Selective hearing, also known as the Cocktail Party Effect, isn't just for the men in our lives! Turns out, we're all wired to focus our auditory attention to one particular thing at a time. Which is why multi-tasking is for the birds.
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What exactly happens to the lungs when someone stops smoking and starts vaping? A new study in Clinical Science tries to answer that question. The authors sought to evaluate the impact of smoking cessation on lung function and smoking related symptoms, using electronic cigarettes.
The "follow the money" argument is an intellectually lazy fallacy. However, if you really do think that money will change our minds, then write us a check.
Andrew Silver, Inside Science -- Tiny robots taken into the body and controlled by brain patterns could someday help deliver medicine on demand.
The payoff would be tremendous if the technique could be perfected.
"You can get only the dosage you need only at the time you need," said lead author Shachar Arnon, a former computer science graduate student at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.
Instead of discovering it, Watson and Crick solved the structure of DNA -- one tiny piece of a very large puzzle. Here, we highlight everything that was known before their 1953 paper.
Because most kids will forgo eating and sleeping in order to play video games, it is up to parents to regulate the time they spend on them. But, how much is too much? A new study shows that one hour a week is the sweet spot that allows some of the beneficial effects of gaming without causing harm.
AMR is inevitable. As people keep finding ways to kill the microbes that infect us, those microbes, through evolutionary processes, will mutate to counteract them.
The UK’s report, A review of Antimicrobial Resistance, is a well-considered blueprint of a financially viable way forward. While it may not find its way to your nightstand, it should be required reading for our legislatures.
WebMD earned its recently-bestowed moniker, WebBM, by spewing out one poop-related story after another. But they have really stepped in it now. The site, which we will now also refer to as WebD-U-M-B, published an article on fast-food scares that was really, really stupid.
By now, anyone who has perused the grocery aisles has seen the plethora of products that proudly proclaim they're "gluten-free." But the number of people that need gluten-free foods — those with celiac disease — hasn't increased. Are people being seduced by ads, or is there some other rationale for making gluten-free choices?
Besides making wigs, or perhaps some rather bizarre clothing and artwork, there aren't a lot of practical uses for discarded human hair. But that could change thanks to a team of Japanese and South Korean chemists.
The outbreak began with a Michigan parent who was diagnosed with shingles last October. Despite acquiring first-hand knowledge of the pain and discomfort of shingles, the parent apparently took no significant action to protect his or her 5 kids. Within a month, one by one each came down with chickenpox. And then it spread outside the family home.
First came the mosquitoes.
Now, the houseflies. They buzz around the TV screen, land on your head, and they won't leave you alone! What do these trespassers actually want anyway? And why do they like us humans so much?
In an excerpt from Morning Consult, Dr. Robert Popovian, Senior Director of Pfizer US Government Relations, offers five suggestions for policy makers about pricing, cost, and value of innovative therapies.
Chess, the eminently cerebral game, is even thought provoking in ways unrelated to the movement of pieces on the board. Can you become a talented or great player simply by practicing relentlessly? Or must one already possess superior, innate intelligence in order to succeed?
Our public health system has a very bad habit of fighting the last war. Instead, it's best to prepare for exotic diseases before they become uninvited guests. Will policymakers apply that lesson to another potential troublemaker: Chagas disease?
Last Monday marked the first debate of of three Clinton-Trump debates. Though no fits of any kind -- coughing or otherwise -- were thrown, the two presidential candidates did throw many jabs, as expected. But when Trump said her Democratic rival "doesn't have the stamina," it eventually led us to this question: Who does have the stamina?
With medical letters and the general health of the presidential candidates recently being the big topic of discussion, who's medically fit or unfit in 2016? What condition would cause you, or a major party, to disqualify someone running for President of the United States? (The answer is different for a physician.)
Michael Pollan, food activist and journalist, is the proverbial man trapped in the past. His latest piece for The New York Times criticizes the Obama administration for not catering to his bizarre beliefs about how food production actually works. And along he tries to smear ... the American Council's president, and you.
As we enter the final stretch of this uber-vitriolic Presidential campaign, it's not a surprise that scandalous accusations are still being thrown in all directions by both sides. Recently, it was the possibility that a Bill Clinton "love child" exists. All of which raises the following: How do you answer questions about paternity?
Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi was honored for discovering autophagy, which is a type of programmed cell death. Some cells in multicellular organisms, like animals and plants, choose to self-destruct for the greater benefit of the organism. This can occur for a variety of reasons.
We can’t talk about penises and urethras without mentioning vaginas. So, it seems like the perfect segue in our series on foreign bodies in the body, to move directly from one family jewel to another. Let’s dive right in and open Pandora’s box, so to speak.
A teething baby tests the sanity of even the calmest parent, causing some to look anywhere for help. However, the FDA cautions that homeopathic teething tablets and gels may be harmful to babies and warns against using them.
Physical activity is known to provide health benefits for young and old alike. Now, new data support emphasizing a prescription of exercise for older folks recovering from conditions that limit their mobility, to improve their quality of life and to help stave off depression and social isolation.
For the 12+ million Americans who suffer from ADHD, it is rather ironic that many of them had to remember to take their medication four times per day. With a little help from pharmaceutical chemistry, life is now a little easier.
The FDA has approved the MiniMed 670G system developed by Medtronic. It's a computer algorithm working with a continuous glucose monitor to learn an individual’s insulin needs. Then, it adjusts their insulin pump all day, every day, to keep the lows and highs from becoming too extreme.
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