All Stories by Ben Harder
- Health & Medicine
Falling Influence: Influenza fighters have limited effects
The most readily available drugs against influenza have abruptly declined in effectiveness in the past decade.
- Humans
Anti-TB spending abroad could save money overall
Investing $44 million in tuberculosis-control programs in Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic might save the United States nearly triple that amount over the next 20 years.
- Earth
Organic Choice: Pesticides vanish from body after change in diet
Children can eliminate their bodies' loads of agricultural pesticides by eating organically grown products.
- Earth
Liquid-detergent packets threaten children’s eyes
Sealed bags containing liquid detergent for single loads of laundry may be convenient, but if squeezed, they're liable to burst and spray their caustic contents into people's eyes.
- Health & Medicine
Deaths in early 1918 heralded flu pandemic
An examination of New York City death records from early last century suggests that the world's deadliest flu virus was on the loose in New York several months before it exploded into the 1918-1919 global pandemic.
- Health & Medicine
Lead in spice mixes caused poisonings
Contaminated spices, purchased from poorly regulated sources, can explain some cases of lead poisoning that involve several members of a family.
- Earth
The Wind and the Fury
New research suggests that, as global warming proceeds, hurricane winds will gain speed and the storms will dump more rain, but controversy lingers as to how much more violent the storms will become and when they will occur.
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Dead Tired: Weary doctors function as if intoxicated
After a month of long hours of challenging work, fatigued physicians show impairments in driving and other tasks requiring constant attention and quick reactions.
- Health & Medicine
When Flu Flies the Coop
Scientists are tracking the spread of a threatening influenza virus in birds and exploring strategies that could be used to halt a potential outbreak in people before it explodes into a global epidemic.
- Chemistry
Class Acts from New Pesticides: Chemicals have little effect on mammals
Two new classes of selective pesticides immobilize and eventually kill many crop-damaging insects by interfering with a cell receptor unique to those pests.
- Earth
Can polluted air cause birth defects?
For the second time, scientists have found evidence suggesting that prenatal exposure to air pollution may cause certain birth defects.
- Health & Medicine
Stroke site is often not right
Thousands of strokes in the right half of the brain may go unrecognized because their symptoms are less distinctive than those of left-side strokes.
