Autistic children are doubly stigmatized. On the one hand, they are often dismissed as ?low functioning? or mentally retarded, especially if they have poor speaking skills as many do. Yet when autistics do show exceptional abilities?uncanny visual discrimination and memory for detail, for example?their flashes of brilliance are marginalized as aberrations, mere symptoms of their higher order cognitive deficit. They often earn a dubious promotion to ?idiot savant.?
Sexual abstinence only programs to prevent HIV infection in high income countries. Programmes that exclusively encourage abstinence from sex do not seem to affect the risk of HIV infection in high income countries, finds a review of the evidence in this week?s BMJ.
Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies by an obscure 18th-century composer, a research team from the Stanford University School of Medicine has gained valuable insight into how the brain sorts out the chaotic world around it.
A University of California, Irvine neurologist is part of a national group of scientists who have identified the active genes in sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a discovery that provides expanded opportunities for developing therapies to treat this chronic, incurable disease.
A chance discovery in the lab has helped University of Leeds scientists to show how the treatment for a stiff neck could do wonders for your blood pressure.
A special issue of the journal Homeopathy, journal of the Faculty of Homeopathy and published by Elsevier, on the ?Memory of Water? brings together scientists from around the world for the first time to publish new data, reviews and discuss recent scientific work exploring the idea that water can display memory effects.
Iowa State University researchers have developed a new technique that successfully treated rats for blindness caused by glaucoma. Their experimental treatment will be used on canine patients in the next year. If successful, it is expected to move to human trials.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a unique molecular pathway that detects and selectively eliminates defective messenger RNAs from red blood cells.
Heart attack patients received lifesaving treatment quickly when hospitals and communities used an integrated, rapid transfer system to get patients to a facility equipped to perform artery-opening procedures, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Scientists have discovered that at the same time the immune system is vigorously attacking invading viruses or bacteria, it is unexpectedly reducing its production of a particular type of factor that directs the movement of immune cells.