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- Sweet Confusion: Does high fructose corn syrup deserve such a bad rap?
- Closed Thinking: Without scientific competition and open debate, much psychology research goes nowhere
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Read articles, including Science News stories written for ages 9-14, on the
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Contents
- Teens take home science gold: A low-cost, self-driving vehicle; battery alternatives and analyses of galaxy clusters claim top prizes at a global high school science competition
- Flagging loose bolts: “Smart alert washer” automatically flags when a nut is coming loose, warning of potential danger
- Pee is for power: The water in urine can be a source of hydrogen for electrical generators
FOR KIDS: No ordinary zzz’s
Anesthetics can put you in a coma — but that’s a good thing
Web edition: June 8, 2012
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To study the effects of anesthesia, scientists study pictures of the brain, like these, that track brain activity.
It turns out that the dreamlike state that patients experience during surgery isn’t really sleep — at least not the kind you do every night. Patients going into surgery are given a mixture of medicines called general anesthetics to keep them from feeling any pain. The medicines numb the entire body, including the brain. One of medicine’s greatest mysteries is how the drugs work together in the brain to create a pain-free state.
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