Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 30, 2013

Normal or Not? New Psychiatric Manual Stirs Controversy

With the release of the latest edition of the mental health manual, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), LiveScience takes a close look at some of the disorders it defines. This 10-part series asks the fundamental question: What is normal, and what is not? As of May...

Apr 30, 2013

Jedi Mind Trick? Brain Thinks It Inhabits Virtual Body

The brain's perception of the body may seem set in stone, but a new study shows the mind can be tricked into taking an entire virtual body for its own. In 1998, neuroscientists Matthew Botvinick and Jonathan Cohen performed an experiment where they showed people a rubber hand being stroked...

Apr 30, 2013

The Surprising Optimism of Tornado Victims (Op-Ed)

Jerry Suls is a social psychologist at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Previously, he was a psychology professor at the University of Iowa. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The people who survived the recent tornado disaster in Oklahoma...

Mar 31, 2013

Human Genome Project Marks 10th Anniversary

This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the Human Genome Project, a 13-year international effort to determine the sequence of the 3 billion letters in a human being's DNA. The $3 billion project, led by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, began in 1990 and...

Feb 28, 2013

Head Games: Pro Soccer Players Have Sharper Mental Skills

It might be tempting to portray professional athletes as dumb jocks, but new research proves that experienced soccer players have impressive brain functioning and executive-level cognitive skills. Researchers at Brunel University in London were trying to determine what makes one soccer player better than another, particularly at anticipating and responding...

Feb 28, 2013

'Fasting Diet' Fad Could Be Unhealthy, Nutritionists Say

The latest diet craze claims to help people lose weight through intermittent fasting, but some nutritionists say it's a bad idea. People on the so-called 5:2 diet can eat whatever they want for five days a week, but must then fast for two. On the fasting days, dieters must eat...

Feb 28, 2013

Too Much Tea Causes Unusual Bone Disease

A 47-year-old Michigan woman developed a bone disease rarely seen in the U.S. after she drank a pitcher of tea made from at least 100 tea bags daily, for 17 years, researchers report. The Detroit woman visited the doctor after experiencing pain in her lower back, arms, legs and hips...

Feb 28, 2013

Normal Brain Activity Linked to DNA Damage

Brain activity from experiences as common as exploring new locations surprisingly damages the noggin's DNA, hinting that such disruptions may be a key part of thinking, learning and memory, researchers say. This damage normally heals rapidly, but abnormal proteins seen in Alzheimer's disease can increase this damage further, perhaps overwhelming...

Jan 31, 2013

4 Reasons to Limit Super Bowl Toasts

Like millions of football fans, lovers of Beyoncé and advertising junkies, you'll probably be attending or hosting a Super Bowl party on Sunday. Think chips and dip. Nachos. Ribs. Chili. And, last but not least, wine and beer — and plenty of it. As you drink and nosh and drink,...

Jan 31, 2013

Too Much TV May Lower Sperm Count

Guys may now have another reason to get off the couch: Watching TV has been linked to lower sperm counts, a new study suggests. During the study, which involved 189 healthy 18- to 22-year-olds, men who watched the most TV (20 or more hours a week) had sperm counts that...

Jan 31, 2013

Exercising Your Brain May Improve Your Life

NEW YORK — Throughout life, even shortly before death, the brain can remodel itself, responding to a person's experiences. This phenomenon, known as neuroplasticity, offers a powerful tool to improve well-being, experts say. We now have evidence that engaging in pure mental training can induce changes not just in the...

Jan 31, 2013

Simple Changes May Make Healthy Living Easier

BOSTON — Chances are you know what's good for you — daily exercise, avoiding tempting sweets and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. But chances are, you don't follow this advice. So why is it so difficult to make healthy choices? Partly, it's because humans have a natural bias for...

Jan 31, 2013

Organic Tomatoes Have More Vitamin C

Organically grown tomatoes are more nutritious in some ways than the conventionally grown variety, a new study from Brazil suggests. The results show that organically grown tomatoes, while smaller, have higher levels of vitamin C as well as more plant phenols, a class of compounds that act as antioxidants, than...

Jan 31, 2013

Genetics: The Study of Heredity

A chart shows the dominant and recessive traits inherited in successive generations of guinea pigs. (Image credit: Public domain)Genetics is the study of how heritable traits are transmitted from parents to offspring. Humans have long observed that traits tend to be similar in families. It wasn’t until the mid-nineteenth century...

Jan 31, 2013

Weight, Lack of Exercise Raise Risk of Colorectal Cancer

The heavier a person is and the less exercise he or she does, the greater the likelihood of developing a specific type of colorectal cancer, a new study finds. Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston analyzed data on weight and physical activity from questionnaires sent every two years...