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The tobacco industry certainly earned its reputation for undermining public health. But now anti-soda activists are using the sobriquet "Big Soda" to get people to think that soda consumption is as bad as cigarette smoking. And thus to enact taxes on sugary beverages as many jurisdictions have on tobacco. Whether this move could really benefit public health remains to be seen.

With 140 million citizens in Russia, there's an estimated 1.5 million who have been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. And the rate of HIV infection is rising 10 to 15 percent each year. To demonstrate just how backward Russia's public health policy is, take a look at its HIV statistics as compared to those of the United States.

Molecular biology never ceases to amaze. The 15-year-old question — why world-saver Jack Bauer never pees, eats or poops has been answered. Hint: He's got some very foreign DNA.

Richard A. "Red" Lawhern, Ph.D. is an advocate for pain patients and has given a report card on our healthcare system. It is not good. 

It isn’t hard to imagine that as our enlarging and ever-stiffening polarized political spheres come to a head, an article about what maintains the penis’ potency might be a kind of crowning glory.

By Stephanie Bucklin, Live Science Contributor
Men still aren't living as long as women — and that holds true for humans' primate cousins as well, a new study shows.

About 1,500 cooking fires occur every Thanksgiving, mostly from deep frying turkeys. While this practice is fairly new, my family was exposed to a very different Thanksgiving hazard many years ago: Aunt Wilma's turkey. Which is worse? Hard to say.

Tossing and turning in bed all night long, it can feel as if you're the only person in the world unable to sleep. It may be a small comfort to learn, however, that you aren't the only one. Millions of other Americans also struggle to sleep.
In the latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC reports data on the prevalence of sleep trouble by age group and sex. (See chart below.)

Only 1 in 8 women are aware that density is a risk factor, and just 1 in 5 know that dense tissue reduces the sensitivity of mammograms to find tumors. Since breast cancer is second worst cancer killer among women, why hasn't there been more emphasis on the risk factors associatd with dense breasts?

The immune system has been harnessed in a number of different ways, most notably, in fighting cancer. While some results have been spectacular, there have also been some spectacular failures, something that Juno Therapeutics just found out when its experimental leukemia drug killed five people.

We flipped toy and holiday season safety on its head and chose to be more proactive by focusing on how NOT to hurt kids.  Learn how here.

The position of Science Czar is just one of thousands that President-Elect Trump must consider in the coming weeks. The incumbent, John Holdren, was a flawed choice. His fringe views on demographics and environmental policy, expressed in a book he co-authored with Paul Ehrlich (who notoriously wrote the now discredited The Population Bomb), should have disqualified him from the post. 

The green revolution helped feed the world with new varieties of food crops and fertilizers. Now, genetic engineering is extending that progress. In a recent "proof of concept" study, researchers improved the efficiency of carbon dioxide utilization by plants — which could well result in marked increases in food production without additional land going under the plow.

The prevalence of dementia in the United States significantly declined from 11.6 percent in 2000 to 8.8 percent in 2012. The consequence of this impacts retirement, families, the health care system, life expectancy, morbidity and mortality, pensions, housing, transportation and countless societal realms. 

Need a reason to eat more fiber? How about flesh-eating cannibal microbes?

Research shows that when a teacher is being bullied, the bully is often the head teacher.

When going on safari, travelers are told to avoid wearing blue and black because it's thought that colored clothing attracts the tsetse fly -- the vector of African Sleeping Sickness. Is that advice to take seriously, or a rumor spread by "Big Khaki"? We delve into one study, making this essential reading before venturing on safari. 

Pheromones have long been credited (or blamed) for our behavioral choices, most notably our choice of sexual partners. The idea that we could base such a seemingly personal choice on a unconscious chemical signal is fascinating but, is there any scientific evidence to support it? 

Does road salt turn female tadpoles into male frogs? A group from Yale says it does. We say, "Bullsalt!"

Though we didn't invent Mean Tweets, we here at the council are quite familiar with the term. Enjoy nearly 4 minutes of nasty comments from some of our critics read by us... and we weren't quite kind in return.

Asking hard questions is one of the true delights of being a science journalist. People's assumptions, understanding of the facts, and inherent biases should be subjected to scrutiny. Therefore, I like to think of myself as the science version of HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur -- that is, without the international name recognition and striking good looks.

By Simon Woods, Newcastle University
A dying 14-year-old child recently won the right to be cryogenically frozen after her death following a UK court battle. In a letter to the judge, the child wrote:

While it's true that statins are effective in preventing a recurrence of cardiovascular events (e.g. heart attack or stroke), the evidence that they are useful for primary prevention in older people isn't robust. Should the prescription of these drugs be extended to our expanding geriatric population, or is this an example of over-medicalization?

The business plan for antibiotics is very different from that of other drugs. Our advisor, Dr. David Shlaes discusses why the absence of a viable plan in the US represents yet one more problem in an area where there are already plenty. 

Melania Trump and son Barron to hold off on an immediate move into the White House.  And, the media onslaught began with imprecise headline-clickbait aplenty.  Regardless of your politics, is it such a leap for the masses and media to recognize the sound nature of this decision?