Research News

For patients who fell into Oncotype DX's low-risk category, 99 percent didn't develop metastatic breast cancer five years after surgery, even if they didn't have chemotherapy.

Breast Cancer Gene Test Helps Predict Who Can Skip Chemo

4:35pm September 28, 2015

by Michaeleen Doucleff

A large study confirms that a test doctors have been using for a decade works well for low-risk patients. More work is needed to draw conclusions about chemotherapy for women with riskier tumors.

Hidden Brain: What's The Source Of Success In Sports?

8:03am September 24, 2015

by Shankar Vedantam

When the same athletes succeed over and over at a sport, is it because they are simply more talented than everyone else, or is it because "nothing succeeds like success"?

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Wherever You Go, Your Personal Cloud Of Microbes Follows

8:38pm September 22, 2015

by Rob Stein

You're not just shedding microbes on every surface you touch. Research suggests you're actually walking around in an airborne plume of bacteria and other microscopic organisms that's unique to you.

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Science

Can Grocery Carts Steer Consumers To Healthier Purchases?

5:00pm September 21, 2015

by Shankar Vedantam

New research finds that putting in partitions in grocery carts can increase the likelihood shoppers buy healthy fruits and veggies. (This piece initially aired on May 26, 2015 on Morning Edition.)

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Science

The Economics Of Happiness And A Country's Income Inequality

4:59pm September 21, 2015

by Shankar Vedantam

For many years people have puzzled over why countries that get richer don't seem to get happier. Now, researchers have an answer.

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Sleepless Fruit Flies Could Hold The Secret To Curing Insomnia

1:49pm September 20, 2015

by Jon Hamilton

Research on fruit flies with insomnia is revealing the pathways in the brain that can cause people to have trouble sleeping. This story originally aired on Sept. 18 on Morning Edition.

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The federal food stamps program is working to make sure low-income Americans are getting enough calories, but those calories are less nutritious than what everyone else eats, research finds. The USDA is funding programs to try to bridge that gap, such as

How America's Wealth Gap Shows Up On Our Dinner Plates

10:33am September 20, 2015

by Maria Godoy

People on food stamps on average ate fewer fruits and vegetables and had worse diets than other Americans, a study finds. It reflects the challenges of eating well on limited means.

Rough night? Depending on specific tweaks to their genes, some fruit flies have trouble falling asleep, and others can't stay asleep. Getting too little shut-eye hurts their memory.

How Research On Sleepless Fruit Flies Could Help Human Insomniacs

5:59pm September 18, 2015

by Jon Hamilton

Research on fruit flies with different types of insomnia has revealed the same brain pathways that interfere with sleep in people. The result may be better sleeping pills that don't leave you groggy.

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It's now possible to edit the DNA in a human embryo. The next question is, should we?

British Scientists Seek Permission To Edit DNA In Human Embryos

1:09pm September 18, 2015

by Rob Stein

After Chinese scientists announced in April that they had edited the genes in human embryos, many researchers said it shouldn't be done. Scientists in London say they want to do it for research only.

While wearing a toilet seat on his head, David Hu accepts the Physics Prize, for his research on the principle that mammals empty their bladders of urine in about 21 seconds, from Dudley Herschbach, right, the 1986 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, while being

Science
Arts

The 2015 Ig Nobels: Studies That Make You Go 'Huh?'

10:35am September 18, 2015

by Scott Neuman

This year's prizes honored, among others, the brave researcher who subjected himself to 200 bee stings to determine where it was most painful.