The field of metamaterials is all about making structures that have physical properties that aren't found in nature. Predicting what kinds of structures would have those traits is one challenge; physically fabricating them is quite another, as they often require precise arrangement of constituent materials on the smallest scales.

In response to pressure from the advocacy group As You Sow, Dunkin' Brands has announced that it will be removing allegedly "nano" titanium dioxide from Dunkin' Donuts' powdered sugar donuts. As You Sow claims there are safety concerns around the use of the material, while Dunkin' Brands cites concerns over investor confidence. It's a move that further confirms the food sector's conservatism over adopting new technologies in the face of public uncertainty. But how justified is it based on what we know about the safety of nanoparticles?

Materials resulting from chemical bonding of glucosamine, a type of sugar, with fullerenes, kind of nanoparticles known as buckyballs, might help to reduce cell damage and inflammation occurring after stroke. A team from the Max Planck Institute in Germany has tested this on mice, opening the door to potential new drugs for the cerebrovascular accident.

Get ready to see more red warning signs online as Google adds ammunition to its technological artillery for targeting devious schemes lurking on websites.

Imagine making art come alive with touch. The Prado aims to make art within reach for people who are blind. In a video, Ruben, who went blind in his 20s and is now in his 30s, tells viewers that Estudios Durero, a Spanish group focused on image and digital reproduction processes, called him. They were working on a project of images for the blind with the Prado and they asked him to help. The effort involved a "relief printing" technique that manages to reproduce images for touching.

Researchers at the MIT Media Laboratory are developing a system that enables young children to program interactive robots by affixing stickers to laminated sheets of paper.

British spies are reading thousands of private communications every day, according to a new report Thursday that was triggered by the Edward Snowden leaks.

If you are cool-headed enough to know that robots are incapable of sobbing just because researchers at the Oregon State University Dynamic Robotics Laboratory are kicking and hurling balls at them all the time, then so much the better. You can enjoy the success of ATRIAS withstanding its trials as a bipedal robot taking its kicks and dodgeball hits in stride at Oregon State University. ATRIAS is the name for human-scale bipedal robots. ATRIAS serves to demonstrate theoretical concepts for efficient and agile locomotion; the ultimate goal is walking and running outside in rough terrain.

In less than a month, people in the U.S. will be able to subscribe to HBO without a cable or satellite TV subscription. The stand-alone HBO Now streaming service unveiled this week will debut in time for the April 12 season premiere of "Game of Thrones."

A month before Apple Inc.'s smartwatch hits the market, China's thriving copycat manufacturers are selling lookalikes, some openly advertised as Apple copies.

Nokia says it has started providing mapping services for free download in Apple's App Store, after a successful launch of the service on Android devices.

Google launched a virtual tour of Nepal's Everest region on Thursday, allowing armchair tourists a rare glimpse of life in one of the toughest and most inaccessible places on earth.

Thrill seekers brave enough to test drive a new mixed-reality ride will only have themselves to blame if they find it a little too wild for their taste.

US President Barack Obama is seeking US$14 billion to tackle it. The UK wants to build a start-up industry around it. And Australia is in the middle of what could be a year-long review into getting better at it. The issue is cyber security, and at risk is the entire digital economy and consumer confidence in it. In this Cyber insecurity series we investigate the size and nature of the cyber crime threat, the industry growing with it, and the solutions emerging to get in front of it.

The word "bionic" conjures up images of science fiction fantasies. But in fact bionic systems – the joining of engineering and robotics with biology (the human body) – are becoming a reality here and now.

Systems-on-a-chip for extremely critical applications would use 28 percent less energy and 48 percent less chip area while offering nine times lower hardware failure rate, if designed with the completely novel Desyre architecture. This would drastically reduce hospital costs and replacement rate of medical devices.

The safety of nuclear plants, as well as the medical management of acute radiation syndrome, could soon be dramatically improved thanks to a new mathematical equation developed by Japan's Nuclear Safety Research Centre.

The 66th Formula 1 season is about to get underway this week at Albert Park, in Melbourne, and a number of changes have been introduced this year.

