The next time your children get filthy playing in the riverbed or taking apart the remote control, stop before you scold. Scientists say that this kind of play is actually like hands-on science experimentation for your kids; they're learning to decipher the world around them through exploration. Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, explains how these findings should change how we educate our children.

Everyone had a favorite teacher growing up, but did you ever wonder how that person got you excited about learning? According to new neurological research, it might be because that teacher unknowingly tapped into your brain. John Gabrieli, neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks about these and other new results from neuroscience that are shaping the way educators teach.

For over four thousand years cancer has been an increasingly common scourge of our species; indiscriminately afflicting the very strong, the very weak, the very young and the very old among us. Yet in all that time, we have come to know relatively little about the disease itself.

We speak with oncologist and author Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, who has been researching and fighting cancer for over a decade. In his new book “The Emperor of All Maladies,” he gives the disease, its various treatments and future prospects a much-needed “biography.”

A federal judge on Monday blocked federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The decision overrides an executive order signed by President Obama over a year and a half ago, just six weeks after he took office, reversing the Bush administration’s strict policy on embryonic stem cell research.

For 71 years, Lou Gehrig has been the face of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, now most commonly known as "Lou Gehrig’s disease."

After getting the diagnosis of a disease that would quickly rob him of his muscle strength and control, Gehrig retired from baseball. At a ceremony honoring him at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, his voice full of emotion, he said, "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. That I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you." He died just two years later of the disease that now bears his name.

Now new research suggests that there is a possibility Lou Gehrig may not have had "Lou Gehrig’s disease," but perhaps something closely related.  

The University of Arizona has agreed to pay $700,000 to 41 Havasupai tribal citizens to settle claims that the university misused DNA samples given by tribe members over a decade ago.

Clark Martin is a retired clinical psychologist; he was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1990 and has had multiple metastases and treatments since then.  What follows is his description of receiving a single high dose of psilocybin, the active component of psychedelic mushrooms, under the auspices of a study conducted at Johns Hopkins.

Overview

This is a study for cancer patients who are experiencing depression secondary to everything associated with their cancer. Participants are highly screened and receive several days of counseling with the two experienced researchers who are present through out the treatment day. You are lying on a couch with eye shades and headphones (classical music). In my case, the experience can be roughly divided into three phases.

People (and economists) have long thought that humans have a basic inclination toward altruism: toward helping one another without thinking of a reward. Stephen Dubner, co-author of "SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance" tells the story of how this was called into question and how studies complicate the picture of what motivates human beings.

Your social security number is now a part of almost every form, including health insurance paperwork and the application for your library card. In fact, researchers reporting in this week's issue of the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used public data (hello, Facebook) to predict the first five digits of a person's social security number. And they got it right, on the first try, 44 percent of the time. With more on the dangers of our less-than-private individual identification system, The Takeaway is joined by privacy expert Peter Swire.

You can read more about the PNAS study by heading to the web site of our partners, The New York Times, and checking out today's article, Social Security Numbering System Vulnerable to Fraud, Experts Say.

Bullying causes more than tears, according to new research. Scientists reporting in the May issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry say that childhood bullying can lead to teenage psychotic episodes such as delusions and paranoia. Here to tell us more is study co-author Dieter Wolke, a professor of developmental psychology and individual differences at the University of Warwick, England.

To read the study for yourself, click here. To help someone you know is being bullied, check out the website Stop Bullying Now. Are you a target of workplace bullying? Here are some tips to stop bullying at work. For more on why bullies feel the need to target people, read Why Bullies Bully.

For more on the effects that childhood trauma has on our biological development, listen to The Takeaway's February 2009 conversation with Michael Meaney, Keep your hands to yourself: Child abuse affects our genes.