Pharmaceuticals1121 articles archived since 1845

June 2012 Briefing Memo

Unhurtful Thoughts: A Preoccupied Brain Produces Pain-Killing Compounds

Spinal scans reveal the mechanism by which intense thinking can block pain receptors in the nervous system

This Is Your Brain on Drugs

To the great surprise of many, psilocybin, a potent psychedelic, reduces brain activity

Why Polio Isn't Going Away

As the number of cases of the paralytic disease fall, world health officials have to grapple with a vexing problem: a component of the most widely used polio vaccine now causes more disease than the virus it is supposed to fight...

Erasing Painful Memories: Drug and Behavioral Therapies Will Help Us Forget Toxic Thoughts

The caustic imprint of a traumatic memory may fade or vanish with new drug and behavioral therapies

Return of the Clap

Gonorrhea, once a minor illness, is developing resistance to the last category of drugs that still works against it and could become untreatable

Readers Respond to "The Google Effect"--and More

Letters to the Editor about the January/February 2012 issue of Scientific American Mind

Tomorrow's Medicine

A look at some of the most promising medical devices now in development

Garlic Compound Fights Food-Borne Bacteria

Diallyl sulfide, a compound found in garlic, was much more effective than two standard antibiotics at wiping out bacteria responsible for digestive system infections. Sophie Bushwick reports...

How Do Painkillers Buffer against Social Rejection?

Jeannine Stamatakis, an instructor at various colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area, answers

Nanomaterials Offer Hope for Cerebral Palsy

Rabbits with brain injuries hop again after treatment--synthetic molecules affixed with an anti-inflammatory drug--crosses the blood brain barrier

May 2012 Briefing Memo

Depression in Teens Could Be Diagnosed with Blood Test

A blood test based on 11 genetic markers could make early-onset diagnosis easier and possibly relieve the stigma of depression

New Physics and Future Medicine

Ice Is Nice for Insect Bites

To relieve the annoying itch of insect bites, your best bet may be the simple application of ice to numb the bitten area and reduce inflammation. Cynthia Graber reports

Revealed: How Cold War Scientists Joined Forces to Conquer Polio

While the superpowers were busy threatening to destroy each other with nuclear weapons, Albert B. Sabin turned to a surprising ally to test his new oral polio vaccine—a Soviet scientist...

Mood Drug Can Both Cause and Relieve Anxiety

Hormone's opposite effects underscore the complexities of mood disorders

Chinese Medicine Herbs Found to Contain Ingredients Derived from Endangered Animals

Food and drug regulatory agencies might consideradopting sequencing techniques to screen herbal medicines for ingredientsthat are toxic or derived from vulnerable organisms, a geneticist says...

Fathomable Pharmaceuticals: Will Cameron's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea Yield Breakthrough Drugs?

The moviemaker's expedition to the Mariana Trench could usher in a new type of undersea lab that extracts chemical compounds from microorganisms living in the deepest parts of the sea

Stem-Cell Rules Go Unheeded

An attempt by the Chinese health ministry to enforce a ban on the clinical use of unapproved stem-cell treatments has had little effect