Our natural daily 24-hour cycle could be stretched by an extra hour safely and simply by exposure to pulses of bright light, research suggests. Experts say it could prove useful for astronauts adapting for long-term missions to Mars – where a day lasts an extra 40 minutes. The team, from universities in the US and [...]
A grandmother in China has discovered the bizarre cause of her 63-year headache: a bullet in her brain. The 77-year-old finally went to see a doctor after suffering persistent headaches since she was a child. Doctors at Shuyang Leniency Hospital sent Jin Guangying for an x-ray to find out the cause. “We were surprised to [...]
Christie Whitman, the former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, agreed to testify before Congress about the government’s handling of air quality and health issues following the Sept. 11 attacks. Whitman’s attorney told Rep. Jerrold Nadler (news, bio, voting record) on Wednesday that she could not testify at a subcommittee hearing because of a pending federal lawsuit [...]
Doctors succeeded in giving independent blood flow to 3-year-old conjoined twins as they prepare for a high-risk procedure to separate them, a doctor said Friday. Tatiana and Anastasia Dogaru underwent another procedure Thursday in which a second coiled wire device was inserted into veins in their brains, which share tissue. The top of Tatiana’s head [...]
Women looking for a simple way to avoid their menstrual period could soon have access the first birth control pill designed to let women suppress monthly bleeding indefinitely. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expect to announce approval Tuesday for Lybrel, a drug from Wyeth which would be the first pill to be taken [...]
Short people and tall people can receive serious injuries from air bags, a new study found. “This is the first time that there is proof to substantiate the concern about small-stature occupants, and it is the first time that there has been any implication that tall people are also at risk,” said lead researcher Dr. [...]
Mice with deep skin wounds can grow new hair, scientists said on Wednesday in a finding that offers hope for a baldness remedy for humans. The mice regenerated hair at the site of the wound via molecular processes similar to those used in embryonic development, according to the research, published in the journal Nature.
A smokeless cannabis-vaporizing device delivers the same level of active therapeutic chemical and produces the same biological effect as smoking cannabis, but without the harmful toxins, according to UCSF researchers. Results of a UCSF study, which focuses on delivery of the active ingredient delta-9-tertrahydrocannibinol, or THC, are reported in the online issue of the journal [...]
A man molests a young woman sitting next to him on a Japanese train, drags her to a restroom and rapes her while she sobs. Some 40 fellow passengers fail to intervene. The case, which came to light with the suspect’s arrest last month, shocked the public and prompted soul-searching in the media, which said [...]
An experiment aimed at finding ways to help astronauts adapt to life on Mars could end up helping insomniacs on Earth, researchers said on Monday. They found that two 45-minute exposures to bright light in the evening could help people adjust to a longer, Martian-style day. During the experiment, they found a wider-than-expected variation in [...]
The numbers are a shock: Almost 1 billion people worldwide have high blood pressure, and over half a billion more will harbor this silent killer by 2025. It’s not just a problem for the ever-fattening Western world. Even in parts of Africa, high blood pressure is becoming common. That translates into millions of deaths from [...]
