All Stories by Ben Harder
- Health & Medicine
Enough Isn’t Enough: An epidemic of vitamin D deficiency
Many U.S. women of childbearing age, particularly those of African descent, lack sufficient vitamin D even though they consume the recommended amount.
- Health & Medicine
Chinese chimneys slash lung cancer risk
People in rural China who replace rudimentary domestic hearths with well-ventilated stoves enjoy both less-smoky homes and a dramatic reduction in their risk of developing lung cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Drug cuts risk of seizures in pregnancy
An inexpensive drug treatment lessens the risk of seizures that sometimes strike and even kill women during pregnancy or immediately after delivery.
- Health & Medicine
Eat Broccoli, Beat Bacteria: Plant compound kills microbe behind ulcers and a cancer
A chemical abundant in broccoli and certain other vegetables kills ulcer-causing Helicobacter pylori bacteria in the laboratory and inhibits stomach cancer in mice.
- Health & Medicine
Look Ma, Too Much Soy: Hormone in infant food reduces immunity in mice
Large doses of the estrogenlike hormones that occur naturally in soybeans weaken the immune systems of mice.
- Health & Medicine
Wholesome Grains: Insulin effects may explain healthful diet
Overweight people who eat whole grains rather than refined ones appear better equipped to manage their blood-sugar concentrations with minimal production of the hormone insulin, which could help explain why a diet rich in whole grains appears to guard against type II diabetes and heart disease.
- Health & Medicine
Liquid could aid vaccine storage and use
A new medium for vaccines could remove the need to either refrigerate or rehydrate vaccines, hurdles that impede immunization campaigns in poor countries.
- Health & Medicine
Beating two infections with one vaccine
Identifying key similarities between related viruses could enable researchers to coax some vaccines to do double duty.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer Link Cooks Up Doubt: Heating may form potential carcinogen in food
Foods cooked at high temperatures contain large concentrations of acrylamide, a compound suspected to cause cancer in people, but researchers are cautious about acting on preliminary, unpublished data.
- Health & Medicine
Put Out to Pasture: Strategy to prolong antibiotics’ potency
The use of antibiotics to promote growth in farm animals hastens the end of their medical effectiveness.
- Earth
Feminized Frogs: Herbicide disrupts sexual growth
At concentrations currently found in water, the widely used weed killer atrazine hormonally strips male frogs of their masculinity and may be partly responsible for global amphibian declines.
- Health & Medicine
Antibiotics don’t seem to protect heart
Two large studies find little evidence that antibiotics can protect some people with cardiovascular disease against subsequent heart attacks.
