Scientific American

Patient-Specific Human Embryonic Stem Cells Created by Cloning

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:15:00 EST

From Nature magazine

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White House Limits on Plan B Put Science in Backseat

Mon, 13 May 2013 06:00:00 EST

Responding to an April mandate from a federal district court that would make the emergency contraception drug Plan B available without a prescription to all women regardless of age, the Obama administration reduced current age restrictions on the pill from 17 to 15.

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Do Electronic Cigarettes Really Help Smokers Quit?

Tue, 07 May 2013 07:00:00 EST

Everyone knows that cigarettes are bad for you. Yet 45 million Americans smoke , a habit that shaves a decade off life expectancy and causes cancer as well as heart and lung diseases. Nearly 70 percent of smokers want to quit , but despite the deadly consequences, the vast majority of them fail.

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Medical Equipment Donated to Developing Nations Usually Ends Up on the Junk Heap

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:05:00 EST

Medical equipment donations enable hospitals in developing countries to get their hands on expensive and much-needed technology. But there’s a growing concern that those donations do more harm than good. Hallways and closets often become cluttered with unused or broken-down equipment for which locals lack parts or training in how to make repairs. Outdated electrical systems groan under the strain of large medical devices, possibly compromising a hospital’s power.

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From Baghdad to Boston: War Lessons on Amputations Help Blast Victims Walk Again

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:35:00 EST

Medical professionals treating the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings have one advantage over first responders at the Oklahoma City bombing: the accumulated knowledge of treating blast injuries gained over a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Lab-Grown Kidneys Transplanted into Rats Become Functional

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST

Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have fitted rats with kidneys that were grown in a lab from stripped-down kidney scaffolds. When transplanted, these 'bioengineered' organs starting filtering the rodents’ blood and making urine.

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Friction over Function: Scientists Clash on the Meaning of ENCODE s Genetic Data

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:00:00 EST

Twelve years after the completion of the Human Genome Project, its successor made a big splash with one big number: Around 80 percent of the human genome is "functional," the researchers leading the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project said. Their claim drew immediate criticism from biologists, many of whom said it is evolutionarily impossible for so much of the genome to truly function for human health.

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How Real-Time Brain Scanning Could Alleviate Pain (preview)

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:00:00 EST

Melanie Thernstrom lies motionless inside the large, noisy bore of a functional MRI scanner at Stanford University. She tries to ignore the machine's loud whirring as she trains her attention on a screen mounted inside the scanner, right in front of her eyes. An image of a flame bobs and flickers, shifting subtly in size. To her, the flame is a representation of the searing pain in her neck and shoulder, with its fluctuations reflecting the rise and fall of her discomfort. To the neuroscientists scrutinizing her through a window from the control room next door, the flame is a measure of the activity in a part of her brain.

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Home Is Where the Health Is: Obamacare Positions Telehealth Tech as a Remedy for Chronic Hospital Readmissions

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST

Chances are, when patients check out of a hospital for home or another health care facility, they will end up back in the hospital within a month if they have not worked out the details and logistics for ongoing care. Too often such planning falls by the wayside, resulting in frequent hospital readmissions . [More]

What's Next for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine?

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST

Researchers are now experimenting with stem cells--progenitor cells that can develop into many different types of tissue--to coax the bodies of a few individuals to heal themselves. Some of the most advanced clinical trials so far involve treating congestive heart disease and regrowing muscles in soldiers who were wounded in an explosion . But new developments are happening so quickly that investigators have come up with a new name--regenerative medicine--to describe the emerging field.

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Neural Stem Cell Transplants May One Day Help Parkinson's Patients, Others (preview)

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST

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Use for 3-D Printers: Creating Internal Blood Vessels for Kidneys, Livers, Other Large Organs (preview)

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST

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Doctors Repair Soldiers' Wounds with Biological Scaffolding Material (preview)

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:30:00 EST

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Rewiring a Damaged Spinal Cord [Video]

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST

When Christopher Reeve became quadriplegic, there was little hope for patients with spinal cord injury. Now researchers are combining what they know about the central nervous system’s ability to rewire and regrow with a new understanding of the hidden smarts of the spinal cord to dramatically improve treatments.

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A Change of Heart: Stem Cells May Transform Treatment for Heart Failure (preview)

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:05:00 EST

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Future of Medicine: Advances in Regenerative Medicine Teach Body How to Rebuild Damaged Muscles, Tissues and Organs

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST

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Expiration Fate: Can "De-Extinction" Bring Back Lost Species?

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 10:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk : What is the “de-extinction” movement all about? --Bill Mitchell, New York City

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Bendable Needles Developed to Deliver Stem Cells into Brains

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:00:00 EST

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Putting Tests to the Test: Many Medical Procedures Prove Unnecessary and Risky

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 07:00:00 EST

The routine use of 130 different medical screenings, tests and treatments are often unnecessary and should be scaled back, according to 25 medical specialty organizations. The medical societies jointly released lists of tests and therapies patients should question in their campaign, Choosing Wisely . The initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation is aimed at reducing unnecessary interventions that waste money and can actually do more harm than good.

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Data Stretching Back to 1959 May Explain Link Between Environment and Breast Cancer

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST

When Ida Washington received a letter inviting her to participate in a women’s health study to explore the environmental roots of breast cancer, she didn’t think twice. Her mother was diagnosed with the disease nearly 40 years ago, and since then, it has been a terrifying mystery she has yearned to unravel.

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