Mother-of-pearl, the iridescent layer in the shells of some mollusks, inspired a Rice University study that will help scientists and engineers judge the ultimate strength, stiffness and toughness of composite materials for anything from nanoscale electronics to buildings.

What lies beneath growing islands of graphene is important to its properties, according to a new study led by Rice University.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated the first-ever recording of optically encoded audio onto a non-magnetic plasmonic nanostructure, opening the door to multiple uses in informational processing and archival storage.

(Phys.org)—As the batteries under development in today's research labs are looking less like large blocks of metal and more like pieces of plastic wrap, their novel applications are coming closer to reality. One of the latest flexible batteries is thinner than a credit card, and could be integrated into various applications such as wrinkle-smoothing patches, smart cards, and watch straps.

Some of social media's greatest stars aren't even old enough to tweet: Pictures of kids playing dress up, having meltdowns and even in the bathtub adorn Facebook walls. Diaper-donning toddlers dancing to the likes of Beyonce and Taylor Swift rack up YouTube views. Countless blogs share stories about everything from potty training to preschool struggles.

An article adaptation (from Environment@Harvard Volume 3, Issue 2) on the Harvard University Center for the Environment website said "Around the world, oceans are warming and expanding. Vast ice sheets are crumbling and melting into the sea. The result is global sea-level rise, which will be one of the most dramatic and destructive consequences of climate change." In the future, homes will increasingly be on water.

China's Internet tycoon Jack Ma, founder of giant online merchant Alibaba, gave a glimpse of the future when he demonstrated a new e-payment system using facial recognition at the CeBIT IT fair in Germany.

China's huge IT sector is out in force in Germany this week, signalling to the world it is ready to not just copy but lead as a tech superpower.

Advancements in robotics have enabled humankind to automate a whole range of industrial processes, leading to more efficient and safer production and helping to expand our knowledge through scientific discovery. Why is it, however, that we can send a robot into space to take samples of Martian rocks, but still can't delegate the ironing to a household robot?

In the wake of the revelations that intelligence agencies have been engaged in mass surveillance activities, both industry and society at large are looking for practicable encryption solutions that protect businesses and individuals. Previous technologies have failed in practice because they were too expensive or not user friendly enough. Fraunhofer has launched an open initiative called "Volksverschlüsselung" with the aim of bringing end-to-end encryption to the masses. Fraunhofer researchers will be presenting a prototype of their easy-to-use software and the infrastructure concept behind it at CeBIT 2015 (Hall 9, Booth E40).

More than half of Americans are worried about the U.S. government's digital spies prying into their emails, texts, search requests and other online information, but few are trying to thwart the surveillance.

Facebook said Monday it won't allow the social network to be used to promote terrorism or hate speech as it unveiled a wide-ranging update of its "community standards."

Americans have been stepping up efforts to keep their data private since the revelations about vast US government surveillance programs, a survey showed Monday.

As a plane with a Grumpy Cat flag flew overhead, courtesy of Friskies, the Technorati flooded into panel discussions and happy hour spots at the annual tech festival South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, on Sunday.

One big challenge facing cleanup crews during an offshore oil spill—such as 2010's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico—is determining just how much oil is involved. Researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William & Mary, have now developed a remotely operated underwater vehicle to someday assist in this key aspect of the oil-spill response.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and KIT-founded Helmholtz Institute Ulm pushes the further development of lithium ion batteries: The researchers developed a new cathode material based on a new storage principle, as a result of which energy storage densities can be increased beyond those of systems known so far. The researchers now present the new material in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

The online bulletin-board style social network Pinterest disclosed Monday it had raised $367 million in new capital, pushing its valuation to a reported $11 billion.

China has overtaken Germany to become the world's third-biggest arms exporter, although its 5 percent share remains small compared to the combined 58 percent of exports from the U.S. and Russia, a new study says.

Cablevision is offering the new HBO Now online service to its Internet customers, even though the service could persuade more people to drop their cable TV packages.

