A new medical implant might greatly reduce the risk of chemotherapy treatment
Chemotherapy is a common and dangerous cancer treatment due to the negative effects on everything that is not a tumor cell. Researchers from Columbia University have invented a soft medical implant capable of administering drugs from inside the body. The ability to place this device close to the target area allows for a significant (90%) reduction of the drug dosage to be used. Similarly, avoiding body-wide administration of the drug can greatly reduce the damage inflicted by normal chemotherapy dosages. Continue reading A new medical implant might greatly reduce the risk of chemotherapy treatment
Yum! Recommendations Suggest Feeding Most Babies Peanuts to Help Prevent Allergies
Peanut allergies have the potential to seriously impact a child’s life. In some cases, the mere presence of a peanut-product can create a life threatening situation. Over the years, doctors have released a variety of recommendations designed to limit the number of children who ever develop an allergy. In 2000, it was recommended that infants avoid peanuts altogether. Since then, peanuts in the first year … Continue reading Yum! Recommendations Suggest Feeding Most Babies Peanuts to Help Prevent Allergies
Getting all your ducklings in a row: a look inside the animal mind
by Rebecca Senft figures by Michael Gerhardt and Rebecca Senft If you’ve ever seen a long line of ducklings waddling across a road, you know that they follow their mother dutifully, even in the face of oncoming traffic. Ducklings, like many species of birds whose young leave the nest early, are able to identify their own mother and siblings based on sight and won’t follow … Continue reading Getting all your ducklings in a row: a look inside the animal mind
Why are hurricanes weakening? Possible reasons and the long term pattern
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy, the second costliest hurricane in United States history, caused the loss of 233 lives and assessed damage of 75 billion dollars. With Sandy still on the minds of many, it may surprise you that America’s Atlantic coast may actually be in the middle of a decades long lull in hurricane activity. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published this surprising … Continue reading Why are hurricanes weakening? Possible reasons and the long term pattern
Cancer Moonshot Musings Part I: Precision Prevention
by Steph Guerra figures by Rebecca Clements It has been one year since President Obama announced the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Since then, the Moonshot has convened a Blue Ribbon panel to brainstorm ten recommendations to be completed over the course of the next five years. In this series of articles, I will explain the science behind some of these proposals with an aim to evaluate their utility … Continue reading Cancer Moonshot Musings Part I: Precision Prevention
Episode 10: Sports, Sex, and Gender
By Dana Boebinger, Rachel Hanebutt, Brittany Mayweather, and Michael Ruiz Produced by Michelle Frank Dana: Hello, and welcome to Sit’N Listen: a production of Science in the News. We’re a graduate-student run organization at Harvard University that catalyzes discussion between scientists and other experts and enthusiasts. I’m Dana Boebinger, and I’m a third year graduate student in auditory neuroscience at Harvard, studying how the brain … Continue reading Episode 10: Sports, Sex, and Gender
Scientists observe light from antimatter for the first time
Physicists at CERN have observed the light emitted from antimatter for the first time, bringing us one step closer to unraveling one of the longest-standing problems in physics today – why is it that regular matter is so much more abundant than antimatter in the Universe? Standard models suggest that for every particle of matter created in the Big Bang, an antiparticle was also created. … Continue reading Scientists observe light from antimatter for the first time
Masquerade
Gene therapy is an approach to treating genetic diseases by re-introducing a functional copy of a gene into cells to replace the mutated, disease-causing gene. To get these genes into the cells, scientists create a vector by packaging the DNA encoding the correct gene into the outer shell–called the capsid–of a virus. A vector retains the ability of the virus to enter human cells and … Continue reading Masquerade
Parental weight and its impact on early childhood development
According to the CDC, 70.7% of the US population is overweight or obese (BMI>30), with 37.9% being obese. Obesity related health expenses accounted for an estimated $147 billion in healthcare spending in 2008 alone. The dire health consequences for obese individuals include higher incidence of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease to name a few on top of overall decrease in … Continue reading Parental weight and its impact on early childhood development
Say Goodbye to Antibacterial Soaps: Why the FDA is banning a household item
by Gabriel W. Rangel figures by Michael Gerhardt How many times per day do you wash your hands? Do you ever think about the type of soap you use? We all know handwashing with soap is an impactful way to maintain health by decreasing the risk of becoming infected with one germ or another. Therefore, using soap with antibacterial compounds added is a no-brainer, right? … Continue reading Say Goodbye to Antibacterial Soaps: Why the FDA is banning a household item