When Movies Get Sick

{ # inside : NEEDLES IN THE CRAYSTACK : WHEN MACHINES GET SICK

Who will care for me when I get sick?

When sex makes you sick.

Sex and parasites are two of the most important forces in evolution, shaping everything from the appearance of organisms (sex, by favoring the evolution of ornaments and weapons) to their physiological functioning (parasites, via selection for host defenses). They have been studied both separately and together, with parasite–sex interactions similarly featuring in a wide range of areas in biolo...

When sparks get old

Sparks are transient local elevations of Ca ion concentration observed in different types of muscle cells. Such local Ca2+ signals can be provoked in skeletal muscle cells by altering the osmotic pressure of the extracellular solution. In this issue, Weisleder et al. (see p. 639) demonstrate that the Ca2+ response to osmotic stress is substantially altered in aged muscle. The study presents evi...

Get sick, get out: the medical causes of home mortgage foreclosures.