Health, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2006

Study: Cat Parasite Affects Human Culture

A parasitic microbe commonly found in cats might have helped shape entire human cultures by manipulating the personalities of infected individuals, according to a new study. Infection by a Toxoplasma gondii could make some individuals more prone to some forms of neuroticism and could lead to differences among cultures if...

Jul 31, 2006

In 2021, You'll Enjoy Total Recall

Humans naturally have the power to remember almost two bits of information per second, or a few hundred megabytes over a lifetime. Compared with a DVD movie, which holds up to 17 gigabytes, that's nothing. Worse, you might easily recall the 40-year-old dialogue from Hogan's Heroes yet forget your mom's...

Jul 31, 2006

Men with Low Testosterone More Likely to Die

Men with low testosterone levels after age 40 have a higher risk of death over a four-year period than those with normal levels of the hormone, a new study suggests. It's not clear, however, if the two are directly related, and researchers say that it's possible a third unknown factor...

Jul 31, 2006

New Source of Replacement Brain Cells Found

Scientists have found that a common type of human brain cell can transform into other cell types and reproduce indefinitely—tricks once thought exclusive to stem cells. The mature human brain cells were extracted from epilepsy patients and coaxed into other types of brain cells in a lab. The human cells...

Jul 31, 2006

New Research Points to Cancer Drugs in Lower Doses

Amino acids, those not employed in creating protein and life, can improve a cancer therapy protein's activity by more than 30-fold. Scientists say this opens the door to experimenting with these novel compounds throughout proteins and, in the future, in organisms, possibly creating drugs that work better but have fewer...

Jul 31, 2006

Why Fiber is Healthy: Because It Damages Our Insides

Fiber helps keep us regular by banging up against the gastrointestinal tract and tearing cells, which release mucus that helps us, well, go, scientists reported today. The frequent injury of cells and their subsequent repair cause more mucus production, which eases food through the pipes and provides protection for the...

Jul 31, 2006

Scientists Erase Memories in Rat Brains

Scientists have for the first time erased long-term memories in rats and also directly seen how the brain is changed by learning. The research points to potential human benefits. These findings could prove key to understanding how memories can be augmented, for example in diseases that affect memory, like Alzheimer's,...

Jul 31, 2006

Brain Gene May Help Make Us Human

Humans have more copies of a possibly important brain gene in their genomes than other apes, a new study finds. Called MGC8902, the gene is implicated in the function of the neocortex, the region of the brain that, in humans, is responsible for consciousness, language, and other higher cognitive functions....

Jun 30, 2006

Americans Sleep Less than They Think They Do

A new study finds people aren't sleeping as much as they report in other studies. Not wanting to rely just on diaries, researchers attached monitoring devices to 669 middle-age test subjects to record when they actually slept. Though they spent an average of 7.5 hours a night in bed, the...

Jun 30, 2006

The Raw Food Diet: A Raw Deal

American ingenuity has found one solution to the energy crisis: food you never need to cook. There's no need for fuel when everything you eat---from salad to, well, more salad—is served up at piping room temperature. I'm speaking of the raw food diet, for those who find the vegan lifestyle...

Jun 30, 2006

Comatose Man's Brain Rewires

Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash. Terry Wallis, 42, is one of the few...

Jun 30, 2006

Living Alone Raises Risk of Heart Attack

Living alone can be deadly, a new study shows. People who live by themselves are at twice the risk of serious heart problems compared to those who have a partner. Researchers studied records of 138,000 adults aged 30 to 69 in Denmark. Of the group, 646 suffered a heart attack...

Jun 30, 2006

Body's Own Molecules Being Customized to Fight Cancer

Scientists are tweaking naturally occurring body proteins to create customized molecules that can seek out and deliver drugs to cancer cells. The research, which is still in the very early stages and has not advanced to human clinical trials yet, could one day lead to new types of cancer drugs...

Jun 30, 2006

Medical 'Miracles' Not Supported by Evidence

The phrase medical miracle is a newsroom cliche. It means a situation in which a person makes an unexpected recovery despite great odds or a pessimistic prognosis. Yet often the phrase is used much more broadly to describe a seemingly supernatural or paranormal healing or curing event such as faith...

May 31, 2006

Study Debunks Myth that Sex Hastens Labor

A new study debunks the notion that having sex in the final weeks of pregnancy makes labor start sooner. Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center studied 93 women in their final three weeks of pregnancy. When all was said and done, those who were sexually active had carried their...