All Stories by Ben Harder
- Earth
No Deep Breathing: Air pollution impedes lung development
Spending one's childhood in a community with polluted air stalls lung development roughly as much as does having a mother who smokes.
- Health & Medicine
Immune reaction to poison gas brings delayed effects
Researchers have a new understanding of why some survivors of carbon monoxide poisoning later develop concentration problems, personality changes, or sensory impairments.
- Health & Medicine
Figuring Out Fibroids
Researchers now have a better understanding of which women develop fibroids and what causes them.
- Earth
Rounding Up Resistance: Weed sacrifices seeds to put up with a herbicide
Use of herbicides containing glyphosate can drive evolution in the tall morning glory, even though the weed must simultaneously sacrifice a measure of its fertility.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin may guard against mental decline
The B vitamin niacin may protect people against Alzheimer's disease and other forms of mental decline.
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Brain protein peps up and soothes rodents
A recently identified brain hormone increases wakefulness and appears to suppress fear when it's injected into rodents.
- Health & Medicine
Bright nights kindle cancers in mice
Data from mice subjected to constant illumination suggest that artificial light may increase risks of lung and liver cancers and leukemia.
- Agriculture
Bees increase coffee profits
Scientists studying a Costa Rican coffee farm have estimated the monetary value of conserving nearby wooded habitat for the bees that pollinate coffee plants.
- Health & Medicine
Joint Effort: Bacteria in yogurt combat arthritis in rats
Yogurt containing certain types of live bacteria may help prevent or treat arthritis.
- Health & Medicine
Old-fashioned circumcision can spread herpes
Boys whose ritual circumcisions involve an ancient, and now rare, practice may acquire herpes during the operation.
- Health & Medicine
Severe sweating treated with Botox
A new treatment has been approved for excessive sweating, or hyperhidrosis, which is surprisingly common.
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Don’t Let the Bugs Bite
Using disease-control strategies based on genetic engineering, scientists are working to counter Chagas' disease, malaria, sleeping sickness, and other insectborne infections.
