University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have found that the successful use of bacteria to remediate environmental contamination from nuclear waste and processing activities may depend more upon how resistant the bacteria are to chemicals than to how tolerant they are to radioactivity. The results of a recent Laboratory study may help make bacterial bioremediation a more widespread method for cleaning up sites contaminated with actinides and other radionuclid

Stories of exciting chemistry discoveries in Scientific American and The New York Times paint a better picture of chemistry as it is practiced than do some widely used high school textbooks, according to a study by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. The findings signal that introductory textbooks could be shortchanging students, denying them exposure to the creativity of chemistry and omitting context they need to be scientifically literate citizens, according to the au

Pathological gamblers exhibit complex impairments in decision-making and executive function processes associated with the prefrontal cortex of the brain, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 57th Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., April 9 – 16, 2005.

Researchers learned that decision-making functions and inhibitory control in chronic pathological gamblers appear to be altered and may influence the trade-off between short-term reward

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that people who score in the upper 25 percent in anxiety level on a personality test have a moderately increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease decades later. They also found a similar link between pessimistic personalities and Parkinson’s.

“This is the first study that took a group of people with documented personality characteristics but no symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and showed that those with high levels of an anxious or pessimi

Some adults with mild persistent asthma may be able to adequately control their asthma by taking corticosteroids only when needed, instead of taking anti-inflammatory medication daily, according to new results from the Improving Asthma Control Trial (IMPACT). Conducted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) Asthma Clinical Research Network, the one-year, multi-center study found that participants who were treated with corticosteroids intermittently based on symptoms had

The mental, emotional and sexual health of people with learning difficulties who are gay, lesbian and bisexual is being jeopardised by the failure of many services to give the support needed in this area.

New research by academics at Bristol University’s Norah Fry Research Centre, working in partnership with Terrence Higgins Trust and REGARD, found significant barriers were put in the way of people with learning difficulties exercising their human rights to consenting same sex rel

A researcher at the University of Alberta has shown that parents are more likely to give better care and pay closer attention to good-looking children compared to unattractive ones. Dr. Andrew Harrell presented his findings recently at the Warren E. Kalbach Population Conference in Edmonton, Alberta.

Harrell’s findings are based on an observational study of children and shopping cart safety. With the approval of management at 14 different supermarkets, Harrell’s team of

OPTOMETRY researchers at Aston University’s new £10 million Academy of Life Sciences are currently undertaking ground-breaking research into the vision problems caused by diabetics – one of the leading causes of blindness and vision loss in the UK. So far, the study has been very successful with a large number of diabetic volunteers stepping forward to take part in the study, but the researchers still require some more Type 1 diabetics (insulin dependent patients usually diagnosed under the age

The use of statins before or after a stroke helps improve patient recovery after an ischemic stroke, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 57th Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., April 9 – 16, 2005.
Patients on statins before a stroke were 1.6 times more likely to have a favorable outcome compared to patients never exposed to statins, according to the study. Those on statins after a stroke were 2.6 times more likely to have a favorable outc

New study findings show that traditional heart disease risk factors are more strongly associated with risk of death from cardiovascular disease than newer, emerging risk factors in older people with chronic kidney disease. These results from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded Cardiovascular Health Study will be published in the April 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Study participants with chronic kidney disease who also had diabetes,

Research at NYPH/Allen pavilion shows more than half of patients may be affected by factors external to heart

New research from Columbia University Medical Center is challenging the traditional explanation for the causes of the most common type of heart failure, traditionally called diastolic heart failure. The study of 145 patients at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion suggests that the most common type of heart failure is caused by health problems outside the hear

In a study of mothers with a history of preeclampsia, a hypertension complication in pregnancy affecting five percent of all women, researchers at Yale have found that these women have an increased lifetime risk for cardiovascular illness and death.

“Even when a mother’s blood pressure returns to normal after delivery, preeclampsia might increase her risk of life–threatening cardiovascular disease,” said lead author Edmund F. Funai, M.D., associate professor and co–chief, Divis

A study of a drug that reduces the pain of fibromyalgia and improves sleep is being published by a University of Kentucky physician in the peer-reviewed journal, Arthritis & Rheumatism.

The lead author of the study was Dr. Leslie Crofford, professor, UK College of Medicine, chief, Division of Rheumatology, and the Gloria W. Singletary Chair and Director of the Center for the Advancement of Women’s Health

“Fibromyalgia is a debilitating condition affecting as many

Investing in at-risk middle-school students can be profitable, showing a return in students’ interest in school, their grades and even their attendance. The investment that paid off for eight Maryland schools is a supplementary curriculum, Stocks in the Future, developed in partnership with the Stocks in the Future Foundation at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at The Johns Hopkins University.

The impact of this three-year course in the stock market and investing

Laughter might be the best medicine for transforming the faintest of glimmers of hope into an eternal spring, reveals research at Texas A&M University that shows humor may significantly increase a person’s level of hope.

The experience of humor can positively influence a person’s state of hopefulness, says Texas A&M psychologist David H. Rosen who, along with colleagues Alexander P. Vilaythong, Randolph C. Arnau and Nathan Mascaro, studied nearly 200 subjects ranging in a

A new study has found no link between use of cell phones and the risk of developing a brain tumor. The study is published in the April 12 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The Danish study questioned 427 people with brain tumors and 822 people without brain tumors about their cell phone use. The study found no increased risk for brain tumors related to cell phone use, frequency of use, or number of years of use.

“These results