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The Ketogenic diet — high fat, low carb — is growing in popularity. That's because participants can see rapid results. Are the benefits worth it? Only if you can swallow the consequences.

Another vaccine against herpes has failed, but this time it wasn't intended for genital herpes. Instead, Astellas and Vical were trying to develop a vaccine for cytomegalovirus, another herpes virus. 

It is immoral and reckless to leave drugs within the reach of children. That five kids were poisoned makes grandpa, who had a medical marijuana prescription, an irresponsible pothead.

The rules governing customer risk and the responsibilities of Colorado ski resorts have placed the burden squarely on skiers and snowboarders. So in terms of skier safety, exercising greater caution on the slopes is now even more important than ever before.

It may be the height of the flu season but diagnosing flu remains a challenge for physicians. 

Treating heart disease requires physicians to identify a 70 percent blockage. But it turns out that they overestimate blockages and that results in, perhaps, more procedures than necessary.

Intermountain Health, a Utah-based non-profit, announced it will be leading an effort that controls 450 U.S. hospitals to make a strategic play in the generic drug market. But will fighting a consolidated industry with consolidation reduce drug costs?

In infants, whooping cough is horrific. They are especially vulnerable during their first few months, before they can receive their first vaccinations. A new study strengthens the CDC's recommendation: expectant mothers should get the whooping cough vaccine in their third trimester, to transfer protective antibodies to their newborns.

From telecommunications and transportation to healthcare and entertainment, cutting-edge technology serves society well. But not when it comes to food. Oh no. We don't want technology anywhere near that. Neanderthal know-how is perfectly fine, thanks. What's behind that bizarre thinking?

New data from NASA just revealed that it'll be even harder for humans to ever set up shop on the Red Planet, because it's becoming ever-more dead. Roughly 65 percent of Mars' atmosphere has been eliminated, literally forced out to space by solar wind and radiation.

Ever wonder why orange juice tastes to bitter after brushing your teeth? It's science.  
Ever wonder why brushing your teeth may suppress or open up your appetite? That's science-y.

You're ready to go somewhere, but you can't because you've misplaced your keys, or purse, or something else. And this seems to happen more often as we age. So what can we do? According to Scottish researchers studying human searching behavior, one thing to do is to optimize your search strategy.

Most motorists, as they glide their cars carefully around the bloody remains, find highway carcasses repulsive. But a team of microbiologists and chemists from the University of Oklahoma hope that roadkill will prove to be a biomedical gold mine.

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that there was no significant reduction of the incidence of all-type cancer in older women receiving Vitamin D and calcium supplements.

If you live in California, you're probably sick and tired of see idiotic warning labels every time you turn around. It's almost entirely due to Proposition 65, which has produced unending headaches without helping anyone. A couple more — for food colorings and soda – could be your future. Label these legislators stupid. 
 

Not only are eggs not the villainous promoters of heart disease they've been cracked up to be, they may actually help promote heart health. An investigation into the subtypes of LDL and HDL cholesterol found that eating as many as 3 eggs per day can have a positive influence — at least in younger, healthy people.

As terrifying as some of the viruses sounded in Part 4 of this series, we are not all dead. This is because when it was necessary to roll up their sleeves, people did so willingly. Millions of lives have been saved, but there is still some scary stuff out there.

A growing number of parents choose to opt out of giving children their daily dose of milk, and switching to alternatives like almond milk or cashew milk. Perhaps they may think the alternatives offer a bit more calcium than real milk — but this is misleading: Real milk contains both calcium and vitamin D (added in the 1930s due to Rickets — a vitamin D deficiency among children), and the presence of vitamin D helps absorb the calcium. 

Genocea's genital herpes vaccine GEN-003 works, but about as well as Valtrex — the current standard of therapy. Although it's too soon for a definitive comparison of 003 with Rational Vaccines' Theravax, at this time it appears that 003 comes up short.  

For smokers who want to quit, nicotine vaping devices are safer alternatives to cigarettes. The use of E-cigarettes has recently been approved, with some common-sense restrictions, in New Zealand.

A reader sent us scientific literature defending curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric), and nothing with us has changed. We remain highly critical of naturopaths, as well as other healers who use it. And in the wake of a young woman's recent death, that group includes anyone who defends administering these substances intravenously.

It glistens, oozes, sometimes sparkles and seems to be everywhere: in homes, schools and offices, and on travel gear and key chains. So it's no wonder that kids are accidentally – and even intentionally – ingesting hand sanitizer. The result can be signs of alcohol toxicity.

Who knew that the sharks on TV's Shark Tank were scientifically critical thinkers? On a recent episode, a woman from the company ENERGYbits gets ripped to shreds after the faux-science behind her algae supplements is exposed. 

Imagine if your sex was determined not at birth, but by the amount of food available in the early stages of your life. And that if you consumed more you'd increase the chance of becoming female. While that's not possible for humans, this is the surprise finding about the early growth of a particular species of invasive fish.

Faced with the ever-growing, internet echo-chamber as well as the many other sources of information available to us, it's worth taking a moment to listen to the radio show, On Being. It is a restorative program that gives you the chance to enjoy the beauty of science, and the scientific enterprise.