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In its latest issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC estimates the worldwide impact that vaccination against measles. The results are both encouraging and breathtaking. What would happen if there was no measles vaccine? Roughly 1.5 million people would die of the disease every single year.

Florida is in the middle of a major 'not in my backyard' brouhaha at the moment and biotechnology is at the center of the debate.

Richard A. Lawhern, Ph.D. is a long-time advocate, and online research analyst, for chronic pain patients, their families and their doctors. He spoke with the American Council about the fundamental flaws in opioid restrictions that U.S. residents are increasingly falling victim to.

Data from emergency room visits shows that over a four-year period roughly 30,000 of them, each year, were for sports-related eye injuries. And that a majority -- two-thirds of females and 60 percent of males -- involved patients under age 18. Injuries were also categorized by sport or activity, to better understand how they occurred, providing information that can help parents.

The Epstein-Barr virus has always been a bit mysterious. It is responsible for mononucleosis, and is suspected of being a cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, although this disease remains poorly understood. The concept of viruses causing cancer is not new.

In the 1970s, an assay was developed by Dr. Bruce Ames that revolutionized the ability to test if a compound causes cancer or not. Since then, the Ames test has been used on everything from food dyes to pesticides. The test's power is not only that it is incredibly efficacious, but also that it's inexpensive and relatively easy to do. 

We're excited to report that a new study in Health Affairs provides us with another metric that we have previously known and repeatedly been shown in the literature (and in medical practice): Life expectancy and well-being are positively linked.  

There are some unanswered questions about the long-term health safety of e-cigarettes. Studies have suggested that "vaping" is safer than smoking because it doesn't expose a person to the inhaled toxins found in cigarette smoke that can cause cancer. A recent study published in Mutation Research has furthered this thinking, showing that e-cigarettes do not cause mutation in DNA. 

Anyone remotely familiar with the scientific method understands that just like a ruler or a telescope, statistics is a tool. Scientists use the tool primarily for one purpose: To answer the question, "Is my data meaningful?" Properly used, statistics is one of science's most powerful tools. But used improperly, statistics can be highly misleading.

Is there really a wrong way to eat Nutella? Spread it on bread, eat it by the spoonful.... but depending on the way you consume it, the nutrition content may differ. And because of how the Ferrero-made product has evolved over the years, now the FDA is taking a second look at its calorie content per serving.

Classifying species is a notoriously sticky problem in biology. As a very broad rule, organisms can be classified as belonging to a distinct species if they can successfully mate with each other to produce offspring that can also successfully mate. But this rule completely falls apart for microbes.

We are seeing a sharp increase in suicide among children aged 10 to 14. Since 1999, the incidence rate for this group has nearly doubled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2014 it was just as likely that a child took his or her own life than it was that he/she died in a traffic accident. What explains this shocking surge?

How do we get people to make better food choices — to decrease the amounts of calories, fat and sugar in their diets? A new study examined the potential of restricting "unhealthy" food choices vs. incentivizing "healthier" choices, to influence purchasing practices of low-income Americans. The upshot: Both can work, especially in combination.

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics concludes that an early, scheduled delivery is linked to poor childhood development at school age. When and how a baby is born requires assessing a multitude of influencing factors. Educating the masses on the risks and benefits of planned birth for non-medical reasons is very important in making a truly informed decision.

To refresh our minds with some cleansing thoughts after a punishing campaign season, let's focus on something America does really well: Science. To that end, the following remains true: The United States leads the world in Nobel Prizes, and our nation spends more money on research and development than every other country on Earth.

Nate Silver, statistician and election forecaster, told ABC News that election forecasts that gave Hillary Clinton a 99% of chance of winning didn't "pass a common sense test." That is certainly true. What he left unsaid -- possibly because it wouldn't be good for his career -- is that all election forecasts that provide a "chance of winning" don't pass the science test.

An interesting study examines the connection between rhythmic dancing, ovulation and female orgasms. But how does Barry White, the great, musical genius, fit in? Well, since you're interested, let us tell you.

A new paper seeks to inform concerns about e-cigarettes, purportedly used as harm reduction and smoking cessation techniques, being a gateway to smoking. The conclusion by Hongying Dai and Jianqiang Hao is that e-cigarettes, and especially flavors, do lead to both cigarette smoking and an unwillingness to quit. There is just one problem: there is no data showing that.

When trying to identify why many young children gain weight at an early age, schools often are criticized. But a new, large study indicates that schools are being unfairly implicated in this regard, and that significant weight gain is taking place at home -- specifically, during summers away from school.

The preliminary clinical data on GEN-003, the first vaccine to show an effect in reducing genital herpes outbreaks, generated considerable interest when the six-month clinical data were released in March. Now the 12-month data are out. How is it doing?

Many people think they have a drug allergy, when in fact what they have is drug intolerance. According to the CDC, approximately 10% of all U.S. patients report having an allergic reaction to penicillin, but fewer than 1% of the population is truly allergic to penicillins. 

During a recent monologue Bill Maher instructed America on the importance of knowledge. He's right, of course, but the talkshow host is a rather imperfect messenger: Listening to him is like receiving a lecture from Bill Clinton or Donald Trump on the importance of marital fidelity. Maher's political viewpoint was illuminating, but probably not in the way he had hoped.

With more data identifying poorer outcomes of in-hospital cardiac arrest on nights and weekends, as opposed to weekday daytimes, here are further causes and ways to advocate for yourself or a loved one.

A paper was recently published in Cancer on who, and why, patients seek second opinions on prostate cancer. Despite recommendations from both the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society for cancer patients to seek second opinions regarding treatment, there is little substantive medical literature on the behavior surrounding this option.

Many Americans whose BMI puts them in the obese category either don't know it, or assume they're "just overweight." This misperception can lead to fewer consultations with healthcare providers, and less attention to dealing with the issue, according to a recent survey.