NYT
May 27, 2008
Basics

Curriculum Designed to Unite Art and Science

By NATALIE ANGIER

Senator Barack Obama likes to joke that the battle for the Democratic
presidential nomination has been going on so long, babies have been
born, and they’re already walking and talking.

That’s nothing. The battle between the sciences and the humanities has
been going on for so long, its early participants have stopped walking
and talking, because they’re already dead.

NYT
May 27, 2008
Editorial

It’s the Genes, Stupid

Social scientists are stumped. Why do we bother to go to the polls
when we know our individual vote has no chance of determining the
result of a national election? Variations in turnout — by age, race,
income or whatever — are hard to fit into a theory of human conduct
that assumes that people are rational. But with time to spare before
the November election, molecular biology is coming to the rescue. In
the same way that researchers have teased out a role for genes in
determining sexual orientation or the propensity to smoke, they are
deploying genetics to understand our political choices.

NYT
May 27, 2008

Experts Question Placebo Pill for Children

By CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN

Jennifer Buettner was taking care of her young niece when the idea
struck her. The child had a nagging case of hypochondria, and Ms.
Buettner’s mother-in-law, a nurse, instructed her to give the girl a
Motrin tablet.

“She told me it was the most benign thing I could give,” Ms. Buettner
said. “I thought, why give her any drug? Why not give her a placebo?”

Studies have repeatedly shown that placebos can produce improvements
for many problems like depression, pain and high blood pressure, and
Ms. Buettner reasoned that she could harness the placebo effect to
help her niece. She sent her husband to the drugstore to buy placebo
pills. When he came back empty handed, she said, “It was one of those
‘aha!’ moments when everything just clicks.”

NYT
May 27, 2008
Well
Taste for Quick Boost Tied to Taste for Risk

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Health researchers have identified a surprising new predictor for
risky behavior among teenagers and young adults: the energy drink.

Super-caffeinated energy drinks, with names like Red Bull, Monster,
Full Throttle and Amp, have surged in popularity in the past decade.
About a third of 12- to 24-year-olds say they regularly down energy
drinks, which account for more than $3 billion in annual sales in the
United States.

The trend has been the source of growing concern among health
researchers and school officials. Around the country, the drinks have
been linked with reports of nausea, abnormal heart rhythms and
emergency room visits.