Nicholas Kasdaglis, a Ph.D. student and research assistant in the Human-Centered Design Institute at Florida Institute of Technology, has been awarded use of cutting-edge design software that may allow him to better understand and eventually help minimize the leading cause of commercial aviation fatalities.

A Simon Fraser University Faculty of Environment researcher says a new study he conducted with graduate students has important implications for governments with limited budgets to support the electric vehicle market.

Smart glasses are wearable computers that will likely lead to the growth of the Internet of Things. Currently available smart glasses, however, reveal a set of problems for commercialization, such as short battery life and low energy efficiency. In addition, glasses that use voice commands have raised the issue of privacy concerns.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Thursday joined the country's biggest auto maker with a plan to develop an Internet-connected car, following other non-traditional players such as Google making inroads into the industry.

Simulations of impressive landscapes and alien creatures have become commonplace, especially in fantasy and science fiction films. But simulations are also appearing in ever more medical and engineering applications. However, the road to a perfect illusion is complex and time-intensive. Nils Thürey, professor at the Technische Universität München and his colleagues have developed a methodology that could accelerate these calculations.

Modern software takes computational speed for granted. But modern microprocessors can only speed up by increasing the number of cores. To take full advantage of multiple cores, software developers have to arrange their code in such a way that it is executable in parallel—an error-prone and expensive task. Computer scientists from Saarland University have developed a tool that parallelizes the necessary code sections automatically, and also gives developers programming advice.

Intel's stock fell Thursday after the giant chipmaker lowered its first-quarter revenue forecast, citing weak demand for business desktop PCs and a strong dollar that affects revenue from overseas sales.

Twitter has become the latest online platform to ban "revenge porn," or the posting of sexually explicit images of a person without consent.

Fifteen minutes of Internet fame can create long-term riches for a small business.

Global sales of tablet computers will see only slim growth in 2015, in a further cooling of a segment that was red-hot two years ago, a market tracker said Thursday.

Lyft has upped the stakes in its ambitious drive to take on Uber, saying Thursday it raised $530 million in a funding round led by Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten to fuel expansion in the US and abroad.

Three major US daily newspapers announced plans Thursday to make their articles available through a Dutch-based startup pioneering the use of "micropayments" for news.

The woman behind a Silicon Valley sex discrimination case spent Wednesday under fire from an attorney trying to sink her multi-million-dollar case against a top venture capital firm.

Did you know some 33,000 people die and 2.3 million are injured in vehicle crashes in the U.S. each year?1 Researchers at Intel Labs are paving the road to a crash-free future with cars that communicate with each other.

Fujitsu Laboratories today announced the development of the world's first thin cooling device designed for small, thin electronic devices. Smartphones, tablets, and other similar mobile devices are increasingly multifunctional and fast. These spec improvements, however, have increased heat generated from internal components, and the overheating of localized parts in devices has become problematic. Fujitsu has developed a thin loop heat pipe, less than one millimeter thick, to solve this problem. This new device was developed using technologies for stacking metal sheets. It is capable of transferring approximately five times more heat than current thin heat pipes. This technology will make it possible for CPUs and other heat-generating components to run cooler and to avoid concentrated hot-spots inside devices.

Cuba has allowed the launch of the island's first known free, public Internet service at a Havana cultural center that quietly began offering open Wi-Fi in recent weeks.

A research firm is forecasting a bigger decline in personal computer sales in 2015.

If you're looking to improve your heart health by changing your diet, when you eat may be just as important as what you eat. In a new study published today in Science, researchers at San Diego State University and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that by limiting the time span during which fruit flies could eat, they could prevent aging- and diet-related heart problems. The researchers also discovered that genes responsible for the body's circadian rhythm are integral to this process, but they're not yet sure how.

Queensland scientists have found that non-invasive ultrasound technology can be used to treat Alzheimer's disease and restore memory.

Scientists are eager to make use of stem cells' extraordinary power to transform into nearly any kind of cell, but that ability also is cause for concern in cancer treatment. Malignant tumors contain stem cells, prompting worries among medical experts that the cells' transformative powers help cancers escape treatment.

