Evidence suggests that eating blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and other berry fruits has beneficial effects on the brain and may help prevent age-related memory loss and other changes, scientists report. 

In a new review, Barbara Shukitt-Hale, Ph.D., and Marshall G. Miller point out that longer lifespans are raising concerns about the human toll and health care costs of treating Alzheimer's disease and other forms of mental decline. 

They explain that recent research increasingly shows that eating berry fruits can benefit the aging brain. To analyze the strength of the evidence about berry fruits, they extensively reviewed cellular, animal and human studies on the topic.

What's the one thing that could make anti-science progressives dislike genetic modifications and medicine even more than they do now?  Putting them both together.

It may turn out that coffee is bad for you. The World Health Organization already lists it as a possible carcinogen, despite any evidence, but they do the same thing about cell phones, in contrast to any evidence - perhaps Big Tea donates a lot to WHO.

Until a group more scientifically valid than WHO finds a problem with coffee, Science 2.0 will continue to push articles extolling it - the bolder the better, like us.  Even decaffeinated coffee may be terrific. Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that decaffeinated coffee may improve brain energy metabolism associated with type 2 diabetes, a known risk factor for dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease. 

It's often the case that when something claims to cure everything, a little skepticism is warranted.  We have dozens of articles here on Resveratrol but over time the titles began to reflect growing disbelief it could be that perfect.  By the time it received gushing endorsements from Dr. Oz. and the other Four Horsemen of the Alternative (Gupta, etc.) we were crafting titles like Resveratrol - 2009's Miracle Compound Du Jour.

An international clinical trial shows that treating ovarian cancer with the drug bevacizumab ("Avastin") delays the disease and may also improve survival. 

The findings in the New England Journal of Medicine report that the drug halted the cancer's return for two months overall but for women with the highest risk disease, the delay was five to six months and the findings also indicate a strong trend to improved overall survival, which is being analyzed until 2013. 

The seven-year study began in 2004 and enrolled 1,528 women with ovarian cancer at 263 centres, including 20 in Canada. Avastin was added to chemotherapy treatment and given intravenously every three weeks for 12 months.

Researchers have pinpointed the cancer-fighting potential in the bat plant, or Tacca chantrieri.

Susan Mooberry, Ph.D., leader of the Experimental Development Therapeutics Program at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has been working to isolate substances in the plant in hopes of finding a new plant-derived cancer drug with the potential of Taxol. Taxol, the first microtubule stabilizer derived from the Yew family, has been an effective chemotherapy drug, but patients eventually develop problems with resistance over time and toxicity at higher doses. Researchers have long been seeking alternatives.

Rats exposed to the antidepressant citalopram, a serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), just before and after birth showed substantial brain abnormalities and behaviors, according to a new study. The long-distance connections between the two hemispheres of the brain showed stunted growth and degeneration and the animals also became excessively fearful when faced with new situations and failed to play normally with peers – behaviors reminiscent of novelty avoidance and social impairments seen in autism.

The abnormalities were more pronounced in male than female rats, just as autism affects 3-4 times more boys than girls.

Once a product starts to get credit for doing everything, there is a chance you may be in the crackpot zone.  If so, look for the downfall of green tea in 2012 because a new study says the Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in green tea prevents weight gain.  Add that on to claims that EGCG prevents arthritis, Alzheimer's, diabetes and breast cancer and even slows AIDS.

It took years of mismanagement, printing Monopoly money by the federal government, and runaway unemployment to get groups claiming to represent 99% of Americans protesting progressive fiscal policy on Wall Street and in other cities.

You may disagree on the purity of that movement, since the Teamsters and the education unions are funding this stuff and are not exactly friends of the little guy (try to get a job in NYC without being in their union) but one thing no one will disagree with; if you take away coffee, 100% of Americans will riot.

Women who increase consumption of caffeinated coffee have lower risk of depression, according to a report in Archives of Internal Medicine.