How are networks of neurons connected to make functional circuits? This has been a long standing question in neuroscience. To answer this fundamental question, researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School developed a new way to study these circuits and in the process learn more about the connections between them. “Neural networks are…
Conditions are ripe for transforming the U.S. mental health care system, with scientific advances, the growth of Medicaid and political consensus on the importance of improving mental health creating the possibility that goals once thought out of reach may be possible, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Broad changes will be needed to improve…
Human papillomavirus (HPV) can infect the mouth and throat to cause cancers of the oropharynx. A new study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, has found that having more than 10 prior oral sex partners was associated with a 4.3-times greater likelihood of having HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer. The…
Canada must dismantle anti-Black racism in health care to address its harmful effects on people’s health, argue authors of a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) //www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.201579 Racism has significant negative effects on the physical and mental health of Black people and people of nondominant racial groups. For example, there have been significantly higher…
An analysis of a large nationally representative longitudinal study by University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science report that starting tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, before the age of 18 is a major risk factor for people becoming daily cigarette smokers. Reporting in the January 11, 2021 online…
MIAMI — Linda Kleindienst Bruns registered for a coronavirus vaccine in late December, on the first day the health department in Tallahassee, Fla., opened for applications for people her age. Despite being 72, with her immune system suppressed by medication that keeps her breast cancer in remission, she spent days waiting to hear back about…
They are also the most versatile and unpredictable of the Panthera crew, at once stealthy and brash, antisocial and plugged in. “They have a bit of attitude to them,” said Alan M. Wilson of the Royal Veterinary College, who has studied leopard movement patterns and athletic performance. If you irritate leopards, he said, “they’ll come…
A 20-something who works on computers. A young researcher who studies cancer. Technicians in basic research labs. These are some of the thousands of people who have been immunized against the coronavirus at hospitals affiliated with Columbia University, New York University, Harvard and Vanderbilt, even as millions of frontline workers and older Americans are waiting…
From the power of meditation to the importance of leisure, here are some habits we learned during our quarantine. Months have passed since we received the instruction to quarantine in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and little by little we have had to learn to live in this new normal. At first, it was…
Anna, who is 29 and asked to be identified by her middle name to protect her high-profile job in Washington, D.C., said that the pandemic made her feel pressured. “At my age, if people aren’t already married, they’re starting to get serious — about marriage, about having kids,” she said. “For people who are together,…