Science & the Public

Health & Medicine

Coffee perks up memory and balance in geriatric animals

Millions of Americans start their day with a cup of coffee and then reach for refills when their energy or attention flags. But new research in rats suggests that for the aging brain, coffee may serve as more than a mere stimulant. It can boost memory and the signaling essential to motor coordination.

Health & Medicine

Good vibrations: A greener way to pasteurize milk

Many people like the taste of raw – as in unpasteurized – milk. The problem, of course, is that germs may infect raw milk, so food safety regulations require that commercial producers heat-treat their milk. But food scientists at Louisiana State University think they’ve stumbled onto a tastier way to sterilize milk. They bombard it with sound waves.

Tech

Nano-scale additives fight food pathogens

Nano products are all the rage, even in food science. Here at the Institute of Food Technologists’ annual meeting, on July 18, scientists described dramatic success in fighting food-poisoning bacteria by doctoring foods or their packaging with microbe-killing nanoparticles – sometimes along with natural anti-bacterial agents.

Agriculture

Germs eyed to make foods safer

Adding viruses to foods doesn’t sound appetizing, much less healthy. But it’s a stratagem being explored to knock some of the more virulent food poisoning bacteria out of the U.S. food supply. Scientists described data supporting the tactic July 18 at the Institute of Food Technologists’ annual meeting in Chicago.

Health & Medicine

Fructose sweeteners may hike blood pressure

The more fructose American adults add to their diets, the higher their blood pressure tends to be. The new finding adds fuel to a simmering controversy about whether this simple sugar — found in fruits, table sugar, soft drinks and many baked goods — poses a health hazard that goes beyond simply consuming too many empty calories.

Health & Medicine

Breast screening tool finds many missed cancers

A relatively new imaging option outperforms all comers in scouting for hidden breast tumors. Indeed, argues radiologist Rachel Brem, her team’s new data indicate that that “almost 10 percent of women with breast cancer have another [tumor] that we wouldn’t know about without this technology.”

Earth

Ivy nanoparticles promise sunblocks and other green products

I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with English ivy that’s been devolving towards hate-hate. But a new paper may temper my antipathy. Apparently this backyard bully also offers a kinder, gentler alternative to the potentially toxic metal-based nanoparticles used in today’s sunscreens.

Health & Medicine

How resveratrol (in grapes, peanuts and wine) fights fat and disease

Resveratrol, a constituent of grapes and certain other plants, can fight the proliferation of fat cells and improve the uptake of sugar from the blood, a pair of new studies indicate. These observations offer some mechanisms to explain why grape products, including wine, have developed a reputation as heart healthy, obesity-fighting and beneficial for people developing diabetes.

Health & Medicine

Abuse of pharmaceuticals is rising sharply

In 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, an estimated 1 million Americans entered a hospital emergency room for treatment of an overdose due to “nonmedical” use of an over-the-counter or prescription drug. That’s double the number of such visits five years earlier, federal data show.

Health & Medicine

Feds probe Gulf spill health risks

The Institute of Medicine will be hosting a small public workshop in New Orleans, June 22 and 23, on possible health risks to Gulf coast residents and workers in the wake of the catastrophic BP oil spill. A June 16 congressional hearing previewed some of the concerns likely to arise at the meeting. They ranged from potential long-terms risks of DNA damage to claims that BP failed to provide protective gear to contract crews hired to clean up oil.

Science & Society

Citation inflation

Many journals – and the authors who publish their novel data and analyses in them – rely on “impact factors” as a gauge of the importance and prestige of their work. However, a new analysis turns up subtle ways that journals can game the system to artificially inflate their impact factor.

Humans

Crude pick-ups

To date, 400 skimmers have retrieved some 18 million gallons of oiled water from the BP Gulf spill, according to Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen during a June 11 press briefing. After removing the entrained water, this translates to between 1.8 million and 2.7 million gallons of crude oil. Another 3.8 million gallons of oil have been burned at sea. Four million gallons more have been collected through a near-mile-long riser tube and a containment cap fitted over the broken Deepwater Horizon wellhead.