Health & Medicine
- Health & Medicine
If timing’s right, cats and roaches may be good for kids’ allergies
Exposure to mice, roaches and cats before a child’s first birthday may confer protection against asthma and allergies, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Number of skin moles tied to breast cancer risk
Women who have many moles also have increased disease risk, which may reflect higher estrogen levels.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Bacteria linked to stress-induced heart attacks
Bacteria may play an underlying role in heart attacks brought on by stress.
- Health & Medicine
Anesthesia linked to effects on children’s memory
Undergoing anesthesia as an infant may impair a person's ability to recall details later in life, a new study suggests.
- Neuroscience
Stem cell approach for Parkinson’s disease gets boost
Postmortem study finds Parkinson’s patients can retain transplanted neurons for years.
- Neuroscience
Sleep strengthens some synapses
Mice show signs of stronger neuron connections when allowed to sleep after learning a trick.
- Health & Medicine
Your baby: The ultimate science experiment
Babies may be serious scientists, but parents can join the fun by trying some simple experiments with their kids.
- Health & Medicine
Early malnutrition may impair infants’ mix of gut microbes
Babies’ gut microbiomes fail to fully recover even after fending off bouts with malnutrition.
By Nathan Seppa - Neuroscience
Stress and the susceptible brain
Some of us bounce back from stress, while others never really recover. A new study shows that different brain activity patterns could make the difference.
- Health & Medicine
Health risks of e-cigarettes emerge
Research uncovers a growing list of chemicals that end up in an e-cigarette user’s lungs, and one study finds that an e-cigarette’s vapors can increase the virulence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
By Janet Raloff - Genetics
Blind mole-rats are loaded with anticancer genes
Genes of the long-lived blind mole-rat help explain how the animal evades cancer and why it lost vision.
- Health & Medicine
Brain’s support cells play role in hunger
Once considered just helpers for neurons, astrocytes sense the hormone leptin and can change mice’s appetites.