The five most-read posts on Scope this week were:
Discussing sleep and work performance among health-care professionals: Associate professor Steven Howard, MD, is well known for his research on fatigue and sleep deprivation, especially as it relates to health-care professionals. In this Q&A, Howard discusses how fatigue negatively affects performance, the role cultural beliefs or societal pressures play in increasing the prevalence of sleep deprivation in our country and how organizations and professional societies can promote sleep as a priority among health-care professionals.
Study shows link between maternal IV fluids and weight loss in newborns: Doctors often use weight as an indicator of how well newborns are breastfeeding. But a study recently published in the International Breastfeeding Journal shows that weight loss in newborns may actually be a result of the IV fluids given to women during labor and not poor breastfeeding.
Image of the Week: Clark Center at night: Photographer Trey Ratcliff recently organized a photo walk at Stanford. This gorgeous image of the Clark Center, shot by Alex Stoll, was one of our favorites.
Limb regeneration mysteries revealed in Stanford study: Tissue-specific adult stem cells are responsible for the ability of mammals to re-grow the tips of fingers or toes lost to trauma or surgery, according to a Stanford study published this week in Nature. The finding discredits a popular theory that holds that previously specialized cells regress, or dedifferentiate, in response to injury to form a pluripotent repair structure called a blastema.
Addiction: All in the mind?: Stanford Professor Keith Humphreys, PhD, discusses the American Society of Addiction Medicine's revised definition of addiction as a chronic brain disorder rather than a behavioral problem involving too much alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex.
