Today in Research: Bed Bugs Are Still Winning

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Erik Hayden 2,609 Views Sep 23, 2011

Today in research: just let bedbugs win, the family dinner is a cure-all, married people get complacent, and a nostalgic slideshow for scientists.

  •  Waving the white flag in the war against bed bugs. There doesn't seem to be any good options for dealing with the devilish little things. If you don't fight back your apartment gets overrun, if you get too enthusiastic, well there's this: "a North Carolina woman died after using 18 cans of chemical fogger to attack the tiny blood suckers," reports the Associated Press. The woman is apparently the face of new Centers for Disease Control research finding that enraged people intent on ridding their lives of the insects may just get themselves sick by using too much chemicals. [AP]
  • Remember when? This is just a guess, but we'd figure that plenty of current scientist and researcher types grew up reading Popular Science magazine. Today the PopSci blog debuted a worthy gallery of all the best, quirkiest DIY ads that graced the backpages of the magazine throughout the decades: retro "Jet powered Space Rangers, kit cars, electronic organs,  radio hats" and more are all present. Our favorite is the $5,700+ jetpack ad. [Popular Science]
  • Yes, married people get very complacent. Breathing more life into the stereotype that married people tend to just let themselves completely go after the wedding, a new British Department of Health commissioned survey found that, yes, they don't exercise as much as "singletons," The Telegraph reports. In other jaw-dropping related findings, you are also very likely to have the same diet as your spouse and find yourself annoyed with him/her often. [The Telegraph]
  • All problems will be solved if everyone had Leave to Beaver-style family dinners.  Sure, we expect that it's plenty helpful if parents and kids schedules allowed for everyone to gather round the dinner table at 6:00 pm sharp every evening to hash out school and work problems over some pasta. And here's the new stat from a National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse study as reported by NPR: "teens who ate with their families between 5 and 7 times a week said they were four times less likely to use alcohol, tobacco or marijuana than teens who dined fewer than three times per week with their families." So, parents, break out the calculator to see where you hypothetically stand. [NPR - Health Shots]
  • Everything that you'd expect has germs, has germs. For those who overuse Purell, this news isn't comforting. Hospital privacy curtains get contaminated quite quickly, reports Reuters. The research cited explains, "Health care providers often touch these curtains after they have washed their hands and then proceed to touch the patient. Further, these curtains often hang for a long time and are difficult to disinfect." The curtains, however, still might be relatively cleaner than these things. [Reuters] 

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