(Medical Xpress)—One of the largest problems in clinical medicine is the growing prevalence of multidrug-resistant, disease-causing strains of Staphylococcus aureus. Penicillin resistance is now extremely common across a spectrum of staph strains, and although a few new antibiotic approaches show promise, the general availability of these new drugs still lies years in the future.

Moral decisions can be influenced by tracking moment to moment movements of the eyes during deliberation, finds new research from Lund University, Sweden, University College London and University of California Merced.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that when a certain aggressive leukemia is causing havoc in the body, the solution may be to force the cancer cells to grow up and behave.

Researchers have identified a new host of gene variants that could make people vulnerable to sporadic motor neurone disease, according to a report published today in the journal, Scientific Reports.

A new study from the University of Birmingham and the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences unit in Cambridge has shown how intentional recall is beyond a simple reawakening of a memory; and actually leads us to forget other competing experiences that interfere with retrieval. Quite simply, the very act of remembering may be one of the major reasons why we forget.

The largest genetic study of tuberculosis (TB) susceptibility to date has led to a potentially important new insight into how the pathogen manages to evade the immune system. Published today in the journal Nature Genetics, the study advances understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in TB, which may open up new avenues to design efficient vaccines for its prevention.

Scientists at The University of Manchester have made an important new discovery about the brain's immune system that could lead to potential new treatments for stroke and other related conditions.

One way many cancers grow resistant to treatment is by generating a web of blood vessels that are so jumbled they fail to provide adequate oxygen to the tumor. With oxygen starvation, the tumor gains a sort of cloaking device that protects it from the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs and radiation, which are designed to seek out well-oxygenated tissue.

Charles R. Wira, PhD, and colleagues at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine have presented a comprehensive review of the role of sex hormones in the geography of the female reproductive tract and evidence supporting a "window of vulnerability" to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Published in Nature Reviews in Immunology, Wira's team presents a body of work that National Institutes of Health evaluators called, "a sea change" for research in the female reproductive tract (FRT).

New research boosts hope that a highly anticipated, experimental class of cholesterol drugs can greatly lower the risk for heart attacks, death and other heart-related problems.

Increasingly high prices for cancer drugs are affecting patient care in the U.S. and the American health care system overall, say the authors of a special article published online in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

If a column in honor of heart health suggests a can of Coke as a snack, you might want to read the fine print.

Researchers have made a discovery that could see patients with kidney disease no longer having to resort to dialysis or kidney transplants.

Young people with arthritis rely heavily on their mums for support during times of change and uncertainty – despite claiming to be independent, according to new research from Arthritis Research UK.

This year, ovarian cancer will claim over 125,000 lives worldwide. The deadly disease remains the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality in U.S. women, killing about 15,000 per year.

Otherwise healthy people who exercise strenuously for more than 90 minutes suffer from a post-exercise drop in heart performance, but only in the right side of the heart, according to researchers at the University of Adelaide.

Earlier exposure to palliative care can enhance junior doctors' professionalism, focus on and communication with all patients, and other important aspects of care, according to a study from the University of Adelaide.

Hollywood has given movie-goers many classic portrayals of grumpy old men—American Movie Classics even maintains a list of the top fifteen film curmudgeons.

A new type of CT scan initially costs slightly less than the traditional stress test to diagnose blocked coronary arteries in patients with chest pain, but its lower cost did not translate into medical care savings over time, according to an analysis by Duke Medicine researchers.

According to a meta-analysis published in BMC Family Practice, high dose zinc acetate lozenges shortened the duration of common-cold associated nasal discharge by 34%, nasal congestion by 37%, scratchy throat by 33%, and cough by 46%.

The human eye is optimised to have good colour vision at day and high sensitivity at night. But until recently it seemed as if the cells in the retina were wired the wrong way round, with light travelling through a mass of neurons before it reaches the light-detecting rod and cone cells. New research presented at a meeting of the American Physical Society has uncovered a remarkable vision-enhancing function for this puzzling structure.

