A classic instinct -- salt appetite -- is linked to drug addiction
A team of Duke University Medical Center and Australian scientists has found that addictive drugs may have hijacked the same nerve cells and connections in the brain that serve a powerful, ancient instinct: the appetite for salt.
Alcohol consumption guidelines inadequate for cancer prevention
Current alcohol consumption guidelines are inadequate for the prevention of cancer and new international guidelines are needed, states an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)
All-cause mortality rates are lower among moderate drinkers than among abstainers
The author of this paper set out to determine the extent to which potential "errors" in many early epidemiologic studies led to erroneous conclusions about an inverse association between moderate drinking and coronary heart disease (CHD).
Contact allergies may trigger immune system defences to ward off cancer
Association between cancer and contact allergy: A linkage study 2011
RNA reactor could have served as a precursor of life
Nobody knows quite how life originated on Earth, but most scientists agree that living cells did not abruptly appear from nonliving cells in a single step.
Natural pain relief from poisonous shrub
An extract of the poisonous shrub Jatropha curcas acts as a strong painkiller and may have a mode of action different from conventional analgesics, such as morphine and other pharmaceuticals.
Regional system to cool cardiac arrest patients improves outcomes
A broad, regional system to lower the temperature of resuscitated cardiac arrest patients at a centrally-located hospital improved outcomes, according to a study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Vital Signs
Childbirth: Wait to Restart the Pill, C.D.C. Says
Women who have just given birth should wait at least three weeks before they start using birth control pills because of the risk of serious, potentially fatal blood clots, public health officials announced last week.
Human Swallows Pill. Mosquito Bites Human. Mosquito Dies.
Scientists have proposed an intriguing new way to fight malaria: turning people into human time bombs for mosquitoes.
Triceratops Was Last Dinosaur Standing
The 65 million-year-old find suggests a meteor may have wiped out the dinosaurs in a sudden catastrophic event.
Molecules 'light up' Alzheimer's roots
Rice University lab's light-switching complex attaches itself to amyloid proteins
Pitt, Wake Forest team finds why stored transfusion blood may become less safe with age
Transfused blood may need to be stored in a different way to prevent the breakdown of red blood cells that can lead to complications including infection, organ failure and death, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Wake Forest University.
Superbug gonorrhoea found in Japan
An untreatable strain of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea, resistant to all existing antibiotics, has been identified in Japan.
First Humans Who Left Africa Continued to Mate with Africans
The first humans to leave Africa continued to interbreed with Africans for tens of thousands of years.
New technique could see end of plaster casts
A Scottish surgeon has come up with a surgical technique which could spell the end of the plaster cast for certain kinds of injuries.
New material could offer hope to those with no voice
In 1997, the actress and singer Julie Andrews lost her singing voice following surgery to remove noncancerous lesions from her vocal cords.
Lurking under Bangladesh: The next great earthquake?
After the recent great quakes that have swept away entire coastlines and cities in Japan, Haiti and Sumatra, scientists are now looking hard at the nation that may suffer the gravest threat of all: Bangladesh.
Procedure can be simple fix for painful back condition
A minimally invasive spine procedure that takes about as much time as a tonsillectomy is an excellent option for some patients who suffer from a painful lower back condition
Westerners 'programmed for fatty foods and alcohol'
Westerners could be genetically programmed to consume fatty foods and alcohol more than those from the east, researchers have claimed.
Size matters: Why do people eat less when they have big forks?
Larger portion sizes usually mean we eat more food, but according to new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, bigger bites lead to eating less―in restaurant settings.
Restaurant reviews: Can negative information have a positive effect?
If you read a number of positive reviews for a product or restaurant, one negative one might actually boost your regard, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.
UCSF confirms first adenovirus to jump between monkeys and humans
A novel virus that spread through a California monkey colony in late 2009 also infected a human researcher and a family member, UCSF researchers have found, the first known example of an adenovirus "jumping" from one species to another and remaining contagious after the jump.
Alzheimer's Risk Linked to Common Complaints, from Poor Eyesight to Denture Trouble
As we age, all sorts of things may start to break down. Joints ache, or vision fails, and or maybe cognitive abilities falter.
Gene link to 70% of hard-to-treat breast cancers
A gene has been linked to 70% of hard-to-treat breast cancers which are resistant to hormone therapies, in US research.
Coffee and tea consumption reduce MRSA risk
While an apple a day may keep the doctor away, new research published in the Annals of Family Medicine say that hot tea or coffee may keep the methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus, or MRSA, bug away, or at least out of your nose.
E. coli's genetic code has been hacked
The genetic code common to all life is not set in stone. We can change it at its most fundamental level for our own purposes. Genetic engineers have invented a new way to quickly, precisely and thoroughly rewrite the genome of living bacteria.
NASA Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around Asteroid Vesta--A Space First
The probe made history by becoming the first to orbit an object in our solar system's asteroid belt
What keeps the Earth cooking?
Berkeley Lab scientists join their KamLAND colleagues to measure the radioactive sources of Earth's heat flow