Search results

All coffee comes from trees, and all of it contains caffeine. And since there's no such thing as a "caffeine-free coffee tree," there must be ways to separate out the caffeine. The most common involves extracting it from coffee beans with a solvent. One solvent – ethyl acetate – illustrates the madness of the organic movement. 

Medicine is a skill, and it's impossible to practice medicine without patients. It would be like asking a carpenter to learn how to make a cabinet without wood. Why then are we surprised that students learn from patients?

Scientists are generally regarded as ethical and honest – the polar opposite of politicians. But there's a disturbing trend taking place in the scientific community: retracted papers, often due to fraud. This one, which appeared in the journal Science, focuses on harm to fish from tiny plastic particles. It is a doozy.

If you're not a Game of Thrones fans, you should change that status immediately. Yes, it is that great. And one of the many things that makes it great is the character Tyrion Lannister, who is played by the incomparable Peter Dinklage.

Photos: IMDb (left), NY Daily News (right)

In this era of opioid denial, doctors are scrambling to find something that might work for pain patients – without the baggage associated with narcotics. One popular choice is Neurontin, which was originally approved for epilepsy. But the results simply aren't there.

To make progress in this investigation of a suspected sonic attack against American diplomats, the U.S. will Cuba's cooperation. That seemed to be occurring, but no longer. This week Cuban scientists declared that there was no sonic attack at all. Instead, they blamed stress and mass hysteria.

Here are the final four exciting developments in science, health and technology of 2017. And, a prediction for what innovation could be truly disruptive in the future.

Drug discovery is a long, tortuous and impossibly difficult job. A group at the University of Warwick has come up with a mathematical model that seems to be a very big step in streamlining the process. But is it really? To answer this we need to take a look at how drugs are discovered. 

How about companies just telling it like it is – in all its forms? We need to do better than Theranos, and the hubris of 23andMe that warranted FDA intervention and sanctioning of the firm. 

If throwing away old toys in one of your New Year's Resolutions, read this first. A new study suggests that kids' play is more creative and focused – with fewer toys around. So go ahead and purge those old toys that no one has touched in years. You may be doing your kids a favor! 

This isn't really about fat cats — the real ones or the rich ones. Rather, it's about the results of being overweight or obese. According to the CDC, there are 13 types of cancer linked to obesity. And as one might expect, as the prevalence of obesity increases so does the prevalence of these cancers.

The bat population is declining dramatically due to White-Nose Syndrome. A fungus grows on the bats, irritating them and waking them during hibernation. This energy-sapping growth kills them before they wake in the spring. A new study discovered that a genetic mutation in the fungus could save the bats by ridding them of this disease.

A recent report identified a flaw in previous research on concussions, while proposing a fix. It's an improved protocol for baseline screening that includes a specific test, which trainers can use themselves to identify dyslexia in their subjects, instead of relying on their possibly inaccurate self-reporting. 

The New York Times recently surveyed readers to ask them about its coverage of the national opioid epidemic. Lots of boxes to check and pre-fab questions to sift through. Instead, we used one sentence from a Times article to point out what's wrong. And the answer is ... plenty. 

A recent report on expanding the use of science in suspected homicides details the challenges of determining time of death after a long post-mortem interval. Estimating this interval is essential within forensic science dating back to 1894, when body decay stages and decomposition were first defined.

Government is transparent. That is, if you can cut your way through the jungle of bureaucracy. Competitive Enterprise Institute discovered that radical environmental groups are paying the salaries and expenses of staffers in the office of Washington State Governor, Jay Inslee.

If the poor are really at risk because hospitals will be shut down due to lack of funding, the worst thing that the Empire State can do is add costs to health care. But that's exactly what Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently did with his budget proposal. 

The Finnish people live a bit longer than those of us in the United States. While the reasons are multifactorial, a study in the Journal of Human Hypertension [1] wants to give some credit to the cardiovascular benefits of – the sauna. No pills to remember or special dietary injunctions, just a 30-minute time-out in the sauna.

Baking soda, bicarbonate, is a household staple. Does it have a role in treating sepsis? An in vitro study may point to a new treatment.

The important topic of traumatic brain injuries has recently focused on football players and other concussion-prone athletes. But in a welcomed shift of the spotlight, CBS News redirected the discussion to include many military veterans, who researchers learned post-mortem, had CTE, likely acquired from bomb blasts.

C-diff is a bacterium that causes a life-threatening infection. Though the bacterium can infect healthy individuals, it is of particular concern to those who are hospitalized or are taking antibiotics.

The State of New York is proposing a change in the rules that determine what drugs Workers Comp patients may receive, and when. The new rules are nonsensical and harmful to patients as American Council friend, Dr. Aric Hausknecht, explains.

The media persist in conflating health care and its finances. However, the breathlessly-announced new collaboration among these three business giants is solely about reducing health care costs, for business. 

Why we are attracted to some people and not others is a complicated question. Of course, the reasons are multifaceted. But is part of the equation purely biological? Science says that there might be.

A couple years back an asthma episode in Australia claimed 10 lives. The culprit was something called "thunderstorm asthma," which is believed to occur when high winds sweep up pollen grains, which then swell in the moisture. The theory is that each grain ruptures into hundreds of even smaller pieces, multiplying the danger.