Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2012

Chocoholics, Take Note: Cravings Don't Increase Before Menstruation

Lay the blame for your chocolate habit wherever you want, but a new study suggests that women's cocoa cravings do not increase before menstruation. In the study, college women were no more likely to say they had an intense desire for chocolate during the days leading up to their period...

May 31, 2012

Why Being Touched Can Inflame Emotions

It's clear touch and emotion can be closely tied: The brush of a hand can provoke excitement, comfort or repulsion — all depending on who's delivering the touch and when. But new research indicates the emotional connection shows up early as the brain processes a social touch. Using brain scans...

May 31, 2012

More Money Can Mean Less Happiness for Neurotics

Add one more item to the things that torture neurotics: a pay increase. While more money doesn't guarantee more happiness for anyone, increasing income is actually associated with less happiness among neurotic people who already earn a good salary. In fact, as pay increased, well-off neurotics are less happy than...

May 31, 2012

Living Brain Image Wins Photography Prize

Bright-red blood vessels and thick purple veins meander across the surface of a living human brain in the winning image in this year's Wellcome Image Awards contest. A rare peak inside the skull beat out a plethora of other gorgeous shots for first prize, including a colorful caffeine crystal and...

May 31, 2012

New Moms Reveal the Truth About Postpartum Sex

Starting up sex again after the birth of a child can be a fraught issue for new parents. Now, a new study finds that much of what drives women's desire in the postpartum period are not physical factors, but psychological ones. In many cases, social factors such as spousal support...

Mar 31, 2012

How to Use Light to Control the Brain

In the film Amèlie, the main character is a young eccentric woman who attempts to change the lives of those around her for the better. One day Amèlie finds an old rusty tin box of childhood mementos in her apartment, hidden by a boy decades earlier. After tracking down Bretodeau,...

Mar 31, 2012

Cancer-Causing Chemical Found in Smokeless Tobacco

A chemical in smokeless tobacco products has been found to cause cancer, according to a new study in animals. The chemical was a strong inducer of oral tumors, the study showed. While use of smokeless tobacco products has been strongly linked to the development of cancer, no specific chemical in...

Mar 31, 2012

Better Sleep May Help Improve Schizophrenia

Sleep problems and schizophrenia may have common roots, raising hopes that the devastating mental disorder could be improved by helping patients overcome insomnia. In a new study monitoring the sleep and circadian rhythms of people with schizophrenia, researchers found many more sleep problems in the schizophrenia patients versus mentally healthy...

Mar 31, 2012

Specific Genes Linked to Big Brains and Intelligence

Brain size and smarts are, to some extent, genetic — and now, a team of more than 200 researchers has uncovered specific genes that are linked to both brain volume and IQ. Though scientists have suggested bigger brains are smarter, this study is the strongest case yet for a genetic...

Mar 31, 2012

Cause of Brain Freeze Revealed

Most people have likely experienced brain freeze — the debilitating, instantaneous pain in the temples after eating something frozen — but researchers didn't really understand what causes it, until now. Previous studies have found that migraine sufferers are actually more likely to get brain freeze than people who don't get...

Mar 31, 2012

Study: Unplanned Pregnancies Common in Women in their 20s

More than two-thirds of pregnancies in unmarried 20-something women between 2001 and 2008 were unplanned, a new study finds. In 2008 alone, nearly 10 percent of unmarried women ages 20 to 29 experienced an unintended pregnancy. About half of unintended pregnancies in this age group end in abortion, according to...

Mar 31, 2012

Super-Fast DNA Analysis Now Just a Click Away

Tomorrow's personalized medicine — health care tailored for each person — will need a cheap, easy way to make sense of huge amounts of DNA sequences. Now the world's largest genomics institute has launched an online service that can crunch DNA sequencing data within hours for researchers or physicians around...

Mar 31, 2012

Parkinson's Personality: Disease More Likely to Strike Cautious People

Some personality traits appear to be linked with the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, a new study suggests. The results show patients with Parkinson's disease are more likely to be cautious and avoid taking risks compared with people who don't have Parkinson's. Moreover, the tendency to avoid taking risks appears...

Feb 29, 2012

Women Shoulder Infertility Worries, Survey Suggests

Women who are trying to get pregnant do more than their fair share of worrying about infertility, a new survey finds. In fact, 42 percent of women surveyed who had conceived in the past five years said they became obsessed with getting pregnant once they started trying. Only 10 percent...

Feb 29, 2012

How Chlamydia Evolves into New Strains

The bacteria that cause Chlamydia, the world's most common sexually transmitted disease, seems to be sneakier than once thought, as a new study suggests it frequently exchanges DNA between different strains to form entirely new strains. Chlaymydia is caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis, and though its symptoms are often...