Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 29, 2012

Daily Aspirin Linked to Reduced Cancer Risk

Taking aspirin once a day may help prevent cancer, and perhaps even in some cases treat it, a growing body of research suggests. A new study finds that people who took a low-dose aspirin daily for at least three years were 25 percent less likely to develop cancer than people...

Feb 29, 2012

Fatty Diet May Cause New Brain Cells to Sprout

Eating too many burgers and fries? Your brain might show the effects, if new mouse research holds true in humans. Researchers have discovered that a high-fat diet causes new brain cells to sprout in an area of the brain that seems to regulate eating. Interestingly, if the researchers stopped new...

Jan 31, 2012

Want to Climb Kilimanjaro? Gene Tests Predict Altitude Sickness

On his 27th birthday, David Hillebrandt and his wife Sally began to climb Mount Kenya, the second-highest mountain in Africa after Kilimanjaro. Instead of gearing up and heading straight for the mountain's tallest peak—which reaches 5,199 meters—the couple started their journey more leisurely, trekking through scenic ridges and valleys around...

Jan 31, 2012

7 Sweet Facts About Chocolate

Chocolate hearts have long been a staple of Valentine's Day, and while the best part of the delectable may be its heart-warming taste, many steps and technologies are involved in bringing that yummy to your tummy. Here are 7 facts about chocolate's journey from tree to heart box. 1. Chocolate...

Jan 31, 2012

Treatable STD Scarier Than Fatal Flu, Study Finds

Passing someone a sexually transmitted infection is viewed as worse than giving them the flu — even if the flu turns out to be fatal, a new study finds. The research points to an irrational stigma of sexually transmitted diseases, according to study researcher Amy Moors, a graduate student in...

Jan 31, 2012

Racing Nature: H5N1 Research Explained

To head off the possibility of a flu pandemic, scientists in two labs hit fast forward on the H5N1 virus, giving the virus a newfound ability to spread, something it lacks in nature, but could evolve. Their results offered a glimpse into a possible future for the virus. Details on...

Jan 31, 2012

Scientist Cooks Up a Meatless Product for Meat Lovers

VANCOUVER — Meat lovers may not need to wait for the price of $250,000 test-tube hamburgers to drop. A researcher says that he has created a vegetable-based product capable of winning over the taste buds and wallets of meat and dairy lovers. Such success could singlehandedly help satiate the world’s...

Jan 31, 2012

What Causes the 'Pins and Needles' Sensation?

Ever smack your elbow and feel that crawling, tingly numbness that quickly spreads down your arm and a few fingers? What causes those pins and needles? The medical term for the sensation is paresthesia, a word with Greek roots meaning disordered perception. One of the more common ways to temporarily...

Jan 31, 2012

How to Wear a Condom: Errors Common, Study Finds

Condoms can't prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease if they're used incorrectly. Unfortunately, a new review of research finds that condom use errors are all too common. Some of the most frequent mistakes include putting a condom on partway through intercourse or taking it off before intercourse is over,...

Jan 31, 2012

Apologies: Do They Make It All Better?

In the past seven days, President Barack Obama has apologized to Afghanistan for NATO troops burning Qurans; German Chancellor Angela Merkel apologized to the relatives of 10 people believed to have been killed by a neo-Nazi group; the Mormon Church said it would discipline members who may have posthumously baptized...

Jan 31, 2012

No Myth: Eye-Gouging Is Rare Symptom of Untreated Psychosis

When the mythical Greek king Oedipus realized he'd murdered his father and married his mother, he gouged his own eyes out. But in real life, self-blinding is a rare yet devastating consequence of untreated psychosis. Self-enucleation, or removing one's own eyes, happens extremely rarely. When it does, it has often...

Dec 31, 2011

Baby Monkeys With 6 Genomes Are Scientific First

They look like ordinary baby rhesus macaques, but Hex, Roku and Chimero are the world's first chimeric monkeys, each with cells from the genomes of as many as six rhesus monkeys. Until now research on so-called chimeric animals, or those that have cells with different genomes, has been limited to...

Dec 31, 2011

U.S. Gov't. Expands Definition of Rape

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has revised the definition of rape, updating it to allow for more accurate data collection on the crime, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today (Jan. 6). The previous definition excluded male victims and acts such as forcible anal or oral sex. States write their...

Dec 31, 2011

Can an Avocado Pit Really Keep Guacamole From Turning Brown?

Few people know that the avocado is an ecological anachronism, that it most likely evolved specifically to entice the tastes and the large gullet of the now-extinct giant ground sloth. Another fun piece of avocado trivia: The name of the tropical fruit can be traced all the way back to...

Dec 31, 2011

Swallowing Parasitic Worms May Heal Your Ails

Parasitic worms may be useful in treating lung disease and healing wounds, according to a study published online today (Jan.15) in Nature Medicine. Although far from benign — these intestinal parasites infect more than a billion humans worldwide and kill or sicken hundreds of millions of people yearly — the...