Baseball Bats become Weapons
During a game between the Rangers and the Blue Jays on April 21, 2009, home plate umpire Kerwin Danley left the diamond on a stretcher after getting hit in the head by a broken bat. And on April 25, 2009 Susan Rhodes, a 50-year old mother of two, was hit in the head by Todd Helton’s bat...
Playing in Blood, Sweat, and Saliva
Football players may have something more than being tackled to worry about. A synthetic turf playing field could be dangerous, say some experts. Others dispute the claim. A synthetic turf field on a 98 ºF day will reach a temperature of 173 º F, whereas a natural grass field will reach a high of 105 ºF, according...
Blocking Traumatic Memories
Could scientists really make traumatic memories disappear? Recently, scientists have shown that using a drug called propranolol could decrease these disturbing memories. Bryan Hercules, a local pharmacist in St. Louis who owns his own store under the Medicine Shoppe name, thinks that the drug does not necessarily block out the memory completely, but simply calms the...
The Heartbreak of Potter’s Syndrome
Heather Nelson, age 23, had a very stressful pregnancy, chasing after her two-year-old daughter and worrying about keeping her unborn baby as healthy as possible. Worse yet, she wasn’t able to have the fun of planning for the new baby to come home and buy new baby clothes. Nelson was facing every mothers' worst nightmare, worrying about how she...
Cochlear Implant Controversy
Cochlear implants (CIs) are designed to help deaf adults and children who get little or no benefit from hearing aids. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), in 2009 there were approximately 188,000 people in the world who received CIs. In United States, about 41,500 adults and over 25,500 children have a...
Wealth Distribution by Race
Could it be that wealth is distributed by race? According to the Race Exhibit, which will be at the Missouri History Museum from January 16, 2010 to April 4, 2010, banks in the 1930s would create mortgage-lending risks in certain residential areas that were based on the neighborhood. At that time most neighborhoods were...
Hunting Proves both Profitable and Crucial
“Hunting is necessary to keep the deer herd at a healthy level,” Missouri Department Conservation wildlife biologist John Vogel tells SciJourner. “Without hunting, you could see a variety of effects ranging from a largely diseased deer herd to deer running all over the road and getting hit by vehicles. Experts say that deer are a vital part...
Stuck in the Truck?
What can the concrete truck driver do if he or she is hopelessly stuck in traffic with 20,000 pounds of material hardening in the twirling drum on the back? Add sugar. Really! Very little new construction can take place without the use of concrete. It’s used all over the world. To find out how much is...
Can teens solve the global climate problem?
Related story: Oceans in Crisis--Ocean Acidification Adeola Adewale This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License