Cafe Body

You are browsing the archives of 2010 June.

A Scientific American article asks, “What if Vitamin D Deficiency is a Cause of Autism?” (1) How could vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy cause autism, a genetic disease? Indeed, five researchers at Harvard, led by Dr. Dennis Kinney, recently endorsed and then modified the vitamin D theory of autism.(2) Very recently, Dr…

A Scientific American article asks, “What if Vitamin D Deficiency is a Cause of Autism?” (1) How could vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy cause autism, a genetic disease? Indeed, five researchers at Harvard, led by Dr. Dennis Kinney, recently endorsed and then modified the vitamin D theory of autism.(2) Very recently, Dr…

Migrant children are at increased risk of obesity, but a new study shows that a program teaching multiple lifestyle changes to predominantly migrant preschoolers and their parents helps the children reduce body fat and improve fitness. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego…

Migrant children are at increased risk of obesity, but a new study shows that a program teaching multiple lifestyle changes to predominantly migrant preschoolers and their parents helps the children reduce body fat and improve fitness. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego…

Exciting headlines about the cancer-preventing potential of berries, red wine, and other foods are in the news almost every day. An article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS’ weekly newsmagazine, highlights the researchers trying to make medicines based on substances in those foods and turn their potential into reality…

Exciting headlines about the cancer-preventing potential of berries, red wine, and other foods are in the news almost every day. An article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS’ weekly newsmagazine, highlights the researchers trying to make medicines based on substances in those foods and turn their potential into reality…

Scientists are reporting development of a new use for magnetic levitation, or “maglev,” the futuristic technology best known for enabling high-speed passenger trains to float above the tracks. In ACS’ bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they describe putting maglev to use in an inexpensive sensor for analyzing food, water, and other beverages…

Scientists are reporting development of a new use for magnetic levitation, or “maglev,” the futuristic technology best known for enabling high-speed passenger trains to float above the tracks. In ACS’ bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they describe putting maglev to use in an inexpensive sensor for analyzing food, water, and other beverages…

Scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have discovered that a diet with high levels of fructose, sucrose, and of trans fats not only increases obesity, but also leads to significant fatty liver disease with scar tissue…

Scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have discovered that a diet with high levels of fructose, sucrose, and of trans fats not only increases obesity, but also leads to significant fatty liver disease with scar tissue…

Our bodies defeat infections in part because our immune system’s genes are many and diverse. This genetic heterogeneity, however, has a downside: it means that we each respond differently to vaccines. For example, compared with women men routinely produce fewer pathogen-fighting antibodies after vaccination, and in the last large U.S. measles outbreak in 1989 10 percent of previously vaccinated children were not protected . But these limitations could one day be overcome thanks to a push to replace one-size-fits-all vaccines with genetically "personalized" immunizations that are safe and effective for everyone. [More]

Vaccination – Immunization – Immune system – Measles – Health

Our bodies defeat infections in part because our immune system’s genes are many and diverse. This genetic heterogeneity, however, has a downside: it means that we each respond differently to vaccines. For example, compared with women men routinely produce fewer pathogen-fighting antibodies after vaccination, and in the last large U.S. measles outbreak in 1989 10 percent of previously vaccinated children were not protected . But these limitations could one day be overcome thanks to a push to replace one-size-fits-all vaccines with genetically "personalized" immunizations that are safe and effective for everyone. [More]

Vaccination – Immunization – Immune system – Measles – Health

As you go about your day-to-day activities, tiny bubbles of nitrogen come and go inside your tissues. This is not a problem unless you happen to experience large changes in ambient pressure, such as those encountered by scuba divers and astronauts. During large, fast pressure drops, these bubbles can grow and lead to decompression sickness, popularly known as “the bends…

As you go about your day-to-day activities, tiny bubbles of nitrogen come and go inside your tissues. This is not a problem unless you happen to experience large changes in ambient pressure, such as those encountered by scuba divers and astronauts. During large, fast pressure drops, these bubbles can grow and lead to decompression sickness, popularly known as “the bends…

Alcohol abuse is highly disruptive of circadian rhythms, and circadian disruptions can also lead to alcohol abuse as well as relapse in abstinent alcoholics. Circadian timing in mammals is regulated by light as well as other influences such as food, social interactions, and exercise…

Alcohol abuse is highly disruptive of circadian rhythms, and circadian disruptions can also lead to alcohol abuse as well as relapse in abstinent alcoholics. Circadian timing in mammals is regulated by light as well as other influences such as food, social interactions, and exercise…

There must be something in the water here in Lanesboro, Minnesota, because last night I dreamt of an encounter with a very muscular African-American centaur, an orgiastic experience with – gasp – drunken members of the opposite sex and (as if that weren’t enough) then being asked by my hostess to wear a white wedding dress while giving a scientific keynote presentation. “Does it make me look too feminine?” “Not at all,” she assured me, “it’s a man’s dress.”

There must be something in the water here in Lanesboro, Minnesota, because last night I dreamt of an encounter with a very muscular African-American centaur, an orgiastic experience with – gasp – drunken members of the opposite sex and (as if that weren’t enough) then being asked by my hostess to wear a white wedding dress while giving a scientific keynote presentation. “Does it make me look too feminine?” “Not at all,” she assured me, “it’s a man’s dress.”

Editor’s Note: Vienna, Austria-based science writer Chelsea Wald is taking part in a two-week Marine Biological Laboratory journalism fellowship at Toolik Field Station , an environmental research post inside the Arctic circle. To see the current conditions in Toolik, check out the Webcam .

I packed my flashlight. That’s really stupid. I’m above the Arctic Circle near summer solstice. The sun never sets. Never. It’s like when my friend packed her umbrella to go to the Sahara. [More]

Arctic Circle – Summer solstice – Solstice – Marine Biological Laboratory – Toolik Field Station

Editor’s Note: Vienna, Austria-based science writer Chelsea Wald is taking part in a two-week Marine Biological Laboratory journalism fellowship at Toolik Field Station , an environmental research post inside the Arctic circle. To see the current conditions in Toolik, check out the Webcam .

I packed my flashlight. That’s really stupid. I’m above the Arctic Circle near summer solstice. The sun never sets. Never. It’s like when my friend packed her umbrella to go to the Sahara. [More]

Arctic Circle – Summer solstice – Solstice – Marine Biological Laboratory – Toolik Field Station