July 9, 2012
In Williamsburg, a bustling Brooklyn enclave across the East River from Manhattan, a sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews dresses in garb common to 18th- and 19th-century Europe and adheres to even more-ancient religious traditions. Yet they are wrestling with the most … Read More
July 9, 2012
Did the killing of Osama bin Laden have an unintended victim: the global drive to eradicate polio? (NY Times)
July 9, 2012
An American scientist is to unveil details of work on the brain patterns of Prof Stephen Hawking which he says could help safeguard the physicist’s ability to communicate. (BBC News)
July 9, 2012
Drugmakers that market powerful painkiller medications will be required to fund training programs to help U.S. doctors and other health professionals safely prescribe the drugs, which are blamed for thousands of fatal overdoses each year. (Washington Post)
July 9, 2012
President Obama signed a bill today that will provide incentives to drug companies to research and develop drugs for rare diseases. (ABC News)
July 9, 2012
Do fertility drugs affect a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer? A new study suggests that the risk hinges on whether they actually help a woman get pregnant. (ABC News)
July 6, 2012
Pavle Mircov and his partner, Daniella, nervously scan their e-mail in-box every 15 minutes, desperate for economic salvation: a buyer willing to pay nearly $40,000 for one of their kidneys. (NY Times)
July 6, 2012
Grayson Ommert is less than a day old, but he’s already a hero. The infant and his mother, Suzanne, donated their umbilical cord blood after he was born. (Fox News)
July 6, 2012
Using one embryo during IVF reduces the risk of stillbirths and early infant mortality, a groundbreaking Australian study reveals. (The Telegraph)
July 6, 2012
US experts have developed what they say are the most biologically-accurate robotic legs yet. (BBC News)
July 6, 2012
Stem cells taken from amniotic fluid can be transformed into a more versatile state similar to embryonic stem cells and may offer an alternative to the medically valuable but controversial cells, scientists said on Tuesday. (Reuters)
July 5, 2012
A severe earache awakened Ron Clearfield, MD, at 2 a.m. one night last spring. In search of a quick solution to the pain, the Bonita Springs, Fla., radiologist queried the Internet and found a service that offers a physician’s diagnosis … Read More
July 5, 2012
Think of it as Liquid-Plumr for the circulatory system. Researchers have designed a clump of tiny particles that rides the current of the bloodstream, seeks out life-threatening blood clots, and obliterates them. The approach works in mice and could soon … Read More
July 5, 2012
The days of pregnant women having a 3-inch-long (8-centimetre-long) hollow needle jabbed into their abdomens may be numbered. (Reuters)
July 5, 2012
Robot avatars have got a step closer to being the real world doubles of those who are paralysed or have locked-in-syndrome. (BBC News)
July 5, 2012
The maker of the powerful pain drug OxyContin is beginning to test the medicine in children, hoping to secure an extra six months of protection for the drug’s patent, which is set to expire in 2013. (ABC News)
July 3, 2012
Imagine a lotion that can treat irreversible genetic skin diseases like psoriasis or life-threatening skin cancers like melanoma. Researchers at Northwestern University say they’re another step closer to creating a treatment that will naturally slip through the skin and genetically … Read More
July 3, 2012
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first over-the-counter HIV test, allowing Americans to test themselves for the virus that causes AIDS in the privacy of their homes. (ABC News)
July 3, 2012
How much would it take for you to consider selling your bone marrow? A U.S. appeals court puts the price at about $3,000 in a ruling that now makes it legal to pay donors for their bone-marrow tissue. (CNN)
July 3, 2012
A new brain scanner has been developed to help people who are completely paralysed speak by enabling them to spell words using their thoughts. (BBC News)
July 3, 2012
Taking an eighth of a developing embryo during IVF treatment to test for genetic diseases is “completely safe”, according to the largest study of babies born following the technique. (BBC News)
July 2, 2012
After more than 30 years of negotiations, the European Union has finally settled on a site for its first pan-European patent court. Tussles over whether the Unified Patent Court should be seated in London, Paris, or Munich, Germany, ended on … Read More
July 2, 2012
The first symptoms often appear a month or two after birth. The babies’ muscles stiffen. They lose their hearing and vision, stop sleeping and scream in pain. Some develop seizures. (Scientific American)
July 2, 2012
Five million “test tube babies” have now been born around the world, according to research presented at a conference of fertility experts. (BBC News)
July 2, 2012
Researchers have moved a step closer to creating a synthetic liver, after a US team created a template for blood vessels to grow into, using sugar. (BBC News)
