Roger Highfield
TelegraphSun, 13 Jan 2002 18:51 UTC
The utopian society, in which it is in everyone's interest to co-operate and there are no sanctions, is an impossible dream, a study using game theory suggests.
The threat of punishment is the glue that holds society together, according to Swiss researchers.
A French woman who made headlines around the world, due to her battle with a disfiguring facial tumour, has been found dead at her home. Mother-of-three Chantal Sébire suffered excruciating pain from a rare inoperable cancer in her sinuses. She appealed for the legal right to end her own life.
Earlier this week a court in Dijon, in eastern France, rejected the 52-year-old former schoolteacher's request to go to her "death with dignity".
Belinda Goldsmith
ReutersThu, 20 Mar 2008 12:43 UTC
Marriage really can be a matter of the heart with a U.S. study finding that happily married couples have lower blood pressure than single people.
A new study in the journal Family Process reveals that caregivers with moderate to severe depressive symptoms showed greater hostility and less warmth. The study focused on caregivers of low-income children with persistent asthma.
Michael Conlon
ReutersMon, 17 Mar 2008 00:49 UTC
A dangerous drug-resistant bacterial infection has been showing up in a small number of patients who undergo face-lifts, doctors reported on Monday.
When infections do occur at surgical sites following such procedures "the facial plastic surgeon should have a high suspicion" for MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), as the source, they said.
Excerpted from The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance--and the Cutting-Edge Science that Promises Hope (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster).
An interview with the author follows.
Growing old is a happier experience than many of us imagine - that's according to the findings of a study conducted at Queen's University, Belfast, on behalf of the Changing Ageing Partnership (CAP).
Jason Eickmeyer was a 15-year-old sophomore at Hammonton High School in New Jersey the night he said he had sex with his gym teacher. From that moment on, he counted the days until he would be old enough to marry her.
Male classmates who heard the rumors would nudge him on the shoulder, he said, and give him a knowing smile. "I got respect," he said.
Two years later, after the police came to his house and took his statement against teacher Traci Tapp, Mr. Eickmeyer was shunned and mocked. He became a Jay Leno punch line.
Philippe R. Goldin, Kateri McRae, Wiveka Ramel and James J. Gross.
EurekAlertTue, 18 Mar 2008 07:00 UTC
Philadelphia - Emotions play an important role in the lives of humans, and influence our behavior, thoughts, decisions, and interactions. The ability to regulate emotions is essential to both mental and physical well-being. "Conversely, difficulties with emotion regulation have been postulated as a core mechanism underlying mood and anxiety disorders," according to the authors of a new study published in Biological Psychiatry on March 15th. Thus, these researchers set out to further expand our understanding of the differential effects of emotion regulation strategies on the human brain.
When 12-year-old Jasmine Levy woke up feeling unwell, her mother gave her Tylenol and sent her back to bed. A few hours later, she was dead.
Jasmine was the first child in Minnesota to die of the flu this season; six children died of flu last year. Jasmine had asthma and had reportedly developed a staph infection as a complication of the flu, officials said.