For infants with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), something as simple as a common cold or ear infection can be fatal. Born with an incomplete immune system, kids who have SCID—also known as "bubble boy" or "bubble baby" disease—can't fight off even the mildest of germs. They often have to live in sterile, isolated environments to avoid infections and, even then, most patients don't live past a year or two. This happens because stem cells in SCID patients' bone marrow have a genetic mutation that prevents them from developing critical immune cells, called T and Natural Killer (NK) cells.

Light can be used to activate normal, non-genetically modified neurons through the use of targeted gold nanoparticles, report scientists from the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The new technique, described in the journal Neuron on March 12, represents a significant technological advance with potential advantages over current optogenetic methods, including possible use in the development of therapeutics toward diseases such as macular degeneration.

Many of us are walking around all the time in a fog caused by "social jetlag." That's what happens when we lose sleep because our daily schedules don't match our bodies' natural rhythms. The condition can be a particular problem for shift workers, who work into the night or on a shifting schedule. Now, researchers report in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on March 12 that sleep and workers' general wellbeing could be improved if work schedules took workers' biological clocks into account.

Microbes in the human body are estimated to outnumber human cells by 10 to 1, yet research on how they affect health is still in its infancy. A perspective article published by Cell Press on March 12th in Trends in Biotechnology presents evidence that gut microbes produce gases that may contribute to gastrointestinal diseases and could be used as biomarkers for one's state of health. As means to measure these potential biomarkers, the authors suggest two novel gas-sensing systems, one of which is an electronic gas sensor in the form of a pill you can swallow. These systems may offer a reliable and economical way to understand the impact of intestinal gases on human health, paving the way for the development of new diagnostic techniques and therapies.

(Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers working in Singapore has found that human T cells actually target dengue viral infections in the skin, which is the normal infection site. In their paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the team describes how they found that T cells in patients were able to recognize the dengue virus and also expressed a marker that caused them to move to the skin.

Researchers at MIT have developed a method to stimulate brain tissue using external magnetic fields and injected magnetic nanoparticles—a technique allowing direct stimulation of neurons, which could be an effective treatment for a variety of neurological diseases, without the need for implants or external connections.

The Ebola outbreak that has swept West Africa since 2014 may have cleared the way for a more familiar killer that could claim thousands of more lives—measles.

What does it mean to be happy? Is it how happy you say you are, or is it how happy you act? Previous research has found that political conservatives report being happier than political liberals. But UC Irvine psychologists have discovered that those on the left exhibit happier speech patterns and facial expressions.

A new study finds that Interleukin-3 (IL-3), an inflammatory factor most associated with allergic reactions, appears to have an important role in the overwhelming, life-threatening immune reaction called sepsis. In the March 13 issue of Science, investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) describe finding that the presence of IL-3 is essential to the development of sepsis in a mouse model of the condition and that IL-3 levels in human patients with sepsis are higher in those at greater risk of dying.

A comprehensive programme providing older people at risk of dementia with healthy eating guidance, exercise, brain training, and management of metabolic and vascular risk factors appears to slow down cognitive decline, according to the first ever randomised controlled trial of its kind, published in The Lancet.

Teens who were heavy marijuana users - smoking it daily for about three years—had an abnormally shaped hippocampus and performed poorly on long-term memory tasks, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

The indoor air quality in nursing homes has a serious effect on the lung health of elderly residents, according to the findings of a new study.

A new fingerprint ID device gives healthworkers access to accurate patient records.

Keck Medicine of USC researchers in the lab of Peggy Farnham were key participants in the recent publication of a landmark collection of scientific papers related to mapping the DNA and histone modifications in human epigenomes and the ways that they coordinate the body's biological activities.

In a continuation of clinical trials related to the biological benefits of massage therapy, Emory researchers are currently studying how massage may help reduce fatigue in breast cancer patients.

States that have legalized marijuana need to put strong restrictions on the drug's edible products, according to two Stanford law professors.

A clinical trial of a potential Ebola therapy, led by Oxford University, is underway in Sierra Leone.

