Body & Brain

In the December 5 Issue:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Climate might be right for a deal: Copenhagen negotiations will take steps toward a climate-stabilizing treaty
Botanical Whales: Adventures in the Tortugas reveal that seagrass fields need saving too
Breaking the Speed Limit: Studies examine physiology and technology to better foresee the ultimate edge of human performance

::	Body & Brain
	Biomedicine Psychology

Top Stories | November 22

Malaria shows signs of resisting best drug used to fight it
The frontline malaria medicine artemisinin shows gaps in effectiveness in Southeast Asia.
Mummies reveal heart disease plagued ancient Egyptians
CT scans of preserved individuals show hardening of arteries similar to that seen in people today.
Plastics ingredients could make a boy's play less masculine
Study links boys' fetal phthalate exposure to tendency toward gender-neutral play later on.
Science & the Public: Genome 10K: A new ark
Featured blog: Researchers are working to catalog the DNA sequences of just about every vertebrate genus.
Visual illusion stumps adults but not kids
A visual illusion that causes adults to misjudge objects’ sizes doesn’t affect young children, a new study finds.

:: More in Body & Brain

Visual illusion stumps adults but not kids

A visual illusion that causes adults to misjudge objects’ sizes doesn’t affect young children, a new study finds.

Obese people can misjudge body size

Survey finds that many overweight individuals consider their body size normal and healthy despite having health problems

Marathoners' hearts stressed, but not necessarily by heart attacks

Detailed imaging of runners’ hearts before and after races doesn’t find signatures of heart attacks

Science & the Public: PCBs hike blood pressure

No one would choose to eat polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs — yet we unwittingly do. And a new study finds that the cost of their pervasive contamination of our food supply can be elevated blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease.

Heart attack patients get high radiation dose

Medical imaging can add up to exposure similar to what nuclear power plant workers experience.

:: Science News
11|21 Issue Links

Junk food turns rats into addicts

Bacon, cheesecake and Ho Hos elicit addictive behavior in rats similar to the behavior of rats addicted to heroin.

Exercise helps brains bounce back

Study of rhesus monkeys shows running protects dopamine neurons from death.

People can control their Halle Berry neurons

Researchers pinpoint individual brain cells that respond to particular people and objects.

A gene critical for speech

Scientists argue a newly discovered stretch of DNA essential for larynx development may have allowed the evolution of language.

Skin bacteria different in diabetic mice

An excessive number and low diversity of skin bacteria could explain why wounds in diabetics are slow to heal

:: See all Body & Brain

Blogs:

Science & the Public Case of the toxic gingerbread man
By Janet Raloff Nov 21st 2009

On the Scene Changing the paradigm around Alzheimer's disease
By Science News Staff Nov 16th 2009

Columns:

Comment From fringe to electromicrobiological mainstream
By Ken Nealson Nov 20th 2009

Math Trek The four color problem gets a sharp new hue
By Julie Rehmeyer Mar 6th 2009

Not to Miss:

SN Special: The Science of Slumber

Interview: Murray Gell-Mann

SN Special: Darwin Turns 200

2008: Science News of the Year

SN Bookshelf:

Quantum Leaps by Jeremy Bernstein
Review by Tom Siegfried
Buy now | More Books

Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention by Stanislas Dehaene
A cognitive neuroscientist describes how the brain has adapted to reading and what can cause reading...
Buy now | More Books