Hot MedFax

Does your daughter expect a D on the algebra test?  No matter the amount of studying, she will probably get it. Not because she's dumb.  Because somehow kids' expectations of how they will do in a class actually affect the outcome, according to a new study. Research has shown that what a student expects to learn and how they expect to do in a class actually has an impact on their learning, professor Angela King has found. For example, she says at newswise.com, a student might take a divisional class and assume they will get an A because it’s viewed as their “easy” class. “They are already calculating their GPA based on that A and will do whatever it takes to get that A, while a student who takes a class perceived as more difficult, like an organic chemistry course, just wants to pass the class.” And sometimes that means they settle for a C, she added, when a little more effort or an alternative study method could help them improve their learning, and their grade...

Who knew?  Latte lovers rejoice.  You're far less likely to spill this sweet sip of this beverage than a coffee. Huh? It's the foam. According to a new study, scientists have found that just a few layers of bubbles can significantly dampen the sloshing motion of liquid. They actually stumbled upon this when looking into safer transport of liquefied gas in trucks and propellants in rocket engines. Researchers studying the problem accidentally solved it with beer, initially.  "While I was studying for my Ph.D. in the south of France, we were in a pub, and we noticed that when we were carrying a pint of Guinness, which is a very foamy beer, the sloshing almost didn't happen at all," says Alban Sauret, who is currently a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at newswise.com. The scientists took their observations from the coffeehouse and the pub to the laboratory, where they built an apparatus to test the damping pow...

Who knew?  Your voice may be the key to getting a new job.  Or, more specifically, its pitch . It turns out that the way your voice sounds to potential recruiters and employers can have a positive -- or negative -- effect.  It seems a person’s speech may convey their fundamental ability to think — the capacity for reasoning, thoughtfulness and intellect.  Simply put, a job seeker's voice may reveal his intelligence. At least, that's the finding of a new study. Of course, that's also taking into consideration the contents of one's mind, and communicating them clearly, like specific thoughts and beliefs (though if you use your voice to talk about how much you hate math and the job's about accounting, maybe not so much). When hypothetical employers and professional recruiters listened to or read candidates' job qualifications, they rated the candidates as more competent, thoughtful and intelligent when they heard the pitch of their voices than when they ju...

I've always wished that my son would be more daring.  When he was a little boy, his best friend climbed trees (to the top), snowboarded only on slopes marked with black diamonds, and wasn't afraid to trade barbs with kids who were 20 pounds heavier and meaner. Instead, Phillip would stand anxiously by, ready to call 911. I've always loved that about him, that he's a caretaker, but I also, at times when he was smaller, found myself hoping that he'd be just a tad more open to risk.  I'm not talking skydiving or swimming in a thunderstorm, but  riding a bike with the training wheels off? But that's just who he is.  A teacher recently described him as "very cerebral," and maybe people who think a lot about what can go wrong don't do things that may be dangerous This winter he's been scared when I go running.  Last year I fell on the ice and broke my wrist.  "You're actually going running?" he says nervously to me as the sn...

I've always loved my husband's hands.  Thin and long-fingered, they're delicate, like a sculptor's or a pianist's, and yet strong, too.  (He's yanked many a tooth in his career.) Now experts are saying that you can tell a lot about a man by looking at his hands . Not to be confused with other parts of his body! But men with short index fingers and long ring fingers are on average nicer towards women, and this stems -- believe it or not -- from the hormones these men have been exposed to in their mother’s womb, according to a new study by researchers at McGill University.  Something new to blame mothers for! Men with these kinds of hands also tend to have more children. That's not entirely clear but there's a definite link between fetal life and adult behavior.  “It is fascinating to see that moderate variations of hormones before birth can actually influence adult behaviour in a selective way,” says Simon Young, a McGill Emeritus Professor ...

Big news. Unemployment can change a person.  But maybe not in the ways you might think. I was unemployed twice and it wasn't pretty.  It was actually quite depressing.  Both times happened in my 20s, and I wound up with better jobs eventually.  But only after a very long, dark period in my life. The first time, I was let go from a large company that manufactured chemicals -- pesticides, household cleaners, that kind of thing.  I actually flew around the country to interview farmers on their use of agricultural chemicals.  No surprise it didn't work out.  Of course it didn't help that the owner of the company tried to sexually harass me and I had nowhere to turn.  Come to think of it, that's why I lost the first job, too.  In those days you got away with it. Then I got one of my favorite jobs, working as an editor for Good Housekeeping magazine.  It was a temporary position and they let me go after six months, due to office politics...

Who knew?  Sex can save your life.  It's really quite simple, but in its own way, beautiful.  Mixing our genes helps weed out gene mutations that cause disease. You've probably been hearing about all these amazing discoveries scientists have been making about how mutations in our genes can lead to cancer and other diseases.  Mutations are the things that make our cells not do what they're supposed to.  Researchers have found mutations that lead to breast cancer, and though only about 10% of cancers are inherited, and there are hundreds of thousands of mutations that can lead to it, it's at least a start at identifying where cancer comes from, and how it starts. And, best of all, what to do if you have one, before it develops into cancer, like the test for the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutation that tells a woman she is at high risk of breast cancer.  Our predispositions to disease gradually decrease the more we mix our genetic material together, accordi...