A University of Arkansas doctoral student's research suggests college students perceive they can assess whether someone would consent to sexual activity by looking at a person's social media profile. Kelley Rhoads said this is problematic because sexual consent should be a negotiation that occurs between the individuals engaging in sexual activity. These perceptions based on social media could lead to preconceived notions, which can quickly turn into negative consequences, she said.

Parents in higher socio-economic areas are less likely to allow their children to be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV), new research from Massey University indicates.

WA scientists have helped re-affirm that curcumin, a chemical compound found in turmeric, is a safe and promising treatment for most cancers and other inflammation-driven diseases.

Nutrition scientists issued their findings to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last month on the proposed 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. During the open comment period, which ends April 8, the University of California Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) is encouraging the public to ask the government to make water the drink of choice in its final version of the 2015 guidelines and add a symbol for water on MyPlate.

A recently hired veterinary pathologist is bringing multiple skills to her new position in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, including experience with a human primary cell line used for modeling human influenza infections.

In philosophy classes, one of the first lessons in logic that students learn is what fallacies are and how to avoid them. One of my favorites is the false dichotomy, mainly because of its crystal-clear examples: you're either for us or against us; it's my way or the highway. Of course, the dichotomies are false, because each scenario has more than just the two possible options provided. Political rhetoric is filled with false dichotomies, which provides ample fodder for lighthearted classroom discussion about ways reasoning can go wrong.

A means of reprogramming a flawed immune response into an efficient anti-tumoral one was brought to light by the results of a translational trial relating to breast cancer. Thanks to the innovative combination of mathematical modelisation and experimentation, only 20 tests were necessary, whereas traditional experimentation would have required 596 tests to obtain the same results.

The European research project PUMA (Pressure Ulcer Measurement and Actuation) technically coordinated by the Biomechanics Institute (IBV) has developed an innovative portable and non-invasive device to prevent and early detect the risk of pressure ulcer (PU) development and revert its onset for tetraplegic spinal cord injured (T-SCI) individuals relying on wheelchairs.

Air pollution has been linked to a dangerous narrowing of neck arteries that occurs prior to strokes, according to researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Researchers reveal how cells protect themselves from a protein that is a key driver of cancer. The study appears in The Journal of Cell Biology.

Most physicians are aware of the importance of lifestyle factors in preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD)—and believe diet is as important as statin therapy and exercise, according to a new survey from NYU Langone Medical Center.

Adding the antiplatelet drug ticagrelor to aspirin as long-term therapy after a heart attack significantly reduced the rate of subsequent death from cardiovascular causes, heart attack or stroke, with the benefit appearing to accrue for nearly three years, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

A study comparing the overall economics of computed tomographic angiography with functional stress tests for evaluating patients with symptoms suggestive of possible blocked coronary arteries found no significant differences in costs over three years. The study was presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Patients with symptoms of heart disease have similar outcomes in terms of death and major cardiac conditions regardless of whether they undergo a functional stress test or a computed tomographic scan, but the scan may be better at ruling out the need for subsequent tests and procedures in patients who are free of heart disease, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego.

Cancer cells crowded tightly together suddenly surrender their desire to spread, and this change of heart is related to a cellular pathway that controls organ size. These two stunning observations are reported today by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in the journal Oncogene.

Inadequate vaccine coverage is likely a driving force behind the ongoing Disneyland measles outbreak, according to calculations by a research team at Boston Children's Hospital. Their report, based on epidemiological data and published online by JAMA Pediatrics, indicates that vaccine coverage among the exposed populations is far below that necessary to keep the virus in check, and is the first to positively link measles vaccination rates and the ongoing outbreak.

A review of clinical trial data suggests vitamin D supplementation was ineffective at lowering blood pressure (BP) and should not be used as an antihypertensive, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.

A study of brain aging finds that being male was associated with worse memory and lower hippocampal volume in individuals who were cognitively normal at baseline, while the gene APOE ?4, a risk factor for Alzheimer disease, was not, according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology.

Researchers have built a new computational tool that identifies 800 different ways people are at increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), permitting for the first time a personalized prediction guide.

