Health & Medicine : Science World Report

Apr 27, 2012 07:52 AM EDT

Learning Mechanism of the Adult Brain Revealed

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Fortunately, this is not always true. Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have now discovered how the adult brain can adapt to new situations. The Dutch researchers' findings are published on Wednesday in the prestigious journal N...

Apr 27, 2012 07:38 AM EDT

Many Older Men still Get Prostate Cancer Testing

Despite recommendations not to screen men age 75 and older for prostate cancer, most elderly men still get tested, according to a new survey.

Apr 26, 2012 04:25 PM EDT

Summer Olympic Athletes Must Overcome Skin Conditions to Reach for the Gold

The Olympics are all about the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat." But for many Summer Games athletes, there's also the agony of skin irritations and conditions that can make the journey to the medal stand more difficult.

Apr 26, 2012 03:53 PM EDT

Surprising Results for Use of Dialysis for Kidney Failure in Developing World

-Researchers at Lawson Health Research Institute have discovered that developing countries have faster growing rates of use of home-based dialysis (called peritoneal dialysis) for kidney failure than the developed world. Despite home-based dialysis' reduced cost and better outcomes, developed countr...

Apr 26, 2012 02:59 PM EDT

New Diagnostic Tool Determines Aggressiveness of Prostate Cancer

One in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, the second leading cause of death among men in the United States.

Apr 26, 2012 02:50 PM EDT

Discovery of Earliest Life Forms' Operation Promises New Therapies for Key Diseases

Bacteria provide a well-known playground for scientists and the evolution of these earliest life forms has shed important perspective on potential therapies for some of the most common, deadly diseases.

Apr 26, 2012 01:29 PM EDT

Action Videogames Change Brains

A team led by psychology professor Ian Spence at the University of Toronto reveals that playing an action videogame, even for a relatively short time, causes differences in brain activity and improvements in visual attention.

Apr 26, 2012 12:57 PM EDT

Artificial Hips Find Some Sports Wearing

A growing number of patients want to return to sport, and in some cases high-impact sports like jogging and soccer, after total hip replacement (or arthroplasty) operations. Although many surgeons already recommend certain activities more than others, little research has been performed to confirm wh...

Apr 26, 2012 12:12 PM EDT

Research Breakthrough for Drugs via the Skin

A research team at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has succeeded in describing the structure and function of the outermost layer of the skin - the stratum corneum - at a molecular level. This opens the way not only for the large-scale delivery of drugs via the skin, but also for a deeper understandi...

Apr 26, 2012 11:25 AM EDT

Heart Study Suggests City Center Pollution Doubles Risk of Calcium Build-up in Arteries

City centre residents who took part in a study were almost twice as likely to suffer from coronary artery calcification (CAC), which can lead to heart disease, than people who lived in less polluted urban and rural areas, according to research published in the May issue of the Journal of Internal Me...

Apr 26, 2012 11:00 AM EDT

3D X-ray Reveals Fibers that Control Heart Rhythm

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have developed a new X-ray technique to identify tissue fibres in the heart that ensure the muscle beats in a regular rhythm.

Apr 26, 2012 10:39 AM EDT

Women Have Bigger Pupils than Men

From an anatomical point of view, a normal, non-pathological eye is known as an emmetropic eye, and has been studied very little until now in comparison with myopic and hypermetropic eyes. The results show that healthy emmetropic women have a wider pupil diameter than men.