Body
Why You Waste Time Playing Farmville
Why do 70 million people spend time managing virtual farms in Farmville? (I know they're not all crazy.) Tom Chatfield, a writer and video game expert (he blogs at What Happens Next?) says it's because the game designers have figured out how to take advantage of human nature. We evolved to find thi...
November 04, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Inside a Mosquito's Heart
What does a mosquito's heart look like? I would never have expected that it would look like this, a fluorescent image taken by Jonas King, a student at Vanderbilt University, which won first place in the Nikon Small World photography competition.King, working in the lab of biologist Julián Hillyer,...
October 22, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Tipsy Gene Protects Against Alcoholism
My grandma was one of those people who would get drunk on half a glass of wine. I'm not much better. But being a cheap date might have a hidden benefit: a new study shows that people who carry a gene variant that makes them prone to getting tipsy quickly may also be protected against alcoholism.Res...
October 21, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Tribal Tattoos of Science
This month's Smithsonian magazine has a fun little arts and culture story about a photographer who has traveled the world in pursuit of tattoos. The images are gorgeous black and whites—the photog, Chris Rainier, is a protégé of Ansel Adams, and it shows—and he seeks out the meaning behind the tatt...
October 20, 2010 |
By Laura Helmuth
The Anatomy of Renaissance Art
The Renaissance may be best known for its artworks: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and “David,” and Da Vinci’s "Mona Lisa" and "Vitruvian Man" have without a doubt shaped the course of art history. But a new exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, “The Body Inside and Out: Anatomical Literature and ...
October 18, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
Cootie Catchers Say Lice Reveal Lots About Early Humans
Children all over America are returning to school this fall and I’m sure parents have done all they can to prep their youngsters—which hopefully involves any and all vaccines and boosters. But not even the most diligent efforts toward preventative health care can save your child from the bug that h...
September 13, 2010 |
By admin
The Shock of War
World War I troops were the first to be diagnosed with shell shock, an injury – by any name – still wreaking havoc
September 2010 |
By Caroline Alexander
Flu Shots for (Nearly) All
Should you get vaccinated for the flu this year? Yes, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they have fewer qualifiers than usual for that recommendation.Until now, the CDC has recommended the vaccine only for people in specific "high-risk" groups (such as children, the elderly a...
August 24, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Cholera, John Snow and the Grand Experiment
I started reading about cholera over the weekend after hearing that health officials had confirmed several cases of the disease among victims of the recent Pakistani floods. Cholera is a bacterial disease that produces diarrhea and vomiting; people with the disease can die within hours if they don'...
August 18, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Truth Behind Beer Goggles
The Urban Dictionary defines beer goggles as the "phenomenon in which one's consumption of alcohol makes physically unattractive persons appear beautiful." This doesn't happen for everyone, as the Mythbusters found when they tested themselves on the question of whether being tipsy or drunk led them...
August 17, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Whooping Cough on the Rise in Several States
Seven infants in California have died so far this year from pertussis, a.k.a. whooping cough. The state's outbreak is the largest in decades; it has had a six-fold rise in the disease compared with last year. Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, upstate New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, South Caro...
August 04, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Three Classes Wannabe Doctors Should Take Before Med School
Last week, the New York Times published an article about a little known practice of at least one medical school: accepting students who have not taken courses in science—biology, chemistry, organic chemistry and physics—or the MCAT entrance exam.The students apply in their sophomore or junior years...
August 02, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Organs Made to Order
It won't be long before surgeons routinely install replacement body parts created in the laboratory
August 2010 |
By Gretchen Vogel
Melvin Konner on the Evolution of Childhood
The anthropologist and physician talks about how our understanding of child development will change
August 2010 |
By Terence Monmaney
Embedded Technologies: Power From the People
Energy harvested from our bodies will make possible mind-boggling gadgetry
August 2010 |
By Michael Belfiore
New Technology Could Let Disabled Communicate by Sniffing
If you're paying attention, there can be an awful lot of information encoded in a series of nose sniffs. In and out, long and short, strong and shallow. One sniff, two sniffs, three sniffs. Now engineers at the Weizmann Institute in Israel have capitalized on that variety of sniffs and created a de...
July 27, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
An Unbelievable Accent
If I told you that "ants don't sleep," would you believe me? What if I were speaking with a foreign accent?Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that we judge non-native speakers to be less believable, though not because of any bias against foreigners. Instead, they say, it's simply b...
July 21, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Medical Lab on a Postage Stamp
In the magazine's 40th anniversary issue, one of the 40 things you need to know about the future is both revolutionary and unreal: "A medical laboratory will fit on a postage stamp."The idea behind Google—boiling down vast stores of knowledge into an elegant little package—is also the idea behind t...
July 19, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Please Cover Your Mouth When You Sneeze
We've still got a few months until flu season starts here in the United States, so that should give us plenty of time to review proper cold and flu procedures. Why? Well, it appears that a number of you are just not getting it right. Yesterday I read a complaint from someone whose co-worker preferr...
July 13, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
In Search of a Tuberculosis Vaccine
When I told a co-worker yesterday that I was going on a tour of a tuberculosis vaccine research facility, she asked, "is TB still a problem?" Here in the United States, the disease is rare—only 12,904 cases were reported in 2008—and generally treatable with antibiotics. Outside of North America, Au...
July 01, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
