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A selection of recent articles by Chris Atack

 

Riding the cortisol roller coaster

Cortisol, the so-called stress hormone, seems to behave in contradictory ways in children. Some youngsters with behavioural problems have abnormally high levels of cortisol, while others with identical problems have abnormally low levels. What's going on?
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Worldwide wellness

When it comes to many things—politics, currency, language, culture—borders can be much more than hypothetical demarcations. But as far as something like a virus is concerned, the division between countries A and B is just meaningless lines on a map. “A classic example is the H1N1 outbreak,” says Dr. Timothy Brewer, director of the McGill Global Health Programs and an associate professor in McGill’s Faculty of Medicine...
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Home Alone

In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 19-year-old Gabriella works in a sweatshop at least 15 hours a day, seven days a week, earning the equivalent of $26 US a week. Her husband was recently robbed and killed by bandits, and her mother died of cancer. She is the only adult in her family. Her 10-year-old stepsister looks after her toddler in a tiny second-floor room, accessible only by a ladder that leans on the outside wall.
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Genetic and Inflammatory Biomarkers for Post-Stroke Depression

Post-stroke depression is very common – and very dangerous. As many as 30 per cent of stroke survivors experience at least one episode of depression. These individuals tend to recover more slowly than people without depression and they have a higher risk of recurrence and mortality.
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Taking the pulse of the universe

They keep time as well as the best clock ever made. One day they may act as beacons for starships speeding through the dark reaches of interstellar space. They are the strange cosmic objects known as pulsars — the collapsed remnants of massive stars which emit regular radio or X-ray pulses...
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Quality of life: the view from inside Alzheimer's

In his heyday he was a university professor. But now, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he spends his days wandering around the residence where he lives. His children are heartbroken by what’s become of his life. Yet, the picture may not be as bleak as it seems.
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Finding language to describe the undiscovered

Mathematics is the true and universal language of science –and sometimes it runs ahead of its subject matter. Over and over again, exercises in pure mathematics have been found to describe aspects of physical reality from the spiral shapes of seashells to the trajectory of sub-atomic particles.
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The art (and science) of standing

Scientists are learning that the simple act of standing is actually far from simple. Injury or disease can rob people of the ability to stand and walk on their own. Can scientists create a device, as simple to put on as a pair of trousers, that would allow people to stand or even walk again?
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Epidemic of Vitamin D insufficiency (media release)

There’s an epidemic in progress, and it has nothing to do with the flu. A ground-breaking study published in the March 2010 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found an astonishing 59 per cent of study subjects had too little Vitamin D in their blood.
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