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Whether you end up a multi-millionaire for life, or you lose all your winnings and become homeless within the first year of winning the lottery, is already predetermined — by your disposition. So if you bought a ticket for this week's Powerball, did you previously ask yourself, "Am I a negative Nancy, or a positive Pete?"

The scourge of mosquito-borne illnesses — from malaria to Zika — has plagued mankind from time immemorial. Using DDT to GMOs we've been searching for the best, or at least most effective, method to eliminate the pests. Now some innovative scientists have come up with a way to use the mosquitoes' own attraction to nectar to do them in.

Peer review is not a corporate conspiracy, even though at least one biology professor thinks so.

Putting babies to sleep on their backs is an important safety measure that can decrease the risk of SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. However, a new report in the journal Pediatrics states that parents are still not doing this crucial step well enough. 

Communication skills do not always come as naturally to scientists as being curious innovators and brilliant problem solvers. One of the main reasons for this is our reliance on jargon - specific words that are difficult for non-experts to understand. A new tool, the "de-jargonizer" - identifies jargon and translates it into language that can be understood by everyone - having the potential to blur the line where science and society meet. 

America's love affair with coffee bubbled to the surface in 2013 when nitrogen-infused coffee made its appearance in Oregon. Nitro-coffee? Is this a silly fad, or is there some science behind it? Let this article percolate for a while and you'll see. 

It's no secret that on a global scale smoking is one of the chief contributors to death and disability. Thankfully, e-cigarettes have provided many smokers an avenue in which to quit. Data from a recent study reveals that daily vaping is strongly correlated to the prevalence of smokers who quit.

Imagine a world where it's as easy to check for cancer as it is for high cholesterol. New research out of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine may lead to just that, through a new approach that identifies tumor specific DNA in the blood. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals recently reversed a 2014 district court ruling that affirmed patients had a reasonable expectation of privacy, with respect to their prescription records. It mandated a court order be required before allowing federal agents the ability to obtain such data. The medical consequences are unfavorable.

Lethal injection is a hot-button issue under any circumstances but has become more so in the past five years since prisons can no longer get the drugs they need. Some states have tried alternatives resulting in some ghoulish failures. And Arkansas is about to make the same mistake. 

In preparation for motherhood, ACSH's Ana Dolaskie says she's grateful to have her mother by her side. But does mom always know best? Well, most of the time. But sometimes daughter knows best, and perhaps when it matters most.
 
 

After the World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund doubled down – urging breastfeeding at all costs, despite no country meeting their standards – we need to ask: Has the U.K.'s latest reversal of the normal birth campaign taught us anything? Value-laden ideology should not drive health policy.

If the oceans continue to warm, a new study postulates that the size of fish gills will face new limits, with many species subsequently shrinking in size by 20-to-30 percent due to the intake of less oxygen in warmer water. But a recent study, published in the same journal, believes it's nothing more than a fish tale. 

Platelets, minuscule white blood cells that are crucial for normal blood clotting, may be useful as an early screening test for lung cancer — thus possibly avoiding the necessity of extensive surgery and long-term treatments. An innovative use of so-called Tumor-Educated Platelets seems potentially valuable for the early detection of lung cancer, and maybe for other cancers as well.

Did you know we can characterize people at high risk for pubic hair grooming injuries? You know you're curious as to what medical science can tell you. 

Airline pilots are tested, and increasingly drivers are tested as they age. But with physician shortages and an aging work force, are there rules for physicians when it comes to retirement?

The authors claim that this is the world's first truly successful penis transplant because all functions were restored to normal. They are now recruiting for clinical trials.

Enough already! Please stop with the avocado stories. The darn things contain plenty of folic acid, which may or may not cause or prevent cancer, or keep your hair from turning gray, and may be contributing to the demise of the English language. And it's all about the biochemistry of endogenous formaldehyde. Prepare to be confused. 

Stories circling around the web caution having your pets outdoors during the ultimate solar eclipse this Monday due to risk of damaging their eyes if they just so happen to look up. (Spoiler alert: Your dog doesn't typically look up on a normal day, and on this day, he probably won't either.)
But, if you do have pets, or live on a farm and have livestock, here's how the solar eclipse may affect them.

Skipping breakfast has been linked to increasing the risk of overweight and obesity. But a new study finds that the main problem in breakfast skipping children is a deficit in some pretty important nutrients.

People all over the world pop Tylenol like candy corn without a second thought, so it must be pretty safe, right? Hardly. The drug can be lethal when taken in a dose that isn't all that much higher than the dose you might take for flu or a headache. Perhaps more surprising, a bottle of 50 Tylenol pills will probably kill you while a bottle of 500 Valium will probably not. 

The Center for Medicare Services unveiled its latest consumer tool, a comparison of Hospice care, aptly titled Hospice Compare. Despite it being an expensive regulatory requirement critics say that for the consumer it sheds little light on the subject.

There are three basic facts about death: (1) We all have to die. (2) All young deaths are tragic deaths. (3) Some of us die in ways that are more interesting than others, and those deaths often make their way into case reports. This story involves all three.

The story of the allegedly toxic (and potentially lethal) homeopathic teething products continues. The latest piece of the puzzle is the multiple violations an FDA investigation uncovered at Raritan Pharmaceuticals, one of the company's manufacturing facilities.

Given the political morass consuming all of the oxygen in the room on social media and every news outlet, a pivot to human and gorilla medical commonalities seemed a worthwhile departure.