Health & Medicine
- Life
Staggered lessons may work better
Training at irregular intervals improves learning in sea snails.
- Humans
Network analysis predicts drug side effects
A computer technique can foresee adverse events before medications are widely prescribed.
- Humans
Researchers, journals asked to censor data
Scientists undertake research to advance knowledge. Normally, one aspect of that advancement is to find as broad an audience for the newly acquired data as possible. But what happens if medically important data could be put to ruthless purposes? That question underlies the ruckus developing over two new bird flu papers.
- Health & Medicine
Gene therapy helps counter hemophilia B
Treatment enables cells to produce a key blood-clotting compound, allowing some patients to quit medication.
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- Health & Medicine
Bedbugs not averse to inbreeding
The pests have also developed ways to resist common insecticides, research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Presidency not a death sentence
For occupants of the Oval Office, wealth, status and quality medical care more than compensate for any life-shortening effects of stress.
- Health & Medicine
Scooters save lives of snakebite victims
Nepal project achieves dramatic drop in deaths by using motorbike helpers to rush the stricken to hospital.
- Health & Medicine
E. coli evade detection by going dormant
When stressed, bacteria can temporarily turn comatose and dodge germ-screening tests.
- Health & Medicine
Immune booster also works in reverse
Injections of the protein interleukin-2 can calm runaway defenses that damage tissues in the body, two studies show.
- Health & Medicine
Weaker brain links found in psychopaths
Decreased communication between emotional and executive centers may contribute to the mental disorder.
- Humans
Germs’ persistence: Nothing to sneeze at
Years ago, I read (probably in Science News) that viruses can’t survive long outside their hosts. That implied any surface onto which a sneezed-out germ found itself — such as the arm of a chair, kitchen counter or car-door handle — would effectively decontaminate itself within hours to a day. A pair of new flu papers now indicates that although many germs will die within hours, none of us should count on it. Given the right environment, viruses can remain infectious — potentially for many weeks, one of the studies finds.
