All Stories by Amanda Leigh Mascarelli
- Health & Medicine
Identifying as a different gender
People grappling with gender identity issues (and their families) face difficult choices. As society increasingly accepts transgender youth, more research is needed to understand how better to support them.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: How the body sculpts a child
The human fetus is prepared to develop as a female. But if its chromosomes or other chemical signals instruct it to become male, then gene pathways will flip some chemical switches to create masculine organs and features.
- Health & Medicine
Gender: When the body and brain disagree
Researchers are working to untangle the highly complex relationship between our biology and our identity. In some individuals, a conflict can emerge, leading to a transgender identity.
- Brain
Explainer: Sometimes the body mixes up male and female
Certain medical conditions demonstrate how complicated biology can be. Being genetically male and female will not guarantee that your body won’t sometimes contain one or more features of both.
- Animals
Explainer: Male-female flexibility in animals
Some animals behave as if they were the opposite sex; others can even change their sex — and still produce offspring.
- Brain
Eating disorders: The brain’s foul trickery
Experts on eating disorders are probing why sometimes deadly chemical changes can distort how much the brain says we need to eat.
- Health & Medicine
Recovery help from the blogosphere
And some who have been there now are sharing tips on what it takes to become a successful survivor.
- Health & Medicine
You can be too thin
Eating disorders aren’t about vanity. They are mental illnesses that can prove deadly.
- Health & Medicine
The media’s dangerous influence on body image
A study found how powerful TV and ad messages can be in distorting the attitudes about body image among young girls in Fiji.
- Health & Medicine
The dangerous rise of electronic cigarettes
Electronic cigarettes were originally advertised as a way for smokers to wean themselves off of cigarettes. In fact, e-cigarettes are helping hook a whole new generation of young people on nicotine — an addiction that may transition back to tobacco.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is a hookah?
Many teens are turning to water pipes as a potentially safer alternative to conventional cigarettes. But they’d be wrong.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What are e-cigarettes?
New battery-powered devices deliver nicotine, a dangerous and addictive drug.
