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Monday March 28, 2011

Japan Finds More Foods Tainted By Radioactive Material

Wasabi plants, like these, in Fukushima prefecture were found to contain substantial amounts of radioactive iodine. C.K. Koay/Flickr hide caption

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C.K. Koay/Flickr

Japan Finds More Foods Tainted By Radioactive Material

March 28, 2011 • This week Japan's health ministry released a list of 99 different food products that had tested positive for radioactive iodine-131 and cesium-137 in Tokyo and five other prefectures. Some of those foods might surprise you.

Friday March 25, 2011

Tuberculosis Declines In The U.S., Affecting Mostly Those Born Overseas

Two students receive a tuberculin test in New York City, 1962. Library of Congress hide caption

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Library of Congress

Tuberculosis Declines In The U.S., Affecting Mostly Those Born Overseas

March 25, 2011 • Tuberculosis rates in 2010 were the lowest they've been since 1953 – when it first began tracking them. The disease now mainly affects people living in the U.S. who were born somewhere else.

New Republic: In Libya, Mosquito Nets Or Missiles?

The New Republic

March 25, 2011 • The U.S. launched military attacks on Libya last week, though some say the outcome looks uncertain. Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic argues that if the U.S. wants to save Libyan lives, perhaps military spending could be better used on health initiatives toward the country's most vulnerable.

Thursday March 24, 2011

'Citizen Scientists' Crowdsource Radiation Measurements In Japan

A cluster of radiation reading mapped by RDTN.org RDTN.org hide caption

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RDTN.org

'Citizen Scientists' Crowdsource Radiation Measurements In Japan

March 24, 2011 • Amateurs armed with Geiger counters are taking radiation readings in Japan and sending their results to a website for mapping. Radiation experts caution the results, while intriguing, are prone to error.

Monday March 21, 2011

Radioactive Milk Only A Danger After 58,000 Glasses

March 21, 2011 • Reports of radiation-contaminated food in Japan have raised concerns. Here's a reality check: At the highest radioactivity levels detected so far, you'd have to drink an 8-ounce glass every day for 160 years to raise your lifetime risk of getting cancer by 4 percent.

Monday March 14, 2011

Why Iodine Tablets Come Out When Radiation Threatens

Children in Kawamata, Japan, take potassium iodide on Monday to protect against thyroid cancer after being evacuated from the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images hide caption

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Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images

Shots - Health News

Why Iodine Tablets Come Out When Radiation Threatens

March 14, 2011 • Japan has distributed potassium iodide to evacuation centers near the troubled Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear power plants. The pills could help reduce the risk of thyroid cancer, if large amounts of radioactive iodine are released into the environment.

Tuesday March 8, 2011

Ex-Starbucks Exec Helps Develop Global Eye Banks

This young patient from India received his cornea transplant in 2009, when he was 10. Here he is shown before (above) and after (below) the transplant, which he received at the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), SightLife's partner center in Hyderabad, India. Courtesy of LVPEI hide caption

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Courtesy of LVPEI

Social Entrepreneurs: Taking On World Problems

Ex-Starbucks Exec Helps Develop Global Eye Banks

March 8, 2011 • Tim Schottman and his team used to open five or six Starbucks a day. So he wasn't fazed when the head of a leading eye bank asked him if it would be feasible to open 900 eye banks around the world in the next two decades. The goal was ambitious: to bring sight to hundreds of thousands, even millions of people.

Ex-Starbucks Exec Helps Develop Global Eye Banks

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Friday March 4, 2011

Shots - Health News

Sending Medical Research Overseas Troubles Scientists

March 4, 2011 • U.S. medical research institutions and pharmaceutical companies are performing more and more human studies overseas. research to developing countries. The trend raises some sticky ethical questions, which are getting more attention.

Wednesday March 2, 2011

Americans Are Even Fatter Than Canadians

Caloric French Canadian comfort food: poutine. iStockphoto.com hide caption

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iStockphoto.com

Shots - Health News

Americans Are Even Fatter Than Canadians

March 2, 2011 • About one-quarter of Canadians are obese compared with more than one-third of Americans. The gap is narrower between men in both countries than it is for women. But people in both nations have become fatter since the 1980s.

Friday February 25, 2011

Gulf Spill Investigated As Cause Of Dolphin Deaths

Institute for Marine Mammal Studies veterinary technician Wendy Hatchett takes a skin sample from a dead bottlenose dolphin that was found on Ono Island, Ala., and brought for examination to Gulfport, Miss., on Tuesday. Patrick Semansky/AP hide caption

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Patrick Semansky/AP

Environment

Gulf Spill Investigated As Cause Of Dolphin Deaths

February 25, 2011 • Scientists are trying to determine whether there's a link between last year's oil spill and a spike in dolphin deaths along the Gulf Coast. Sixty-seven bottlenose dolphins have washed up on Gulf beaches over the past few weeks. More than half — 35 — are babies.

Gulf Spill Investigated As Cause Of Dolphin Deaths

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Thursday February 24, 2011

Scientists hope to use a fungus to keep malaria-carrying mosquitoes like the Anopheles gambiae species from growing resistant to insecticides. Courtesy of James Gathany/CDC hide caption

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Courtesy of James Gathany/CDC

Science

Fungus Knocks Out Malaria In Mosquitoes

February 24, 2011 • The malaria parasite remains one of the most complex and fast-evolving organisms on the planet, forcing scientists to look in unconventional places for ways to defeat it. The latest technique: Stuff the mosquito full of a particular type of fungus, killing the parasite inside before it infects humans.

Fungus Knocks Out Malaria In Mosquitoes

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Electronic cigarettes like these are grounded in the United States. Gerry Broome/AP hide caption

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Gerry Broome/AP

Shots - Health News

U.S. Grounds Electronic Cigarettes

February 24, 2011 • Smokers of electronic cigarettes are making videos of themselves using the devices on airplanes, but the U.S. Department of Transportation says the smokeless cigarettes aren't welcome aboard.

Tuesday February 15, 2011

Your Health

Kicking The Cigarette Habit A Global Challenge

February 15, 2011 • One in five Americans smoke, and while millions of smokers try quitting each year, as many as three fourths of them end up smoking again within six months. Smoking is still rampant across the world as well; researchers predict cigarettes could eventually kill one third of young Chinese men.

Kicking The Cigarette Habit A Global Challenge

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Thursday February 3, 2011

Why Keeping Girls Squeaky Clean Could Make Them Sick

Not all young girls avoid dirt. Hannah Rose Akerley, 7, plays in a gigantic lake of mud at the annual Mud Day event in Westland, Mich., last July. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images hide caption

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Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

February 3, 2011 • How girls are socialized may account for some disparities in the illnesses that affect them compared with boys. Young boys are more likely to be allowed to get dirty, which may expose them to more germs that help temper their immune systems.

Monday January 31, 2011

Bill Gates' Goal: Get Rid Of Polio, Forever

January 31, 2011 • The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has released its annual letter, outlining goals for the coming year. What's on the list? Getting rid of polio, once and for all. Vaccines reduced the disease in the U.S. by 99 percent, but it still erupts in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Bill Gates' Goal: Get Rid Of Polio, Forever

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