The American Heart Association has drafted a policy recommendation on the use of e-cigarettes and their impact on tobacco-control efforts and says that because e-cigarettes contain nicotine, they are…

Laboratory-grown replacement organs are the future; since they will be grown from a patient's own cells, there will be no need for immuno-suppressive drugs, and it will eliminate the need for organ…

Long before wheat and sugar, a popular craze against salt swept America. The salt in this case was the popular flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG), common in Chinese food, soups and meats.…

Bacteria growing in near darkness can still harvest energy and produce oxygen from sunlight. Researchers discovered that the cyanobacterial strain Leptolyngbya completely changes its photosynthetic…

Cancer screening is one of the controversial aspects of health care; America has long had a 'defensive medicine' problem, where in some cases doctors and hospitals run many unnecessary tests to check…

Getting informed consent from desperate people and their families for experimental treatments is quite easy. When the latest Ebola outbreak hit, there was criticism that experimental treatments were…

Researchers have succeeded in reconstructing the sea ice conditions in the Fram Strait for this critical period at the end of the last glacial and thus in finding a direct connection between changes…

Source: IPA By Kerrie Foxwell-Norton, Griffith University It’s tempting to view The Australian’s latest broadside at the ABC as just another salvo fired between our nation’s two biggest media…

A new study has found that both type-1 diabetes and type-2 diabetes are the result of the same mechanism - the formation of toxic clumps of a hormone called amylin. The results, based on 20 years'…

Even the most careful chosen meal can contain surprises and to defend against infectious microbial fifth columnists in the intestines, a dedicated contingent of immune cells keeps watch within the…

Let’s say it straight. Mars is, without any doubt our next step in space exploration, sparking our imagination for many years in spaceflight history. After sending tons of scientific rovers, it’s…

Everyone's heard of the birds and the bees - why do they leave out the flowers that are being fertilized? Maybe because it is too complicated. The fertilization process for flowering plants is…

Using a combination of genetic and optical techniques, researchers at the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme have established the effect of serotonin on sensitivity to pain. "Serotonin is a…

A method based on computer vision algorithms similar to those used in facial recognition systems combined with visualization of only the diagnostically most relevant areas can mean a big breakthrough…

A ubiquitous skin fungus linked to dandruff, eczema and other itchy, flaky maladies in humans has now been tracked to even further global reaches—including Hawaiian coral reefs and the extreme…

Scientists have mapped quantum tornadoes that swirl within tiny droplets of liquid helium, which confirms that helium nanodroplets are in fact the smallest possible superfluidic objects and opens new…

Nottingham Trent University, CC BY-NC-ND By Alister Scott, Birmingham City University In the current rush to achieve the highest student satisfaction and best positions on university league tables we…

By Peter Gwynne, Inside Science Why don't we suffocate whenever we try to take a breath? An international team of scientists has used quantum mechanics – the science that usually deals with events at…

Shall I compare thee to a novel? No. Tim McFarlane/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA By David Sweeney, Glasgow School of Art For the second year running, the Edinburgh International Book Festival returns with…

Next year, American consumers will finally be able to purchase fuel cell cars and they are zero-emissions vehicles but, like current electric cars, not really, since the cars will run on hydrogen…