Summaries | Headlines

Costs Of Treating Arthritis On The Rise Nationwide, Study Finds (April 29, 2007) -- The amount Americans spent on arthritis medications more than doubled between 1998 and 2003, due to the fast-rising number of people with the disease, increases in the number of medications they take ... > full story

Improving Hip Replacement Surgery By Using Better Components (April 29, 2007) -- Researchers at NIST are developing state-of-the-art measuring techniques, similar to those used in making aerospace components fit together precisely, that soon could improve success rates for hip ... > full story

Girls Born With HIV Infection At Higher Risk For Cervical Problems (April 29, 2007) -- A generation of children born with HIV are now coming of age and reaching sexual maturity. Girls in this group who are sexually active are experiencing a higher number than expected of cervical ... > full story

Multiple Sclerosis Is Increasingly Becoming A Woman's Disease: Why? (April 29, 2007) -- Over time, more women are developing multiple sclerosis (MS) than men, according to new research. In 1940, the ratio of women to men with MS in the United States was approximately two to one. By ... > full story

Scientists Develop New Tool To 'Freeze' Crime Scene Memories (April 29, 2007) -- Scientists have developed a powerful new tool that 'freezes' the memory of crime scenes in the minds of witnesses. The tool - a self-administered interview applied by witnesses at crime scenes - ... > full story

New Treatment For Fungi Which Cause Thrush And Sepsis (April 29, 2007) -- A new treatment for Candida species of fungi which can cause thrush and sepsis (a life-threatening infection leading to fever, hypotension, and shock) has proven equally effective as the existing ... > full story

Collapse Of Teenage Clubber Highlights Dangers Of New Drug (April 29, 2007) -- The collapse of a teenage clubber after taking a tablet containing 1-benzylpiperazine has highlighted the dangers of this new drug of abuse which many doctors are unfamiliar with, according to an ... > full story

Food Cue-related Brain Activity Linked To Obesity? (April 28, 2007) -- A unique pattern of gene expression observed in rats may be linked to a conditioned desire for food and excessive food intake, a recently published article ... > full story

Pomegranate Juice May Help Fight Lung Cancer (April 28, 2007) -- Researchers are adding to the list of cancer types for which pomegranates seem to halt growth. A recent study using a mouse model shows that consuming pomegranates could potentially help reduce the ... > full story

Anti-dandruff Compound May Help Fight Epilepsy (April 28, 2007) -- Researchers have discovered that the same ingredient used in dandruff shampoos to fight the burning, itching and flaking on your head also can calm overexcited nerve cells inside your head, making it ... > full story

Plant Protein That May Aid Biofuel Production Discovered (April 28, 2007) -- In a breakthrough that could make the production of cellulosic ethanol less expensive, scientists have discovered a class of plant enzymes that potentially could allow plant materials used to make ... > full story

Protein May Hold Key To Decreasing Organ Dysfunction Rates In Heart Transplants (April 28, 2007) -- A new study has identified a protein known as Lipocalin-2 as potentially responsible for regulating the body's inflammatory response during heart transplants. One of the major complications involved ... > full story

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Health science -- Health science is the discipline of applied science which deals with human and animal health. There are two parts to health science: the study, research, and knowledge of health and the application ... > full article

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder -- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (sometimes referred to as ADD for those without hyperactivity) is thought to be a neurological disorder, always present from childhood, which manifests ... > full article

Encephalopathy -- Encephalopathy is a nonspecific term describing a syndrome affecting the brain. Generally, it refers to involvement of large parts of the brain (or the whole organ), instead of identifiable changes ... > full article

Limbic system -- The limbic system is the collective name for structures in the human brain involved in emotion, motivation, and emotional association with memory. It affects motivation and is more active in ... > full article

Human brain -- The human brain is the center of the central nervous system in humans as well as the primary control center for the peripheral nervous system. The brain controls "lower" or involuntary activities ... > full article

Amygdala -- The amygdala (Latin, corpus amygdaloideum) is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain's medial temporal lobe. Shown to play a key role in the processsing of emotions, the amygdala ... > full article

Hypothalamus -- In mammals, the hypothalamus is a region of the brain located below the thalamus, forming the major portion of the ventral region of the diencephalon and functioning to regulate certain metabolic ... > full article

Central nervous system -- The central nervous system (CNS) represents the largest part of the nervous system, including the brain and the spinal cord. Together with the peripheral nervous system, it has a fundamental role in ... > full article

Spinal cord -- The spinal cord is a part of the vertebrate nervous system that is enclosed in and protected by the vertebral column (it passes through the spinal canal). It consists of nerve cells. The cord conveys ... > full article

Motor neuron -- In vertebrates, motor neurons (also called motoneurons) are efferent neurons that originate in the spinal cord and synapse with muscle fibers to facilitate muscle contraction and with muscle spindles ... > full article

Sensory neuron -- Sensory neurons are nerve cells within the nervous system responsible for converting external stimuli from the organism's environment into internal electrical impulses. For example, some sensory ... > full article

Heart -- The heart is a hollow, muscular organ in vertebrates that pumps blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions, or a similar structure in annelids, mollusks, and arthropods. The ... > full article

Lung -- The lung is the essential organ of respiration in air-breathing vertebrates. Its principal function is to transport oxygen from the atmosphere into the bloodstream, and to excrete carbon dioxide from ... > full article

Electrocardiogram -- An electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG, abbreviated from the German Elektrokardiogramm) is a graphic produced by an electrocardiograph, which records the electrical voltage in the heart in the form of a ... > full article

Cardiac arrest -- A cardiac arrest is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the ventricles of the heart to contract effectively during systole. The resulting lack of blood supply results ... > full article

Blood transfusion -- Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood or blood-based products from one person into the circulatory system of another. Blood transfusions may treat medical conditions, such as massive ... > full article

Immune system -- The immune system is the system of specialized cells and organs that protect an organism from outside biological influences. (Though in a broad sense, almost every organ has a protective function - ... > full article

Stomach -- In anatomy, the stomach is an organ in the gastrointestinal tract used to digest food. In general, the stomach's primary function is not the absorption of nutrients from digested food; this task is ... > full article

Enzyme -- Enzymes are proteins that catalyze (i.e. accelerate) chemical reactions. Enzymes are biochemical catalysts. In these reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, ... > full article

Aspirin -- Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid is a drug in the family of salicylates, often used as an analgesic (against minor pains and aches), antipyretic (against fever), and anti-inflammatory. It has also an ... > full article