Exploring the fundamental mechanism by which a cell-surface receptor transmits its signal, an international team of Ludwig researchers and their colleagues has established proof of concept for an entirely new approach to drug design. They report that a class of synthetic molecules known as diabodies can, from outside the cell, latch onto a target receptor and manipulate it in such a manner as to induce distinct and varying effects within cells and tissues. Led by Christopher Garcia of Ludwig Stanford, the researchers show in lab experiments how this might work, using a diabody to stall the growth of cancer cells isolated from patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Use of computed tomography coronary angiography, which provides 3-D images of the heart, coupled with standard care allows doctors to more accurately diagnose coronary artery disease in patients presenting with chest pain, therefore, leading to more appropriate follow-up testing and treatments, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session. Data also showed a trend toward a lower incidence of heart attacks among the group receiving the tests, known as CT scans, compared to usual care.

A novel therapy that would allow doctors to turn the body's blood-clotting ability off and on in a more controlled way was about as effective as established anticoagulants in patients undergoing angioplasty but was associated with higher rates of moderate to severe bleeding, according to an analysis of data from a terminated Phase III trial presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session. The study was officially halted in August due to an excess of severe allergic reactions, so authors caution that the data should be considered exploratory given the early termination.

Routine heart scans for patients referred to cardiac clinics with chest pain could reduce heart attack rates, research suggests.

Patients who received the new drug Bendavia before undergoing angioplasty or receiving a stent to clear blocked arteries after a heart attack showed no significant reduction in scarring as compared to patients given a placebo, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Cells have two different programs to safeguard them from getting out of control and developing cancer. One of them is senescence (biological aging). It puts cancer cells into a permanent sleep so they no longer divide and grow in an uncontrolled way. Now the research group led by Professor Walter Birchmeier (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin-Buch) has discovered that an enzyme known to be active in breast cancer and leukemia blocks this protection program and boosts tumor growth. They succeeded in blocking this enzyme in mice with breast cancer, thus reactivating senescence and stopping tumor growth.

Family support during deployment is an important protective factor against post-deployment suicidal ideation according to a new study in the journal Anxiety, Stress and Coping.

A cancer drug that helps keep tumors from growing blood vessels may help patients with a rare genetic condition in which malformed vessels increase their risk for bleeding and anemia.

Our modern epidemic of obesity has led to an alarming rise in the incidence of diabetes. More than 382 million people on the planet suffer from diabetes, predominantly type-2 diabetes. For these people, blood sugar surges—glucose spikes after meals—can be life threatening, leading to cardiovascular complications.

The shooting of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, MO, has ignited a global discussion about implicit racial bias. One group of people you might think would be immune from this hidden bias is clinical therapists, people trained to understand the human mind. But a new field study finds that the social identities of patients and their therapists affect the accuracy of the diagnosis: Therapists were twice as likely to misdiagnose mental illness when their patients were members of a disadvantaged, compared to an advantaged, group.

A Kansas State University-led study is helping uncover the intricate workings of how a specific "molecular machine" inside of cells is assembled. Fully understanding this process may present new target sites for drugs and may lead to better treatments for neurological diseases, cancers and other disorders.

There is still no evidence of genetic difference between blacks and whites to account for the health disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a new study by McGill University researchers. Published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the researchers suggest that after a decade of genetic studies, factors such as lifestyle, education and socio-economics - not genetics - are more promising avenues to understanding racial health disparities.

Colon cancer is a heavily studied disease—and for good reason. It is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and its numbers are on the rise, from 500,00 deaths in 1990 to 700,000 in 2010.

Newer drug-coated stents that keep arteries open have similar long-term rates of death compared with traditional bypass surgery for patients with more than one diseased coronary artery.

(HealthDay)—With winter loosening its icy grip on most of the United States, it's time to think about spring allergies, a doctor says.

(HealthDay)—Determining if your child has migraine headaches may be difficult because the symptoms aren't always obvious, experts say.

