Health
Vitamin D deficiency soars in the U.S., study says
New research suggests that most Americans are lacking a crucial vitamin.
Stories by Jordan Lite
EARTH
Mount Redoubt erupts
Thar she blows!
Mount Redoubt blew its lid last night and continues to erupt today, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), which has logged at five eruptions so far...
Health
Maggots: They'll make your skin crawl, but won't heal your wound better than gel
If you have a stubborn leg ulcer, you may be tempted to seed your wound with maggots, a treatment reportedly used on and off between the 14th and 20th centuries.
Space
Space station to get its wings today
Astronauts aboard the Discovery will unfurl new solar array wings today for the International Space Station (ISS), a task that has NASA managers holding their breath.
Mind
Richardson died of brain bleed, medical examiner rules
Actress Natasha Richardson, who died yesterday after a seemingly minor fall on a Canadian ski slope, was killed by blunt trauma to her head, a coroner said today.
Sustainability
Caribbean fish thinning out
Fish in the Caribbean have declined significantly since 1995, suggesting that 30 years of steady coral loss in the region is taking its toll, new research shows.
Sustainability
Baby tuatara, a rare reptile, found on New Zealand mainland
Oh, baby.
The discovery of a one-month-old tuatara, a rare reptile descended from lizard-like dinosaurs, has conservationists in New Zealand celebrating.
EARTH
Tonga volcano spews spectacular plume into South Pacific sky
An undersea volcano in the South Pacific is spewing stunning columns of smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet into the air. The eruption began Monday after a series of earthquakes near Tonga, a 170-island archipelago between Australia and Tahiti, residents told the Associated Press...
Health
CMV vaccine shows promise
Cytomegalovirus (CMV), a form of herpes, is the most commonly transmitted infection between pregnant women and their babies, affecting 30,000 U.S. newborns a year and leaving some 8,000 of them with permanent damage ranging from mental retardation to vision and hearing loss...
Tech
Computer science, engineering enrollment up at universities
Some heartening news on the tech front: Enrollment in undergraduate computer science and engineering programs is up in the U.S. and Canada for the first time since the dot-com bust.
Health
PSA testing may not save your life, after all
Getting screened for prostate cancer won't save men 75 and older from dying of the disease, according to doctors reporting today on a massive federal study of the usefulness of a popular blood test to measure prostate-specific antigen (PSA)...
Tech
McCain in Twitter interview today
Former presidential candidate John McCain took some heat on the presidential campaign trail after admitting he was still “learning how to get online,” and was then lampooned after an aide claimed the BlackBerry is “the miracle John McCain helped create." But the Arizona senator, 72, is one of the Tweeple...
Health
Make your pedometer work for your heart
If you're trying to get or stay in shape, you've probably heard that walking 10,000 steps a day can do the trick. But maybe you've found that the recommendation, which the American College of Sports Medicine promoted in the 1990s and has since been widely adopted by exercise-promotion campaigns, isn't doable in your busy life — or that it doesn’t raise your heart rate enough to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease...
Mind
Musicians' brains keep time--With one another
Ever wonder how musicians manage to play in unison? Credit their brain waves: they synchronize before and while musicians play a composition, according to new research.
Health
Illness that shuttered three-star Michelin eatery still a mystery
A Michelin-rated chef who calls himself a culinary alchemist was baffled by science of another kind recently: an outbreak of illness whose origin remains a mystery.
Sustainability
Is Mount Redoubt ready to blow? Eruption threat increases
It’s code orange for Mount Redoubt, the Alaskan volcano whose rumblings have had geologists predicting an eruption since January.
Officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory raised the threat level yesterday from yellow, which indicates elevated unrest, to orange, the stage just before eruption when its unrest is escalating or a volcano is emitting minor amounts of ash...
Health
FDA approves next-gen female condom
Public health advocates have long touted the female condom as a way for women to protect themselves against HIV, especially if their partner didn’t want to use a male prophylactic...
Health
Can hyperbaric oxygen therapy help autistic kids?
You might be familiar with hyperbaric oxygen treatment, in which a patient breathes in extra oxygen while inside a pressurized chamber, as a therapy for the bends and carbon monoxide poisoning...
Health
Low vitamin D bad for teen heart heath
Scientists have known for some time that in adults, low levels of vitamin D are associated with high blood pressure, high blood sugar and metabolic syndrome — a collection of risk factors for diabetes and heart disease that includes high waist circumference and elevated cholesterol and triglycerides...
Space
Hydrogen leak delays Discovery launch
The space shuttle Discovery is still on the ground this morning, after NASA postponed last night’s scheduled launch because of a hydrogen leak.
