For some of us entering our late twenties and early thirties, the missed milestones are piling up. Marriage? House? Kids? Nope. And yet the clock …
Author: Julia James
When business models and budgets collide
A Los Angeles Times article today hosts an extraordinary collision of two modern classic narratives: The University of California budget crisis and the search for …
How to break the news when the news is cancer
Booster Shots today tackles a difficult topic: What's the best way for a doctor to tell her patient he has cancer? As it happens, the …
Injuries from ATV accidents cost $3.24 billion annually
As long as there have been motorized vehicles, there have been competing breeds of outdoor recreationalists: those who tread lightly and those who tread on …
Beyond the oil spill, the human-ocean health connection
Since the April explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, the ocean and its relationship to human health have gushed into popular consciousness. Certainly, that …
Image of the Week: Scalded skin cells (updated)
[UPDATE: This entry has been corrected from a previous version, which attributed the skin cell damage shown below to sun exposure.] Today we celebrate the …
Access to contraceptives best way to cut maternal and newborn deaths in developing world, advocates argue
It wasn't just riots that came with last week's summits in Ontario; there were a few agreements formed as well. Leaders of the G8 nations …
Earlier entry in WIC leads moms to smarter milk choices
“In the US, milk is virtually the national emblem,” quipped a 2003 Guardian article. “Apple pie, in comparison, is an also-ran.” That popularity is thanks …
A new target-heart-rate formula for women, by women
First we discarded the notion that children could be treated as miniature adults. Now cardiologist Martha Gulati, MD, of Northwestern University would like to emphasize …
Careful, your comfy chair might be making you soft
I’m fairly obsessive when it comes to preparing resumes and applications. In fact, I probably spend less time on the content than I do trying …
Team completes genomic analysis of prostate cancer
Scientists have taken another small step in the march toward personalized medicine. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center announced yesterday it has assembled the “most comprehensive” genomic …
New radiotracer enables easier diagnosis of Alzheimer's
What, exactly, is going on with grandma? In clinical settings, it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Most diagnoses …
Bioengineers make cancer detector from digital camera
In the spirit of do-it-yourselfer Mark Frauenfelder, Rice University bioengineers have jury-rigged a cancer-detection device from a $400 digital camera and a bundle of fiber-optic …
Arsenic responsible for 20 percent of Bangladeshi deaths
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Stanford geoscience professor Scott Fendorf, PhD, who’s helping address Southeast Asia’s arsenic problem. The element occurs naturally in …
Cancer panel gets pushback over environmental focus
The actual prevalence of environmentally induced cancer has been “grossly underestimated,” declared (.pdf) a president’s advisory panel a little more than a month ago. "The …
When giving a helping hand is good for you, too
Over the weekend, I read Katy Butler’s devastating essay “What Broke My Father’s Heart.” The piece, which appeared last week in the New York Times …