Author: Sharon

New York Times Banning the bottle 11/05/2010 Beginning this fall, a number of colleges and universities will institute a campus-wide ban on selling bottled water, reports the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. According to the Earth Policy Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles in the United States end up as […]

Medical Daily US team finds gene linked to deadly eye disease 11/05/2010 Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis have discovered a gene linked to the spread of eye melanoma that could throw insight on how tumors spread. “Scientists and physicians have been waiting for a rational, therapeutic target that we […]

BreakThrough Digest Medical News Simple blood test may diagnose deadly Niemann-Pick type C disease 11/03/2010 A fatal genetic disorder that frequently takes years to diagnose may soon be detectable with a simple blood test. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report this week a […]

Los Angeles Times Senate veers to the right with GOP wins 11/03/2010 The U.S. Senate will undergo a distinct rightward shift as a result of Tuesday’s election, which ushered in conservative, “tea party”-backed candidates and prompted incumbents from both parties to look warily to the next election. “These guys are going to be moving to […]

The Globe & Mail (UK) Physicians’ group: Specialist should review all suspected concussions 11/1/2010 Athletes of all ages who are suspected of suffering a concussion should be evaluated by a specialist before they return to sports, a major doctors’ group said Monday in the latest sign of concern over potential lasting damage from head injuries. […]

Associated Press Contraception could be free under health care law 11/01/2010 Fifty years after the pill, another birth control revolution may be on the horizon: free contraception for women in the U.S., thanks to the new health care law. But first, look for a fight over social mores, suggests the Associated Press in a story […]

CBS NEWS Mars Rover finds signs of buried water on red planet 10/29/2010 The sandy spot where the Mars Rover Spirit got bogged down last year harbors stratified layers of dirt with different compositions close to the surface, a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research reveals. These layers were likely caused by seepage […]

reuters.com Metal pollution tied to Parkinson’s disease 10/27/2010 People living near a steel factory or another source of high manganese emissions are at higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, suggests a new study by WUSTL School of Medicine researcher Dr. Brad A. Racette. “Environmental risk factors for Parkinson’s disease have been relatively under-studied, especially in […]

BBC News Humans got to Asia much earlier 10/26/2010 Modern humans could have reached East Asia much earlier than believed, according to new evidence. US scientist Erik Trinkaus from Washington University in St Louis explained to BBC News that the ancient remains mean modern humans co-existed with our closest relatives – Neanderthals and Neanderthal-like people […]

National Geographic News Oldest modern human outside of Africa found 10/25/2010 A human jawbone fossil discovered in southern China is upsetting conventional notions of when our ancestors migrated out of Africa. The mandible sports a distinctly modern feature: a prominent chin. But the bone is undeniably 60,000 years older than the next oldest Homo sapiens’ […]