My colleague Ruthann Richter has both a professional and personal connection with AIDS: she has been covering AIDS as a medical writer since the early …
Month: November 2009
H1N1 flu and the persistence of memory
People of a certain age have been known to complain that, while they lucidly recall the details of childhood events, they can't remember what they …
Swine flu panic hits Germany
When I was visiting family in Germany last month, no one seemed to be concerned about swine flu, no one wanted a vaccine and they …
Busted!
While trolling Google Reader yesterday, I spied something in the Knight Science Journalism Tracker (powered mainly by well-known science writer Charlie Petit) that hit a …
Research on autism is moving in the right direction
I can't imagine the devastation parents must feel when their child is diagnosed as autistic. Ricardo Dolmetsch, PhD, assistant professor of neurobiology at Stanford, faced …
H1N1 flu tips for pregnant women and new moms
In this new video from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, obstetrician Natali Aziz, MD, offers the latest flu advice for pregnant women and mothers of infants. …
Locate clinics offering flu shots with the click of a mouse
Google recently launched a new online tool called Flu Shot Finder to assist you in searching for pharmacies and clinics offering both the seasonal flu …
Can breastfeeding help moms slim down?
I literally yelped when I came across an article in the New York Times this morning. The piece tackles an issue that my mom-friends and …
The girl who would be Queen
Queen died today. That is the latest bit of distressing news I received from friends in Kenya. She was a quiet little girl whom I …
Jumping may be best exercise for building healthy bones
This month a special section of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, highlights the ongoing …
Female cancer patients more likely to get divorce than male patients
The Nov. 15 issue of Cancer includes a paper with some rather grim findings on how life-threatening illnesses can affect relationships. Researchers studied 515 married …
Should the U.S. create a national blood transfusion reporting system?
Here's a shocking discovery: the United States is one of the only developed countries not to have a national blood transfusion reporting and safety system. …
New network to connect studies with volunteers
A new networking service called ResearchMatch has launched with the express goal of connecting volunteers with research studies. Stanford's School of Medicine is one of …
Studies show imagery, meditation can help with pain
After having two children, and practically missing out on the (much needed) epidural with my second, I have tons of respect for women who labor …
New tools from NIDA help diagnose and treat drug abuse
Talking to patients about substance use can be challenging for doctors. To provide medical students and new physicians with the necessary skills to effectively screen …
How Stanford scanned a 2,500-year-old mummy
Our videographer Todd Holland just put the finishing touches on his video chronicling the scanning of a 2,500-year-old mummy named Irethorrou. The video shows how …