pMore than 50 years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the addition of antibiotics to livestock feed to reduce disease that can occur from dense living conditions and high-protein diets. Yesterday, the FDA announced its aim to withdraw that approval and stop all non-therapeutic germ-fighting in chickens, pigs and cows. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=bill-proposed-to-limit-antibiotics-2009-07-14[More]/a
pMore than 50 years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the addition of antibiotics to livestock feed to reduce disease that can occur from dense living conditions and high-protein diets. Yesterday, the FDA announced its aim to withdraw that approval and stop all nontherapeutic germ-fighting in chickens, pigs and cows. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=bill-proposed-to-limit-antibiotics-2009-07-14[More]/a
pFourteen years after a risky operation to save the life of an infant suffering heart failure, a team of U.K. doctors is claiming success. Hannah Clark (now aged 16)--who as a baby had a donor heart grafted onto her own--has made a full recovery, three years after the transplanted heart was removed, the doctors claim in an article published online today by The Lancet. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=teens-broken-heart-mends--literally-2009-07-14[More]/a
pWith dementia, Alzheimerrsquo;s disease brings amyloid plaques--proteins that accumulate in the brain. Many scientists believe the plaques are responsible for gradually destroying memory and brain functions. Most research--and most attempts at early diagnosis and treatment--depends on that supposition being correct. But new imaging technologies, which can show plaque buildups in the brains of living subjects, have produced a paradox: some people with plaque remain cognitively intact. A small minority of researchers think this finding suggests a different culprit behind Alzheimerrsquo;s: oxidative stress./ppAbout 10 to 40 percent of cognitively intact people have been shown to have the same amyloid plaques found in autopsies of Alzheimerrsquo;s patients but show no signs of the disease. That observation raises two possibilities: either the disorder grows so slowly that these people are just in an early phase of the disease and eventually will show symptoms, or the accepted theory is wrong. Most researchers are convinced it is the former--Alzshy;heimerrsquo;s can take a decade to grow to severity. That belief is based on years of research, but the way the disease progresses still has not been nailed down, because until now the only way to definitively diagnose Alzheimerrsquo;s (as opposed to other kinds of dementia) was by an autopsy after the patient had died./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=alternative-ideas-about-alzheimers[More]/a
a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=buying-green-6-eco-accessories[More]/a
pI met my husband, Peter, rather randomly, at all-the-Absolut-you-could-drink benefit for the Museum of Contemporary Art. We have often observed that had we not met that night, there is no particular reason to think we would have ever chanced on each other in the future, as we did not inhabit the same professional or social spheres.nbsp;From time to time, I contemplate the fantastic possibility that had one of us ventured several footsteps to the right or the left that evening, my husband, my children and my home might be subtracted from the life I lead today.nbsp;Counterintuitively, this counterfactual exercise in considering how much worse off I could be today brings me not distress, but pleasure.nbsp;Then again, a series of elegant studies published in the Journal of Personality sand Social Psychology suggest that my experience is not so counterintuitive after all./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-if-id-never-husband[More]/a
pI met my husband, Peter, rather randomly, at all-the-Absolut-you-could-drink benefit for the Museum of Contemporary Art. We have often observed that had we not met that night, there is no particular reason to think we would have ever chanced on each other in the future, as we did not inhabit the same professional or social spheres.nbsp;From time to time, I contemplate the fantastic possibility that had one of us ventured several footsteps to the right or the left that evening, my husband, my children and my home might be subtracted from the life I lead today.nbsp;Counterintuitively, this counterfactual exercise in considering how much worse off I could be today brings me not distress, but pleasure.nbsp;Then again, a series of elegant studies published in the Journal of Personality sand Social Psychology suggest that my experience is not so counterintuitive after all./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-if-id-never-husband[More]/a
p[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]/ppAnyone whorsquo;s ever had a cat knows how demanding they can be. Let me out, let me in, give me food, give me different food. The list goes on. But how do these clever kitties convince us to do their bidding? A study in the July 14 issue of Current Biology suggests itrsquo;s all in how they ask. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=cat-call-coerces-can-opening-09-07-14[More]/a
