On the heels of a defeated attempt to overturn a vaccination law, California delivers another victory for public health: a sex education law, which mandates comprehensive, science-based instruction for all teens. It includes important topics like consent, sexual orientation and HIV/AIDS awareness, and the important basics like contraception.

It has been 25 years since the first clinical trial of gene therapy was conducted, but one still has not been approved in the U.S. However, following two new studies showing that researchers are closing in on therapies for a common brain cancer and a rare eye disease, hope for approval is on the rise.

When a mild fever strikes healthy kids or adults, that small temperature rise is usually followed with a move towards the medicine cabinet. But there's a broad body of research that indicates that so-called over-the-counter remedies are simply unnecessary, because the body is perfectly designed to handle this physiological intrusion.

Though stress may sometimes be beneficial when performance is enhanced due to the positive effects of anticipatory anxiety prolonged stress, especially stemming from childhood, may lead to long-term chronic physiological issues.

Take a look at this short, clever video from the American Chemical Society for tips on how to avoid getting kidney stones.

The FDA has approved a two-drug combination for advanced melanoma patients. The combo, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb, is expected to cost $250,000 for one year. Expected gain in life is measured in months, but some subsets may experience a dramatic benefit. The real question is: Who are those patients?

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body fails to produce insulin. But Belgian researchers have come up with a potential solution: reprogramming pancreatic cells to produce insulin and respond to glucose. They announced this week that it's working well in models, with study in humans to hopefully take place.

Activists in California announced this week that they were not able to garner enough signatures to put the new, tighter school vaccine requirements on the 2016 ballot, in an effort to overturn them. This is a significant win for public health, but it also reveals something about how thin California's anti-vax movement really is.

Sen. Barbara Boxer was once a fervent supporter of revising the 39-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act. But today California's senior senator is seen, not as backing an update of a law that's inadequate to deal with modern chemical science, but instead as someone who is holding up the works.

The politicization of science was on display during the last Republican presidential debate, and former network news anchor Dan Rather took to the internet to criticize the candidates on their science positions. But surprisingly, Rather had equal scorn for targets on both ends of the political spectrum.