It might be possible to heal cirrhotic liver disease by rebooting the genes that control liver cell function, according to researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. If validated in human studies, the game-changing strategy, described today in the online version of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could potentially treat patients who are too sick for liver transplantation and, in the future, reduce the need for transplants.

IBMPFD is a rare and deadly genetic disorder that has devastated entire families, robbing many of their members of their ability to talk, walk and think clearly.

Results of a clinical trial announced today at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session show a new type of therapy is safe and effective for symptomatic advanced heart failure patients who are already receiving optimum drug and device therapy. The study also published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology Heart Failure.

The largest study ever of its kind, led by researchers from McMaster University and the University of Toronto, has found that a routine strategy of blood clot removal during treatment for heart attacks was not beneficial and was associated with an increased risk of stroke.

Patients with atrial fibrillation who received ablation while they were already undergoing surgery to correct a leaky heart valve had fewer episodes of atrial fibrillation a year later compared to patients who had the valve surgery alone, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Physicians should not screen for cardiac disease in adults at low risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) with resting or stress electrocardiography, stress echocardiography, or stress myocardial perfusion imaging, the American College of Physicians (ACP) advises in a paper published today in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have pinpointed the immune system mechanism that allows a kidney transplant to be accepted without lifelong immunosuppressive drugs, a significant step toward reducing or eliminating the need for costly and potentially toxic immunosuppressant drugs and improving long-term transplant success. The findings were published in the Jan. 28 online issue of Science Translational Medicine.

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Cancer Research defines a new, distinct subtype of "lethal" prostate cancer marked by the loss of two genes, MAP3K7 and CHD1. Overall about 10 percent of men with prostate cancer will die from the disease. The study shows that of prostate cancer patients with combination MAP3K7 and CHD1 deletions, about 50 percent will have recurrent prostate cancer, which ultimately leads to death. About 10 percent of all prostate cancers harbor combined MAP3K7-CHD1 deletions.

Does a predilection for porn mean bad news in bed? That's the conclusion of many clinicians and the upshot of anecdotal reports claiming a man's habit of viewing sex films can lead to problems getting or sustaining an erection.

(HealthDay)—The process of selecting and preparing for a fellowship training program, specifically pulmonary and/or critical care medicine, should begin early in residency, according to an article published online March 5 in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

(HealthDay)—Patients express high satisfaction with ablative fractional skin resurfacing for photoaged skin, despite having high pretreatment expectations, according to a study published in the February issue of Lasers in Surgery and Medicine.

(HealthDay)—A handoff tool, which has been widely adopted in hospitals, seems not to be sufficient for addressing nighttime clinical issues, according to research published in the March issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

(HealthDay)—Estimates of cancer incidence for 2011 in the United States show that about two-thirds of those with cancer survive five or more years after diagnosis, according to a report published in the March 13 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

(HealthDay)—Health care providers demonstrate significant knowledge gaps regarding sex trafficking (ST), according to research published online March 16 in Pediatrics.

Britain will become the first European Union nation to introduce plain packaging on cigarette packets after members of the House of Lords rubber-stamped a new law on Monday.

Mayo Clinic research finds direct evidence of gadolinium deposition in neuronal tissues following intravenous administration of gadolinium-based contrast agents used in MRI exams. The findings were recently published online in the journal Radiology.

A Northwestern University-led study in the emerging field of nanocytology could one day help men make better decisions about whether or not to undergo aggressive prostate cancer treatments.

A minimally invasive spinal fusion back surgery results in less blood loss, less postoperative pain, smaller incisions, a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery and return to work.

Minimally invasive surgery can prevent a fatal rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Changes in how medical diagnoses are coded under the latest international disease classification system - known as the ICD-10 codes - may complicate financial analysis, research projects and training programs that depend on look-back comparisons of health care data, report researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The cost of treating people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) with newly approved therapies will likely place a tremendous economic burden on the country's health care system. The prediction comes from a cost-effectiveness analysis led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The findings, reported in the March 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, predict that the cost of providing patients their daily regimens could total $136 billion over five years - 10 percent of the country's annual prescription drug spending.