That biomarker, an enzyme called alkaline phosphatase, can be checked through a test similar to a routine blood draw, making this type of screening preferable to the more expensive and invasive DEXA scan, which measures bone density through a specialized form of X-ray.

A University at Buffalo social psychologist who specializes in the study of prejudice and stigma says that American Indian nicknames and mascots are not neutral symbols, and that their continued use by schools, professional sports teams and other organizations has negative consequences for everyone, not just Native Americans.

Purposefully and repeatedly exposing children to secondhand smoke—a known human carcinogen—is child abuse, according to an opinion piece written by Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Drawing from his experience as a family physician caring for families with children who have suffered severe respiratory illness due to secondhand smoke exposure, Dr. Goldstein says it is time for society—including doctors—to do much more. Dr. Goldstein argues his point in an essay published in the Point/Counterpoint feature in the March/April 2015 issue of Annals of Family Medicine.

Deakin University health researchers have found that increasing iron and zinc intakes can help boost a woman's mood and memory and may be a way to address cognitive decline in old age.

A new immunotherapy drug, pembrolizumab, has become the first treatment 'fast-tracked' for NHS patients with advanced melanoma, under a new Government scheme.

Stop Smoking Services run by the NHS in England saved as many as 18,000 lives in a year, a new report suggests.

In addition to the nutritional value they already contain, common Canadian crops like canola and flax may soon have cancer-fighting benefits too.

Microbiologists at the University of British Columbia have uncovered a novel mechanism that boosts B-cells' sensitivity to extremely small amounts of foreign molecules.

It's been known since the late 1800s how to stop cholera, a waterborne infectious disease—clean water and safe sanitation are key—but that hasn't stopped it from spreading. In Haiti, more than 8,000 people have already died in a cholera epidemic that started 10 months after the massive 2010 earthquake. The disease was virtually unknown in Haiti until it was inadvertently introduced through the substandard sanitation practices of U.N. troops stationed there. The suffering caused by the disease highlighted a longstanding problem of access to clean water in the country.

Where you receive medical care impacts many things - including whether or not you receive inappropriate medical tests, according to a new study.

An association of high rates of inappropriate imaging for prostate cancer and breast cancer identified in a study of Medicare beneficiaries suggests that, at the regional level, regional culture and infrastructure could contribute to inappropriate imaging, something policymakers should want to consider as they seek to improve the quality of care and reduce health care spending, according to a study published online by JAMA Oncology.

In a group of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer at 40 or younger, 1.3 percent of the patients carried germline TP53 gene mutations, although none of the patients met the clinical criteria for an inherited cancer syndrome associated with higher lifetime risks of multiple cancers, according to a study published online by JAMA Oncology.

Cochlear implantation was associated with improved speech perception and cognitive function in adults 65 years or older with profound hearing loss, according to a report published online by JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

Researchers from the Gladstone Institutes have used human cells to discover how blood flow in the heart protects against the hardening of valves in cardiovascular disease. What's more, they've identified a potential way to correct this process when it goes wrong by flipping the switch on just a handful of genes. These findings may have implications for related conditions, like hardening of the arteries, which causes heart attacks and stroke.

A team of researchers from the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam and the Charité University Hospital in Berlin have revealed how taste is encoded in patterns of neural activity in the human brain. Kathrin Ohla, the lead researcher on the team, said: "The ability to taste is crucial for food choice and the formation of food preferences. Impairments in taste perception or hedonic experience of taste can cause deviant eating behavior, and may lead to mal- or supernutrition. Our research aims to extend the understanding of the neuronal mechanisms of taste perception and valuation. This knowledge is essential for the development of strategies to moderate deviant eating behavior." The study was published in Current Biology.

(HealthDay)—Further research is needed to understand the role of physical therapy in healing and quality of life (QOL) in patients with venous leg ulcers (VLUs), according to a systematic review published in the March issue of JAMA Dermatology.

