Cases of scarlet fever in Scotland have soared to the highest level in a decade.
So far this year, 383 people have been diagnosed with the illness - three times more than the same period in 2007.
Nicotine Receptors May Play Role In Development of Autism
Cholinergic nicotinic receptors, which have become a hot area for brain researchers, are linked to yet another psychiatric-neurological disorder - autism.
Deep inside the human brain, cholinergic nicotinic receptors are busy plying their trade, and one might view them as triple agents. They release the nerve transmitter acetylcholine from certain nerve ends, they receive it at others, and they can be stimulated by nicotine - yes, from cigarette smoking!
Comment: It is interesting to note the extreme lengths to which this article goes to in its wording (and in the original headline, retained here as a subheading), to disguise the conclusion that nicotine can be beneficial. If one was to read the article too quicky, one could easily go away with the impression that Nicotine is being cited as a cause of autism, rather than a cure.
A hormone produced in the gut spurs people to eat more by making food seem more appealing, new research reveals, proving the wisdom behind the oft-repeated advice that people should never go food shopping when they are hungry.
Bird flu has spread to South Korea's capital Seoul despite a massive nationwide cull that saw the slaughter of six million ducks and chickens in recent weeks, officials said Tuesday.
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| A South Korean quarantine official decontaminates a small aviary in Seoul
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| New findings show that multiple efforts designed to improve memory skills similarly improve fluid intelligence.
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Brain-training efforts designed to improve working memory can also boost scores in general problem-solving ability and improve fluid intelligence, according to new University of Michigan research.
Comment: And SoTT is here to assist that all important Brain Training folks!
What happens to your brain when the music of Def Leppard, Frank Sinatra or even Michael Bolton blasts through a speaker and fills your head?
Lee Dye
ABC NewsTue, 06 May 2008 20:00 UTC
So you want to indulge in that sugar-coated doughnut because it tastes so sweet? You probably would want it just as much if it didn't taste sweet at all.
Thousands of Chinese children have been infected by a form of hand, foot and mouth disease, which may have claimed 26 lives, the government has said.
A new study by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital provides much-needed insight into the molecular mechanisms that cause arrythmia, or irregular heartbeat, and how it triggers sudden cardiac death, one of the nation's leading killers. Their findings, published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could pave the way for the development of new, genetically-targeted therapies to treat and prevent fatal arrythmias.
Most cases of sudden cardiac death are related to arrhythmias, including clinical conditions such as long QT syndrome (LQTS), a disorder of the heart's electrical system that causes fast, chaotic heartbeats. LQTS - which can be inherited or brought on by certain medications - usually affects otherwise healthy children and young adults. Although LQTS seems to be relatively rare, experts believe it is also underdiagnosed, meaning variants of it may be more common than previously suspected.
Which is better, giving more food to a few hungry people or letting some food go to waste so that everyone gets a share" A study appearing this week in Science finds that most people choose the latter, and that the brain responds in unique ways to inefficiency and inequity.
The study, by researchers at the University of Illinois and the California Institute of Technology, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of people making a series of tough decisions about how to allocate donations to children in a Ugandan orphanage.
The researchers hoped to shed light on the neurological underpinnings of moral decision-making, said co-principal investigator Ming Hsu, a fellow at the U. of I.'s Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
"Morality is a question of broad interest," Hsu said. "What makes us moral, and how do we make tradeoffs in difficult situations""
Comment: It is interesting to note the extreme lengths to which this article goes to in its wording (and in the original headline, retained here as a subheading), to disguise the conclusion that nicotine can be beneficial. If one was to read the article too quicky, one could easily go away with the impression that Nicotine is being cited as a cause of autism, rather than a cure.