After a heart attack, cardiac stem cell therapy stimulates the growth of new heart cells, but exactly how that happens is unclear. The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $2 million grant to a researcher at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to do a preclinical study to find out. The answer will help determine which type of cardiac stem cell therapy will be most effective in treating patients with heart failure.

Valeant raised its offer for Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. by more than $1 billion Monday, forcing rival bidder Endo International out of the running.

Canada could save $7.3 billion annually with universal public coverage of medically necessary prescription drugs.

An investigational device that deflects debris away from the brain during transcatheter aortic valve replacement seems to improve in-hospital safety outcomes and cognitive scores at discharge, according to preliminary findings from a small randomized study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Elsevier journal Maturitas, today announced the publication of a position statement by the European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) covering the ten- point guide to the integral management of menopausal health. This has been written to mark the 10th EMAS Congress in Madrid May 20-22, 2015.

The commercial track record with transcatheter mitral valve repair, approved for patients at high risk for surgery, compares favorably with pre-approval reports, according to findings from a U.S. registry presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Two-year data show a continued survival advantage for self-expanding transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) over standard surgery in high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Five-year data suggest that the SAPIEN transcatheter heart valve is a feasible option for patients with severe aortic stenosis deemed to be at high risk for open-heart surgery, though valve leakage was more common with the first-generation valve evaluated in this study than with surgery, according to research from PARTNER I presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

The SAPIEN 3 heart valve demonstrated lower death, stroke and paravalvular leak rates than earlier generation devices in patients at high risk for surgery and showed encouraging results in intermediate-risk patients, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have developed a groundbreaking approach to determine sleep quality using their new breath sound analysis (BSA). This is less expensive and invasive than current polysomnography (PSG) technology, according to a new study published on PLOS Online.

Researchers at Carlos III Universidad de Madrid have developed a system for detecting adverse effects of pharmaceutical drugs by tracking information generated by patients on specialized blogs or social networks such as Twitter in real time.

Special redesigned labels for intravenous (IV) medication bags may help to prevent serious medication errors in the operating room, reports a study in the March issue of the Journal of Patient Safety. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

As more women veterans seek health care in the Veterans Administration (VA) system, effective approaches are needed to ensure that their unique needs are recognized and met. A special April supplement to Medical Care collects new studies from an ongoing research initiative to inform health care policy for women veterans. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

Among patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation, those who underwent catheter ablation were less likely to die, be hospitalized or have recurrent atrial fibrillation than patients taking a heart rhythm regulating drug, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Patients who underwent a simple conditioning procedure involving the inflation and deflation of a blood pressure cuff on the upper arm before coronary artery bypass grafting, known as heart bypass surgery, had no better long-term health outcomes than bypass patients who did not receive the conditioning, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego.

France's health minister says she supports plans to criminalize the use of advertising with anorexic models in France.

New heart imaging technology to diagnose coronary heart disease and other heart disorders is significantly more accurate, less expensive and safer than traditional methods, according to a new study by researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.

More than 16 million Americans have gained coverage since President Barack Obama's health care law took effect five years ago, the administration said Monday. But an independent expert who used some of the same underlying data had the much lower estimate of 9.7 million.

Despite the advent of a new generation of stents, patients with multiple narrowed arteries in the heart who received coronary artery bypass grafting fared better than those whose arteries were opened with balloon angioplasty and stents in a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Obese patients with atrial fibrillation who lost at least 10 percent of their body weight were six times more likely to achieve long-term freedom from this common heart rhythm disorder compared to those who did not lose weight, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session.

Two major diabetes associations have joined forces to recommend a comprehensive overhaul of medical device safety, involving regulators, manufacturers, doctors and the associations themselves. The recommendations come from a joint committee of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and will be published simultaneously in Diabetes Care, the journal of the ADA, and Diabetologia, the journal of the EASD, on Monday, March 16. The authors include Professor John Petrie, Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK, and Professor Anne Peters, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

The condition of an American healthcare worker who was sickened with Ebola in Sierra Leone has worsened and is now critical, hospital officials said Monday.

