All Stories by Ben Harder
- Health & Medicine
Calling Death’s Bluff
New methods of assessing a person's risk of sudden death due to a heart arrhythmia may enable doctors to better identify which patients need to receive an implanted defibrillator.
- Humans
Grounded Epidemic: Reduced air travel after 9/11 slowed flu spread
The perennial winter-flu season developed more gradually than usual in the United States in the months after September 11, 2001, because of a reduction in air travel following that day's terrorist attacks.
- Earth
Plowing Down the Amazon: Satellites reveal conversion of forest to farmland
The clearing of jungle to create cropland is a major and previously underappreciated force behind deforestation in the Amazon region of Brazil, according to an analysis of satellite images.
- Health & Medicine
Herpes simplex viruses dip in prevalence
Two viruses that cause genital herpes decreased in prevalence in the United States during the past 2 decades.
- Health & Medicine
Old drug can stop clots as well as newer drug does
A decades-old form of the anticlotting drug heparin is as safe, as effective, and potentially as convenient to use as recent derivatives that are many times more expensive.
- Earth
When a Shot Is Not: PCBs may impair vaccine-induced immunity
Exposure to certain pollutants early in life may do lasting harm to the immune system by blocking its response to vaccinations.
- Health & Medicine
Risky Legacy: African DNA linked to prostate cancer
The high rate of prostate cancer among African American men may result in large part from a newly identified stretch of DNA passed down from their African ancestors.
- Health & Medicine
Sauna use among dads linked to tumors in children
Men who expose themselves to excessive heat in the weeks before they conceive children may place their future offspring at unnecessary risk of brain cancer.
- Health & Medicine
How to Wash Up in the Wilderness
Many campers who wash their dishes in the wilderness use methods that don't consistently remove all bacteria.
- Earth
Holy Smoke: Burning incense, candles pollute air in churches
Incense and candles release substantial quantities of pollutants that may harm health.
- Health & Medicine
The Screen Team
New and experimental methods of screening for colorectal cancer that patients find less unpleasant than current tests could take a bite out of the malignancy's toll.
- Health & Medicine
Blood sugar and spice
Eating cayenne pepper with meals may mitigate a hormonal response to food that's linked to diabetes.
