Ben Harder

All Stories by Ben Harder

  1. Health & Medicine

    Garlic interferes with HIV drug

    Garlic supplements interact negatively with a protease inhibitor medication taken by people infected with HIV.

  2. Health & Medicine

    A glass of red may keep arteries loose

    A newly uncovered effect of a compound abundant in red wines may provide the mechanism needed to explain how reds could outperform whites and rosés in reducing heart disease.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Prenatal folate averts child leukemia

    Even a little supplementary folate during pregnancy now appears to reduce the risk that the child will develop acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Virus Shapes Risk of Multiple Sclerosis

    A huge, decade-long study bolsters the link between Epstein-Barr virus and the autoimmune disorder multiple sclerosis by showing that the common infection is more active in people who later develop symptoms of the disease.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Newfound flu protein may kill immune cells

    A dash of serendipity led to the discovery of a new protein, produced by most strains of the influenza A virus.

  6. Anthropology

    Evolving in Their Graves

    Understanding what early, rudimentary burials meant to modern humans' antecedents—assuming early humans did, in fact, bury their dead—could help anthropologsts untangle a lasting mystery of human evolution.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Low Radiation Hurts Bystander Cells

    New research confirms that alpha particles from decaying radon atoms can damage neighboring cells they don't directly hit and suggests a mechanism for this so-called bystander effect.

  8. Earth

    Fishy data hid decline in global catch

    Many coastal fisheries are in trouble, yet according to figures reported to the United Nations, the annual global yield has appeared to be stable or even growing.

  9. Physics

    Mishap halts work at Japanese neutrino lab

    A costly accident has indefinitely disabled Super-Kamiokande, a cutting-edge neutrino detector in Japan.

  10. Earth

    Coral-killing army recruits human bugs

    The army of pathogens responsible for black band disease, which kills corals, contains some human bacteria that polluted waters carry out to sea.

  11. Earth

    Greeks sailed into ancient Trojan bay

    A combination of sedimentary analysis and careful reading of classical literature helps pinpoint where the Greek fleet that attacked Troy came ashore.

  12. Earth

    Warm spell did little for Eocene flora

    A rapid warming period that began the Eocene epoch dramatically reshaped North America's animal community but not the continent's plants.