Articles from Contributor
The Healthland Podcast: We Debate Avastin, Marriage and Spanking
Join us for a lively discussion of the biggest health and science news this week. First, the bitter fight over whether breast-cancer patients should have access to the controversial drug Avastin. Also: should you live together …
The Healthland Podcast: Diets, Divorce and Cigarettes
On the podcast this week: results from a major Harvard study on how to eat right. Also, a controversial new trend in how some divorced parents are raising their children. And finally, the war over government labeling of …
Introducing the Healthland Podcast
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Healthland Podcast! Click this little arrow for a lively, off-the-cuff discussion of the week’s health/science news.
Health Equality: Portland Embraces Transgender Rights
The Portland, Ore., city council voted on Wednesday to cover the cost of sex-reassignment surgery for municipal workers in its health-care plan. Portland is only the second major city, after San Francisco, to offer surgical …
The Lab Rat: Can the Right Shirt Improve Your Posture?
Clothes can be fashionable or embarrassing, ill-fitting or flattering. But can they be medicinal? A California-based company called Alignmed has developed a line of garments being used by professional athletes, MS patients, …
The Psychology of Real Estate: Why North Is Better Than South
So you’re searching online for a new place to live. You stumble across an affordable house in a nearby city that you’ve never visited. The house is in a neighborhood called North Town. A few minutes later, you find a similar …
The Psychology of Dictatorship: Why Gaddafi Clings to Power
Muammar Gaddafi continues to hold tightly to power even as NATO bombs rain down on Tripoli.
House Watch: The Season Finale Edition
House M.D. completed its seventh season last night with a giant crash, one that would seem to divide House from Princeton-Plainsboro forever. More details (and diagnoses in bold) below — but first:
House Watch: Bathtub Surgery Edition
House gave new meaning to the phrase “Doctor, heal thyself” last night. He not only self-medicated, which he does usually does with epic amounts of Vicodin. This time he actually self-operated, cutting into that mangy leg.
House Watch: The Spanish Fly Edition
House is generally a self-destructive guy — the whole conceit of House M.D. is that he’s the sick but brilliant doctor who can heal everyone but himself. But last night we saw him injecting junk into his arm, so the stakes …
Do Immigrant Kids Get Fat to Fit In?
Many foreign-born American citizens have said they feel that their fellow U.S. citizens question their Americanness. This spurning can be particularly difficult for immigrants’ U.S.-born children: some Asian-American kids, for …
Why Happiness Isn’t Always Good: Asians vs. Americans
Among journalists — and less so among psychologists — the subset of mental-health research called “positive psychology” has become powerfully influential. Positive psychology, which was more or less founded by a …