In Women’s Tears, a Chemical That Says, ‘Not Tonight, Dear’

By PAM BELLUCK

Published: January 6, 2011

When we cry, we may be doing more than expressing emotion. Our tears, according to striking new research, may be sending chemical signals that influence the behavior of other people.

The research, published on Thursday in the journal Science, could begin to explain something that has baffled scientists for generations: Why do humans, unlike seemingly any other species, cry emotional tears?

In several experiments, researchers found that men who sniffed drops of women’s emotional tears became less sexually aroused than when they sniffed a neutral saline solution that had been dribbled down women’s cheeks. While the studies were not large, the findings showed up in a variety of ways, includingtestosterone levels, skin responses, brain imaging and the men’s descriptions of their arousal.

“Chemical signaling is a form of language,” said one of the researchers, Dr. Noam Sobel, a professor of neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. “Basically what we’ve found is the chemo-signaling word for ‘no’ — or at least ‘not now.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/science/07tears.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/01/05/science.1198331

Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds

(CNN) -- A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.

An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.....

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html?hpt=T1