Medical News

RSS

S&P downgrade puts pressure on 'super committee' to fix entitlements

"S&P sees the debt agreement as falling short of what's necessary to fix the nation's finances. The spending cuts Democrats and Republicans agreed on were relatively modest".

8 Aug 2011

De novo mutations account for 50% of sporadic cases of schizophrenia

Columbia University Medical Center researchers have shown that new, or "de novo," protein-altering mutations—genetic errors that are present in patients but not in their parents—play a role in more than 50 percent of "sporadic" —i.e., not hereditary—cases of schizophrenia.

8 Aug 2011

New finding about cell metabolism may have implications for neurodegenerative disorders

Cells are the building blocks of the human body. They are a focus of scientific study, because when things go wrong at the cellular and molecular level the consequences for human health are often significant.

8 Aug 2011

Women with RAD51D gene fault more likely to develop ovarian cancer

Cancer Research UK-funded scientists have discovered that women who carry a faulty copy of a gene called RAD51D have almost a one in 11 chance of developing ovarian cancer, the most significant ovarian cancer gene discovery for more than a decade, reveals a study in Nature Genetics1 today.

8 Aug 2011

Turning from debt debate, some GOP House members renew health law attack

Healthcare reform still loomed large in voters' minds last week as members of Congress began their traditional series of recess town hall meetings. The issue had drifted down the political agenda after the 2010 midterm elections.

8 Aug 2011

Early burn out of male Bustard may explain how biological aging evolved: Research

For male houbara bustards sexual extravagance is the key to attracting mates in some of the world's harshest desert environments. However, new research in Ecology Letters reveals that males who perform the most extravagant sexual displays will suffer from premature biological aging and will pass their reproductive prime years earlier than their less ostentatious rivals.

6 Aug 2011

Proposals to reduce nation's debt would harm major scientific projects: APS

The American Physical Society, the nation's leading organization of physicists, is deeply concerned that proposals to drastically reduce the nation's debt would do serious harm to major scientific projects.

6 Aug 2011

Biologists show that females themselves can limit evolution of increased elaboration

Female cognitive ability can limit how melodious or handsome males become over evolutionary time, biologists from The University of Texas at Austin, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute have observed.

6 Aug 2011

USDA scientists develop new food aid product

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service "have developed a fully cooked food-aid product called Instant Corn Soy Blend that supplements meals, particularly for young children," a USDA news story reports (Bliss, 8/4).

6 Aug 2011

Panel discusses global health approaches and sustainable results

The Center for Global Health Policy's "ScienceSpeaks" blog describes a panel discussion, which took place at last week's Society for International Development 2011 World Congress, that focused "on vertical and integrated approaches to global health [and] addressed the question of how best to achieve sustainable results in the field."

6 Aug 2011

Scientist urges federal officials to decide on genetically engineered salmon for consumption

A Purdue University scientist is urging federal officials to decide whether genetically engineered salmon would be allowed for U.S. consumption and arguing that not doing so may set back scientific efforts to increase food production.

6 Aug 2011

ONE hosts discussion of famine with USAID, WFP officials

"ONE Blog" features an audio recording of a conference call the organization held on Wednesday with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran and Somali advocate Ali Ali about the famine in Somalia.

6 Aug 2011

New research sheds light on appeal of videogames

People spend 3 billion hours a week playing videogames but little is known scientifically about why they are actually fun in the first place.

6 Aug 2011

Economic slowdown should not hamper global fund donations

With the new knowledge that providing antiretroviral treatment to people living with HIV would "contribut[e] to a sharp slowdown in the spread of the virus," "scaling up treatment now may prove to be the least expensive option if we want to bring this deadly pandemic, which still infects 1.8 million people every year, under control," Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

6 Aug 2011

Students of FAU's new Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine receive first white coats

The 64 students who make up the inaugural class of Florida Atlantic University's new Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine will receive their first white coats at a ceremony today to symbolically confirm their commitment to the profession of medicine.

6 Aug 2011

Patient perceptions don't match Medicare hospital data

More than 120 hospitals given top marks by patients for providing excellent care also have a darker distinction: high death rates for heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia, a USA Today analysis of new Medicare data has found (Sternberg and Schnaars, 8/5).

6 Aug 2011