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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.

Anyone who has ever had shingles or its painful aftermath can testify that this is not a condition to take lightly. Luckily, for the last 10 years a vaccine to prevent the condition in those who have had chickenpox has been available. A new vaccine, one which may prove superior, is now in testing  and thus far seems highly effective — even in those over 70 years of age.

Showing up to work at all costs is very much the American way. Called "presenteeism" — the opposite of absenteeism — is when workers come to their place of business instead of recovering from whatever ails them. This behavior, which accounts for 75 percent of productivity loss, also racks up a number of health issues: fatigue, depression, sleep disorders, and anxiety.

Some men would give their right testicle to have access to contraception that doesn't involve pleasure-killing condoms or cringe-inducing surgical snips. Biology, unfortunately, has made targeting contraception at the female reproductive system far easier than targeting the male reproductive system.

Who could possibly forget Ebola - the virus that we were all talking about before Zika? In June of this year, the WHO declared the end of Ebola virus transmission in the Republic of Guinea and in Liberia. Due to the large numbers of survivors there, new information is being understood about the virus and its ability to remain in humans after infection. The results are both surprising and quite scary. 

Enjoy the first installment of a new series entitled The Shackling of the Physician, about inane and laborious diagnostic coding excesses. Bitten by orca? Opera house as place of occurrence of external cause? Pecked by chicken? You have to be kidding ... Can anyone say #physicianburnout?
 
 

Besides making wigs, or perhaps some rather bizarre clothing and artwork, there aren't a lot of practical uses for discarded human hair. But that could change thanks to a team of Japanese and South Korean chemists.

Here's a dirty secret you might not be aware of: Scientists get grants because of work they have already done. Instead of being lured by money, Professor Stare, the founder of Harvard's Department of Nutrition, was a co-author on Panic In The Pantry in 1976, precisely because he saw the discourse had been hijacked by groups out to scare people about food.

Perhaps more so than in any election in recent memory, the two major party presidential candidates have shown a shocking willingness to abandon the truth at a moment's notice. Twitter was ablaze after it was announced that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump answered the questions posed by Science Debate 2016. But considering their inconsistencies, how seriously should we take their answers?

Last week, Dr. Julianna LeMieux brought her son to the office so they could test out a chemistry set by MEL Chemistry for ages 12 and up. The fun, subscription product gets delivered to your door monthly, with two chemistry sets which make for a couple of fun family evenings. Unless you invite Dr. Josh Bloom and our president Hank Campbell over — and especially if they don't know the camera is on!
 

Like other sources of reliable medical and scientific information, we were asked about her diagnosis and potential for being contagious. Unlike most media outlets we will not make diagnostic statements based on videotape and supposition; we will not speculate on the diagnosis or treatment. But we will spend a few moments talking about pneumonia.

Donald Trump is going to appear on "The Dr. Oz Show" to talk about his proposed health policies and reveal new details of the presidential candidate's medical records. It's a huge coup for the slippery doctor, whose ratings have plummeted since he got nationwide condemnation after four ACSH members spearheaded a campaign to get the snake-oil salesman and scaremonger removed from the Columbia University faculty.

My niece, Jordan, said “I want to write an article with you on role models.” Since she's my life coach and I, Dr. Jamie Wells, cut her cord when she was born, the mere suggestion was heartwarming. Passionate about psychology and understanding behavior and its origin, her theory was the advice itself and point-of-view from a non-parental adult is different from what a parent can offer. 

Accurate measurement of children's prescribed medications can determine the success of failure of a treatment. The factors that feed into that accuracy were investigated by a team of researchers from NYU, who found that the least accurate measurement tool was a medicine cup.

OCA, the notable militant trade rep group famous for creating anti-science Deniers For Hire like U.S. Right To Know and funding many others, has now laid its cards on the table, saying it wants every competitor of their clients gone. The pro-science side always knew that, but it's still odd to see it spelled out. 

Perhaps the most problematic classification system in the scientific community is that of the impact factor, which attempts to rank journals by their relative importance. This factor for a particular journal is equal to the average number of times an article in the journal is cited in a given year. While this sounds useful, in practice, it has been a slow-motion train wreck.

Chinese researchers tested the combined effects of acupuncture and electrical stimulation on individuals suffering from chronic constipation. And they did find some differences compared to controls. But we think they could have contributed more to science's understanding of acupuncture.

Because most kids will forgo eating and sleeping in order to play video games, it is up to parents to regulate the time they spend on them. But, how much is too much? A new study shows that one hour a week is the sweet spot that allows some of the beneficial effects of gaming without causing harm. 

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.
 

“every time you hand somebody a slice of the cake a tiny little bit comes off, like a little crumb, and you can keep that. […] pretty soon you have enough crumbs to make a gigantic cake.”
 
Medicare pays physicians 106% of the average cost of the drug; the 6% to cover administering the drug – a crumb, Solomon Melgen recognized the crumb. Does his name sound familiar?

For those of you following our series on foreign bodies in the body, fasten your seat belts cause this ride is about to get bumpy. It takes quite a lot to faze Dr. Jamie Wells (and her peers), but for interested observers here's some insight into the medically not-so-mundane world of things that don't belong in certain places.

It is a widely held view that once a medicine has left the pharmacy, its safety and quality cannot be guaranteed. Which means that a vast amount of prescriptions get thrown away despite having never been unsealed and touched by human hands. But there's talk now about how newer packaging technologies can provide safeguards and potentially allow for the reuse of medications.

The story of Liberia’s former research chimpanzees is both well-known and contentious. A non-profit blood bank, the New York Blood Center (NYBC), set up a virus-testing laboratory in the country in 1974, and wild chimpanzees were trapped from their forests and housed within the “Vilab II” facility. They were subjected to medical experiments and were intentionally infected with hepatitis and other pathogens to help develop a range of vaccines.

The outbreak began with a Michigan parent who was diagnosed with shingles last October. Despite acquiring first-hand knowledge of the pain and discomfort of shingles, the parent apparently took no significant action to protect his or her 5 kids. Within a month, one by one each came down with chickenpox. And then it spread outside the family home.

Last year roughly 17,000 car occupants nationwide needlessly died because they failed to take just three seconds inside the vehicle to virtually guarantee their safety. The three-point seat belt, a Swedish engineer's breakthrough invention in 1959, remains the single most effective automotive safety feature ever created. But it's being ignored too often, which explains the current, sharp rise in traffic fatalities -- and the nation's biggest one-year spike in 50 years.