All Stories by Nathan Seppa
- Humans
Nobel prizes go to scientists harnessing odd phenomena
The 2003 Nobel prizes in the sciences were announced early this week.
- Health & Medicine
Was President Taft cognitively impaired?
President William Howard Taft apparently had sleep apnea, a breathing disorder that could explain his propensity to nod off.
- Health & Medicine
Coronary Fix: Coated inserts keep vessels unclogged
Mesh cylinders called stents, which doctors use to prop open coronary arteries, work better when they are coated with sirolimus, a drug that inhibits the accumulation of cells along the device.
- Health & Medicine
Broken arms way up
Broken arms among adolescents have risen sharply from 30 years ago, possibly because of the popularity of high-risk sports such as skateboarding and a combination of less milk intake and more soft drink consumption.
- Health & Medicine
Early Warning? Spinal fluid may signal Alzheimer’s presence
Spinal-fluid concentrations of two compounds already linked to the disease may reveal whether a person has Alzheimer's disease.
- Health & Medicine
Damage Patrol: Enzyme may reveal cancer susceptibility
People with lung cancer show less DNA-repair activity by a certain enzyme than people without the disease do.
- Health & Medicine
Coronary calcium may predict death risk
The amount of calcium in the coronary arteries can serve as a risk marker for people who are otherwise without heart disease symptoms.
- Health & Medicine
Grades slipping? Check for snoring
Children who snore frequently are more likely to struggle with their schoolwork than are children who rarely snore.
- Health & Medicine
Double Shot: Anthrax vaccine gets makeover
An experimental anthrax vaccine appears to spur production of antibodies that stop the bacterium and disable the anthrax toxin at the same time.
- Health & Medicine
Better Bones: Women benefit from low dose of estrogen
Ultralow doses of estrogen and progesterone given to postmenopausal women boost bone density compared with placebos, without causing the adverse effects seen in some women who get larger doses of these hormones.
- Health & Medicine
Drug reduces risks for dialysis patients
Kidney-dialysis patients getting the vitamin D drug paricalcitol survive longer than those getting a similar medication called calcitriol.
- Health & Medicine
Blood Sugar Fix
A new class of experimental drugs that mimic the actions of the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 shows benefits against type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes.
