Health bites

Could it be magic? Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago are using levitation to improve the drug development process. "One of the biggest challenges when it comes to drug development is in reducing the amount of the drug needed to attain the therapeutic benefit, whatever it is," says Argonne X-ray physicist Dr Chris Benmore, who led the study. The scientists have found a way to manipulate sound waves to create an acoustic pressure that cancels gravity, thereby allowing light objects - in this case, droplets of drug solutions - to be levitated. The result: the ability to create amorphous (liquid) drugs, which are both more highly soluble and have a higher bioavailability than solid drugs. This means a lower dose can produce the desired effect, thus reducing the side effects. The researchers are now working on identifying on which drugs the levitation will have the best results.

Sometimes it's good to listen to that inner voice. Brides-to-be who get cold feet are likelier to have an unhappy marriage and divorce, according to a new study by University of California, Los Angeles psychologists published in the Journal of Family Psychology. Among 232 couples in Los Angeles tracked regularly over four years, women who had doubts about getting married before their weddings were 21/2 times likelier to divorce within four years than wives without these doubts. Among couples still married after four years, couples with doubts were significantly less satisfied with their marriages than those without doubts. At the time of marriages, the average age of the husbands was 27 and the wives 25. The researchers say premarital doubts are "common but not benign". However, they are not advising women with doubts to necessarily end their relationships. "Talk about it and try to work through it," says Professor Thomas Bradbury, the study's co-author. "You hope that the big issues have been addressed before the wedding."