Humans
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Health & Medicine
Sleepy Heads: Low fuel may drive brain’s need to sleep
A new study supports the hypothesis that dwindling energy stores in the waking brain induce sleep.
By Kristin Cobb -
Health & Medicine
Mixed Blessing: Unusual gene helps heart, hurts immunity
People carrying a variant of a gene that encodes an immune protein called toll-like receptor 4 have a weaker defense against infections but appear to be less prone to heart disease.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & Medicine
More than Skin Deep? Beauty products may damage fetal development
A new report shows that many cosmetics contain phthalates—a class of chemicals known to cause developmental deformities in animals.
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Health & Medicine
Disabled Defense: HIV protein counters immune-cell gene
Immune cells contain a protein that can inhibit HIV replication if the AIDS virus lacks a key protein.
By John Travis -
Health & Medicine
Gender differences in weight loss
Men and women gain weight differently and may lose it differently, too.
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Health & Medicine
Antioxidants for greyhounds? Not a good bet
Antioxidant vitamins that greyhound racers have been giving their animals to boost performance actually slow down the dogs.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & Medicine
Study fails to link vasectomy to cancer
Researchers have found that men with prostate cancer are no more likely to have had a vasectomy than healthy men are.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & Medicine
Method could boost diabetes therapy
Allowing insulin-producing islets to grow in close contact with each other during cell culture may increase the chance of successful transplant into diabetic people.
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Health & Medicine
Melanoma gene quickly reeled in
Biologists have discovered a gene that may contribute to many cases of deadly skin cancer.
By John Travis -
Health & Medicine
Impotence high after prostate removal
Roughly 60 percent of men who have a cancerous prostate gland removed are subsequently impotent.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & Medicine
Firm nears completion of human genome
Celera Genomics announced that it has sequenced 90 percent of the human genome and claimed it has found about 97 percent of all human genes.
By John Travis