11 Ways to Avoid Answering a Question: A Year in Review

When my grandfather was alive, each of his children and grandchildren was responsible for reporting to him about the world in which they worked. He loved knowledge; he always had. As the only scientist in the family, I was in charge of “science.” This never quite seemed fair and yet I did what I could until the day he asked me to explain dark matter. I am a broadly trained scientist. I have worked...

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Mood drug no help for smoking cessation in prison study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The addition of the antidepressant nortriptyline to conventional smoking cessation therapy didn’t improve the chances of longterm success among male prisoners, Australian researchers have found.Depression and other mental illnesses raise the likelihood of smoking, and quitting can depress a person’s mood – which in turn can make it harder to quit. Studies have shown that...

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Palestinians say 9 dead from swine flu outbreak

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A Palestinian health official says an outbreak swine flu has killed nine people.Deputy Health Minister Asad Ramlawi also said Monday more than 225 people have been infected by the H1N1 influenza strain, known as swine flu. He said more than 25,000 vaccinations have been administered this year to prevent it. The West Bank has 2.5 million residents.The West Bank has been struck...

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Italian Nobel scientist Montalcini dies at 103

ROME (Reuters) – Rita Levi Montalcini, joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and an Italian Senator for Life, died on Sunday at the age of 103, her family said.The first Nobel laureate to reach 100 years of age, she won the prize in 1986 with American Stanley Cohen for their discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF), a protein that makes developing cells grow by stimulating surrounding nerve tissue.Her...

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Brazil president, cancer survivor, pronounced healthy

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who survived lymphoma cancer in 2009, was pronounced healthy by doctors after a routine exam on Friday.Rousseff’s health was “within normal levels,” according to a statement released by her office following the check-up at the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in Sao Paulo, one of South America‘s leading cancer treatment centers.Rousseff underwent chemotherapy...

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Condom Dispensers in Philly Schools

Philadelphia is installing condom dispensers in 22 city high schools where students as young as 14 will be able to receive condoms for free in an effort to combat an “epidemic” of sexually transmitted disease among the city’s teenagers.Students returning to school from Christmas break will find clear plastic dispensers filled with condoms in the offices of nurses whose schools have the highest rates...

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Wife’s Garbled Text a Sign of Stroke

Dec 25, 2012 12:57pmSending garbled texts may be a sign of stroke. Image credit: Stone/Getty Images.Smartphone autocorrect is famous for scrambling messages into unintelligible gibberish but when one man received this garbled text from his 11-week-pregnant wife, it alarmed him:“every where thinging days nighing,” her text read. “Some is where!”Though that may sound like every text you’ve ever received,...

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Lawmakers play waiting game with “fiscal cliff” deadline in sight

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With only a week left before a deadline for the United States to go over a “fiscal cliff,” lawmakers played a waiting game on Monday in the hope that someone will produce a plan to avoid harsh budget cuts and higher taxes for most Americans from New Year’s Day.Though Republicans and Democrats have spent the better part of a year describing a plunge off the cliff as a looming...

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Former President George H.W. Bush remains hospitalized

(Reuters) – Former President George H.W. Bush, who has been hospitalized for a month undergoing treatment for bronchitis, may not be released from a Houston hospital in time to celebrate Christmas at home as doctors had hoped.Bush, 88, remained in stable condition and doctors were optimistic he would make a full recovery, George Kovacik, a spokesman at Methodist Hospital, said in an emailed statement...

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U.S. teen smoking declines to record low in 2012: study

(Reuters) – Cigarette smoking among American teenagers dropped to a record low in 2012, a decline that may have been partly driven by a sharp hike in the federal tobacco tax, researchers said on Wednesday.An annual survey of about 45,000 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades found that the overall proportion of those saying they had smoked in the prior 30 days fell by just over a percentage...

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Halozyme inks drug development deal with Pfizer

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. said Friday it has reached an agreement with Pfizer to develop injectable versions of the drugmaker’s biotech drugs.Halozyme specializes in a recombinant hyaluronidase enzyme technology, which is designed to temporarily break down a substance in the body that forms a barrier between cells so drugs can be absorbed faster. That would allow some drugs to be...

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Amgen pagará 762 millones por vender un medicamento para usos no autorizados

Nueva York, 19 dic (EFE).- El gigante estadounidense de la biotecnología Amgen pagará una sanción de 762 millones de dólares tras declararse culpable de introducir en el mercado un medicamento para usos no permitidos por las autoridades federales.La compañía aceptó hoy en un tribunal federal de Brooklyn (Nueva York) un acuerdo para declararse culpable, clausurar el caso y pagar 150 millones en sanciones...

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Global malaria battle stalls as financing gets tight

LONDON (Reuters) – Global funding for the fight against malaria has stalled in the past two years, threatening to reverse what the World Health Organisation (WHO) says are “remarkable recent gains” in the battle to control one of the world’s leading infectious killers.After rapid expansion between 2004 and 2009, funding for malaria prevention and control leveled off between 2010 and 2012 – meaning...

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Pope speaks of his pain over “senseless violence” in Connecticut

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict expressed his pain over the killing in the United States of 26 people, including 20 schoolchildren, by a gunman and prayed for the consolation of the victims’ families at his weekly address on Sunday.“I was deeply saddened by Friday’s senseless violence in Newtown, Connecticut,” the pontiff told crowds of pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square...

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School murders silence “cliff” rhetoric as deadline nears

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mass murder in Connecticut silenced “fiscal cliff” talk on Saturday as the White House and Congress quietly got ready for a final scramble to avert the tax hikes and spending cuts set for the New Year, with sessions of the U.S. House of Representatives now scheduled just days before Christmas.President Barack Obama canceled a trip he had planned to make next Wednesday to Portland,...

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Connecticut School Shooting: What to Tell Your Kids

Dec 14, 2012 2:11pm(Image credit: Jessica Hill/AP Photo)Your child doesn’t need to have been at the scene of today’s Connecticut school shooting to be traumatized.  Hearing about it and seeing images from it can be quite traumatic.LIVE UPDATES: Newtown, Conn., School ShootingIt’s important to remember that children of different ages and levels of development will react differently to the tragedy....

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Therapy without drugs may suffice to ward off psychosis

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Young adults at very high risk of psychotic illness should receive talk therapy rather than antipsychotic drugs as an initial treatment, a new study suggests.The results might ease fears about overtreating people who have warning signs of psychosis but not a full-blown disease, but the study findings were not conclusive because the number of participants was too small.“This...

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Germany passes law to protect circumcision after outcry

BERLIN (Reuters) – German politicians passed a law on Wednesday to protect the right to circumcise infant boys in a show of support for Muslims and Jews angered by a local court ban on the practice in May.The ban – imposed on the grounds that circumcision amounted to “bodily harm” – triggered an emotional debate over the treatment of Jews and other religious minorities, a sensitive subject in a country...

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APNewsBreak: DA investigating Texas cancer agency

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas prosecutor responsible for investigating public corruption among state officials says he has opened an investigation into the state’s troubled $ 3 billion cancer-fighting agency.Gregg Cox is director of the Travis County district attorney‘s public integrity unit. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday that an investigation has begun into the Cancer Prevention and Research...

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Study: Talk Therapy May Help Depression when Medications Inadequate

A first-of-its-kind large scale research study concluded that the addition of talk therapy to a medication regimen helps to relieve the symptoms of depression, the leading cause of disability in the United States in those ages 15 years to 44 years, according to the National Institute of Mental Health .Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as an Adjunct to Medication TreatmentOnly one-third of people with depression...

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