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 How's this for a scary prognosis?  Family violence leaves genetic traces. Newswise.com reports that a new Tulane University School of Medicine study finds that the more fractured families are by domestic violence or trauma, the more likely that children will bear the scars down to their DNA. Researchers discovered that children in homes affected by domestic violence, suicide or the incarceration of a family member have significantly shorter telomeres, which is a cellular marker of aging, than those in stable households.  Those with shorter telomeres die younger. Telomeres are the caps at the end of chromosomes that keep them from shrinking when cells replicate. Shorter telomeres are linked to higher risks for heart disease, obesity, cognitive decline, diabetes, mental illness and poor health outcomes in adulthood. “Family-level stressors, such as witnessing a family member get hurt, created an environment that affected the DNA within the cells of t...

If you're a certain age you know the expression, "Vive la difference!"  And if you're not, it means, well, thank goodness for boys and girls, and all their differences. But now scientists are finding that the incongruities between the sexes are even more dramatic than anyone knew. We're talking cells, sex cells .  Not sex sells, but sex cells.  You know, the things researchers use to figure out how to cure diseases and find therapies for different illnesses.   "There is now good reason to consider that studies conducted in male cells will produce results different from those of identical studies using female cell lines,"  Cathy Fuller, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, tells newswise.com.  "This could have a profound effect on fields such as personalized medicine.” Not long ago, the world learned that medications have different effects on me...