Just eight months ago, 6-year-old Emma Whitehead was gravely ill with leukemia and running out of options.Two rounds of chemotherapy had already failed, and a bone marrow transplant was no longer possible, The NewYorkTimes reports. So her parents opted for an experimental therapy developed at the University of Pennsylvania that aimed to enlist Emma’s own immune system in the fight […]
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■ Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho has been writing poetry for most of his life, but because he was living on the side of the road in Sao Paulo, Brazil, only a few passersby ever read it. That changed when one of those readers, Shalla Monteiro, created a Facebook page to share Sobrinho’s poems with the world. The page attracted some 40,000 […]
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If thinking about your own death freaks you out, there may be over-the-counter solution. A new study shows that the main ingredient in Tylenol, acetaminophen, can help calm existential dread in the same way it reduces the physical pain of a headache. To get volunteers worried about their own mortality, University of British Columbia researchers asked them to watch scenes […]
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Most people would agree that fossil fuels simply need to go. They’re the cause of pollution, wars and climate change. Scientists have been researching alternative energy solutions like wind and solar power, and hydrogen fuel for cars, for years. But while some automakers — like Toyota and Honda — are bringing hydrogen-fueled cars to market, wind and solar are still […]
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■ South Central Los Angeles is more famous for drive-by shootings than well-kept gardens, but one native son is getting locals to trade their sawed-off shotguns for shovels. Ron Finley, who styles himself the “Gangsta Gardener” is encouraging Angelenos to cultivate vegetable and fruit gardens in vacant lots in deprived neighborhoods. He has co-founded a charity, L.A. Green Grounds, to […]
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A year ago, 37-year-old Australian truck driver Bill Morgan was crushed in a car accident and came close to dying. When his luck finally changed after winning a car on a scratch-off lottery ticket, the local media wanted to air his story. Well, it was during that reenactment that he got another surprise. The ticket he was scratching was yet […]
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■ When Phoenix police officer Natalie Simonick saw 18-year-old Christian Felix out after dark in March, she suspected he was violating curfew. But Felix told her he was walking six miles home from his job at McDonald’s, as he had missed the bus and didn’t own a bicycle. Simonick was so impressed with the teen’s work ethic that she decided […]
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Meditation doesn’t just improve mental and physical health in the present. It also slows the aging process, and can help meditators stay mentally sharp into old age, a new study has found. Once people reach their mid- to late 20s, their brains begin to lose volume and weight, which can eventually result in the loss of some functional ability. But […]
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People tormented by a neverending flow of negative thoughts can greatly benefit from an alternative to expensive psychotherapy or medications: a walk in the woods. Psychologists at Stanford University found that walking outdoors in natural settings can ward off the human tendency to harp on that breakup, layoff, or family problem. The study involved 38 city participants, some of which […]
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■ A Good Samaritan from Macomb County, Mich., saved a baby’s life in a dramatic roadside rescue. Ryan Cornelissen, 21, was flagged down in his car by a man whose wife had just given birth on the way to the hospital. The man did not speak English well, but Cornelissen quickly saw that the baby wasn’t breathing. He dialed 911, […]
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