Scientific American - Health

Schism over H5N1 Avian Flu Research Leaks Out

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:44:00 EST

Caption: Electron micrograph of H5N1 virus (gold) Image: CDC/Courtesy of Cynthia Goldsmith; Jacqueline Katz; Sherif R. Zaki

NEW YORK Sparks flew Thursday night at a New York Academy of Sciences panel discussion about whether or not certain recent research into the H5N1 avian flu virus has created a major biosecurity threat and what, if anything, to do about it.

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For Healthy Cities, Government and Business Need to Reverse Roles

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST

Okay, I have to be honest with you. I love a city, and a downtown with walkways and tunnels and bus stops that tell me where my buses are via GPS and everything else, but sometimes you can just have more connectivity than you need. Remember the internet-connected toaster, that singed the weather forecast into your morning toast?

Well, meet the Big Belly Solar Trash Compactor, a precocious trash can that lives in Raleigh, NC.

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Molecules to Medicine: Plan B: The Tradition of Politics at the FDA

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:39:00 EST

Morning After The Morning's Trash

In my last post , I focused on flaws in the medical device approval process. The Union of Concerned Scientists FDA at a Crossroads meeting also covered problems with drug approval. This is perhaps no better illustrated than by the disappointing decision by Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius to deny the emergency contraceptive, Plan B, over-the-counter status for women under the age of 17 . This was a particular disappointment to many because President Obama had promised that decisions at the FDA would be made based on science, rather than politics. Some of us, naively, hoped that change we can believe in was real, having forgotten that the Tooth Fairy wasn t.

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#SciAmBlogs Thursday - tsunami debris, groundhogs, apes in suits, kakapos, butterfly drones and more

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:56:00 EST

- Harold Johnson – Tsunami Debris & North America: Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?

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More with Maryn: McKenna on Antibiotic Resistance

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:10:08 EST

Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about antibiotic resistance in agriculture and human health, MRSA, and a brief return to the subject of fecal transplants. [More]

Virtual Reality Contact Lenses Could Be Available by 2014

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST

Contact lenses that help enhance normal vision with megapixel 3D panoramic images are being designed by scientists using military funding.

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Could an Infection Cause Tourette's-Like Symptoms in Teenage Girls?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:05:00 EST

Over the weekend Erin Brockovich made the news yet again as she and her nonprofit team descended on the village of Le Roy, N.Y., determined to test for environmental toxins that might be giving the town's teenagers symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. She has reportedly been stonewalled thus far by local officials, who have already ruled out toxins as the cause of last October's sudden outbreak of tics and involuntary movements in 12 girls who attend Le Roy Junior–Senior High School. An environmental testing company surveyed the air and water and found nothing amiss, and a local neurologist concluded upon examining the girls that they had "conversion disorder," a catchall moniker for physical symptoms that originate in the mind because of stress, trauma or even mass hysteria.

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Signs Boost Stair Climbing

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:15:08 EST

There’s an easy way to encourage people to take the stairs instead of an elevator: put up a sign reminding them to.

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Controversy: Can Repeat Concussions Cause Lou Gehrig's Disease? (preview)

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:05:00 EST

Kevin Turner was a premier athlete in the National Football League, a fullback who could run, catch and block. At 6' 1" and roughly 230 pounds, he was slightly undersized for his position, but he had tremendous thrust in his legs and used all of it to launch himself into players who were bigger than he was. He played for the New England Patriots from 1992 to 1994, then joined the Philadelphia Eagles, with whom he stayed until his abrupt retirement in 1999. Some called him “the Collision Expert”--a nickname he got because of the gouges he collected on his helmet.

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Inside Story: What Happens When Brain Hits Skull

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:00:00 EST

Concussion, the most common among traumatic brain injuries, which occurs 1.7 million times a year in the U.S., represents a major public-health problem. It occurs when there is a sudden acceleration or deceleration of the head, a process depicted here in this animation.

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#SciAmBlogs Wednesday - #scio12 art and video, pigmy hippos, spider webs, sunfish, synchronized eating and more.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:34:00 EST

Wednesday, the new Video of the Week day – have fun!

