The five most-read posts on Scope this week were:
To be healthier in the new year, resolve to be more social: A Huffington Post piece listing 12 ingredients for a healthier underscores the importance of strong social connections and offers a number of useful tips for those that vowed to take better care of themselves in 2011.
How the brain works during improvisation: In this TED Talk, surgeon Charles Limb, MD, discusses how the brain works while it is improvising - and why creativity is a neurologic product.
Can an experimental blood test improve cancer diagnosis and treatment? Harvard researchers announced on Monday they were partnering with Johnson & Johnson on a five-year, $30 million agreement to commercialize a noninvasive test capable of spotting a single cancer cell in a blood sample. In this post, Stanford pathologist Edgar Engleman, MD, discusses the potential of such a blood test.
Stanford research provides insight on pain, love: An article in the San Jose Mercury News revisits results from a Stanford imaging study showing that passionate feelings of love can serve as a painkiller of sorts and discusses how the work could help researchers better understand the neural systems of pain and develop new treatments.
Is the iPad helping modernize medicine? A post this week on the Triple Helix blog explores the multitude of ways that Apple's iPad might facilitate further modernization in medicine including spurring changes in medical education.
