All Stories by Ben Harder
- Health & Medicine
McDonald’s Cutback in Antibiotics Use Could Reduce Drug-Resistant Bacteria
The fast-food chain McDonald’s announced on June 19 that it will stop its farms under contract from feeding chicken, cattle, and pigs certain antibiotics intended to accelerate the animals’ growth. That step might slow or reverse the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can infect people, scientists say. HAPPIER MEAL. Coming soon to a McDonald’s near […]
- Health & Medicine
Target: Celiac Disease
With the aim of releasing people with celiac disease from a strict, lifelong diet that lacks the wheat protein gluten, researchers are working to identify molecular targets that could block the disease’s hallmark, the degeneration of the lining of the small intestine.
- Health & Medicine
Domestic Disease: Exotic pets bring pathogens home
The potentially deadly monkeypox virus has spread from Africa to people in several states via infected pet prairie dogs.
- Health & Medicine
Skipping Meals Might Offer Health Gains
People assume that the ideal meal schedule spreads calorie intake over the course of the day: Never skip breakfast, keep your blood sugar on an even keel, and all that. But Mark Mattson, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, suspects that conventional wisdom may be due for an overhaul. Skipping breakfast? […]
- Earth
Whale meat in Japan is loaded with mercury
Some people in Japan who eat dolphins and other toothed whales are ingesting amounts of mercury that exceed legal health limits.
- Earth
To contain gene-altered crops, nip them in the seed
Researchers have demonstrated that, in principle, they can add genes that block genetically modified crops from breeding with conventional varieties and thus from spreading their artificial traits.
- Earth
Count Down: Chemicals linked to inferior sperm
New data suggest that typical exposures to chemicals called phthalates are associated with reduced fertility in men, but the specific phthalates they finger aren't those that researchers most expected to cause problems.
- Humans
Test Flight: Young scientists earn—and spread—their wings
A century after two brothers from Ohio launched the first powered aircraft, more than 1,200 students from 31 countries descended on Cleveland to participate in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
- Humans
Sea burial for Canada’s cod fisheries
The Canadian government has declared an end to cod fishing in nearly all of the country’s Atlantic waters.
- Health & Medicine
Fecal glow could improve meat safety
Workers who process animal carcasses into meat might soon use a novel type of laser scanner to identify products that have been contaminated with feces.
- Earth
Farm Harm: Ag chemicals may cause prostate cancer
On-the-job exposure to certain agricultural chemicals may be responsible for farmers' high rates of prostate cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Unproven Elixir
For aging men with low testosterone, hormone replacement may stall or counteract some common declines that come with age, but it'll take years to determine whether the treatment is doing most men more good than harm.
