The five most-read posts on Scope this week were:
Can yoga help women suffering from fibromyalgia?: A study recently published in the Journal of Pain Research shows that practicing yoga boosts levels of the stress hormone cortisol and could help ease some symptoms of fibromyalgia such as pain, fatigue, muscle stiffness and depression.
"Contagion" spreads across the nation on Friday. Will Hollywood get the science right?: Steven Soderbergh's blockbuster film Contagion opened nation wide this week. In a 1:2:1 podcast, Columbia University's Ian Lipkin, MD, an expert on emerging infectious diseases, discusses his experiences serving as a technical adviser on the new film and why he thinks it's important for scientists to work with filmmakers.
9/11: Grieving in the age of social media: A conversation with Stanford psychiatrist Elias Aboujaoude, MD, an expert on the psychological effects of Internet usage and author of the recent book Virtually You: the Dangerous Power of the E-Personality, about how people are using social media to express their grief and commemorate the events of Sept. 11.
Reconnecting severed blood vessels without sutures: Research recently published in Nature Medicine describes how a team of Stanford researchers developed a sutureless technique for joining blood vessels that appears to be faster, safer and easier than the conventional method.
The First Amendment and marketing junk food to kids: A look at the legal wrangling over proposed voluntary guidelines (.pdf) that would limit how food manufacturers market junk food to children.
