health

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Newsflash! Too much Foster's makes you clumsy, hungover

This just in: Scientists in Australia have discovered that, according to the headline, "DRINKING CAN BE DANGEROUS:" People who drink alcohol are up to four times more likely than non-drinkers to be hurt from physical injuries such as a fall or punch, new research shows. More obviousness: "Binge drinkers were more at risk of being injured than regular drinkers. And people who sustained serious injuries were more likely to have consumed beer and have been drinking in a licensed premises." Slightly less... READ ON

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This is your mouse on drugs

I'm not sure the folks at the University of Utah created "Mouse Party" as an anti-drug effort - it looks like it's aimed at neuroscience students, not smack-addled teenagers - but it's easily the best one I've seen since the fried-egg ads. Drag the little cartoon lab mice into a scanner, and you get to see what various controlled substances do to their brains. Best part: When they're not in the scanner, the little guys act like they're actually on their respective drugs, all to a cool club beat: Ecstasy... READ ON

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I'd rather not think of sleep as being dangerous

Â ... READ ON

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Tiny brain-computer used to help paralyzed patients

ScienceDaily has a fascinating article about research being done to help paralyzed patients. A multi-institutional team of researchers has found that people with long-standing, severe paralysis can generate signals in the area of the brain responsible for voluntary movement and these signals can be detected, recorded, routed out of the brain to a computer and converted into actions -- enabling a paralyzed patient to perform basic... READ ON

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Stem Cells Successfully Create Sperm

Â Scientists have now turned miceÂ stem cells into sperm and have successfully fertilized eggs and produced offspring with those sperm. This is a very exciting step toward one day allowing an infertile man to have his own biological children. A New Scientist article talks about the research that's being done by a team in the UK (are we shocked that it's not American research?). Stem cells were extracted from early mouse embryos, and coaxed into becoming sperm by manipulating the environment... READ ON

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Watch us get Fatter

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The CDC and MSN worked together toÂ create a fascinating animated bit about the rise of obesity in America. Check out this link to watchÂ us all get fatter. It would be cool if they could make this show results in real time so that I couldÂ see the map change as I finish this piece of pizza. Â ... READ ON

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Fat kids lifting weights

The media has definitely covered the obesity epidemic in America in recent years and the situation doesn't seem to be improving. Doctors are coming up with anything they can to try to get kids to exercise a little more. One idea is to trick them into lifting weights by putting weights in their toys. OneÂ study included five boys and five girls, who were an average of 7.5 years old, who were randomly assigned to carry either large, cardboard toy blocks that weighed less than a quarter of a pound (0.10... READ ON

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Retro Is In Again

Today I saw a guy running past my house and I literally did a double-take. One of those cartoony ones. Why? Well, the guy wasn't just running, he was running backwards! I zipped to my computer and did some research: sure enough, backpedaling isn't just for those occasions when you've stuck your foot in your mouth. People are doing it for fun and exercise! According to Backward Running Backward, the "Chinese [have used] retro movements (backward running and backward walking) for thousands of years. In... READ ON

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It all makes sense now

Research on birds has shown that female canaries are more devoted to their young when they hearÂ Al GreenÂ -- er, aÂ "sexy" male serenade prior to reproduction: Researchers discovered that certain phrases in a canary's song are "sexier" than other syllables. ... When the researchers played female canaries a recording of males singing sexy syllables, the females laid significantly larger eggs than birds that heard recordings of normal songs. "It may be that this is a difficult kind of vocal... READ ON

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Public health announcement

Talk about a buzzkill -- my boss just waltzed into the office wearing a fabulousÂ new top from a local vintage store, and instead of oohing-and-ahhing as was clearly expected, my co-worker said, "oh, you got that at the Garment District? I bought a shirt there once and it gave me ringworm." This prompted a lively discussion in which I learned the following not-very-fun facts: (1) you really can get ringworm from sharing clothes, (2) ringworm is not a worm, but a skin-infecting fungus, (3) "jock itch"... READ ON