The five most-read posts on Scope this week were:
A comic look at twelve medical specialties: A comic strip illustrated and authored by Michelle Au, MD, offers a humorous look at twelve medical specialties, including her own: anesthesiology.
A conversation about the FDA's new graphic health warnings for cigarettes: This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unveiled new graphic warning labels that must appear on cigarette packaging by October 2012. In this Q&A, Robert Jackler, MD, professor and chair of otolaryngology at Stanford, shares his thoughts on the new warning labels and how effective they will be in the war against smoking.
Fear leads to creation of new neurons, new emotional memories: A recent study released by UC Berkeley suggests that fear can generate new neurons responsible for contextualizing emotional memory. According to the study authors, which include Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky, PhD, this research could have useful implications regarding treatment of emotional disorders like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression.
The dark side of "light" snacks: study shows substitutes may contribute to weight gain: Yet another get-thin-quick scheme has been recently debunked: A new study by Purdue University researchers shows that fake fats used in low-calorie snacks may actually contribute to weight gain.
Dennis Boyle to deliver keynote at Medicine 2.0 conference: A new speaker was added to the Medicine 2.0 conference line-up this week. Dennis Boyle will be delivering the closing keynote speech at the Stanford Summit @ Medicine 2.0 this fall. Boyle is a co-founder and partner of IDEO, a design firm dedicated to consulting organizations on innovation and whose inventions include the first production mouse, among many others.
