Science News

In my last article, I discussed the early stages of embryonic development. In this article, I’m going to address how a fertilized egg can split into two embryos. Read the rest

On July 18, President Bush vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which passed the Senate with 63 votes to 37. It was the first time he’s used his veto power in his 6 years in office. Read the rest

In the Sept 2006 edition of Wired magazine, a 32 year old wants to put having kids on hold for the next few years to focus on her career. She asks whether she should consider freezing some eggs now rather than play the odds and hope for a healthy baby at 40. Wired’s response was the following: Read the rest

More older women are opting for fetal testing to ensure their babies won't have a congenital disease such as Down syndrome. Right now, the main way these genetic tests are done is by extracting some of the fetus' cells via amniocentesis - when the doctor uses a needle to draw fluid from the sac surrounding the fetus - or chorionic villus sampling - when the doctor takes a sampling of the placenta. However, both procedures have a 1-2% chance of ending in miscarriage. Read the rest

According to a small study of 61 women in rural Guatemala, high levels of the stress hormone cortisol may cause miscarriage. Mothers with increased levels of this hormone were three times more likely to have a miscarriage than mothers that didn’t show increases in stress hormones.

The researchers found that women whose cortisol levels significantly increased over their baseline during the first three weeks of pregnancy were 2.7 times more likely to suffer a pregnancy loss than women with no cortisol increase. Nine of 10 pregnancies to women with high cortisol levels ended in miscarriage, compared with only four of 12 to women with stable cortisol.

(Source: New Scientist)