Health Sciences – Athens Science Observer https://athensscienceobserver.com A Closer Look at the Science Around Us Tue, 23 Mar 2021 21:06:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://i1.wp.com/athensscienceobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/cropped-eye512.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Health Sciences – Athens Science Observer https://athensscienceobserver.com 32 32 94425623 The Science of Ultra-Running https://athensscienceobserver.com/2021/03/23/the-science-of-ultra-running/ Tue, 23 Mar 2021 22:00:00 +0000 https://athensscienceobserver.com/?p=11006 It’s 3:30 in the morning. As Lucy Bartholomew’s mother braids her hair, she asks, “did you sleep?”, to which Lucy responds, “a little”. It’s a few hours before the start of one of the most grueling races in the world. At 22 years old, Lucy is one of the youngest participants ever. Lucy has competed […]

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]]> 11006 Innocents Lost: Mitigating severe malaria in children & pregnant women through anticoagulation https://athensscienceobserver.com/2016/06/20/innocents-lost-mitigating-severe-malaria-in-children-pregnant-women-through-anticoagulation/ Mon, 20 Jun 2016 22:21:44 +0000 https://athensscienceobserver.com/?p=3700 Will my baby be healthy? How can I protect it? Is my child safe? For the 125 million pregnant women at risk of contracting malaria there is no need to imagine, this is the reality they face everyday — Tara Bracken Winner of the 2016 University of Georgia 3 Minute Thesis, Tara Bracken speaks about […]

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]]> 3700 The Most Deadly Animals on Earth https://athensscienceobserver.com/2016/03/17/the-most-deadly-animals-on-earth/ Thu, 17 Mar 2016 16:28:22 +0000 https://athensscienceobserver.com/?p=2709 It’s almost summer time. That means it’s about to be mosquito season! These masters of annoyance happen to be the world’s most deadly animal. No other animal species is responsible for as many human deaths as mosquitoes are. Humans murder about 475,000 other people each year. You know those creepy slithering snakes you fear so […]

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]]> 2709 The Bitter-Sweet Truth: Why do we have such a distaste for presumably healthy foods? https://athensscienceobserver.com/2016/02/17/the-bitter-sweet-truth-why-do-we-have-such-a-distaste-for-presumably-healthy-foods/ Wed, 17 Feb 2016 14:36:27 +0000 https://athensscienceobserver.com/?p=2440 I am proud to say that I am a lover of all things brussels sprouts and cabbage, but this wasn’t always the case.  As a kid, I would turn my nose up at that pungent, sulfurous aroma that would hit me every time we’d go over to my grandfather’s house as he was preparing cabbage […]

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]]> 2440 The Magic of (Early) Reading https://athensscienceobserver.com/2015/09/10/the-magic-of-early-reading/ Thu, 10 Sep 2015 15:00:34 +0000 https://athensscienceobserver.com/?p=1432 My parents encouraged my sister and I to start reading from a very early age. I am pretty sure that as a child I read every book I owned about a hundred times. So imagine my joy when I saw a packed bookshelf at a friend’s house that belonged to her four-year-old sister. Surprisingly, my […]

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]]> 1432 Wealth versus wellness: The complex world of global health https://athensscienceobserver.com/2015/07/31/wealth-versus-wellness-the-complex-world-of-global-health/ Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:35:34 +0000 https://athensscienceobserver.com/?p=964 Over the course of the year 2005, nearly 9,500 people lay in bed with arsenic coursing through their veins. They had watched as the toxic drug was slowly forced into their bloodstream, hopefully through a glass syringe; as it is dissolved in propylene glycol, a close relative of antifreeze, the drug melts plastic syringes used […]

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]]> 964 The Skinny on Trans Fats https://athensscienceobserver.com/2015/07/06/the-skinny-on-trans-fats/ Mon, 06 Jul 2015 12:00:28 +0000 https://athenssciencecafe.wordpress.com/?p=773 by Christian Schwoyer, Athens Science Cafe Earlier this month, June 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) passed a regulation that will forever change the way Americans snack. The regulation will ban all artificial trans fats from processed foods, such as potato chips, cookies and even coffee creamer by the year 2018.  Trans fats […]

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]]> 798 The Secret Life of Yeast https://athensscienceobserver.com/2015/06/22/the-secret-life-of-yeast/ Mon, 22 Jun 2015 10:37:00 +0000 https://athenssciencecafe.wordpress.com/?p=731 By Anna Lau, PhD, Athens Science Café Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a drug, palbociclib, for treatment of advanced breast cancer. Palbociclib works by inhibiting the function of a protein that controls cell division. Cancer cells divide uncontrollably, so this drug stops these cells from multiplying. Palbociclib is what drug […]

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]]> 731 Far From G-M-Over https://athensscienceobserver.com/2015/05/25/far-from-g-m-over/ Mon, 25 May 2015 11:00:03 +0000 https://athenssciencecafe.wordpress.com/?p=673 By: Patrick Griffin, Athens Science Café   A couple of weeks ago, as I walked through the charming town of Broad Ripple, Indiana, I stumbled upon a behemoth three-story Chipotle. Recently erected to satiate the growing popularity of the Mexican-themed grill, the building was sporting a sign that piqued my interest as a scientist and […]

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]]> 673 Editing the Human Genome: With Great Power There Must Also Come Great Responsibility https://athensscienceobserver.com/2015/03/30/editing-the-human-genome-with-great-power-there-must-also-come-great-responsibility/ Mon, 30 Mar 2015 10:23:06 +0000 https://athenssciencecafe.wordpress.com/?p=547 In 1963, at the dawn of the molecular biology age, Dr. Joshua Lederberg predicted that this nascent biotechnology would eventually allow direct control of human DNA, including the ability to change specific genes. [1] He recognized the potential of molecular biology to bring about gene therapy to cure human disease and to be misused for […]

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]]> 547 Calm Down: The Ebola Scare https://athensscienceobserver.com/2014/11/16/calm-down-the-ebola-scare/ Sun, 16 Nov 2014 13:28:11 +0000 http://athenssciencecafe.wordpress.com/?p=329 “Ebola does in ten days what it take AIDS ten years to do” –Barry and David Zimmerman (Killer Germs) There have been many different stories and fears circling the world since the outbreak of Ebola reached national headlines. Not everything you hear on Fox News and Channel 2 is accurate. While there is cause for […]

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