All Stories by Ben Harder
- Earth
Diabetes from a Plastic? Estrogen mimic provokes insulin resistance
Exposure to trace amounts of an estrogenlike ingredient of polycarbonate plastic may increase the risk of diabetes, experiments in mice show.
- Health & Medicine
Bright Lights, Big Cancer
A woman's blood provides better sustenance for breast cancer just after she's been exposed to bright light than when she's been in steady darkness.
- Earth
Gunning for the Gut: Tiny particles might fight invasive zebra mussels
By modifying a technique used to flavor foods, researchers have made a substance that poisons the zebra mussel.
- Health & Medicine
Mixing Vessel: Air pollution helps cholesterol clog arteries
When paired with a diet high in fat, breathing polluted air on a regular basis accelerates the accumulation of dangerous plaques in arteries.
- Health & Medicine
Protein predicts sickle-cell danger
A biological marker of heart trouble can be used to identify sickle-cell anemia patients who are at greatest risk of developing a serious, disease-related complication.
- Health & Medicine
Transfusions harm some heart patients
Patients who undergo coronary-bypass surgery frequently receive unnecessary blood transfusions as part of their follow-up care.
- Health & Medicine
Old drug, new trick
The drug rapamycin, now used in transplants, may make chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia more effective.
- Health & Medicine
Molecule marks leukemia cells
Researchers can now single out malignant cells in the bone marrow of patients with acute myeloid leukemia by using an antibody that latches on to a newfound cell protein.
- Health & Medicine
Rare marrow cells tackle deadly immune reaction
Researchers have developed a new technique to counter graft-versus-host disease, a common complication of treating blood cancers with marrow-cell transfusions.
- Health & Medicine
Tomorrow’s Clot Stoppers? New anticoagulants show promise
Two experimental drugs could become alternatives to warfarin and a class of other products that are used widely to protect against potentially fatal blood clots.
- Health & Medicine
Shots often don’t reach muscle
Standard 3-centimeter needles are too short to penetrate the layer of fat in the buttocks of most women and most obese men, so injected medications aimed at muscle often don't reach their targets.
- Health & Medicine
New software aids virtual colonoscopy
A computer program helps radiologists spot dangerous growths in the colon without probing inside the body.
