Health & Safety

More than a quarter of the victims of financial fraud are over 60.

Services Offer A Means To Foil Widespread 'Elder Fraud'

5:50pm December 22, 2014

by Ina Jaffe

The holidays are a time for giving — and for scams that prey on altruism, particularly among older adults. But several products on the market are designed to help fight fraud that targets seniors.

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Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is one variety of the genus Lactobacillus is one of the common active cultures found in yogurt and in the human gut.

At Last, I Meet My Microbes

3:13pm December 22, 2014

by Katherine Harmon Courage

At 31, a woman had the bacteria in her gut catalogued as part of scientific project that aims to characterize the creatures that live inside us and affect our health. Here's what she found out.

Why Does It Take A Movie Robot To Show What Nurses Really Do?

3:13pm December 22, 2014

by Kelli Dunham

If TV and movie nurses took care of us when we're sick, we'd be in a heap of trouble. Those images of nutty, slutty and clueless nurses are bad news for the profession, and for patients.

This graphic lays out the possible outcomes for 10,000 women if they start getting annual screening mammograms at age 50 and continue that for 10 years.

What Happens After You Get That Mammogram

7:48am December 22, 2014

by Nancy Shute

What are the odds that you'll get a false positive when you get a mammogram? How likely is it that it will detect cancer? Here's one way to look at it.

Having warm, supportive parents early on correlates with success in adulthood.

Some Early Childhood Experiences Shape Adult Life, But Which Ones?

7:48am December 22, 2014

by Maanvi Singh

Nature and nurture both matter, and having love and support from parents early on makes make academic and social success as an adult more likely, a study finds. But a child's temperament matters too.

Health & Safety

Unsolved Murders Underline Racial Tensions In The Community

6:00pm December 21, 2014

by Emily McCord

A recent report shows that the rate of unsolved crimes in Winst

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Health workers rest outside a quarantine zone at a Red Cross facility in the town of Koidu, Kono district in Eastern Sierra Leone on Friday. The World Health Organization says the number of Ebola deaths in the current outbreak has exceeded 7,000.

U.N. Reports More Than 7,000 Ebola Deaths Since March

1:58pm December 20, 2014

by Scott Neuman

The World Health Organization has added nearly 400 more deaths from the current outbreak since its last report earlier this week.

The Africa I Know Isn't The Africa In The Headlines Today

7:47am December 20, 2014

by Todd Moss

In 1990, our commentator visited Africa and fell in love with the energy and dreams of its people. Today he sees a land full of promise. But Ebola has revived the image of Africa in chaos.

Health & Safety

CDC Head: Key Interventions Have Slowed Ebola's Spread

6:58pm December 19, 2014

Melissa Block talks to Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, who is completing a tour of the West African nations most deeply affected by the Ebola outbreak.

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A culture of Clostridium botulinum, stained with gentian violet.

Worries About Unusual Botulinum Toxin Prove Unfounded

4:12pm December 19, 2014

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

A previously unknown form of botulinum toxin thought to be resistant to standard treatment raised public health concerns. Subsequent research has allayed those fears.