Humans
- Health & Medicine
Glucose galore
Pregnant women with elevated blood sugar are more likely to have oversized babies, posing a risk to mother and newborn.
- Health & Medicine
Leaving a mark
Child abuse may leave chemical marks on the brains of people who later kill themselves.
- Agriculture
Ethanol Fallout: Health Risks for Livestock
With Uncle Sam pushing the production of ethanol for fuel, U.S. farmers are planting more corn than at any time since World War II, and garnering premium prices for each harvested bushel. But many livestock operations are getting hit with a double whammy: higher feeds costs and corn-derived feed that’s carrying triple the normal load of fungal poisons.
- Health & Medicine
Stub it out
Quitting cigarettes shows health benefits even decades after the last puff.
- Earth
Babbitt to Southern Louisiana: Look into Gondolas
“New Orleans, at the end of the century, will be an island” — literally, predicts Bruce Babbitt. Whether or not you believe his assessment, he makes a good case for considering the implications of climate change when planning federal projects.
- Humans
Teeth chronicle infant diet
Chemical analyses of teeth, including fossilized ones, may provide clues that tell anthropologists the age at which a child was weaned.
- Climate
Air Pollution Can Be So Cool — ing
Fossil-fuel pollution has been offsetting global warming to the tune of about 30 percent per year. Cleaning up that pollution, a must, threatens to accelerate warming unless humanity changes its fuel-use strategy.
- Life
DNA tweak no good for diabetics
A genetic variation that increases levels of a blood-building protein also ups the risk of developing complications from diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Potential for protection
A study of U.S. veterans suggests that the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen could have a protective effect against Alzheimer’s disease. But researchers say more work is needed.
- Health & Medicine
Rice Woes, Pt. 1
A shortfall in rice production has been developing well under the radar screen of agricultural economists and growers. The bad news: It promises to get much worse, and fairly soon.
- Climate
Olympic Clean Up
Rather than wowing its visitors this summer with world-class air pollution, China wants to impress them with its clean, green Olympics.
- Earth
It’s the meat not the miles
Eating less red meat and dairy may do more to reduce food-associated greenhouse gas emissions than shopping locally.
