When Doctor Becomes Patient, There’s Much to Learn November 09, 2011 Colleen Fogarty, M.D., jokes that the process of being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 was a little too much like a trip to Jiffy Lube, in an essay in which she urges her colleagues to refocus on patient-centered care. Published this week in the […]

Perfecting the ‘Perfect’ Food The USDA-supported Bean Coordinated Agricultural Project (BeanCAP) is working to help bean plant breeders develop new varieties that are better at adapting to changes in climate. How does one improve upon perfection?  By definition, that’s an impossible task, but a team of scientists is working to help breeders of the “near-perfect” […]

New Report: Local Foods are Working for the Nation The market for local food – food that is produced, processed, distributed and sold within a specific region, say a radius of several hundred miles – is growing. Large, small and midsized farms are all tapping into it. Even better, new data suggest that these producers […]

Can cooking classes help curb childhood obesity? Should healthy eating be incorporated into elementary school curriculum? A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior shows that having cooking classes alongside subjects such as math and science may promote healthier eating habits as well as curb the childhood obesity epidemic. According to the Centers for […]

Using high-tech devices to study football and concussions In case you didn’t see it, a recent Contra Costa Times article provides a closer look at an ongoing study during which Stanford University football players are equipped with mouthpieces containing high-tech sensors to advance medical understanding of concussions in football. The story recounts a recent example of  how the special high-tech mouthpieces are providing important […]

A closer look at how stretching may benefit the body Below is the final installment of a two-part discussion on the merits of stretching with Michael Fredericson, MD, who has served as head team physician with the Stanford Sports Medicine Program since 1992. Here Fredericson talks about whether the conventional reach-and-hold approach to lengthening one’s muscles […]

Paper uncovers power of ‘Foldit gamers’ strategies  … … Snyder, a CSE undergrad at UW, shows us how it’s done.  Nov. 7, 2011 Researchers studying the nature of crowds playing Foldit called some strategies “shocking” in how well they mimicked some of the methods already used by protein scientists. Gamers made headlines in September for unraveling the structure of a […]

The U.S. National Science Foundation and Japan Science and Technology Agency Issue New Joint Awards to Reduce Pesticide Pollution and Promote Biofuel The carbon footprint of humans will be reduced by four awards for plant and microbial research issued under a new joint U.S./Japanese program A plant called Medicago truncatula grows in the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation […]

Meet Face of Food Safety Nisha Antoine: Lieutenant, Biologist, Volunteer, and Mother Nisha Antoine has always understood the relationship between personal health and public health. As a child with asthma, she spent a lot of time in the emergency room, and she was inspired by her doctors and nurses to want to take care of […]

People’s Gardens Give Back Over One Million Pounds As the harvest season comes to a close, the People’s Garden has a lot to be thankful for this year. Last week, the Initiative’s ‘Share Your Harvest’ effort passed the one million pound mark of fresh produce donated to local food banks and charities across the country. Chuck Hanagan […]