Rice University bioengineers are teaming with colleagues from Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center to apply the latest techniques in tissue engineering toward the study of one of the most common and deadly human illnesses—the stomach flu.

A new study has found a strong link between prolonged work at the World Trade Center (WTC) site following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the development of various autoimmune diseases including arthritis and lupus.

In a study of 171 women, those who obtained more sleep on a given night experienced greater sexual desire the next day. Reflecting sleep's impact on sexual desire, each additional hour of sleep increased the likelihood of sexual activity with a partner by 14%.

Research suggests that the ratio of the lengths of the index finger and the ring finger in males may be predictive of a variety of disorders related to disturbed hormonal balance. When the index finger is shorter than the ring finger, this results in a small 2D:4D ratio, pointing to a high exposure to testosterone in the uterus.

Researchers have identified genes that may be involved in determining whether an individual is sensitive or resistant to rabies virus infection.

Northwestern University scientists have developed a robust new material, inspired by biological catalysts, that is extraordinarily effective at destroying toxic nerve agents that are a threat around the globe. First used 100 years ago during World War I, deadly chemical weapons continue to be a challenge to combat.

For the last seven years, Yale PhD student Staff Sheehan has been working on splitting water. Now, a paper just published in Nature Communications reveals how one of the methods he and his team have uncovered for this process—using a specific iridium species as a water oxidation catalyst—could aid in the development of renewable fuels. The process which Sheehan is investigating is known as artificial photosynthesis—storing energy from the sun as plants do, but more efficiently. "Artificial photosynthesis has been widely researched," Sheehan says, "but water oxidation is the bottleneck—it's usually the most difficult reaction to perform in generating fuel from sunlight." Yale coauthors include Julianne Thomsen, Ulrich Hintermair (currently at the University of Bath), Robert Crabtree, Gary Brudvig, and Charles Schmuttenmaer.

A research team led by Northwestern University nanomedicine expert Chad A. Mirkin and Sergei Gryaznov of AuraSense Therapeutics is the first to show spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) can be used as potent drugs to effectively train the immune system to fight disease, by either boosting or dampening the immune response. The initial treatment triggers a cell-specific immune response all over the body.

A Simon Fraser University laboratory's breakthrough in understanding how a specialized sugar regulates protein levels in our cells could generate new targets for therapies to treat diseases caused by improper protein regulation. Cancer and various neurodegenerative diseases are among these diseases. In the case of Alzheimer's disease, the levels of toxic forms of two proteins build up in our brains.

Researchers have demonstrated the potential of a "synthetic protein mimic" to promote the adhesion of brain cells in a laboratory setting. This feat could help overcome a major challenge in nerve tissue engineering.

A public and scientific discussion is currently taking place focusing on the question whether substances at low concentrations may lead to health impairments in humans. For this reason, an increasing number of experimental studies to test such effects are currently conducted using different chemicals. It was possible to demonstrate, for example, that even low quantities of benzo[a]pyrene can have effects on the protein pattern and hence the metabolism and signal pathways in cells, even though the concentration is a hundred times below what is required to drive cells directly into apoptosis. This is the conclusion of studies undertaken by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Dresden University of Technology, and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). These studies have now been published in the Journal of Proteome Research. The analysis of interlinked signal pathways taking advantage of different so-called "omics" technologies seems much more suitable for describing and monitoring unwanted effects than then previously used individual biomarkers.

Cod liver oil and willow bark extract used in the tanning of skins for clothing and other products offer notable differences in treatment, a study by a team of scientists shows. Their findings show the promise of a technique that may be used to identify the aging behavior of materials and to examine delicate works of art.

It's been around for centuries but it seems like beer has never been more popular. Microbreweries are cranking out special stouts, IPAs, lagers and pilsners. And the flavors and aromas of each of those brews all come down to chemistry.

New research highlights the capability of reversible shape-memory polymers to change their shape when heated to body temperature and then switch back to their original shape when cooled to room temperature.