Monthly Archives: June 2004

weight control: obese lack spike of hunger hormone

Researchers studying hormones associated with food intake and metabolism have discovered a hitherto unknown biological feature of obesity. Julio Licinio of the University of California at Los Angeles and colleagues have found that obese people lack a normal nighttime spike … Continue reading

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astronomy: a close encounter with a wild comet

NASA’s Stardust spacecraft has revealed comet Wild 2 to be unlike any other comet known. Researchers describe the strange astronomical object in a series of papers in the June 18 issue of Science. The spacecraft came within less than 150 … Continue reading

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climate: new ice age may be thousands of years away

The longest Antarctic ice core yet drilled is revealing Earth’s climate of the past, as well as predicting its future, suggesting that the next ice age is at least 15,000 years away. The ice core, almost 2 miles long, was … Continue reading

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anthropology: rats help track human migration patterns

Thanks to genetic analysis and the rat-eating habits of ancient Polynesians, researchers are determining the routes prehistoric humans used to colonize the Western Pacific. The Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) is believed to have been a food source for the Lapita, … Continue reading

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biomedicine: link between aging and eating found

Scientists have long known that calorie-restricted diets can extend the lives of creatures ranging from yeast to fruit flies to mice. (A few, very hungry people are trying to see if it works for humans, too.) But exactly why near-starvation … Continue reading

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epidemiology: stressed caregivers don’t face higher risk of breast cancer

It’s long been thought that stress might be a factor in the development of breast cancer, but a study in the June 1 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests otherwise. Candyce Kroenke of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and … Continue reading

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