Ben Harder

All Stories by Ben Harder

  1. Humans

    Science Flair: Top U.S. science and engineering students reap recognition, rewards

    Forty finalists in the 2003 Intel Science Talent Search received recognition and more than $500,000 in scholarships for their efforts toward solving original problems in science and engineering.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Light could be therapy against blindness

    Beaming red light at rats soon after they've drunk methanol partially protects their eyes against that chemical's blinding effects.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Miscarriages foretell heart trouble

    Women who spontaneously lose one or more fetuses during early pregnancy are about 50 percent more likely than other women to later suffer ischemic heart disease.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Bacteria-Stocked Beverage Clears Pathogens from Nose

    Dangerous bacteria often take refuge deep inside peoples noses, where they can remain dormant until they find an opportunity to invade other parts of the body. Perhaps the most important of these stowaway nasal microbes is Staphylococcus aureus, which can spread to wounds and surgical incisions and cause life-threatening blood infections. As many as a […]

  5. Earth

    A Safe Solution

    A home-based technique for treating microbe-contaminated water with chlorine solution could save millions of lives in countries that are currently unable to provide residents with safe drinking water.

  6. Earth

    Proof of Burden

    Two teams of scientists report that the blood and urine of most Americans contain toxic cocktails of metals, artificial hormones, and chemical ingredients of plastics, flame retardants, pesticides, herbicides, and disinfectants.

  7. Earth

    Dirty Story: Farming has increased flow of soil onto reef

    Agricultural practices that early European settlers brought to eastern Australia sped the pace at which soil washes out to sea and settles over the Great Barrier Reef.

  8. Humans

    Talent Found: Top science students chosen in 62nd annual competition

    Forty wunderkinder, named as finalists in the annual Intel Science Talent Search, will collect $530,000 in scholarships for original research in science, mathematics, and engineering.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Rackets and Radicals: Noise may cause gene damage in heart

    Exposure to loud, continuous sound can scatter free radicals within heart tissue and cause injury to cells' DNA even after the din subsides, new animal research suggests.

  10. Health & Medicine

    As population ages, flu takes deadly turn

    The annual U.S. toll of influenza has risen dramatically since the late 1970s, in part because of the advancing age of the population.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Clot promoter cuts surgical bleeding

    A clot-promoting protein known as recombinant activated factor VII might offer a new way to staunch demand for blood transfusions.

  12. Earth

    Estrogens classified as carcinogens

    The sex hormones known as steroidal estrogens, which are used in hormone-replacement therapies and birth control pills, have joined a government list of known human carcinogens.