The five most-read stories on Scope this week were:
Can yoga help women suffering from fibromyalgia?: A study 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.
Statisticians are so hot right now: Arcane statistical analysis, the business of making sense of our growing data mountains, has become high tech's hottest calling. Stanford statistics professor Rob Tibshirani, PhD, comments on the trend in a New York Times piece.
The smoking gun of the Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher's relationship with the tobacco industry: Stanford's Robert Jackler, MD, talks about discovering how Britain's first woman prime minister became a shill for Philip Morris.
Thanks, Jerry: Honoring pioneering Stanford sleep research: A Stanford dormitory, now known as Jerry House, served as the site of a series of pioneering sleep studies in the mid-70s. At the house, undergraduates and members of the community lent themselves for study during "summer sleep camps," where researchers conducted seminal work that had great consequences for the development of the sleep research field here and around the world.
Fantastic voyage: Stanford researcher offers a virtual flight through the brain: Stephen J. Smith, PhD, a Stanford professor of molecular and cellular physiology takes a Macworld audience on a breathtaking HD video tour of the most amazing computer of all - the brain. The short film, which is included in the post, allows viewers to virtually fly through the cerebral cortex of a mouse.