Autism
Treating Pain on a Social Scale
By Matt Wood We hear a lot these days about online social networks, but the size and strength of a person’s real-life social network has major consequences for his or her health and quality of life. Studies have shown a statistical link between social interaction and mortality, and research has linked loneliness to a range […]
A Nano-Vehicle to Fight Brain Cancer
By Rob Mitchum Treating a brain tumor in a lab dish is easy. Scientists have developed a full arsenal of treatments to kill tumor cells, using natural toxins, chemotherapeutic drugs, and even gene therapy to send them to an early grave. But making those therapies work in the actual setting of the brain is a […]
Evolution and the Unraveling of DNA
By Rob Mitchum In cells, DNA doesn’t often hang out in the long, stretched-out strings you see in science textbooks. Most of the time, it is stored tight in a package called a nucleosome, wound like a ball of yarn around a protein called chromatin. In order for a gene to be “activated,” the stretch […]
A Nasal Path to Migraine Relief
Roughly 30 million Americans suffer from migraines, and as you might expect, there’s a large pharmaceutical market to prevent or stop these debilitating headaches. Drugs such as Imitrex and Verapamil employ different pharmacological modes of action, reducing migraines by adjusting neurotransmitter levels, blocking ion channels, or simulating the body’s natural painkillers. There’s also a less […]
The Helpful Pacifism of Bacterial Cheaters
Have you ever cheated on a test by glancing over at someone else’s work? Or relied on a fellow student to carry the load on a group project while you coast along with minimal effort? While few will admit to these forms of cheating, they have long been fixtures of the classroom. However, a lazy […]
Breaking Ground on the Neuropsychiatric Data Mine
Biology used to be the scientific discipline where data was at a premium, a rare resource painstakingly collected in the field or the laboratory. But today’s biologists are confronted with a flood of data, a fire-hose torrent of genetic and clinical information that only builds with the spread of fast sequencing and electronic medical records. […]
Linkage 1/7: Tear Communication, The Cost of Fraud
The late December quiet has given way to a post-holiday flurry of exciting research news, most of which I can’t tell you about until next week. But in the meantime, here’s our first weekly roundup for 2011 of the most interesting science and medical news around the web. Tears for Fears Scientists have discovered a […]
Linkage 8/13: The Headache of Brain Testing
Many neurological disorders struggle with the same problem as their cousins, the psychiatric disorders: a fuzziness of diagnosis. Even well-known diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s are tricky for physicians to diagnose, since their hallmark symptoms (dementia, or movement issues) show up late and can reflect any number of conditions with different treatment strategies. Meanwhile, […]
Linkage 6/11: World Cup Edition
For the next month, the world’s attention (and mine) will be focused on South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. Though it’s just starting to break through the public consciousness in the States, the World Cup is such a massive cultural force in the rest of the world that its tremors are felt even in […]
The Battle of the DSM-V
There are few areas of medicine filled with more controversy than psychiatry. Compared to heart disease or a viral infection, mental illness is far more difficult to diagnose, with symptoms that are often vague, subjective, or difficult to accurately measure. To try and bring order and reliability to the assessment and treatment of mental illness, […]
