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Doctors may one day be able to control alcohol addiction by manipulating the molecular events in the brain that underlie anxiety associated with alcohol withdrawal, researchers report in the Journal of Neuroscience.

People who suffer from egg allergies may soon be able to have their quiche and eat it too. Chemists have developed a new process that greatly reduces allergens in eggs and may lead to safer, more specialized food products for individuals with egg allergies. Although unusual in adults, egg allergies are among the leading food allergies in infants and children. These allergies can cause severe stomach aches, and rashes. In extremely rare cases, death may occur.

Carrying a cell phone may cause some college students -- especially women -- to take risks with their safety, a new study suggests. A survey of 305 students at one campus found that 40 percent of cell phone users said they walked somewhere after dark that they normally wouldn't go.

The "female sex hormone" estradiol is present in both men and women. It plays various roles in addition to its gender-specific ones, including having effects on the hearing (auditory) system. In a new study, mice deficient in the estrogen receptor beta exhibited reduced recovery from auditory trauma, and treatment with ER beta-binding drugs protected mice from auditory damage, leading to the suggestion that these data might enable the development of new treatments for hearing loss.

Secretions from the skin of a South American frog could provide a new treatment for diabetes. The paradoxical frog, Pseudis paradoxa, secretes a substance from its skin which protects it from infection. But the molecule, pseudin-2, may have another use for humans. Researchers found that it stimulates the release of insulin, the vital hormone which is deficient in diabetes sufferers.

Curing cancer with natural products -- a case for shamans and herbalists? Not at all, for many chemotherapies to fight cancer applied in modern medicine are natural products or were developed on the basis of natural substances. Thus, taxanes used in prostate and breast cancer treatment are made from yew trees. The popular periwinkle plant, which grows along the ground of many front yards, is the source of vinca alkaloids that are effective, for example, against malignant lymphomas. The modern anti-cancer drugs topotecan and irinotecan are derived from a constituent of the Chinese Happy Tree.

One-third of women suffer from one or more pelvic floor disorders, which include symptoms such as the frequent urge to urinate, dropped pelvic organs, and incontinence. The study consists of the broadest age range of participants to date, of which 80 percent of the 4,000 women studied had given birth. Of those 4,000 women, 25 percent suffered from anal incontinence, 15 percent from stress urinary incontinence, 13 percent from overactive bladder and six percent experienced pelvic organ prolapse, the dropping of pelvic organs.

In an advance in food safety, researchers are reporting development of a nano-sized sensor that detects record low levels of the deadly prion proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease and other so-called prion diseases. The sensor, which detects binding of prion proteins by detecting frequency changes of a micromechanical oscillator, could lead to a reliable blood test for prion diseases in both animals and humans, the researchers say.

A new population-based epidemiological study has found that elevated liver enzymes discovered during routine medical care are associated with higher future mortality.

When it comes to a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, what you don't know may not kill you, but knowing the truth as soon as possible appears to be the better approach -- one that may improve the emotional well-being of both patients and their caregivers, suggests new research.