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The origin of life is a profound mystery. Once life arose, natural selection and evolution took over. But the question of how a mixture of various gases created life-giving molecules that arranged into structures capable of reproducing themselves remains unanswered.

The Lancet reports that early drug trial results show great promise for a new antiviral drug combination developed for patients infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Of all the drugs used to treat herpes, acyclovir is the most common. So, how does it work? The devil is in the details ... and the details are fascinating.

A university professor and two students recreated a virus identical to the one that caused the devastating 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. If they can do it, so can terrorists.

When we talk of patient safety, the analogy is often to aviation. But perhaps like commercial flight's problems with baggage, the last little push -- from a very few to never -- is a very steep hurdle.

Ellie is the "first ever digital UV sterilizing pod." Do you still need to wash and sterilize baby bottles? Yes, of course – drinking milk from unwashed containers would make anyone sick. But does everything that newborns place in their mouths need to undergo UV irradiation? Absolutely not. 

Phase III trials put the efficacy of the two earliest COVID-19 vaccines in the mid-’90s, certainly more than we had hoped. The word on the media “street” has been that vaccinations result in fewer hospitalizations and no deaths. The CDC is now reporting on “breakthrough infections” since the beginning of the year. 

Writing at Reason, Ron Bailey dissects some worrying trends and then highlights some insight on cancer which, I am proud to say, came from us.

Millions of women worldwide have been tested for cervical cancer, human papillomavirus (HPV) and other problems via the PAP test. The procedure was invented in 1943 by Dr. George Papanicolaou (thus the name), and has become the most widely used cancer-screening test in the world

Fast or slow furniture? Asymptomatic infections are not confined to COVID-19. Plants can social distance? Tap water hesitancy

In the media, it's not uncommon to see the words "bacteria" and "virus" used interchangeably. However, they are far from the same thing. In response to a recent Post article that made this microbiological faux pas, we feel the need to clarify and explain the differences.

New research on a Zika vaccine is as promising as it gets. A recent study highlights the first live-attenuated vaccine that provides great protection and could result in a quick and effective vaccine that will be available soon to the people who most need it.  

LigoCyte, a small biotech based in Montana has been working for years on a vaccine for norovirus (the so-called stomach flu, or cruise ship virus). And it looks like they may really have something.

New Vaccine May Give Norovirus the Heave Ho
By Josh Bloom, December 9, 2011

LigoCyte, a small biotech based in Montana has been working for years on a vaccine for norovirus (the so-called stomach flu, or cruise ship virus). And it looks like they may really have something.

Wastewater surveillance for highly pathogenic H5N1 flu virus is a vital tool in pandemic preparedness. To gauge the ongoing threat to humans from the virus, we need to up our game: Wastewater surveillance should be both expanded and more narrowly focused.

Avian flu is rampant in poultry farms and in wild birds in the U.S. Every mutation brings the virus one step closer to the brink of human-to-human transmission, but predicting whether a virus will cross that threshold remains an uncertain science.

Several superficially plausible arguments against COVID-19 vaccination continue to pop up across the internet, usually phrased as leading questions. Are they as solid as they seem? A little investigation suggests they are mostly speculation.

The recent reporting on Flint's water crisis by CNN's Christiane Amanpour has a tenuous grasp of the data and the reality. 

Hospital Compare, a CMS website, provides "star-ratings" to hospitals based on performance. It's dropping the safety measures from the star-rating scoring, but it's maintaining the information in another database. Does removing safety measures make the ratings less useful? The answer is, as is often the case, complicated.

Screen Shot 2014-12-23 at 1.46.58 PMNormally, this wouldn t even make the news. A new antibiotic approved. Not only that, but it belongs to a class of antibiotics (called cephalosporins) from the class of 1960s, which is hardly novel. There are about 60 cephalosporins that have been approved since 1964, when cephalothin was launched by Lilly.

I've seen some odd things in my career, but a November 7 report in Drug Industry Daily may be one of the craziest. Maybe "Looney Tunes" crazy.
The article reports on discussions being held between the FDA and representatives of PhRMA concerning the development and launching of badly needed new antibiotics to combat bacterial pneumonia.

Four stories: Phylogenetic analysis suggests that coronavirus arrived in the U.S. between late January and early February. The coronavirus has resulted in more than 1.2 million years of life lost (YLLs) in the U.S. The coronavirus isn't the only game in town. And some people who are most likely to be affected by coronavirus are also refusing to go to the hospital.

Opposition to the use of biotechnology to enhance agriculture was always based on junk science. But now these anti-GMO activists look downright silly as cutting-edge biomedical science rescues us from COVID.

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.

Why is asparagine, a rather boring molecule that biology majors are forced to memorize, grabbing international headlines? It can be found foods containing protein – which are many – including asparagus, the vegetable after which it was named. But some in the media say it causes cancer, which means asparagus causes cancer. (We're not kidding.)