The University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands discovered insight into the mechanisms by which humans communicate their innermost desires and feelings.

For 20 minutes Andrea McColl, a research assistant at the University of Southern California, has been repeating the same string of nonsense syllables, changing her intonation on cue. When a smiling cartoon face pops up on the screen in front of her, she tries to sound happy. When a…

Erasmus University researchers found that men and women with the highest levels of homocysteine had twice the risk of suffering a fracture compared with those with the lowest levels.

Brittle bones can be more than just a bother for anyone who is getting on in years. About 10 million Americans have osteoporosis–a gradual thinning of the bones–and 1.5 million of them will suffer a fracture this year. That’s why doctors were so interested in a pair of…

Dutch researchers interviewed parents of 3,000 babies up to six months old and found that colic was twice as likely in infants whose mothers smoked 15 to 30 cigarettes a day.

LEARNING TO LEARN The thinking has long been that kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities must work twice as hard to absorb as much as their peers. Now some teachers are making classwork more inviting to all students by adopting dyslexia-friendly “universal instructional designs” that use visual aids like…

Researchers from the NL. studied the effect of coffee consumption. The bottom line: drinking 48 oz. of unfiltered coffee a day may carry a 10% increase in risk for heart attack or stroke.

Are you one of the millions of Americans who can’t start the day without a steaming cup of coffee? Growing dependence on that morning caffeine jolt has made the U.S. one of the biggest coffee consumers in the world, swallowing about one-third of the world’s coffee production. Is that good…

Neurologists from Leiden University in the Netherlands have for the first time isolated a gene that is linked to some types of migraines.

The Inca used to treat headaches by drilling a hole in the skull. The French favored cold compresses. Today we use shelffuls of heavily advertised over-the-counter remedies: aspirin, Advil, Tylenol, Aleve. But how much do scientists really know about headaches and what causes them? Quite a bit, as doctors who…

Euthanasia has been openly debated and researched for more than 20 years in Holland, which has a record of pragmatism in dealing with thorny social issues like drugs and abortion.

Frans Swarttouw, former chairman of the Fokker aircraft company and one of the Netherlands’ most colorful businessmen, bid an unusual farewell to his countrymen a few weeks ago. Stricken with throat cancer, the executive, 64, who once characterized an entrepreneur as “a guy who works hard, drinks himself into the…

Scientists never found any differences between men and those who become transsexuals. Now, investigators from the NL reported evidence that they may be inherently different after all.

MOST YOUNG CHILDREN LIKE TO play dress-up, parading around the house in their dad’s wing tips or smearing their mom’s lipstick all over their face. But for a few youngsters, usually boys, this childhood rite is more than a game. They are obsessed with their mother’s clothes and wear them…

Gerrit Nijland, a professor of industrial robotics has concluded a study of the acceptance of the robots in his country. The most common form of sabotage was to slow down the machines.

As the Industrial Revolution gathered strength in the 19th century, English workmen attempted to destroy new textile machines because they seemed to be taking away their jobs. Nearly two centuries later, some employees are using similar tactics against the new robots that are beginning to appear in more and more…