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Junk food makes you smarter, at least in the short term. A study by University of Florida shows that when schools offer high-calorie lunches on days when students take standardized tests, the students do better than they do when they eat healthier lunches.

The study found that when high-calorie, low-nutrition meals were given to students in schools that faced possible state sanctions for underachievment, scores increased 11% in math, 6% in English and 6% in social studies. Researchers compared the nutritional content of school lunch menus from 23 randomly selected districts in Virginia on days of state-mandated tests and compared them with non-test days during the 1999-2000 school year.
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Scientists have developed an pill that solves two of women?s biggest problems: it’s an oral contraceptive that helps you lose weight. This is great news, since most women gain weight while taking the Pill. College student Gina Patterson says, “It’s supposed to be a weight-loss pill, but also a birth control pill at the same time.”

“On a standard birth control pill, I think the average woman might expect to gain a pound or two. On Yasmin, I think the average woman might expect to lose a pound or two,” says gynecologist Dr. Bob Barbieri. Yasmin uses a different form of the hormone progestin that acts as a diuretic, eliminating excess sodium and water from your body. You don?t lose fat, but you do avoid the bloating problem that?s common with many birth control pills. read more

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Scientists in the United States are trying to create a new life form in the laboratory. Despite the fact that the federal government is against stem cell research, it?s funding this project for 3 million dollars. This new life form could be eventually be used as a source of energy?or as a new biological weapon.

Dr. Craig Venter and Dr. Hamilton Smith plan to use a single celled organism called Mycoplasma genitalium, which is normally found in the human urinary tract, as a basis for the new life form. Some scientists worry that it could escape into the environment and contaminate natural organisms, but the scientists say they will remove some genes so it won?t be able to infect humans and will die if it escapes from its petri dish.
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The buzz from you get from coffee may not be caused by caffeine after all, meaning decaf may raise your blood pressure just as much as the regular brew. Also, coffee has been shown to help diabetes and little old ladies who drink lots of it stay mentally sharp.

Researchers gave triple espressos, in both regular and decaf versions, to six regular coffee drinkers and nine people who never drank caffeine. To their surprise, both drinks had the same effect on the non-coffee drinkers, raising their blood pressure. The results could be caused by the placebo effect, meaning they expected to get a buzz from the coffee?so they did. But Swiss scientist Roberto Corti thinks something other than the caffeine in coffee produces its stimulating effect.
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