Cancer screening keeps spreading to more groups of people, pushed by a widely shared conviction that more and earlier must always be better. As the shadow of cancer widens to cover ever more people, and lengthens to cover longer stretches of their lifespans, cancer angst spreads far and wide, too.Barry Kramer wants to counteract irrational fear and actions by helping us get more rational about cancer screening. Hes currently Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). A decade ago, Kramer started an annual evidence boot camp for journalists called Medicine in the Media . a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=nihmim12-the-spreading-shadow-of-cancer-angst-3-things-you-need-to-know-to-meet-it-rationally[More]/a
Cancer screening keeps spreading to more groups of people, pushed by a widely shared conviction that more and earlier must always be better. As the shadow of cancer widens to cover ever more people, and lengthens to cover longer stretches of their lifespans, cancer angst spreads far and wide, too.Barry Kramer wants to counteract irrational fear and actions by helping us get more rational about cancer screening. Hes currently Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). A decade ago, Kramer started an annual evidence boot camp for journalists called Medicine in the Media . a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=nihmim12-the-spreading-shadow-of-cancer-angst-3-things-you-need-to-know-to-meet-it-rationally[More]/a
pQuick: name a famous female scientist. If you said lsquo;Marie Curie,rsquo; yoursquo;re not alone. In fact, a lot of people canrsquo;t think of a single other example. Well, England#39;s Royal Society is fixinrsquo; to rectify that. On Friday, October 19th, itrsquo;s sponsoring a Wiki-editing marathon for articles about women in science ./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=royal-society-runs-science-women-wi-12-10-18[More]/a
[caption id=attachment_9281 align=alignleft width=200 caption=Do fossils of dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, contain soft tissues? Image: ScottRobertAnselmo, via Wikimedia Commons] [/caption]RALEIGH--Twenty years ago, paleontologist Mary Schweitzer made an astonishing discovery . Peering through a microscope at a slice of dinosaur bone, she spotted what looked for all the world like red blood cells. It seemed utterly impossible--organic remains were not supposed to survive the fossilization process--but test after test indicated that the spherical structures were indeed red blood cells from a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex. In the years that followed, she and her colleagues discovered other apparent soft tissues, including what seem to be blood vessels and feather fibers. But controversy accompanied their claims. Skeptics argued that the alleged organic tissues were instead biofilm--slime formed by microbes that invaded the fossilized bone. a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=molecular-analysis-supports-controversial-claim-for-dinosaur-cells[More]/a
[caption id=attachment_9258 align=alignleft width=275 caption=Image courtesy of iStockphoto/patrickheagney] [/caption]Antibiotics have been a boon to modern pediatric medicine --transforming many previously fatal childhood ailments into mere inconveniences. But these revolutionary treatments are not a cure-all. In fact, many common pediatric illnesses, including many ear and respiratory infections, fail to respond to antibiotics. And over-prescription of these meds--especially broad-spectrum antibiotics--is not only costly; it can also contribute to the growing and disconcerting trend of antibiotic resistance and can precipitate further health issues for some children who might have an adverse reaction to the medications . a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=a-simple-way-to-reduce-the-excess-of-antibiotics-prescribed-to-kids[More]/a
pBy Chelsea Wald of Nature magazine/p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=poachers-gun-down-iconic[More]/a
[caption id=attachment_9251 align=alignleft width=350 caption=Image courtesy of iStockphoto/VILevi] [/caption]About 1.7 million Americans each year acquire new infections during hospital stays--and hospital-acquired infections are one of the top five causes of death overall, killing 44,000 to 98,000 people in the U.S. each year . a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=can-a-burst-of-uv-bust-hospital-borne-infections[More]/a
A researcher at the University of Manchester thinks he may have solved a riddle that has baffled scientists for years. How can a wingless insect just two millimetres long travel over water to colonize an island habitat where it now thrives ?
pEvery year around this time, 120 million Americans roll up their sleeves to get their annual flu shots. Since 2010, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended yearly jabs for every healthy American over the age of six months. The goal is to curb the spread of infection and minimize the risk for potentially dangerous complications such as pneumonia, particularly among the elderly and the very young. But science on the vaccinersquo;s efficacy is scant among those two vulnerable groups. And although healthy adults do get some protection, it may not be as robust as they expect./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=flu-shots-may-not-protect-the-elderly-or-the-very-young[More]/a
In 2010 a black rhinoceros female named Phila survived two separate and brutal attempts on her life. In the first, poachers used a helicopter to attack the private game reserve where she lived in South Africa. Another rhino died in the assault. Phila escaped with two gunshot wounds. She was lucky, but her ordeal was not over--a few months later the poachers struck again. This time insiders leaked the location of her secure boma (pen), where she had been placed to recover from her injuries. When the poachers arrived, Phila had nowhere to run. She was shot her seven times, including twice in the skull, but her luck held out and she survived. Today she lives in a zoo, her habitat restricted, but her life secure.A new film discusses Philas story and the poachers that took aim at her. Biologist Carin Bondar discusses the documentary, Saving Rhino Phila , today in SA s PsiVid blog . a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=rhino-poaching-extinction-crisis[More]/a
pParadise, Ariz.--The Chiricahua Mountains here in far southeastern Arizona boast some of the most spectacular birding in the country; at no other time is this truer than in the early fall during the peak of hummingbird migration./p a href=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hummingbirds-tracked-during-us-southwests-second-spring[More]/a
