Scientific American - Health
Science news and technology updates from Scientific American
Sticky bacteria and the benefits of staying still
Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:19:00 EST
I’ve written before about the many ways that bacteria can move around. Considering that they’re just one cell long, micro-organisms have a whole range of ways to travel through their little world. Movement is useful for finding food and for changing your environment when all nearby resources have been exhausted. For bacteria that can’t move, however, or that don’t want to move, there is a second option; they can park themselves on a nearby surface and settle down to wait.
There are several advantages to this. For a start, other things like food and nutrients tend to accumulate at surfaces as well, bringing the bacteria a regular supply of food. A surface is a more stable environment, the bacteria that adhere to your teeth do so because to get swept away into the stomach is to be pulled down into a very literal lake of acid. For bacteria that form biofilms , sticking to a surface is the first stage in this process.
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#SciAmBlogs Friday - Science of Mysteries, Plan B, green cities, science-art, and more.
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:02:00 EST
- Jennifer Ouellette – The Science of Mysteries: Leave Us the Counterpoint
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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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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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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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Brain Injury Rate 7 Times Greater among U.S. Prisoners
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST
A car accident, a rough tackle, an unexpected tumble. The number of ways to bang up the brain are almost as numerous as the people who sustain these injuries. And only recently has it become clear just how damaging a seemingly minor knock can be. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is no longer just a condition acknowledged in military personnel or football players and other professional athletes. Each year some 1.7 million civilians will suffer an injury that disrupts the function of their brains, qualifying it as a TBI.
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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]
Anthrax Toxicity Depends on Human Genetics
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:06:00 EST
Anthrax courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Marcus007
The white powder that arrived in envelopes addressed to lawmakers and journalists in 2001 proved to be a deadly delivery for several people. The lethal substance spores commonly known as Anthrax (from the bacterium Bactillus anthracis ) can cause a toxic reaction in a host’s blood stream , killing cells and leading to tissue damage, bleeding and death.
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Orange Rinds May Help Rid Cows of E. Coli
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST
Name : Todd Callaway [More]
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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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 Monday - Coelacanths, Lake Vostok, neuronal transplants, #scio12, San Diego Demonoid, and more....
Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:10:00 EST
Welcome back from the weekend. Check out the new Image of the Week first! Then see what the bloggers have published lately:
- Lucas Brouwers – Coelacanths are not living fossils. Like the rest of us, they evolve
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Let's Ban Research That Makes the Bird-Flu Virus and Other Pathogens Deadlier
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:24:00 EST
In my classes, I often ask my students to wrestle with what I call damned-if-you-do-or-don’t dilemmas, which offer no easy solutions. Every choice would pose certain risks and violate one valued principle or another. We often must choose what we deem to be the “least bad” option, and hope things work out. Research involving the bird-flu virus H5N1 poses an especially knotty dilemma, in which scientists’ commitment to openness and to reducing humanity’s vulnerability to potential health threats collides with broader security concerns.
The H5N1 virus normally only infects humans who come into direct contact with infected birds; so far there have been no reported cases of airborne transmission among birds and humans. Of the 583 people known to have been infected with the virus, 344 have died as a result, a mortality rate of 59 percent. To be sure, many other infected people may have recovered without coming to the attention of medical authorities. But in comparison, the infamous flu pandemic of 1918, which killed at least 50 million people worldwide, had a mortality rate of two percent.
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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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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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Editor's Selections: Blood Tests for Depression, the Axolotl, Dopamine, and The Bachelor
Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:00:00 EST
Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week.
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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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The Brain is one Awesomely Complicated Piece of Meat
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:29:00 EST
Image of the Week #29, February 6th, 2012:
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Baby-Led Weaning Leads to Leaner Kids
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST
Image courtesy of iStockphoto/lisegagne
Those little pursed lips and that tiny crinkled nose might not just mean that your baby isn’t a fan of pureed peas or mashed sweet potatoes. Some of the refusals to all of those “here-comes-the-airplane” attempts to feed a weaning infant might also be the child s way of saying that she or he is just not hungry.
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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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