LOTS of good reading today:

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Synchronized Eating: Social Influences on Eating Behavior

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:01:00 EST

When I was a kid, I used to spend hours listening to Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky on their Sunday night call-in radio show Loveline . I listened so often that I began to incorporate one of their catchphrases – “good times” – into my daily conversations. Scientists have a name for this phenomenon: behavioral mimicry .

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New Map Shows that Most Lyme-Infected Ticks Are in Northeast, Northern Midwest

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

Female blacklegged tick courtesy of Graham Hickling/University of Tennessee

Lyme disease is notoriously tough to diagnose. The symptoms often don’t appear for one or two weeks after a bite and can vary from feeling flu-ish to longer-term neurological damage. And ticks seem to lie in wait throughout much of the U.S., prepared to pounce and infect a passerby.

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ScienceOnline2012: The Music Video

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:39:00 EST

Video of the Week #28 February 1st, 2012

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Concussion Is a Serious Problem for Child Athletes

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST

The dangers of life in the National Football League made headlines in 2009, when a study commissioned by the NFL found that retired players were 19 times more likely than other men of similar ages to develop severe memory problems. The obvious culprit: continued play after repeated head injuries. Indeed, head injury can imitate many types of neurodegenerative disease, including Parkinson’s disease and, as journalist Jeffrey Bartholet reports in “The Collision Syndrome,” on page 66, perhaps even amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

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Conflicts and Cooperation in Conservation: Adventures in Researching the Pygmy Hippopotamus on Tiwai Island, Sierra Leone

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:53:00 EST

CamTrapTeam (Left to right): Bockary, Kenewa, April and Alusine at a camera trap on Tiwai Island

Our vehicle pulled into the village late one rainy night. Dozens of my new neighbors, Sierra Leone s Mende people, emerged from their thatch-roof houses, looking cross at being woken up and not exactly welcoming. We unloaded some of my gear underneath the dripping eaves, and as I tried to find something dry to wear, I realized that all my equipment: books, electronics, and gear, were soaking wet in the back of the truck. I had spent the entire day with a driver whose accent was so thick that several minutes into a conversation about cheese, I realized we were discussing chiefs, not cheddar. I had eaten entrails soup for lunch, been bounced over dirt roads for over 10 hours, and knew not a single person around me. I was suddenly glad it was dark so that nobody could see the silent tears streaming down my face.

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#SciAmBlogs Tuesday - Cotard's syndrome, pigeon parasite, Haeckel, clumped bacteria, aurorae, `polite' sexism, and more.

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:19:00 EST

You may have noticed a little improvement installed today – now you can see each blog post in a print-friendly form and then print it that way. Just click on the “Print” button, like this:

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Legionnaire's Disease at the Luxor: What Causes It?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:22:00 EST

The slinky rods of Legionalla pneumophila. If you didn't know better, you might assume these were extruded by a Play-Doh Fun Factory. CDC Public Health Image Library Image #11151. CDC/ Margaret Williams, PhD; Claressa Lucas, PhD;Tatiana Travis, BS

In July 1976, a convention of members of the American Legion — a veterans’ group — was meeting in Philadelphia at the Belleville Stratford Hotel in honor of America’s bicentennial. Soon, 221 attendees would be sickened and 34 dead of an illness it was believed no one had ever seen before. Swine flu was suspected , as were toxic chemicals or terrorism of some sort. None of these proved to be the cause.

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Fecal Transplants: The Straight Poop

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:47:08 EST

Journalist and author Maryn McKenna talks about fecal transplants, which have proven to be exceptionally effective at remodeling the intestinal microbiome and curing C. diff infections, but which remain in regulatory limbo. Web sites related to this episode include www.marynmckenna.com , Swapping Germs: Should Fecal Transplants Become Routine for Debilitating Diarrhea? [More]

Honey Helps Heal Wounds

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:30:08 EST

Honey soothes a sore throat. Now research suggests that it could also help fight serious skin infections.

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