The odd case of a stricken man arriving at a Florida hospital with no ID, no family member – but with a bold tattoo stating that critical, life-saving intervention be withheld – is serving as a bizarre but essential reminder to the rest of us to raise a difficult, yet frequently-skirted, topic.

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared he will ban the American herbicide glyphosate within three years, and sooner if a replacement is ready. Italy has vowed to do the same. Activists have said the replacement is already available, and it has been used in France since 1863 - a fatty acid called pelargonic (a.k.a. nonanoic, because of the nine carbon atoms) acid.

A baby was born from a living donor's transplanted uterus. Following in the footsteps of Swedish success in this area, this achievement provides significant hope for those with uterine factor infertility, or UFI.

A new opinion article in Biology Letters – "Studying placebo effects in model organisms will help us understand them in humans" – dives into the possibility of studying the placebo effect in animals other than humans.

It's always good to take a moment to reflect on science’s beauty and power to inform, to improve our lives when not constrained by ego, status, publish-or-perish constraints, or the new-media landscape.
 

1. In Wall Street Journal, Dr. Alex Berezow talked about how reliant we are on GPS. Technology is a great thing, of course, and I bet we would adjust pretty rapidly without it, but there would be a lot of tourists in Washington, DC looking for the White House and ending up at the other 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that is four miles away. That's how goofy the nation's capitol is laid out.

Postpartum depression of varying degrees is obviously real but it has everything to do with lack of sleep and an abundance of stress. It has nothing to do with whether or not a placenta was eaten. And the risks are not worth it, considering the case study of a child who got sepsis twice because of placenta pills showed.

Being an astronaut is a hazardous job. Not only are they exposed to higher levels of radiation and the fury of Earth's atmosphere upon re-entry, they must also handle a nearly 2° F increase in core body temperature.

It's an ongoing debate: Can breakfast help deter obesity? Some research has found no connection. But a recent study of Spanish adults suggests that breakfast-eaters have a lower risk of developing abdominal obesity, the most dangerous kind.
 

We expect bacteria to be almost everywhere. New research shows that even though there are bacteria living in ice cubes, those same bacteria cannot survive in whisky. So, the next time that you want to have a scotch, go ahead and throw in the rocks.