Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2008

Small Packages Trick People to Eat More

If you think buying junk food in small packages will help you eat less, look out —marketers know the truth. Two new marketing studies found that some people tend to consume more calories when junk food portions and packages are smaller. For some, it's because they perceive small packages to...

Jun 30, 2008

Outdoor BBQ: A 700,000-year-old Ritual

July Fourth is a celebration of outdoor cooking, as well as our nation's birthday. It's time to brush off the barbecue and throw masses of processed meat on the grill. As we all stand around waiting for the fire to die down so that we can make s'mores, it's also...

Jun 30, 2008

Breakthrough: Artificial DNA Could Power Future Computers

Chemists claim to have created the world's first DNA molecule made almost entirely of artificial parts. The finding could lead to improvements in gene therapy, futuristic nano-sized computers, and other high-tech advances, the Japanese researchers say. DNA, popularly illustrated as a double helix, holds the blueprints of life and controls...

Jun 30, 2008

How Baseball Is Rigged For Lefties

In the general public, about 10 percent of people are left-handed. In Major League Baseball, about 25 percent of players are lefties. Any serious fan knows some of the reasons why certain positions favor lefties, but David Peters has come up with a laundry list of reasons to explain this...

Jun 30, 2008

Ulcers Discovered in Mummies

Two Mexican mummies had ulcers when they were alive. Remnants of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori were discovered in gastric tissue from the mummies, human remains believed to predate Columbus' discovery of the New World. It is only through the use of the stomach tissue of these incredible mummies that we...

Jun 30, 2008

The Future of Babies: Artificial Wombs and Pregnant Grandmas

Artificial wombs and experiments on human embryos grown in the lab will be commonplace and no big deal ethically in 30 years, several scientists predict. They envision a scenario just like test-tube babies, which shocked us 30 years ago but now are fairly routine and acceptable to most people. That...

May 31, 2008

Key to All Optical Illusions Discovered

Humans can see into the future, says a cognitive scientist. It's nothing like the alleged predictive powers of Nostradamus, but we do get a glimpse of events one-tenth of a second before they occur. And the mechanism behind that can also explain why we are tricked by optical illusions. Researcher...

May 31, 2008

Pigs Pack Human Pathogens

Here's mud in your eye: Pigs raised without antibiotics in an effort to placate consumer fears over those chemicals carry more bacteria and parasites, which of course consumers fear in the wake of the tomato scare and beef, chicken and spinach contaminations of days gone by. At least this is...

May 31, 2008

How Stress and Diet Cause Heart Attacks

Word of Tim Russert's death at 58 shocked many Americans today, and behind the grief came nagging questions about heart attacks, like the one that struck the newsman, and anxiety about how they kill. Russert's death came in a week when the government reported U.S. life expectancy had risen to...

May 31, 2008

Study Finds Hot Flashes Truly Forgettable

Some women get far more hot flashes than they realize. A new study finds women in mid-life underreport the number of hot flashes they get by 40 percent. The problem seems to be linked to memory. Hot flashes are a symptom of menopause. Previous research indicates that about 40 percent...

May 31, 2008

Warming May Make 'Perfect Storm' of Disease

A perfect storm of diseases can get unleashed by the kind of extreme swings in weather expected with global warming, triggering mass die-offs of wildlife or livestock, research now reveals. Now the first clear example of such a perfect storm of diseases has been discovered by an international team of...

Apr 30, 2008

Signs of Suicide Seen in Brain Scans

Suicides always leave behind sad and tough questions. One big one is whether those who commit suicide have faulty genes. It turns out that although they may have normal genes, child abuse may still have left its mark on the DNA in the brains of some, new research suggests. About...

Apr 30, 2008

Happy Mother's Day: Woman Pregnant With 18th Child

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman — she's pregnant with her 18th child. Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins. We've had three...

Apr 30, 2008

Myanmar Aid Deliveries Now 'Race Against Time'

Updated at 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday, May 10 Editor's Note: Newswires and aid organizations have continued to update estimates of the death toll from the Myanmar cyclone, with most of the reports stating the current number to be more than 23,000 dead, with up to twice as many missing. The...

Apr 30, 2008

'Designer Baby' Work Criticized

NEW YORK (AP) — News that scientists have for the first time genetically altered a human embryo is drawing fire from some watchdog groups that say it's a step toward creating designer babies.'' But an author of the study says the work was focused on stem cells. He notes that...