It turns out being the early bird really does have its advantages. A new study in The Auk: Ornithological Advances shows that migrating birds fly faster and put more effort into staying on course in spring than in fall, racing to arrive to their breeding grounds as soon as possible to get an edge in raising the next generation.

Global health experts are today are calling for the removal of restrictions preventing people who use drugs from accessing new hepatitis C cures. So long as these restrictions exist, the goal of disease elimination will remain out of reach, they say.

They are gathered in Oslo for the 5th International Symposium on Hepatitis Care in Substance Users, where new research continues to highlight not just the pivotal role treatment for people who use drugs plays in reducing hepatitis C transmission, but also how it can be rolled out to achieve best results.

Twins should be delivered at 37 weeks' gestation to minimise stillbirths and newborn deaths, and there is no clear evidence to support routine delivery before 36 week's gestation, finds a large international study in The BMJ today.

It is well known that the risk of stillbirth is higher in twin pregnancies than in singleton pregnancies. Uncomplicated twin pregnancies are often delivered early in an attempt to prevent stillbirth, but the optimal gestational age for delivery that minimises risks to newborns is not known.

A review of studies investigating the 2008 recession in Europe show it was associated with adverse health outcomes, particularly for suicides and mental health problems, finds a study in The BMJ today.

However, the authors warn that most published studies on this topic had a substantial risk of bias and therefore results need to be cautiously interpreted.

In 2008, Europe entered a period of unprecedented financial crisis following a global economic downturn. Yet despite growing interest in the impact of the crisis on the health of populations, the evidence so far has been fragmented.

In the hard-hitting world of American football, injuries are an inherent risk of the game with players in the National Football League (NFL) experiencing a higher rate of injury than in any other professional sport. Orthopaedic surgeries are often required to manage player injuries, but until recently little information was available to assess the effect these procedures may have on players' future performance and career trajectory. To better understand surgery's impact, Northwestern Medicine researchers created the NFL Orthopaedic Surgery Outcomes Database (NO-SOD), a comprehensive injury database that compares return-to-play rates (RTP) and performance-based outcomes in NFL players who had orthopaedic surgery.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A team of researchers, including several from the University of California, Riverside, have found that flowers are a hot spot of transmission of bacteria that end up in the microbiome of wild bees.

The research, which was just published in the journal Microbial Ecology, shows for the first time that multiple flower and wild bee species share several of the same types of bacteria. Bees therefore obtain both food and bacteria from flowers. These bacteria may play important roles in bee health.