Monday, July 2, 2007

Today's Globe: trauma care, life in the pits, frog mystery, stress-obesity link, the right mouse

Over 25 years of caring for survivors of extreme violence and torture, Dr. Richard F. Mollica (right) and his colleagues at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital have found that most trauma victims can transcend the most horrific events imaginable and go on to lead rich and meaningful lives. Ultimately, traumatized people heal themselves -- and what's more, their experience can teach the rest of us how to deal with the tragedies of everyday life, he writes in Health/Science.

Success in the world's most popular, high-tech and, some might say, glamorous form of auto racing -- Formula One -- can often come down to one decision: when to stop and pit for fuel and tires, which sounds easy enough, but is a terribly complex decision. Jacomo Corbo (above) analyzed it for the Renault F1 team that came to Harvard in search of help.

When schoolchildren on a field trip found frogs with missing legs in a Minnesota pond 12 years ago, the mystery captured the imagination of biologists and the public. Research published this month in the journal EcoHealth is part of a growing consensus among amphibian biologists that the mutant-frog conundrum is too complex to be pegged to a single cause.

Also in Health/Science, a way to protect against pelvic muscle injury during childbirth and the ingredients in salt substitutes.

Scientists reported yesterday that they have uncovered a biological switch with which stress can promote obesity, a discovery that could help explain the world's growing weight problem and lead to new ways to melt fat and manipulate it for cosmetic purposes.

Aveo Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge, a five-year-old company that says it has a better way to induce cancer in laboratory mice. As a result, research conducted on those mice is a better indicator of how humans will respond to experimental drugs.

Posted by Elizabeth Cooney at 06:51 AM

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