Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2006

New Wisdom on Ancient Skeleton's Teeth

She's not a girl but is now a woman. No, we're not talking about Britney Spears, but the Magdalenian Girl, the skeleton of an early modern human housed at the Field Museum in Chicago since 1926. For years, these bones dating from 13,000 to 15,000 years ago were thought to...

Feb 28, 2006

Blood Cells Change Shape to Fit Through Tiny Vessels

Human red blood cells rushing through the body to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the organs are forced to squeeze through smaller and smaller blood vessels. A new study has discovered how exactly the teeny hat-shaped cells deform themselves to fit through these micro-tunnels. The research could...

Feb 28, 2006

Nanotech Restores Vision in Hamsters

Scientists partially restored the vision in blinded hamsters by plugging gaps in their injured brains with a synthetic substance that allowed brain cells to reconnect with one another, a new study reports. If it can be applied to humans, the microscopic material could one day help restore sensory and motor...

Feb 28, 2006

Genetic Basis for Increased Risk of Impulsive Violence

Scientists have identified a gene that may increase the risk for impulsivity and violence, particularly in men. The new study adds fuel to the debate over whether nature or nurture is to blame for criminal and disagreeable behavior. Researchers tested 142 healthy volunteers, free from psychiatric or neurological illnesses as...

Feb 28, 2006

New Tool to Provide Insight on Alzheimerâ€™s, Parkinsonâ€™s

A new simple model of a portion of a brain cell will provide researchers with fresh insight to the destructive processes behind neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, scientists announced today. One of the beauties of a simplified model is that it allows you to ask very simple questions,...

Feb 28, 2006

Skull of 'Missing Link' Human Ancestor Found In Ethiopia

ADDIS The Archaeologists Sileshi, The Homo The The The ...

Feb 28, 2006

Don't Laugh: Just Think About It

If you're down in the dumps, you might just think about watching a funny movie. A new study suggests that the mere expectation of laughter makes us feel good. Researchers split people into two groups. One group was told they'd be watching a funny movie, the other was not. Blood...

Jan 31, 2006

Myth Busted: Late Night Snacks Don't Add Weight

Giving in to those late-night munchies won't make you gain weight after all, according to a new study. Eating at night is no more likely to promote weight gain than eating during the day, said study co-author Judy Cameron, a researcher at the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon...

Jan 31, 2006

Kids are Depressing, Study of Parents Finds

Any parent will tell you kids can be depressing at times. A new study shows that raising them is a lifelong challenge to your mental health. Not only do parents have significantly higher levels of depression than adults who do not have children, the problem gets worse when the kids...

Jan 31, 2006

Girls Equal, Exceed Boys in Substance Abuse

Adolescent girls abuse drugs and alcohol just as much if not more than boys, a new study indicates. Contrary to popular belief, more girls are new substance abusers. In 2004, 1.5 million girls started using alcohol, 730,000 girls started smoking, and 675,000 started using marijuana, according to the 2004 National...

Jan 31, 2006

Mind Rewind: Brains Run in Reverse

When faced with a new learning task, our brains replay events in reverse, much like a video on rewind, a new study suggests. This type of reverse-replay is also used in artificial intelligence research to help computers make decisions. The finding could explain why we learn tasks more easily if...

Jan 31, 2006

Like Monkeys, Babies Know Math

After long suspecting we're born with some math sense, researchers have shown infants indeed have some ability to count long before they can demonstrate it to Mom and Dad. It turns out they're not unlike grown monkeys. In the study, seven-month-old babies were presented with the voices of two or...

Jan 31, 2006

Risk of Death Can Soar When Spouse is Sick

When a person over 65 is debilitated, the odds of dying within a year can increase dramatically for the spouse, a new study shows. If a man is diagnosed with dementia, for example, the risk of death skyrockets 28 percent for his wife over the next year. If it's the...

Jan 31, 2006

Monkey's Voice Good as Human's for Newborn Babies

ST. LOUIS—Straight out of the womb, infants may be just as aroused by a rhesus monkey call as by human speech. Infants are acute listeners. Previous studies have found newborns perk up more to folk music than white noise. And four-month-olds like listening to people talk more than they like...

Jan 31, 2006

Something Fishy: How Humans Got So Smart

ST. LOUIS—Human brains are bigger and better than any of our closest living or dead non-human relatives in relation to body weight. Scientists say we have fish and frogs to thank for this. When early humans started to fish, they also began feeding their hungry brains. The arrival of language...