(HealthDay)—For patients with knee osteoarthritis, the evidence should be considered before recommending viscosupplementation, according to a case vignette study published in the March 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

(HealthDay)—The timeliness of outpatient follow-up after discharge matters most for patients with multiple chronic conditions and a greater than 20 percent baseline risk of readmission, according to research published in the March/April issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

(HealthDay)—Physicians should begin planning their exit strategy three to five years in advance, according to the American Medical Association.

The world can beat the liver-attacking hepatitis B virus, which results in some 650.000 deaths a year, the World Health Organization said Thursday, releasing its first treatment guidelines for the disease.

Google-backed genetic testing company 23andMe is launching its own drug development unit, betting that it can translate its database of customer DNA information into novel medicines.

Graeme Attey can remember the moment when he came up with the idea to design a lightweight helmet to protect sportspeople.

Ernest Murry saw glaucoma steal his mother's vision, just as it had robbed sight from many other family members. There was a time when it seemed the same might happen to him. "When I went outside to walk, I would have to pat in front of me to keep from falling," he says.

A recent study by researchers from the School of Medicine in Trinity College Dublin in conjunction with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) and the Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre has found a 3-fold higher rate of Tuberculosis (TB) in Irish Travellers than in the white Irish born population. The findings were recently published in the international journal Epidemiology & Infection (Cambridge University Press).

Very low mammographic breast density worsens the prognosis of breast cancer, according to a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland. Disease free survivals as well as overall life expectancies were significantly shorter in women with very low-density breasts in comparison to women with high density breast tissue. The lower the breast tissue density, the less fibroglandular tissue there is compared to fat tissue.

Observe whether two people use metaphors in conversation with each other if you want to guess how close they are as friends. Or sharpen your ability to tune into other people's emotional or mental states by observing the metaphors they use. Why is this? Because metaphors can in fact help one to 'mind read,' report Andrea Bowes and Albert Katz of the University of Ontario in Canada in Springer's journal Memory & Cognition.

Using gene therapy to produce a mutant human protein with unusually high blood-clotting power, scientists have successfully treated dogs with the bleeding disorder hemophilia, without triggering an unwanted immune response. In addition, the "turbocharged" clotting factor protein eliminated pre-existing antibodies that often weaken conventional treatments for people with hemophilia.

Increasing colorectal cancer screening rates to 80% by 2018 would prevent an additional 21,000 colorectal cancer deaths per year by 2030, according to a new study. The study is the first to estimate the public health benefits of increasing screening rates to "80% by 2018," a recent initiative from the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (NCCRT), a national coalition of public, private, and voluntary organizations, to aim for screening rates of 80% in the United States by 2018. The study is co-authored by American Cancer Society epidemiologist Ahmedin Jemal and appears in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

A recently developed risk-evaluation protocol can help hospital emergency department personnel more efficiently determine which patients with acute chest pain can be sent home safely, according to a randomized trial conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Federal health officials issued multiple announcements Thursday aimed at addressing growing safety concerns about medical scopes that have been linked to several recent "superbug" outbreaks.

Increasing the minimum age of legal access (MLA) to tobacco products will prevent or delay initiation of tobacco use by adolescents and young adults, particularly those ages 15 to 17, and improve the health of Americans across the lifespan, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The committee that conducted the study estimated the likely reduction in tobacco-use initiation that would be achieved by raising the MLA for tobacco products to either 19 years old, 21 years old, or 25 years, and used two tobacco-use simulation models to quantify the accompanying public health outcomes.

The newest guidelines for the use of cholesterol-lowering statins in people at risk of heart disease may be too generic, excluding middle-aged adults who could benefit from the drugs, and over-prescribing in older adults, according to a new study from the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Being discriminated against by the healthcare profession or system can cause much more than just mere distress to older people. Such experiences can literally be bad for their health. A national survey shows that one in every three older Americans who are on the receiving end of age-related discrimination in the healthcare setting will likely develop new or worsened functional ailments in due course. This follows a study1 led by Stephanie Rogers, a fellow in geriatrics at UC San Francisco in the United States, and published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine2, published by Springer.

