Humans

You Can't See It, But You'll Be A Different Person In 10 Years

11:06am January 07, 2013

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

People generally fail to appreciate how much their personality and values will change in the years ahead — even though they recognize that they have changed in the past, according to fresh research.

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'Stand Your Ground' Linked To Increase In Homicides

10:54am January 03, 2013

A controversial self-defense statute appears to produce more killings, according to a new study. Advocates for the law say it's working as designed. But researchers have different explanations about what might be happening.

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Posting a picture like this on the fridge might seem like good motivation for weight loss. But scientists say it might instead inspire weight gain.

Can Skinny Models Undermine Your Dieting Goals?

11:16am January 02, 2013

by Shankar Vedantam

Many people turn to superfit models for weight-loss inspiration. There's growing evidence that this is a mistake. New research from the Netherlands explores whether repeated exposure to images of skinny models helps or hinders dieters.

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Making Resolutions That Stick

1:03pm December 28, 2012

Vowing to stop smoking, curb spending or exercise more this January 1? Nearly half of U.S. adults will make year-end resolutions to change for the better in the coming year. Clinical psychologist John Norcross talks about how to increase the odds of success.

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'Consider the Fork' Chronicles Evolution of Eating

1:03pm December 28, 2012

Did you know that the human overbite may have evolved after people began using forks and knives? In Consider the Fork, author Bee Wilson traces how kitchen tools--from knives to pots to gas stoves--have changed over time, and how they have influenced what, and how, we eat.

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The Renaissance Man Who Got It All Wrong

1:03pm December 28, 2012

In A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change, John Glassie writes of 17th-century Jesuit priest and scientist Athanasius Kircher, a renaissance man who studied magnetism, Mount Vesuvius, even the blood of plague victims. The only problem? His theories were often wrong.

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Brain scans using Amyvid dye to highlight beta-amyloid plaques in the brain. Clockwise from top left: a cognitively normal subject; an amyloid-positive patient with Alzheimer's disease; a patient with mild cognitive impairment who progressed to dementia d

Despite Uneven Results, Alzheimer's Research Suggests A Path For Treatment

7:24pm December 26, 2012

by Jon Hamilton

The year saw some disappointments in the development of drugs to treat Alzheimer's. But the setbacks were offset by progress in other areas. The upshot from this year's mixed results, some scientists say, is that treatment for Alzheimer's needs to start long before forgetfulness and muddled thinking are apparent.

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Stem Cells Treat Lou Gehrig's Disease, In Mice

11:36am December 26, 2012

Reporting in Science Translational Medicine, researchers write that neural stem cell implants were able to slow the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, in mice. Study author Evan Snyder discusses the stem cells' protective effect, and why human trials may not be far behind.

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A person's DNA can say a lot about a person, but not why someone has committed a horrific crime like mass murder.

Killer's DNA Won't Explain His Crime

9:21pm December 21, 2012

by Jon Hamilton

Sandy Hook and other mass killings have left people wondering how someone could engage in such behavior. Scientists say that genes can indeed predispose a person to mental illness or violence. But genetic variants alone can't explain why someone commits mass murder.

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Science

'Instant' Looks At Polaroid's Land

1:03pm December 14, 2012

Writer Christopher Bonanos tells the story of analog instant photography and the man who invented it--Edwin Land, the scientist and co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Plus Flora Lichtman visits New York's 20x24 Studio to capture a super-sized Polaroid camera in action.

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