working out the scheduling feels like a full-time job of its own. And for those who have irregular hours, the traditional daycare models really don’t fit the bill. However, the need for flexibility is being recognized by schools and workplaces?and now child care centres are catching on.

As The Globe and Mail reports, ?new, flexible [daycares]? like Budding children’s Garden and Daycare in Vancouver, B.C., provide an exciting model for the future.

Budding, which will open this fall, ?works like a car co-op, but . . . It’s care-share.? Parents can pre-purchase blocks of monthly care, and can use their purchased time as their schedule dictates, space permitting. To make scheduling easier, parents ?can book the hours online, and reservations and cancellations can be made as late as an hour in advance.?

Other than its unique scheduling approach, Budding will be like many other daycares, with ?art activities, books, toys and circle time.?

Around the World: The Invisible Man

It’s not limited to classic horror films: science and art have long been intrigued with the concept of rendering ourselves invisible. Now, new scientific research from Japan has uncovered a substance that may someday get us a little closer to that reality. The real surprise, though, is the breakthroughs it could mean for the medical world.

As National Geographic‘s Daily News Site reports, the new substance, Sca/e, ?turns brain tissue totally transparent.?

Although experimentation has so far only occurred with mice, scientists are confident that ?applications are neither limited to mice nor to the brain,? one of the scientists involved told reporters.

In fact, the researchers hope to someday use the substance to allow a deeper examination of human patients. Because Sca/e ?makes body tissue so crystal clear,? scientists can see the ?fluorescent markers? that are used in brain research and treatment, for example. Up until now, clarifying compounds have the tendency to ?wash away the signals of fluorescent proteins,? something That’s not an issue with Sca/e.

Currently, Sca/e is not safe for living body tissue. However, scientists not affiliated with the development of Sca/e are cautious but optimistic: as one neurologist told reporters, ?[Seeing] something like this really had a wow factor.?