Health & WellnessS


Bulb

Perception coloured by language

Babies and adults use opposite sides of their brains to process colours. And the switch is due to the influence of language, a study suggests.

It is well known that in adults, perception of colour is processed predominantly by the left hemisphere, which is also where most people process language. Studies have shown that the language one speaks can have an impact on the colour one sees.

Health

McDonald's Goes Feng Shui, But Fast Food Is Still Gross

While its décor has been overhauled to inspire good health, McDonald's menu is still larded with the same old artery-clogging animal products.


Red Flag

Independence of CDC Scientists in Question

Insiders Say Health Agency Head Gerberding Drives Away Top Talent, Embitters Employees

Over the past four years, the office at the Centers for Disease Control that is responsible for vaccine safety has undergone numerous leadership changes, internal conflicts and a flight of senior scientists.

Binoculars

Singing starlings and why thousands of babies who should have been boys are being born as girls

Next time you hear a starling sing, stop and listen hard. It may well be warning of a peril that endangers the whole world of nature - and the very future of the human race itself.

For scientists have found that gender-bender chemicals - increasingly contaminating the environment, our food, our water and our bodies - are having a bizarre effect on common birds, causing the males to give voice to longer and more complex songs.

This is only the latest in a long series of increasingly urgent alarms being sounded by wildlife against an insidious but devastating danger that threatens our children.

Magnet

Nanomagnets 'could target cancer'

Tiny magnets made by bacteria could be used to kill tumours, say researchers.

A team at the University of Edinburgh has developed a method of making the nanomagnets stronger, opening the way for their use in cancer treatment.

The bacteria-produced magnets are better than man-made versions because of their uniform size and shape, the Nature Nanotechnology study reported.

Bulb

Gender differences in language appear biological

Although researchers have long agreed that girls have superior language abilities than boys, until now no one has clearly provided a biological basis that may account for their differences.

For the first time -- and in unambiguous findings -- researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa show both that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks.

"Our findings - which suggest that language processing is more sensory in boys and more abstract in girls -- could have major implications for teaching children and even provide support for advocates of single sex classrooms," said Douglas D. Burman, research associate in Northwestern's Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

People

Case Western Reserve University psychologist finds gender differences in forgiving

Forgiveness can be a powerful means to healing, but it does not come naturally for both sexes. Men have a harder time forgiving than women do, according to Case Western Reserve University psychologist Julie Juola Exline. But that can change if men develop empathy toward an offender by seeing they may also be capable of similar actions. Then the gender gap closes, and men become less vengeful.

Exline is the lead author on the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology's article, "Not so Innocent: Does Seeing One's Own Capability for Wrongdoing Predict Forgiveness"" She collaborated with researchers Roy Baumeister and Anne Zell from Florida State University; Amy Kraft from Arizona State; and Charlotte Witvliet from Hope College.

Bulb

Flashback Aspartame's Sweet Dreams; Who Are We to Disagree?

Aspartame, sold as NutraSweet, Equal, NatraTaste and Canderel, was discovered in 1965 by G.D. Searle Co., and originally used to treat ulcers.

It is now found in almost every dietetic or low-calorie food and beverage on the market. Used by such companies as Bayer, Con Agra Foods, Dannon, Smucker, Kellogg, Wrigley, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods (Crystal Light), Conopco (Slim-Fast), Coke, Pfizer, Wal-Mart and Wyeth, aspartame can even be found in children's vitamins.

Attention

The Threat of Mercury in Florescent Light Bulb and Vaccines

"The public awareness has been raised by the sequential wave of experiences ... Including mercury exposure from additives, fish, contaminated air, bird deaths from eating mercury-contaminated seed grains, dental amalgam leakage, mercury allergy, etc ... ." -- Dr. Maurice Hilleman, 1991

Maine's Department of Environmental Protection led the nation in its recent study of mercury loosed by compact florescent light bulb (CFL) breakage. The DEP is very clear that the overall environmental impacts of reducing carbon emissions through more energy efficient lighting is positive and substantial. Still, since CFLs contain a potent neurotoxin, mercury, staffers in the Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management wanted to offer Maine citizens good advice just in case they dropped a bulb and had an unexpected "release" in their homes.

Cow

USDA Rejects 'Downer' Cow Ban

Agriculture Secretary Finds Existing Meat-Processing Rules Adequate