Efforts to halt underage drinking often focus on peer pressure and the prevention of risky behaviors, but the American Association for the Advancement of Science is undertaking a new federally funded project to give middle-school children a science-based understanding of what can happen to them if they use alcohol.

Smoking, eating fattening foods and not getting enough exercise are all lifestyle habits that can lead to poor health and cardiovascular disease -- more so if you have a family history. But researchers have found that women don't change these habits as often as men, even when they have relatives with heart disease.

An intensive international effort to improve the nutritional value of cassava -- a staple food for millions of poverty stricken people in sub-Sahara Africa and other areas -- has led to development of a New form of cassava that may be easier to digest than other varieties. Also known as yucca or manioc, the roots of the plant are similar to potatoes and are often eaten boiled or deep fried.

The Healthy Steps for Young Children Program, which added behavior and development services to pediatric practices, continued to benefit families more than two years after the intervention ended. The sustained benefits from participation included greater satisfaction among parents with their child's health care, greater odds that parent's will report a child's serious behavioral issue to the...

Giving children a diet rich in fish and "fruity vegetables" can reduce asthma and allergies, according to a seven-year study of 460 children. The findings also reinforce the researchers' earlier findings that a fish-rich diet in pregnancy can help to protect children from asthma and allergies.

A history of maternal epilepsy and its associated treatment may be linked to impaired intelligence later in life, says a new study.Researchers investigated the IQ levels of sons born to mothers with and without epilepsy, and found a correlation between intelligence and the illness.

Alex, the world renowned African Grey parrot made famous by the ground-breaking cognition and communication research conducted by Brandeis scientist Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D., died at the age of 31 on September 6, 2007. Alex learned elements of English speech to identify 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities up to and including 6 and a zero-like concept. He used phrases such as "I...

Researchers have uncovered evidence of a distinct neurobiology of human intelligence. This Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory identifies a network related to intelligence, one primarily involving areas in the frontal and the parietal lobes. The data suggest that some of the brain areas related to intelligence are the same areas related to attention, memory and language. This possible integration...

Chocolate is the most widely and frequently craved food, but our passion for chocolate, and its effects on mood, is due mainly to its principal constituents, sugar and fat, and their related orosensory and nutritional effects, rather than any addictive properties of chocolate.

Cluster data has helped provide scientists with a new view of magnetospheric processes, challenging existing theories about magnetic substorms that cause aurorae and perturbations in GPS signals. The onset of magnetic substorms that originate in Earth’s magnetosphere has been explained by two competing models: current disruption and near-earth reconnection. Current beliefs have been...

Diesel exhaust is far more damaging to our health than exhaust from biodiesel, the plant-based fuel, according to a new study. As it is not possible to study in real time what happens in the real human airway, the researchers conducted their research on human airway cells grown in a culture. The cells were exposed to the particulate matter emitted in diesel and biodiesel exhaust fumes.

Many seniors quit taking drugs for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure when they exceed their drug plan's yearly spending limits, according to a new study. The report, which examines the behavior of seniors enrolled in a private health plan, provides insight into how seniors may act under provisions of Medicare's new drug benefit plan that will leave about one-third of...

The first comprehensive examination of the ethical, social and cultural (ESC) challenges faced by major science programs in developing countries has identified a complex assortment of issues with the potential to slow critical global health research if left unaddressed. They range from problems such as government corruption to complex questions surrounding community and public engagement, cultural...

An individual's body motion and body type can offer subtle cues about their sexual orientation, but casual observers seem better able to read those cues in gay men than in lesbians, according to a new study. Based on measurements, the researchers determined that the gay subjects tended to have more gender-incongruent body types than their straight counterparts (hourglass figures for men, tubular...

Scientists are testing a new laser surgery device specifically designed to make glaucoma procedures safer, simpler and faster. The revolutionary non-penetrating technique will be easily mastered by most eye surgeons, thereby making it more accessible and less risky for glaucoma sufferers. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the West.

Researchers have discovered that a common amino acid, available as a health food supplement, may help curb pathological gamblers' addiction. Results are encouraging for other addictions, too. In a recent eight-week trial, 27 people were given increasing doses of a specific amino acid which has an impact on the chemical glutamate -- often associated with reward in the brain. At the end of the...

Scientists are reporting the first discovery of conduction of excitation without action potentials. This opens up new perspectives for research by breaking away from the classic concept of neuronal functioning. This new mechanism involves molecules known to play a role in numerous mechanisms of cell functioning, but not hitherto in conduction of excitation.

World-first equipment will determine how to produce food which is better for us, but still tastes good. The researchers said that while an unhealthy lifestyle and poor eating habits were significant factors in Australia's obesity and diabetes epidemics, they were not entirely to blame. Another component is changes in starches in our food.

Physicians who treat women with the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 often remove their patients' ovaries to eliminate the source of estrogen they believe fuels cancer growth. Yet they also know that anti-estrogen therapies don't work to treat breast or ovarian cancer that might develop. That paradox has led scientists to question exactly how, or if, estrogen is involved in cancer...

The wheels of evolution turn on genetic innovation -- new genes with new functions appear, allowing organisms to grow and adapt in new ways. But deciphering the history of how and when various genes appeared, for any organism, has been a difficult and largely intractable task.

The labels on most prescription drug containers highlight the pharmacy's name or logo rather than instructions on how to take the medication, reports a new study. All of the labels listed the pharmacy name first, and instructions appeared fifth on 89 percent of labels. When color font or boldface was present, it was most often for pharmacy information rather than for instructions or warnings.

The complex behavior of primates can be understood using artificially-intelligent computer "agents" that mimic their actions, shows new research. Scientists using agents programmed with simple instructions to work out why some primate groups are 'despotic' whilst others are 'egalitarian' - overturning previous theories developed by primatologists.

An international research team, including biologists from NOAA Fisheries Service has failed to find a single Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji, during a six-week survey in China. The scientists fear the marine mammal is now extinct due to fishing and commercial development, which would make it the first cetacean to vanish as result of human activity.

Scientists are reporting what they say is a significant improvement in the technique for genetically reprogramming mouse cells to their embryonic state, a process that transforms the cells, in essence, into embryonic stem cells. Scientists are interested in reprogramming because of its potential for developing human embryonic stem cells that contain the genetic makeup of individual patients. In...