An extensive database identifying immune traits, such as how immune cell function is regulated at the genetic level in healthy people, is reported by researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their collaborators in the journal Cell. While many genetic risk factors have been linked to various diseases, including autoimmune disorders, how a genetic change causes susceptibility to a disease is not always clear. By studying healthy people, researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center, part of the NIH, and colleagues from King's College London have created a reference resource for other scientists.

Findings from the largest review of clinical trials to date to determine whether patients prescribed the smoking cessation drug Varenicline (brand name Champix in the UK) are at an increased risk of neuropsychiatric events are published online in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) today. The study was carried out by researchers at the University of Bristol.

In the battle between a cell and a virus, either side may resort to subterfuge. Molecular messages, which control the cellular machinery both sides need, are vulnerable to interception or forgery. New research at Rockefeller University has revealed the unique twist on just such a strategy deployed by the liver-infecting Hepatitis C virus - one that may help explain the progression of liver disease and that the researchers suspect may be found more widely in the world of disease-causing viruses.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers under the direction of the University of Bonn Hospital have discovered a gene which is associated with a rare congenital anomaly of the urinary tract called classic bladder exstrophy. It increases the likelihood that the urinary tract will not form properly during embryonic development. The finding is an important step for understanding the development of urinary tract malformations in general and for developing prophylactic measures. The results are published in the current online edition of the journal PloS Genetics.

Research publishing this week in PLOS Computational Biology analyses the livestock trade in Italy and sexual encounters in a Brazilian prostitution service to find a correlation between loyalty and infection risk.

In the continuing debate over how much vitamin E is enough, a new study has found that high levels of blood lipids such as cholesterol and triglycerides can keep this essential micronutrient tied up in the blood stream, and prevent vitamin E from reaching the tissues that need it.

Social media has become an important way for institutions to communicate - both sending messages and receiving feedback - with clients and with the general public. Hospitals and other health care organizations use social media for a variety of purposes, but there has been little investigation of whether hospitals ratings that patients and other consumers submit via social media accurately reflect patient satisfaction or the quality of care delivered. A new study published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine finds a correlation between how hospitals are rated on Facebook's five-star system and how well they performed on a widely-used measure of quality care.

Today at the 93rd General Session and Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research, researcher Michael L. Meier, Center for Dental Medicine, University of Zürich, Switzerland, will present a study titled "Distinct Brain Mechanisms Related to Dental Pain Relief." The IADR General Session is being held in conjunction with the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research and the 39th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research.

The mechanism that causes high-performance athletes to "feel the burn" turns out to be the culprit in what makes people with chronic fatigue syndrome feel exhausted by the most common daily activities, new University of Florida Health research shows.

Today at the 93rd General Session and Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research, researcher M.J. Al-Musawi, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, will present a study titled "In Vitro Effects of Topical Neuromodulatory Medication on Orofacial Tissue." The IADR General Session is being held in conjunction with the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research and the 39th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a gene variant that may be used to predict people most likely to respond to an investigational therapy under development for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study, published March 12 in Cell Stem Cell, is based on experiments with cultured neurons derived from adult stem cells.

(HealthDay)—In the wake of the measles outbreak that has generated headlines for months, more Americans now say they have positive feelings toward childhood vaccinations, according to a new HealthDay/Harris Poll.

(HealthDay)—Reducing the number of Americans with type 2 diabetes is a new mission shared by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the leading U.S. health agency, officials said Thursday.

(HealthDay)—For patients with knee osteoarthritis, long-term nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use is associated with improvements in symptoms and disease progression, according to a study published in the March issue of Arthritis & Rheumatology.

(HealthDay)—For patients with acute thoracic herpes zoster (HZ), a single paravertebral blockade seems safe and effective, according to a study published in the March issue of Pain Practice.

(HealthDay)—Health care providers on the West Coast need to look out for syphilis that can cause blindness, public health officials say.

Television advertisements for e-cigarettes may be enticing current and even former tobacco smokers to reach for another cigarette.

Damage to the spinal cord rarely heals because the injured nerve cells fail to regenerate. The regrowth of their long nerve fibers is hindered by scar tissue and molecular processes inside the nerves. An international team of researchers led by DZNE scientists in Bonn now reports in Science that help might be on the way from an unexpected quarter: in animal studies, the cancer drug epothilone reduced the formation of scar tissue in injuries to the spinal cord and stimulated growth in damaged nerve cells. Both promoted neuronal regeneration and improved the animals' motor skills.

