Magnets in Kids’ Toys Pose Broad Dangers
Swallowing them can block bowel; warnings not mandated on packages, study says

Microsoft issuing emergency fix for browser flaw
REDMOND, Wash. – Microsoft Corp. is taking the unusual step of issuing an emergency fix for a security hole in its Internet Explorer software that has exposed millions of users to having their computers taken over by hackers.

Sprint Nextel Corp. to release dual-network modem
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Sprint Nextel Corp. on Wednesday unveiled a new laptop modem that will allow users to switch between the company’s normal cellular network and the new high-speed WiMax network.

FDA Faults Drug Information for Consumers
Pamphlets given out by pharmacies aren’t always easy to understand

Electronic Prescribing System May Encourage Physicians To Choose Lower-cost Drugs
Clinicians using an electronic prescribing system appear more likely to prescribe lower-cost medications, reducing drug spending, according to a new report.
Not to mention that it could reduce errors.

Low Dose Of Caffeine When Pregnant May Damage Heart Of Offspring For A Lifetime
A new study shows that the equivalent of one dose of caffeine (just two cups of coffee) ingested during pregnancy may be enough to affect fetal heart development and then reduce heart function over the entire lifespan of the child. In addition, the researchers also found that this relatively minimal amount of exposure may lead to higher body fat among males, when compared to those who were not exposed to caffeine.

Siblings Of Mentally Disabled Face Own Lifelong Challenges, According To Researchers
December 17, 2008 — People who have a sibling with a mental illness are more likely to suffer episodes of depression at some point in their lives, say researchers 

‘Mediterranean’-Style Diet Best for Blood Sugar Control
Another study finds type 2 diabetes increases cancer death risk

Vitamin B1 Could Reverse Early-stage Kidney Disease In Diabetes Patients
[H]igh doses of thiamine – vitamin B1 – can reverse the onset of early diabetic kidney disease.

New Way Men Can Transmit HIV To Women
Scientists had long believed that the normal lining of the female vaginal tract was an effective barrier to invasion of the HIV virus during sexual intercourse. They thought the large HIV virus couldn’t penetrate the tissue. But new research … has shown for the first time that the HIV virus does indeed penetrate a woman’s normal, healthy genital tissue to a depth were it can gain access to its immune cell targets.

Smoking Ups Colon Cancer Risk
Most significant effect was seen after 30 years of smoking, researchers say

Brain Adjusts to Cope With Life’s Upsets
Study finds older women show less reaction to upsetting images

Program Aids Hospital Compliance With Stroke Guidelines
Goal is to improve use of treatments proven to cut post-illness complications

Small Doses of Carbon Monoxide Might Help Stroke Victims
Mouse study showed it reduced brain damage after attack

Children of Centenarians Face Lower Heart Risks
Finding adds weight to belief that longevity runs in families

Ancient tongue inscribed on Sudan statues
Archaeologists said on Tuesday they had discovered three ancient statues in Sudan with inscriptions that could bring them closer to deciphering one of Africa’s oldest languages.

Researchers find short-armed raptor in Argentina
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An unusual raptor dinosaur found in Argentina is the largest of its kind found so far in the Southern Hemisphere, with awkwardly short arms that made it resemble a Tyrannosaurus, researchers reported on Tuesday.

‘Follow The Elements’ To Understand Evolution In Ancient Oceans
plants need more than water, or even sunshine. They also need fertilizer – a mixture of chemical elements that are the building blocks of the molecules of life. Scientists at Arizona State University are studying how the distribution of these elements on Earth – or beyond – shapes the distribution of life, the state of the environment and the course of evolution.

Ancient Magma ‘Superpiles’ May Have Shaped The Continents
The two superplumes, one beneath Hawaii and the other beneath Africa, … rise from the bottom of Earth’s mantle, just above our planet’s core. Each is larger than the continental United States. And each is surrounded by a wall of plates from Earth’s crust that have sunk into the mantle.

Scientists find hole in Earth’s magnetic field
LOS ANGELES – Recent satellite observations have revealed the largest breach yet seen in the magnetic field that protects Earth from most of the sun’s violent blasts, researchers reported Tuesday. The discovery was made last summer by Themis, a fleet of five small NASA satellites.

Dark Energy Stunts Galaxies’ Growth
The same mystery force that is speeding up the expansion of the universe is also stunting the growth of the objects inside it, astronomers said Tuesday. After bulking up rapidly in the first 10 billion years of cosmic time, clusters of galaxies, the cloudlike swarms that are the largest conglomerations of matter in the universe, have grown anemically or not at all during the last five billion years, like sullen teenagers who suddenly refuse to eat. “This result could be explained as arrested development of the universe,” said Alexey Vikhlinin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics… This stifling of growth, Dr. Vikhlinin said, is the “unmistakable signature” of an antigravitational force that astronomers have labeled dark energy…

Together with earlier observations, Dr. Vikhlinin said, the new data strengthen the suspicion — but do not prove — that dark energy is a weird antigravity called the cosmological constant that was hypothesized and then abandoned by Albert Einstein as a “blunder” almost a century ago. If that is true, the universe is fated to empty itself out eventually, and all but the Milky Way’s closest neighbors will eventually be out of sight.