Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2014

The Science Behind Renée Zellweger's New Face

Photographs of actress Renée Zellweger at the Elle magazine's Women in Hollywood awards this week, showing her dramatically different appearance, have sparked the Internet's interest. The 45-year-old actress looked almost unrecognizable to fans who know her best from her earlier movies such as Jerry Maguire and Bridget Jones's Diary. But...

Aug 31, 2014

Americans Are Eating Healthier, Study Finds

Americans are eating a modestly healthier diet now than they were a decade ago, but the gap in diet quality between the rich and the poor has widened, a new study finds. Researchers examined the quality of the U.S. diet between 1999 and 2010 using a measure called the Alternate...

Aug 31, 2014

'Better' Burgers Worse for Health, No Better for Climate (Op-Ed)

Elliott Negin is the director of news and commentary at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). This article is adapted from a piece that appeared on Huffington Post. Negin contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights . Like a lot of cities across the country, Washington...

Aug 31, 2014

Lupus: Symptoms and Treatment

Lupus, short for systemic lupus erythematosus, is a chronic autoimmune disorder in which the body's immune system can't properly distinguish between its own cells and harmful substances. The immune system indistinguishably attacks otherwise healthy cells, leading to inflammation and damage to various body tissues, according to the Lupus Foundation of...

Aug 31, 2014

Walking or Biking to Work May Make You Happier

Walking to work is not only good for your body; it may also benefit your psychological health, a new study from England suggests. In the study, the researchers analyzed information from nearly 18,000 commuters in England who answered questions about their well-being, such as whether they experienced feelings of worthlessness,...

Aug 31, 2014

Spinal Stenosis: Symptoms & Treatment

Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal, the opening created by the small hole found in each of the vertebrae that make up the human spinal column. As the canal narrows, it puts pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots, causing pain, numbness or other problems. It...

Jul 31, 2014

Sleepless in Space: Getting Shut-Eye Is Tough Out There

Astronauts often suffer from sleep deprivation during space flight and in the months leading up to a mission, a new study finds. In addition, about three-quarters of astronauts in the study said they took sleeping pills while they were in space — with some taking the pills just a few...

Jul 31, 2014

Here's How a Nap Could Change Your Afternoon

WASHINGTON — Taking an afternoon nap can improve short-term memory in younger adults, but perhaps not in older adults, according to a new study. However, a little daytime shut-eye has other health benefits for the elderly. In the study, participants took afternoon naps in a lab. Researchers gave the subjects...

Jul 31, 2014

Asthma: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

Asthma is a chronic condition in which the airways that carry air to the lungs are inflamed and narrowed. Inflamed airways are very sensitive, and they tend to react to things in the environment called triggers, such as substances that are inhaled. When the airways react, they swell and narrow...

Jul 31, 2014

Why Is Symmetry So Sexy? It Has Nothing to Do with Health

Facial symmetry is sexy, but perhaps not for the reasons scientists had long thought. Humans have such a strong preference for faces and bodies that are symmetrical that evolutionary psychologists and other researchers who study human behavior have long theorized that symmetry might be a signal of good health. But...

Jul 31, 2014

Sodium Guidelines 'Need to Be Rethought,' Experts Say

People whose diets contain moderate levels of sodium may have healthier hearts and live longer than those who consume too much or too little of the mineral, new research suggests. In a large international study, researchers found that men and women who ate between 3,000 and 6,000 milligrams of sodium...

Jul 31, 2014

How Will Chikungunya Virus Spread? DARPA Announces Challenge

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is challenging innovators to build models to predict how the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus could spread across countries in the Americas. Whoever makes the best model will take home $150,000. The chikungunya virus causes fever and debilitating joint pain, and until recently...

Jul 31, 2014

Liberal and Conservative States Equally Clueless About Abortions

Americans living in politically liberal states and those living in conservative states have an equally low understanding of abortion's health effects and the laws regarding the procedure, a new national survey finds. Just 74 out of the 569 people who took the survey answered at least four of the five...

Jul 31, 2014

Drone Pilots Suffer PTSD Just Like Those in Combat

Although drone operators may be far from the battlefield, they can still develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new study shows. About 1,000 United States Air Force drone operators took part in the study, and researchers found that 4.3 percent of them experienced moderate to severe PTSD. In...

Jul 31, 2014

No Dietary Supplement Treats Concussions, FDA Warns

Consumers should beware of dietary supplements that claim to treat a concussion, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations said today. Exploiting the public's rising concern about concussions, some companies are offering untested, unproven and possibly dangerous products that claim to prevent, treat or cure concussions and other traumatic brain injuries,...