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Shots - Health News
3:20 am
Mon April 1, 2013

Study Hints Vitamin D Might Help Curb High Blood Pressure

Credit David McNew / Getty Images
Reducing dietary salt and alcohol, exercising, not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight are other lifestyle tweaks known to help prevent or reduce high blood pressure, doctors say.
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Originally published on Fri April 5, 2013 8:50 am

We've heard many claims in the past decade — and much debate — about the role of vitamin D in the prevention and treatment of conditions as varied as brittle bones, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia.

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Research News
3:16 am
Mon April 1, 2013

Why Not Apologizing Makes You Feel Better

Credit Illustration by NPR
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Originally published on Fri April 5, 2013 8:50 am

To err is human.

So is refusing to apologize for those errors.

From toddlers and talk show hosts to preteens and presidents, we all know people who have done stupid, silly and evil things, then squared their jaws and told the world they've done nothing wrong.

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The Salt
3:16 am
Mon April 1, 2013

Journey To Java's 'Tempeh Village': Where Soybean Cakes Are Born

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Credit Anthony?
Preparing the soy beans to be fermented
Credit Rebecca Davis / NPR
Once boiled, the beans are combined with yeast and cassava starch, shaped into bricks and laid out to ferment on drying racks for 18 hours.
Credit Rebecca Davis / NPR
Tempeh is a mildly fermented soybean cake common in the Indonesian diet. Production starts with the washing and husking of beans.
Credit Rebecca Davis / NPR
Mr. Hendoko manages the Kebun Jeruk cooperative, which produces nearly a third of Jakarta's tempeh.
Credit Rebecca Davis / NPR

Tempeh, with its meaty, nutty taste, can be served in a variety of ways, from thick tempeh "steaks" to thinly sliced, deep-fried crackers. Hendoko says that with proper marketing, "in 20 years' time, tempeh will conquer the world."

Credit Rebecca Davis / NPR
Soybeans are then boiled in industrial-size barrels. In Kebun Jeruk, a village in west Jakarta, Indonesia, a cooperative of more than 1,400 local households produces nearly 2 tons of tempeh daily.
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Originally published on Fri April 5, 2013 8:50 am

For centuries, Asia has been home to sophisticated vegetarian cultures. In recent years, Americans have gradually discovered cooking with meat substitutes like tofu and an Indonesia soybean cake called tempeh.

Tempeh is known for being versatile. There's an almost endless variety of ways to cook it. My favorite is perhaps one of the simplest: Cut it into thin slices, cover it in spices and crushed coriander seeds, and pan-fry it in a little oil until it's golden brown.

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Asia
3:15 am
Mon April 1, 2013

Pakistan's Ambitious Program To Re-Educate Militants

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Credit Farooq Naeem / AFP/Getty Images
Pakistani men who worked for the Taliban attend a class at Mishal, an army-run rehabilitation center in Pakistan's Swat Valley, on July 5, 2011. This and similar centers are trying to re-educate men taken in by the Taliban, who ruled Swat before the military drove out the insurgents in 2009.
Credit Farooq Naeem / AFP/Getty Images
Classes such as this one at the Mishal center in Swat on July 5, 2011, teach former jihadis skills that will help them return to their families and be productive members of society.
Credit A. Majeed / AFP/Getty Images
Schoolgirls pray for Pakistan's child activist Malala Yousafzai in Mingora in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley on Nov. 10. The teenager was shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education.
Credit Dina Temple-Raston / NPR
Sabaoon, another center for re-educating former militant recruits, was held by the Taliban before the Pakistan army took it over during the offensive to clear the Taliban from Swat.
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Originally published on Fri April 5, 2013 8:50 am

A Pakistani army officer named Col. Zeshan is giving a tour of a jihadi rehabilitation center secreted in the hills of northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley.

"This place was also captured by the Taliban," he says, walking me around the heavily guarded complex. "The army took over this place from them ... when the war was going on."

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Science
5:22 pm
Sun March 31, 2013

Somewhere Over The Brainbow: The Journey To Map the Human Brain

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Credit AFP/Getty Images
More than 100 years ago, Golgi staining on nerve cells opened the gates to modern neuroscience. Scientists recently developed the Technicolor version of Golgi staining, Brainbow, allowing more detailed reconstructions of brain circuits.
Credit AFP/Getty Images
With a combination of genetic tricks and fancy proteins, researchers have colorfully labelled hundreds of individual neurons with distinctive hues to create a "Brainbow."
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By NPR Staff

Originally published on Sun March 31, 2013 9:55 pm

During the State of the Union, President Obama said the nation is about to embark on an ambitious project: to examine the human brain and create a road map to the trillions of connections that make it work.

"Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy — every dollar," the president said. "Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's."

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