Around the pink- and red-hued madness of overpriced flowers and heart-shaped everything that is Valentine's Day, even a rocket man1 needs a little love.2 Unfortunately for NASA, the Stardust spacecraft beamed down an unexpected photo of its intended Valentine, the potato-shaped comet Tempel 1. (And no wonder - what girl wants to be photographed if she's told she has the figure of a potato?)Instead of a space age love song3, scientists received the a photo of a tiny speck:
A scientist and journalist by training, I enjoy all things science, especially science-related humor. My column title is a throwback to Jane Austen's famous first line in Pride and Prejudice - I like to explore whether truths really are, or if they …
Despite the regular onslaught of mixed messages from those in scientific research land, I still take a multivitamin most days. (Thanks, Mom, for starting me off young with those delicious Flinstone Kids niblets of nutrition.)Placebo effect? I don't know. I do know that I feel better when I remember to take my multivitamin, iron and vitamin D supplements, and the occasional fish oil horse pill. But will it help me in the long run with any aspect of my health?
If your New Year's resolution is to lose weight, you aren't alone. (Although given the lack of follow-through among many of us, it should be named a New Year's dissolution.)But this year, the ranks of tens of millions of adults trying to shrink the ever-expanding waistlines are swelling with an increasingly larger (no pun intended) population - overweight and obese children.Case in point: the January issue of Pediatrics. The majority of articles touch on the staggering consequences of overweight/obese pediatrics and adolescents, and their future looks anything but rosy.
Obviously, scientificblogging.com is all about science writing (it's not just a clever name, as Wayne Campbell would say). Blogging, as Atlantic senior editor Andrew Sullivan said in the November issue, "is, in many ways, writing out loud." But what about that dying breed of the enterprising newspaper science journalist?
Are you missing that special someone? To let him or her know you really care, nothing says 'I love you' like a lab report showing your corticotropin-releasing factor levels are elevated.A paper published in Neuropsychopharmacology notes that evidence suggests social bonds have a positive impact on health and buffer against stressors. Absence or sudden disruption of those bonds can lead to anxiety-like and depressive-like disorders. "Thus," the authors say, "understanding the neurobiological consequences of partner loss, particularly with respect to increased susceptibility to depression, may be informative for developing strategies for coping with the loss of a loved one."
You know things are bad when an insurance company tries to fix the health care system. WellPoint Inc. is funding a competition in collaboration with X Prize Foundation to devise solutions that improve health care cost and quality. Although the actual award amount and competition guidelines won’t be ready until early 2009, the rumored jackpot is about $10 million. According to the X Prize site , the two partners will solicit advice from various stakeholders, hold the competition, and test the finalists’ plans in WellPoint’s markets.
This story caught my eye because of the 'ew' factor, so naturally I wanted to share my newfound fear of catheters (which already took up a healthy amount of time during my daily phobia-pondering) with you all. Misery loves company, so I assume that stands true for other negatively connotated emotions like disgust, fear of microbes, etc.
People who believe eating genetically modified organisms will turn them literally into what they eat are in for a new nightmare - genetically engineered animals.Highly ironic case of misinformed alarmist sprouting antlers, snout reported to FDA The Food and Drug Administration issued a draft guidance on the regulation of genetically engineered animals today. (For those not well versed in the parlance of regulation, this is a document that describes FDA's current thinking on an issue. The agency alerts the relevant stakeholders that they can comment on the guidance, and then a final guidance is developed. This is not regulation, it's guidance - as the name implies, the document guides stakeholders in what actions they should take.)
Yes, you read that right - the very people you look to for comfort, for learning, for a shoulder to cry on, could lead you down the path of annihilation. You don't have to be a lemming zombie to take up terrorism after all!A New Kind of NetworkingLiverpool University's Center (or Centre, if you live across the pond) for Investigative Psychology led a project that constructed psychological "profiles" to describe how Jihadists were led into their violence, according to a BBC article.
Ol' Blue Eyes was way ahead of the curve in diabetes treatment - I nominate his 1956 hit, "I've Got You Under My Skin" for the official anthem for type 1 diabetes patients.
A study published online in the New England Journal of Medicine Sept. 8 details a new continuous glucose monitor device placed - you guessed it - under the skin.
The Skinny on CGM
The authors, from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, randomly assigned 322 adults and children with intensively treated type 1 diabetes to CGM or normal blood glucose meter. Primary outcome was change in glycated hemoglobin at 26 weeks.
If you are on vacation in the Mediterranean basin and happen upon a person gnawing on a pine tree, fear not – the person is likely treating one of a myriad of inflammatory symptoms.
While Western medicine tends to eschew traditional or “natural” therapies, the alternative movement is winning more and more converts as people seek to reduce health care costs and invest in a more organic lifestyle.
The latest example of non-traditional medication comes to us from the lovely western Mediterranean, home to the Pinus pinaster , more commonly known as the maritime pine.
Often people taking antidepressants - or really any drug - have to balance side effects versus benefit overall. Those crippled by depression and/or anxiety may be willing to give up a few things to dispel the gray clouds. For example, sex.Doctors in a study published in JAMA estimate antidepressant treatment-associated sexual dysfunction occurs in 30 percent to 70 percent of people treated for major depression. Also, women experience major depressive disorder at nearly double the rate of men and also experience greater subsequent sexual dysfunction.
Typically the palm of your hand doesn’t excite much interest, unless you’re a chirologist – those who divine the future through palm-reading. Luckily for palmophiliacs, there’s a new show in town, and it just may change the way we think about biometric security systems. A new biometrics system called PalmSecure, developed by Tokyo-based Fujitsu Ltd., works by matching the unique vein pattern in your palm to an infrared scan of your palm stored in a database. The system is akin to fingerprinting, but improves upon the oft-used identification system of police stations everywhere.
