This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Kathleen Raven, from Grady school of journalism, in UGA Today:
Blood pressure-lowering drug after stroke aids recovery, study finds:
A commonly prescribed blood pressure-lowering medication appears to kick start recovery in the unaffected brain hemisphere after a stroke by boosting blood vessel growth, a new University of Georgia study has found.
The discovery, based on a study using rats and published recently in the online journal PLoS ONE, occurred only because the team, led by Susan Fagan, professor of clinical and administrative pharmacy at the UGA College of Pharmacy, struck a new path in stroke research by examining the healthy side of brain after the stroke occurred...
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Francie Diep, from NYU, at Scientific American:
Most people who are even a little bit concerned about their cholesterol know that there is a “good” kind—known as HDL—and a “bad” kind—known as LDL. Research has shown that the higher the amount of HDL and the lower the amount of LDL in the blood, the less likely a person is to suffer a heart attack or stroke. As for the one in six Americans with unhealthy cholesterol levels, well, they can always hope to change their luck with a cholesterol-changing medication or two. Or can they?
Abby McBride, from MIT, at PLoS Blogs:
On paleontologists, paper dolls, and the human family tree:
To a paleontologist, early humans and their relatives are a bit like paper dolls. Instead of hats or dresses, the interchangeable pieces are an array of fossilized body parts, ranging from apelike to almost human....
Blair Hickman, from NYU, at Dowser Media:
How To Cover Social Innovation: Start Small, Build Big:
Last Wednesday, our founder David Bornstein gave a talk about Solution Journalism to Studio20, a graduate program at NYU studying the future of journalism (from which I’m about to graduate.) They seemed to get it. But their overwhelming reaction - which mirrors most journalists’ responses - was “Wow, this is really big. Where do you even begin?”...
Taylor Beck, from MIT, at PLoS Blogs:
Hooked on the funnies: Does laughter prime humans for companionship?:
Laughter is like dope: addictive and inebriating. People use laughs as social lubricant, the way we drink alcohol to ease tension and loosen up.
But this laughter high may be more than a metaphor, a study from Oxford University suggests. Laughing together may drug our brains with the opiates that numb pain. Laughter’s intoxicating effect on the brain, like the buzz we get from morphine, sex, or running, may also help hook us on companionship. The study’s lead author, Robin Dunbar, argues that humans may have evolved laughter to promote group-bonding....
Melissae Fellet, from UCSC, in The New Scientist:
A revolution of universally average art:
Jonathon Keats wants to inspire others to create universally mediocre art. And, yes, he’s completely serious. Keats, a San Francisco-based artist and self-proclaimed experimental philosopher, blends science and art to inspire questions about the universe and our place in it. He once sold real estate in extra dimensions and played prayer music to cyanobacteria and fruit flies in an attempt to genetically engineer God.