Innholdsfortegnelse for 06/22/2018 i Newsweek International

There is an epidemic of suicide in the United States. Since 1999, it has risen nearly 30 percent; among people 35 to 54, it is the fourth leading cause of death. Such devastating statistics were recently shared across social media because of two high-profile suicides. The designer Kate Spade created a thriving fashion brand out of a whimsical line of handbags in 1993, enchanting a generation of women. She was 55. And Anthony Bourdain, the brilliant chef, author and globe-trotting TV host who had become a leading male voice of the #MeToo movement. He was 61. Both deaths were by hanging. Both produced shock and heartbreak. Spade died in her apartment and is survived by her 13-year-old daughter, Frances, and her husband and design partner, Andy. Bourdain was in a…

Teeth layers formed in the womb reveal how autistic kids metabolize chemicals differently. ANY HEALTH CONDITION RE›UIRING SPECIAL care beckons us to ask why it happened. Understand the cause, and we’re closer to solving the problem. So it is with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which currently affects about one in 59 children—a jump from one in 150 children in 2000. That increase has led to a frenzied desire to find a cure. A new study focused on baby teeth offers some promise. Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai wanted to examine how children process essential nutrients delivered in the womb. Before a child is born, his or her teeth grow new layers each day, and the layers record the elements wending their way through the body,…

In a major step forward, Japanese researchers have figured out a way to add living muscle to an artificial skeleton, creating a “biohybrid” robot. Shoji Takeuchi, a biomechanical engineer at the University of Tokyo, led a team that created fingerlike bone structures using a 3-D printer, then grew living muscle tissues between the bones. Their innovative method allowed muscle cells to progress in stages into fully functioning tissue. Furthermore, they were able to get the artificial bone to move by applying voltage to the muscle. It’s an exciting breakthrough for anyone hoping to create a robot made from living materials. There are benefits for drug companies as well: It might reduce the need for animal testing when studying the effects of experimental drugs on muscles. A study of 13,000 cities…

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER IS talking about playing Iago, and I am becoming distracted by a monkey. Forgive me: There is a magnificent painting in Plummer’s living room, an 18th-century portrait of a mischievous monkey raiding a fruit platter, and it’s on a wall just over his shoulder. The actor must be used to guest distraction, because my wandering gaze produces a benevolent chuckle. Plummer’s house—a sprawling, century-old former barn hidden in the rolling woods of southwestern Connecticut—is a shrine to the animal kingdom, with creatures painted on walls, embroidered on cushions and set within frames. Dogs clearly dominate. “I really like them better than people,” Plummer confesses. “Also, I love to be loved. I need it. And dogs can give you that in two seconds.” Humans might not give it up…

THE FIRST LETTER NAWAL EL-SAYED EL-SAADAWI ever wrote was to God. In it, the 7-year-old Nawal asked why—if God was just and fair—he had not made her mother and father equal. Since she had first learned to write, she had always written her mother’s name, Zaynab, next to her own. But her father said it was his name, Sayed, that she must use, along with that of his father, Saadawi. Saadawi never got an answer, and when her mother died—at just 45, having raised nine children—her name died with her. Unlike Saadawi’s father, who could expect 72 virgins upon arriving in heaven, her mother was due no rewards, according to Islam, the faith of her parents. “A woman is without worth,” she wrote in the first part of her autobiography,…

Does having an abortion undermine a woman’s mental health? Several states emphasize this risk prior to termination of a pregnancy, citing psychological harm to the woman as a reason for restricting abortions. But a new study in JAMA Psychiatry disputes that. Julia Steinberg, a psychologist focused on reproductive health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, examined the rates of depression among 400,000 Danish women born between 1980 and 1994. The result: Women, on average, used the same amount of antidepressants the year after and before an abortion. And the more time that passed following the procedure, the less often they used those medications. “Policies based on the notion that abortion harms women’s mental health are misinformed,” says Steinberg. “Abortion is not causing depression.”…

DNA Our experience with DNA is fraught. Companies that sequence our genomes connect long-lost relatives but also threaten our privacy. DNA from a tissue found in a trash can led to the arrest of the Golden State Killer, but plenty of other instances of forensic genetics have resulted in wrongful convictions. Still, the most remarkable facts about this threadlike chain of nucleotides are the most basic. 20K TO 25K Total number of genes in our DNA. 6.5 feet Length of the DNA coiled inside the nucleus of each of our cells. Amount of our DNA made of ancient viruses that once made us sick. Genes from these viruses have become enmeshed with the human genome over 40 million years. 3 BILLION Number of bases—the chemicals that make up our genetic…

Triclosan, an antimicrobial agent used in some soaps, toothpaste, detergents, toys and other products, has been a source of growing concern. Early evidence suggests it may disrupt hormones, increase allergies, irritate skin and cause thyroid problems, leading federal authorities to label it a “contaminant of emerging concern.” A new study, published in Science Translational Medicine, adds another item to the list of grievances. Food scientist Haixia Yang and her colleagues at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that mice fed triclosan developed inflamed colons and tumor cells. Triclosan also reduced the number of bacterial species colonizing their stomachs—a worrisome finding, given diversity is integral to gut health.…