-
Magazine
In the Sept. 15 SN: The plant microbiome revolution, Parker probe’s stellar tech, the first RNAi drug approved, video fakery, a puzzling lemur fossil, how elephants dodge cancer, supersmooth desalination, really old cheese and more.
Search Content
-
Food for Thought
No Peanuts for Your Peanut
12/11/2007 - 08:49 NutritionPeanuts are a protein-rich snack food packing plenty of vitamins and trace nutrients. However, these legumes can elicit potentially life-threatening immune reactions within the one in 100 American adults who are allergic to them. Rates of peanut allergy are even higher among children. And the really disturbing news: A new study finds that the age at which this common food allergy first shows...
-
News
New solutions for unused drugs
04/03/2007 - 18:21 Earth & EnvironmentA dilute stream of prescription drugs flows through the nation's rivers. To help cut that flow, representatives of the federal government and a pharmacists' trade group want consumers to stop flushing most old drugs down the toilet.
Some 3 to 7 percent of dispensed medicines go unused, according to estimates by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America in...
-
Food for Thought
Birds Don't Have to Be So Hot
11/20/2006 - 14:15 NutritionLast week, Iowa State University issued a news release about how long it takes to cook a turkey if you place it into the oven frozen. The answer: 5.5 hours for a 13- to 15-pound bird cooked in a 325°F oven.
However, what really caught my attention was something a little lower in the release—that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had issued a statement earlier...
-
Food for Thought
Cola May Weaken Women's Bones
10/24/2006 - 10:09 NutritionMiddle age and older women may want to limit their consumption of cola-flavored soft drinks. A new study links regular consumption of these beverages with reduced mineral density of hip bones in women past menopause. No similar hip vulnerability to cola showed up in men of the same age.
The gender-specific finding was quite strong, notes Katherine L. Tucker of the Jean Mayer...
-
News
Social jet lag: Need a smoke?
08/01/2006 - 12:19From Munich, at the Euroscience Open Forum meeting
People who have a hard time waking in the morning because their bodies' internal clocks are out of sync with their sleep schedules are said to have "social jet lag." Researchers in Europe have determined that the phenomenon strongly correlates with smoking.
Battling one's biological clock can leave people weary in the same way as...
-
Feature
Light Impacts
05/23/2006 - 12:10This is part two of a two-part series on lighting's environmental and human impacts. Part I: "Illuminating Changes," is available here.
Erin Chesky was a sleep-troubled teen, typical of many. Despite going to bed early each night, this honor roll student struggled to doze off—sometimes lying awake until 3 a.m. Each morning, she fought equally hard to...
-
Food for Thought
Meat Poses Exaggerated Cancer Risk for Some People
03/22/2006 - 16:26 NutritionLast year, the federal government's National Toxicology Program confirmed what many researchers had long been reporting: The heterocyclic amines that form in overcooked meat can trigger colon cancer in animals and probably do the same in people. Now, researchers studying mice have identified a gene that is needed to keep individual animals from becoming especially vulnerable to these...
-
Food for Thought
Wind Makes Food Retailers Greener
02/08/2006 - 16:29 Earth & EnvironmentIn centuries past throughout the world, windmills dotted bucolic landscapes, where millers ground cereal grains into flour. Later, farms and ranches harnessed the power of the wind to pump water. Although most farms and mills now run on electricity, wind power's appeal is reemerging. Several major food companies are investing in wind farms to cover all or part of their substantial electricity...
-
Feature
That's the Way the Spaghetti Crumbles
11/08/2005 - 11:51 PhysicsGreat scientists sometimes do silly experiments. The renowned physicist and Nobel prize winner Richard P. Feynman, for instance, once got it into his head to figure out why uncooked spaghetti doesn't snap neatly in two when you bend it far enough to break. Pay attention next time, and you'll notice that the pasta tends to shatter into three or more fragments of unequal lengths.
...
-
Food for Thought
Leaden Chocolates
11/03/2005 - 16:10 NutritionHere's something that might give you pause after Halloween: Chocolates are among the more lead-contaminated foods. A new study has probed the source of chocolate's lead and concludes it's not the cocoa bean. Its concentrations of the toxic metal were among the lowest recorded for any foodstuff.
The issue of lead-tainted chocolates is hardly new....