Wikipedia reigns because Google gives them prominence in the top spot on many topics, despite its many flaws. But in a popularity contest world, where that is how you get on the front page of search engines and therefore have authority, the world's most popular online encyclopedia ends up being a research source most U.S. students rely on. But, according to a paper published in PLOS ONE, Wikipedia entries on politically controversial scientific topics can be especially unreliable due to information sabotage.
Culture
New research has found that people with high levels of autistic traits are more likely to produce unusually creative ideas.
Both donors and recipients want more information about each others' health before participating in transplant surgeries, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The findings challenge current practices and policies on information disclosure for prospective living kidney donors and their intended recipients..
Gang slayings move in a systematic pattern over time, spreading from one vulnerable area to the next like a disease, finds a groundbreaking study by Michigan State University criminologists and public health researchers.
Their findings, published online in the American Journal of Public Health, could help pave the way for communities to one day anticipate and ultimately prevent gang-related homicides and other violent crimes.
You've heard that romance starts in the kitchen and not in the bedroom. Well, researchers at Drexel University finally have the science to support that saying - but not the way you might think.
In a new study published online in the journal Appetite, researchers found that women's brains respond more to romantic cues on a full stomach than an empty one. The study explored brain circuitry in hungry versus satiated states among women who were past-dieters and those who had never dieted.
If an unidentified flying object suddenly appeared in the sky, it's likely your heart would beat faster.
Now, researchers have found that the same is true for bears.
For smokers, the number of cigarettes smoked per day and current body mass index are predictive of changes in weight after quitting smoking, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.
Quitting smoking may lead to some weight gain but how much weight gain depends on the individual. Previous research shows that for some it can be just a few pounds, but for others it can be more than 25 pounds. Unfortunately, factors that can help predict the amount of weight a smoker may gain are not well understood.
A visit to the dentist has the potential to be more than a checkup of our teeth as patients are increasingly screened for medical conditions like heart disease and diabetes. A new study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health focuses on dental screenings for drug misuse, finding 77 percent of dentists ask patients about illicit drug use, and 54 percent of dentists believe that such screenings should be their responsibility. Results of the study are online in the journal Addiction.
Since the chickenpox vaccine became available in the U.S. in 1995, there has been a large reduction in chickenpox cases. Hospitalizations and outpatient visits for chickenpox have continued their decline after a second dose of the vaccine was recommended to improve protection against the disease, according to a new study published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. The findings also suggest that increasing vaccination coverage against the once common childhood illness helps protect those who are not immunized themselves.
Male doctors have nearly two and half times increased odds of having medico-legal action taken against them than their female counterparts, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Medicine. A better understanding of why this is the case will lead to improved support for doctors and make patient safety better.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has effectively ended any chance of same-sex marriage in this term of parliament. Public opinion in Australia is in clear support of same-sex marriage. So how have opponents had so much success in blocking change?
Prominent arguments against same-sex marriage have been based on history, tradition, human rights, and social scientific research into health and welfare. The role of religion in opposition has been less explicit.
DALLAS, August 12, 2015 - During a stroke, slightly more than half of patients use emergency medical services (EMS) to get to the hospital, with white women the most likely, and Hispanic men the least likely to use EMS transport, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association.
The results of a recent study show that children who report eating more polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), found in tree nuts, seeds and fatty fish, and consume a higher ratio of PUFA: saturated fatty acids (SFAs), have more lean body mass, lower percent body fat, and less intra-abdominal fat (belly fat).
Cost of radiation therapy among Medicare patients varied most widely because of factors unrelated to a patient or that person's cancer, report University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers in the Journal of Oncology Practice.
The latest dubious tactic of global soft-drink giant Coca-Cola has now been revealed for what it is - a move by an industry with a threatened financial future to confuse science, policy and the public, in order to buy time, and protect profits.