Lex Ashcroft’s weekend reads

Food science inspiring new approach to medical treatment. Creating new, low-cost medical treatments presents a layered challenge. A new study details a new method developed by researchers who were inspired by the tools Starbucks uses to foam milk. The team designed three gas trapping materials to deliver a low dose of carbon monoxide into the body, reducing inflammation. Writing for Stat News, Akilah Muthukumar explains how this method can be used as a treatment for gastrointestinal disorders.

Regular coffee drinkers had lower chance of dying in 7-year period. Scientists have long known the health benefits of drinking coffee, including reduced risk from diabetes, Parkinson’s and depression. In a recently published study, researchers found that people who drank up to 3.5 cups a day were less likely to die within seven years. Writing for The Washington Post, Linda Searing explains the associated results between non and naturally sweetened coffee, as well as artificially sweetened.

Allie Rudin's reads

How to fall back in love with reading. Maybe you were once a voracious reader yet struggle to pick up a book in adulthood. Maybe your job demands hours of reading, and you can only bring yourself to flip on a TV show episode or scroll through social media after the workday ends. Whatever the reason, you're not alone; research from Gallup and the Pew Research Center confirms that fewer Americans than ever are reading books, and those that still read are reading less. Writing for Vox's "Even Better," Alissa Wilkinson speaks with librarian experts about the forces behind this trend and offers recommendations for those who want to seize the benefits of reading and finally crack open that novel collecting dust on their bedside table.

NFL players are signing up to help further CTE research. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease that is now known to be a major risk in professional athletes who experience repeated head injury, particularly tackle football players. In several high-profile cases, former NFL players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE after meeting tragic ends. However, as sports writer Ken Belson writes for the New York Times, it also means that this at-risk population presents a unique opportunity for studies unlocking the secrets of this disease. Already in its second phase, one such research study at Johns Hopkins University is performing PET scams on former football players to track microglia, a type of brain cell that participates in brain recovery and has been shown to be unusually active in these players long after the initial head trauma.