A German biologist who promised to pay 100,000 euros to anyone who could prove that the measles was indeed a virus was ordered by a court on Thursday to hand over the money.

A father's depression during the first years of parenting - as well as a mother's - can put their toddler at risk of developing troubling behaviors such as hitting, lying, anxiety and sadness during a critical time of development, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.

In a new study, published in Cell Reports, researchers at Uppsala University describe a novel mechanism by which lymphatic vessels form during embryonic development. The finding may open new possibilities for repairing damaged lymphatic vessels using stem cells.

A web-based app designed by Murdoch researchers in conjunction with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service is changing the lives of thousands of patients suffering from iron disorders.

A surgical approach in which a surgeon removes less than a lobe of the liver in a patient undergoing an operation for liver cancer is associated with lower mortality and complication rates, according to new study results published online as an "article in press" in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS). The article will appear in print in the April issue of the Journal.

Despite claims by the Obama administration that the Affordable Care Act will reduce health insurance companies' spending on overhead, thereby channeling a greater share of consumers' premium dollars into actual patient care, insurers' financial filings show the law had no impact on the percentage of insurer expenditures on such things as administration, marketing and profits.

Dutch authorities have identified an outbreak of avian flu in chickens at a farm in the centre of the country that is likely a "low risk" strain, officials said Thursday.

Two patient groups created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) - Medicare patients enrolled in federally designated patient-centered medical homes and people under age 26 who are allowed to remain on their parents' health insurance - had slightly fewer emergency department visits than they had before health care reform. However, there was no change in the rate of the most expensive types of emergency visits: those that lead to hospitalization.

After giving birth, a woman's estrogen levels drop to lower than usual levels, and while they return to the normal range relatively quickly among women who are not breastfeeding, this hypoestrogenic state may continue in lactating women and cause menopause-like symptoms. The results of a new study comparing vaginal dryness, hot flashes, and mood changes in women who are or are not breastfeeding 3 and 6 weeks after giving birth are reported in Breastfeeding Medicine, the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.

Sierra Leone has seen a worrying spike in confirmed Ebola cases over the past week in four districts, the head of the national Ebola response center said Thursday.

Today at the 93rd General Session and Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research, researcher Sheila Arvikar, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA, will present a study titled "Inflammation in the Mouth and Joints in Rheumatoid Arthritis." The IADR General Session is being held in conjunction with the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research and the 39th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research.

Even mild kidney disease during pregnancy may increase certain risks in the mother and baby, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings may be helpful for guiding prenatal counseling and for monitoring women during pregnancy.

The World Health Organization marked a grim milestone Thursday in the biggest-ever Ebola outbreak, estimating that the virus had killed over 10,000 people, mostly in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

(HealthDay)—U.S. regulators have approved a controversial powdered alcohol product called Palcohol, which is meant to be mixed into drinks.

An American healthcare worker who has tested positive for Ebola will be treated at a government hospital near the US capital, Washington, officials said Thursday.

Targeting deadly, drug-resistant bacteria poses a serious challenge to researchers looking for antibiotics that can kill pathogens without causing collateral damage in human cells. A team of Boston College chemists details a new approach using a "warhead" molecule to attack bacteria—and spare healthy human cells—by targeting a pair of lipids found on the surface of deadly germs, according to a report today in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers from UPM have used a technique that made popular the silk from Murcia in the 19th century. The new material can be used for regenerative medicine.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists have simplified the chemical synthesis of small molecules, eliminating a major bottleneck that limits the exploration of a class of compounds offering tremendous potential for medicine and technology.

Unique proteins newly discovered in heat-loving bacteria are more than capable of attaching themselves to plant cellulose, possibly paving the way for more efficient methods of converting plant matter into biofuels.

Scientists in Japan are finding that perovskites have the potential to improve the fabrication of electrodes and wiring in ceramic-based electronics such as spark plugs.