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A potential breakthrough in developing a vaccine against Clostridum difficile infections has been achieved by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces. “C. diff” is the causative agent of a nasty diarrheal illness that has plagued healthcare facilities the world over.

Can where you eat determine your calorie consumption? Would a fast-food restaurant, such as McDonald's or Burger King, lead to over-consumption compared to a "fast-casual" site, like Chipotle or Panera? New research suggests the opposite.

Many people are fascinated by those who have the desire and drive to become a triathlete. Namely, what motivates them to push their bodies to extreme levels, and not only in just one sport -- but in three sports consecutively: swimming, biking and running. But since there's a trend where middle-aged men are dropping dead during competition -- and more often during the aquatic portion -- that's a cause for concern.

Public Health Ontario, in collaboration with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, have published data which reveal a 71 percent drop in hospitalizations due to rotavirus infection since the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine in 2011.

The Food and Drug Administration says it's making progress on guidelines for the use of antibiotics in animals. But according to guest writer, David Shlaes, who holds a Ph.D in Microbiology and M.D. from Case Western Reserve, it just looks like another stall tactic.

Researchers have developed a coaster-size model of the human gut, which provides valuable insight into the molecular processes taking place between the intestinal microbiome and the host.

A team at MIT and Harvard has developed a new method for testing if a person is infected with Zika virus that is more sensitive, faster, cheaper, specific, easy to read, and can even distinguish between different strains of Zika virus. This new device may be a lynchpin in the battle against Zika and future outbreaks.

In this organic-crazed world, preservatives are essentially equated with deadly cyanide in terms of human harm. But, when you examine things a little more closely, the scare doesn't match reality. And it shouldn't. Most preservatives occur naturally in your diet, or in your body.

There is a lot of false equivalence in giving the fringe 1 percent of the anti-science movement any attention at all.

Who's smarter, an 85-year-old billionaire in terrific health or a "sue and settle" activist group that undermines science?

Epigenetics is everywhere. Nary a day goes by without someone telling us something it explains. Epigenetics pops up frequently among non-scientists in all manner of discussions about heredity. And as guest writer Michael Eisen tells us, all manner of crackpots slap “epigenetics” on their fringy ideas to give them a veneer of credibility.

Two performance-enhancing drug scandals, one involving tennis players and the other the Russian Olympic sports complex, are seemingly unconnected. That is, until you consider how both relate to Maria Sharapova, the tennis star who's currently serving a suspension for using the banned substance, meldonium, which helps oxygen uptake and endurance.

Since there are so many types, cancer isn't an "it" but a "them." And the semantics of our "war on cancer" mislead us into considering cancer as just one disease. But in reality, just one type — breast cancer — is composed of 10 different sub-types, each of which might require different treatments.

Facebook may be overtly partisan and secretly conspiratorial, but companies have the freedom to do that. The only thing that will absolve Facebook of blame is if government seeks to regulate them.

The figures were down in 2015-16, and there's no question bee numbers bounce around -- but it is confirmation bias to claim the drop must be due to pesticides. Especially since so many other collapses happened before any pesticides existed.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, has been widely attacked as a human carcinogen — although there are few data supporting that charge. A recent study was unable to demonstrate any glyphosate in the breast milk from mothers living in agricultural areas — which should make anxious parents relax. But since the chemical isn't really a threat to human health, all we can say is "So what?"

Oh, the ole sun debate: Get too much and you risk getting skin cancer; get too little and you may lack vitamin D. The struggle is real. So, how to find the balance?

Major league ballplayers are nearly always treated well by their handlers and organizations, which see to it that their concerns are addressed to their satisfaction. And when that concern happens to be the Zika virus, you can bet that if they want to steer clear of even the smallest possible risk of exposure that is exactly what will happen. And it just did.

There can't be a more horrible offense than the sexual exploitation of children. Researchers in Sweden are investigating whether chemical castration could work as a preventive approach, rather than as treatment after the damage is done.

Since there's no known cause for the majority of ALS cases, any new (even bad) research is widely cited. A new study in JAMA Neurology claims to find a link between five chemical compounds and the disease, but it's just a loose correlation coupled with other confounding data. It all should be taken with a very large grain of salt.

Scientists at MIT have developed a type of "second skin" which behaves similarly to your own epidermis. This material has both cosmetic and medical value, through aesthetic improvements as well as local drug delivery.

It's not just the overly large infants of diabetic or obese moms who will have a propensity to be obese. A new study suggests that even babies born at normal weights could be at risk of being overweight or obese by age 10 if their moms gained too much weight, or had higher than normal blood glucose during pregnancy.

All exercise is good exercise, so why isn't weightlifting more popular? It may be because of off-putting, fringe cult mentalities like CrossFit -- but that shouldn't deter you. It is known that when performed correctly, muscle strengthening activity is safe, and large gains in muscle mass are unlikely.

A malaria vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have been able to successfully induce, and maintain immunity, in over half their subjects. This development provides added hope for preventing malaria.

"Natural is better." That pervasive and pernicious myth, despite being soundly refuted by things like arsenic and hemlock and rattlesnake venom, has become a mainstay in 21st Century conventional wisdom. Who needs Western medicine when the Chinese have been eating and boiling weeds for 3,000 years?