Health & Medicine
- Animals
Junk food turns rats into addicts
Bacon, cheesecake and Ho Hos elicit addictive behavior in rats similar to the behavior of rats addicted to heroin.
- Life
People can control their Halle Berry neurons
Researchers pinpoint individual brain cells that respond to particular people and objects.
- Agriculture
Report tallies hidden energy costs
The average retail cost of U.S. coal-fired electricity was 9 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2007 (the most recent year for which data are available). But there are health and environmental costs of that power that consumers don’t pay, at least as part of their electric bill. According to a new report, accounting for those costs would double the true cost of shooting some electrons through the nation's power grid.
- Health & Medicine
Exercise helps brains bounce back
Study of rhesus monkeys shows running protects dopamine neurons from death.
- Agriculture
Of swine flu, pigs and a state fair
To date, federal monitoring has yet to turn up any U.S. pigs infected with the killer swine flu strain known as H1N1. But Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack announced yesterday that his agency’s veterinary labs would be reexamining whether any of the apparently healthy pigs exhibited last August 16 to Sept. 1 at the Minnesota state fair might have been infected with the virus. Why? “An outbreak of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza occurred in a group of children housed in a dormitory at the fair at the same time samples were collected from the pigs,” USDA notes
- Psychology
Mental disorders don’t hinder headache treatment
Headache patients may benefit from drug treatment even if they also suffer from depression or anxiety.
- Chemistry
Tongue’s sour-sensing cells taste carbonation
A protein splits carbon dioxide to give fizz its unique flavor.
- Health & Medicine
Brain speed-reads using just one part
Scientists measure the speed of recognizing, manipulating and producing speech in human brains.
- Chemistry
Bad perfume: Cardboard’s intense scents
Wet cardboard and food should not share the same air space.
- Health & Medicine
Getting to the core of H1N1 flu deaths
Lung inflammation and a lack of oxygen in the blood appear responsible for most fatal cases of H1N1 (swine) flu, three studies show.
- Health & Medicine
H1N1 flu is back and found in 37 states, CDC reports
Just as vaccine begins to become available, swine flu cases show up in a majority of the United States. And early results from a new study suggest H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccination shots are effective when given during the same visit.
- Life
Circadian clockwork takes unexpected turns
Some neurons in the brain’s master clock fall silent in the afternoon. The unexpected finding prompts scientists to rethink how the clock works.
