Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi was honored for discovering autophagy, which is a type of programmed cell death. Some cells in multicellular organisms, like animals and plants, choose to self-destruct for the greater benefit of the organism. This can occur for a variety of reasons.
Biomedicine & Biotech
Instead of discovering it, Watson and Crick solved the structure of DNA -- one tiny piece of a very large puzzle. Here, we highlight everything that was known before their 1953 paper.
With antibiotic resistance a growing threat, scientists are on the hunt for new ways to treat bacterial infections. One of these, called phage therapy, uses a special kind of virus that only infects and kills bacteria.
Though reality TV would seem to challenge the notion, highly social creatures tend to be more intelligent than non-social creatures. The reason is because it takes brain power to communicate and thrive in a society.
The international protest "March Against Monsanto" was never based on truth. The movement perpetuated myths about GMOs to demonize a company that has a really bad PR department. But now that Bayer is buying out Monsanto, what is MAM to do? It's now promoting everything from anti-vaxxer propaganda to historical conspiracy theories.
Often times news stories originating from the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador focus on animal preservation efforts that have fallen short, fragile habitats spoiled by humankind and endangered species of one form or another. But recently it was about a slow-moving, four-legged centenarian tortoise known as Diego, who has been credited with single-handedly bringing his subspecies back from the brink of extinction.
Bayer, the German conglomerate, has agreed to buy Monsanto, the seed and pesticide company, for $66 billion, ending speculation about the acquisition. Now, the speculation turns to American anti-science groups and how they will continue to demonize a company that isn't part of evil America, but instead is based in the Europe they love to invoke.
Tens of thousands of women have mastectomies to treat breast cancer each year and a new study lends hope to the idea that reconstructive surgery could make breastfeeding possible afterward.
We know you hate guessing games so lets' get right to the answer. An alarming 58 eight countries or territories currently have active Zika transmission. And those do not include those countries where someone brought it back home after becoming infected on a trip. Here's the breakdown.
One of the latest contributions from the Huffington Post to the national dialogue comes courtesy of self-described teenage "food safety activist" Rachel Parent, who skyrocketed to fame after giving an anti-GMO talk for Tedx, and debating Kevin O'Leary. Her new article is titled "GMO Propaganda Has No Place In Your Child's Classroom." She then goes on to regurgitate her own propaganda.
Roughly 1 in 3 women douche, but there is no good health reason to do so. Douching can change the makeup of the bacteria that normally live in the vagina, and it can even make women more susceptible to STDs. Now, researchers have added another concern: Douching appears to increase the risk of infection with HPV (human papillomavirus), which causes cervical cancer.
A new study confirms something that we believed was true, yet couldn't be sure of. Research published online in the journal Pediatrics concludes that when concussion victims are removed more quickly from physical activity after a collision and have additional time to recover before resuming play, the intervention significantly speeds recovery time and reduces concussive symptoms.