On Monday, a new report from the Obama administration warned that changes to the climate could lead to thousands more Americans dying prematurely every year from a variety of causes including extreme heat, polluted air and water, and the spread of tropical diseases.
Toxoplasma Gondii is a parasite with a problem. It hangs out in gardens, parks and forests, but the survival of it and its species depends on somehow getting inside stomach of a cat.
Addiction is one of the most common forms of mental illness in the world. Tens of millions of Americans, and over a quarter of a billion people worldwide, have an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Everyone who has watched a loved one suffer from addiction wonders, “Why are they acting like this? Why can’t they stop?” Continue reading “The Science of Addiction”
Everyone who has watched a loved one suffer from addiction wonders, “Why are they acting like this? Why can’t they stop?” And people with addictions wonder the same things about themselves. Many people think of addiction as a moral failing, or as a conscious choice—yet neither belief is supported by scientific evidence.
Rising rates of addiction to heroin and prescription drugs have been making headlines across the country. People suffering with addiction have often been stigmatized and viewed as being too weak to address either moral or personal failings. But the reality is that addiction is one of the most common forms of mental illness that impacts tens of millions of Americans every year.
Recent advances in neuroscience have transformed our understanding of addiction and paved the way for new treatments.
By Janet McMillan, C2ST volunteer and graduate student in chemistry at Northwestern University
Cancer is the second most common cause of death in America. Despite this bleak statistic, cancer therapies have improved drastically over the past decades. Many diseases that were once an imminent death sentence can now be managed comfortably for years after diagnoses. However for many others, cancer is still a certain death sentence.
