Tuesday, 21 May, 2013

Contaminated injection blamed for mini-epidemic. Why are hospitals running out of generic drugs, anesthetics and antibiotics?

Three gross “biotherapies”: Leeches suck blood after surgery. Maggots clear dead tissue from wounds. Parasitic worms fight ulcerative colitis.

Strong, tough, sticky, elastic and biodegradable, silk may be used for a mesh to support injured tissues, or as a temporary container for drugs, stem cells and growth factors. As scientists divine the secret of how spiders and silkworms make silk, they are finding ways to engineer silk into medical devices.

A technology that revolutionized medicine and genetics gets the big Nobelian Nod. Cancer. Heart disease. Obesity. Research into virtually every major disease has gotten a boost from the Knockout Nobel!

All things considered, the war against cancer is going better than that other war in progress at the moment — even though cancer research gets a lot less money.

Amid a flood of contaminated Chinese imports, we ask: what is going on? How dangerous are these foods and medicines? Is this normal, expected? Or should we be doing something more to improve safety?

If you take Avandia for diabetes, or any medicine approved for anything, you perhaps have been alarmed when the media reports some previously undetected danger that might turn a life-saving drug into a killer.

Could a walk in the park be good for you? Could looking out a window at a park be good for you? Can nature lower stress and promote healing? For centuries, philosophers, mystics and tree-huggers have talked up the benefits of nature.

Small doses of alcohol can kill brain cells in young lab animals. In people, they cause fetal alcohol syndrome. Anesthetics can also kill brain cells in animals. What do they do to young humans?

Fetal alcohol syndrome causes mental and physical probems in one percent of American babies. Why is alcohol so damaging to young brains, and what can we do about it?

A new year is a chance to bring sanity to our medical, scientific and environmental disasters. Here’s our wish-list for a better New Year!

Cannibalism reconsidered. Is devouring the relatives a humane way to respond to emotions about death? Do cannibals still roam the Guyana highlands?

What are the medical and psychological costs of long-term space travel? Radiation, isolation, osteoporosis: Sounds like a real picnic to us! Intrigued? You could always overwinter in the Antarctic…

To a migraine sufferer, the pressure from a single strand of hair can feel like a white-hot knife. A new explanation for migraine pain could lead to better drugs.