Surprising Science

Are alternative medical treatments like acupuncture and homeopathy scams or do they account for the mind’s influence in overall health in a way that traditional medicine does not?

The evidence is overwhelming that declining vaccination rates are contributing to outbreaks of disease. What should we do about people who decline vaccination for themselves or their children?

By building community groups and cooperating with other developing nations, China is tackling its AIDS epidemic. It has also created needle-exchanges and safer blood transfusions.

While the hormone-disrupting chemical BPA has been eliminated from baby bottles and other containers, current regulation makes it impossible to know which ones are chemical-free. 

To fight child obesity, the federal government wants to limit the kinds of foods available to children. The food industry has already proposed its own set of weaker standards.

There are pluses and minuses to living with pets, not only with respect to your happiness and housekeeping, but also with respect to your physiological and psychological well-being. 

The Ideafeed is a place where big ideas and the news cycle meet. Help us spread the best ideas of the web by suggesting a story to be included in the daily IdeaFeed.

Through a literal deconstruction of the army uniforms of the veterans in the project, the “Combat Paper Project” hopes to provide cathartic healing and deconstruct the pain and trauma that their military service has left them with.

Do you know how much R.E.M. sleep you got last night? New types of devices that monitor activity, sleep, diet, and even mood could make us healthier and more productive than ever. 

Owe your friend some cash but forgot your wallet? PayPal announced on Wednesday a new feature that allows phone-to-phone money transfers using technology for Android devices.

Most have come to believe the dinosaurs were killed off when an asteroid struck the Earth, but some scientists remain sceptical. Will new evidence in the fossil record convince them?  

The International Space Station received a year’s worth of supplies in a giant shopping cart yesterday, courtesy of the astronauts on N.A.S.A.’s final shuttle flight made by Atlantis.

As climate change affects the ecology of the Pacific Ocean, many marine species will suffer, while two new reports indicate that certain fish and whales may successfully adapt.

New research from a British university which examines the effects of recent climate change on plant and animal species says one in 10 could face extinction by the year 2100.

The scientific concept that will most impact our world is the idea that will unify two opposite ideas, those of Newton and Einstein, says Big Thinker Ajitkumar Tampi Trivikram.

If the goal of the Stuxnet computer virus was to destroy Iran’s capability to produce nuclear weapons, it failed. But if it was meant to simply slow the process, it succeeded—for a time.

Several types of personality disorders will be dropped from the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But narcissistic personality disorder will remain. 

Recent shootings and the accompanying media coverage have probably fed the public’s perception that most profoundly mentally ill people are violent but studies show just the opposite. 

Obsessing over our kids’ happiness may be dooming them to unhappy adulthoods. A therapist and mother reports on what she learned from books and then from patients. 

You needn’t commit your life to blissful meditation to receive its benefits. A new study published in Psychological Science shows meditating changes neural pathways in just five weeks. 

While online therapy sessions could make counseling services available to a new group of people, there are logistical and financial obstacles including lack of insurance reimbursement.

Professor at the Johns Hopkins Business School, Stacy Lee says a recent Supreme Court ruling leaves generic drugs unregulated, putting consumers of the medicines at risk. 

A comprehensive, state-by-state report titled “F as in Fat” shows that obesity rates continue to climb, along with diabetes and high blood pressure. 16 states reported sharp obesity increases. 

Some children with milk allergies may be able to outgrow them faster by consuming measured amounts of foods containing baked milk, say researchers in New York. 

An international team of surgeons has successfully carried out the world’s first transplant of a synthetic organ. In Sweden, a patient received a new windpipe made from his own stem cells.

After years of controversy, a therapy based on human embryonic stem cells is finally being tested in humans. The treatment holds out hope to paralyzed people, but at how great a risk?

PowerPoint ban? The software is boring employees and costing companies billions in lost work, say the brains behind the Anti-Power Point Party. Could a PowerPoint ban take off?

Combining top-down and bottom-up approaches, a new low-cost method could enable the creation of three-dimensional nanostructured materials that serve a variety of functions.

The world’s insatiable demand for the rare-earth elements needed to make almost all technological gadgets could one day be partially met by sea-floor mining, says a new report.

While carbon dioxide emissions have risen steadily from 1998 to 2009, global temperatures have not. Scientists say Chinese coal-fired power plants that release sulfur have cooled the planet.