New class of antibiotics may kill MRSA.
Science Daily has promising research from Notre Dame in the fight against antibiotic-resistant germs – a new class of chemicals that should kill bacteria like […]
pharmacology
Are antibiotics making us obese?
The New York Times investigates the strange history of American antibiotics – and how the medicine hailed as a “superdrug” in the 1940s might have […]
Diuretic drug appears to help autism.
Nature explains the unusual effects that chloride ions can have on our developing brains, and what that means for a drug that seems to help […]
Caffeine improves your memory.
And your mood, of course, but Laboratory Equipment doesn’t get into that. No, all they focus on is the boost caffeine gives your long-term memory: […]
Oreos “as addictive as cocaine.”
Outside meanders out of the campground and into the chem lab, following a Connecticut College experiment determining just how strong our junk-food cravings can get. […]
Parents *shocked* by study linking soda to kids’ behavioral problems.
Science Daily doesn’t actually get into the parents’ responses, but it’s easy enough to imagine. Columbia University researchers have linked soft drinks to “aggression, attention […]
Science Art: Plate from Kitab fi al-adwiyah al-mufradah by Abu Ja`far al-Ghafiqi.
In the 11th century, this was the pinnacle of medical knowledge – a book called Kitab fi al-adwiyah al-mufradah compiled by an Andalusian scholar Abu […]
Prehistoric art shows psychedelic traces, scientists say.
Alternet (of course) spreads the news that researchers studying our earliest ancestors have collected some intriguing proof that cave painters were tripping: Their thesis intriguingly […]
An antibiotic robs pretty women of their power over men. I am not making that up.
Nature publishes a study on minocycline (remember that name, stupid men, it’s a kind of tetracycline), which not only kills germs but also keeps men […]
Psychedelic sponges. Why?
Vice, of all publications, examines the strange chemistry of the first-known psychedelic sponges… trying to figure out why sponges would make something as potent as […]
Dope smokers maybe not so dopey.
Nature reports that the link between youthful indulgence in marijuana and IQ loss might be overstated: Ole Røgeberg, a labour economist at the Ragnar Frisch […]
More on the “party drug” that’s helping America’s veterans (and others).
New York Times reviews the research demonstrating that MDMA, better known as X, can work wonders with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder patients: Government regulators criminalized the […]
Cannabis does lower IQ. By about 8 points.
The Independent has a surprisingly lucid summary of a 25-year longitudinal study of cannabis users from ages 13 to 38. And they found that teen […]
Cannabis pills not effective against MS.
BBC breaks some not-terribly-encouraging news from the stoner desk. Neuromedical researchers have found marijuana-based meds don’t slow the progress multiple sclerosis: Lead researcher, Professor John […]
Coke ages brains.
Scientific American veers into “No, really?” territory with news that cocaine ages your brain prematurely: “As we age we all lose gray matter,” Karen Ersche […]