Fashionable British baby product manufacturer MacLaren is recalling around a million strollers sold since 1999, according to a report in the New York Daily News. The News says that the recall comes in the wake of injuries to 12 babies who lost the tips of their fingers when they became caught in the stroller’s hinges. [...]
Men really believe they read Playboy for the articles (although internet porn doesn’t even offer that excuse)—at least according to fascinating new research published as a working paper by Harvard Business School [hat tip: Economist]. The study sheds light on how people rationalize embarrassing or otherwise questionable behavior without recognizing their own true motives. The [...]
The vast majority of adults who tried to get the H1N1 vaccine for themselves or their children have been unable to do so, according to a new national poll from the Harvard School of Public Health. Since the H1N1 vaccine became available last month, 41% of parents and 21% of high-priority adults (including those who [...]
If it seems that you recall particular scents from childhood more vividly than other (more recent) smells, there may be a bona fide biological reason. New research suggests that these “first scents” occupy a privileged place in the brain. For the study, appearing online in Current Biology, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in [...]
About 70 million Americans suffer from some sort of chronic pain—including at least 23 million whose pain is so severe that it is disabling. Lost work hours and other pain-related costs add up to over $100 billion. But while misuse of prescription pain medication makes headlines and has led to numerous initiatives aimed at fighting [...]
It’s been a long three weeks for the American Cancer Society. The public relations nightmare that started with an admission to the New York Times that they’d overstated the benefits of detecting many cancers is continuing with new evidence that two of the most reliable screenings—Pap smears for cervical cancer and colonoscopies for colon cancer—have some [...]
Though she is nestled safely in the womb, your baby is already listening to you by the last trimester of pregnancy. At birth, according to new research, infants have already picked up their parents’ “accents,” – and these can be distinguished by listening to the way their cries rise and fall in pitch. The research [...]
Childhood obesity rates are through the roof. In the past 30 years, the percentage of overweight kids has nearly tripled in every age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Obesity in children is defined as a body mass index, BMI, at or above the 95th percentile for children of the same [...]
The internet and cell phones are bringing people together, not tearing us apart—at least, according to a new survey released today by the Pew Internet and American Life project. The research followed up a shocking 2006 study, which found that American social networks were rapidly contracting and that 25% of Americans reported that they had [...]
Green tea may be considered a little woo-woo by some mainstream cancer experts but the popular beverage continues to creep toward credibility as a weapon against many forms of the disease. The best studies to date hint that green tea may help ward off cancers of the breast and prostate. And this week oral cancer [...]
