Body

A review of large-scale studies involving more than 1.5 million people found all-cause mortality is higher for those who eat meat, particularly red or processed meat, on a daily basis. Conducted by physicians from Mayo Clinic in Arizona, "Is Meat Killing Us?" was published today in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

In a dramatic show of physician support for deeper health reform - and for making a decisive break with the private insurance model of financing medical care - 2,231 physicians called today [Thursday, May 5] for the creation of a publicly financed, single-payer national health program that would cover all Americans for all medically necessary care.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (http://www.ucr.edu) -- A team of scientists have discovered a key mechanism that drives a bacteria that kills male insects, a development that could potentially be exploited to control insect pest species in the future.

T cells, the security guards of the immune system, use a kind of mechanical "handshake" to test whether a cell they encounter is a friend or foe, a new study finds.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published the study, led by Khalid Salaita, a physical chemist at Emory University who specializes in the mechanical forces of cellular processes.

Vultures. Cartoon characters in parched deserts often wish them to disappear, since circling vultures are a stereotypical harbinger of death. But, joking aside, vultures in some parts of the world are in danger of disappearing. And according to a new report from University of Utah biologists, such a loss would have serious consequences for ecosystems and human populations alike.

DENVER - A pre-competitive consortia of pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic companies, and academic associations, including the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), announced phase I results of the "BLUEPRINT PD-L1 IHC ASSAY COMPARISON PROJECT" at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) on April 19. The study compared four PD-L1 IHC diagnostic assays developed in conjunction with four PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors, which are used in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) clinical trials.

The health benefits of walking and cycling outweigh the negative effects on health of air pollution, even in cities with high levels of air pollution, according to a study led by researchers from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) and Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. This new evidence strengthens the case for supporting cycling even in polluted cities -- an effort that in turn can help reduce vehicle emissions.

People who are lean for life have the lowest mortality, while those with a heavy body shape from childhood up to middle age have the highest mortality, reveal findings of a large study published in The BMJ today.

Obesity has become a public health crisis in most countries worldwide. While high body mass index in adulthood has been linked to increased mortality risk, uncertainty exists over any association between body size over the life course and mortality.

The NHS is far safer inside the European Union, argues a leading public health expert in The BMJ today.

Professor Martin McKee at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine argues that the EU's international trade agreements now protect public services and do not justify the United Kingdom withdrawing from the EU.

In fact, he warns that any threat to the NHS "comes from our own politicians and not from the EU."

Crossref will enable registration for preprints by August 2016. Crossref's original registration policy prevented its members from registering content and assigning Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to "duplicative works." The new policy means that preprints will have separate DOIs from any later versions that may be registered, according to an announcement from the organization.

Aedes mosquitoes carrying the bacterium Wolbachia--found inside the cells of 60 percent of all insect species--are drastically less able to transmit Zika virus, say researchers at Brazil's Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) in a study published May 4 in Cell Host & Microbe.

The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) feeds on insects. It attracts a meal with its flower-like reddish color and ripe fruity smell on leaves converted to ambush traps. Seeking nectar, an insect will inevitably touch the highly sensitive sensory hairs on the leaves. This causes the trap to snap shut at lightning speed, imprisoning the prey.

Putting surgery one step closer into the realm of self-driving cars and intelligent machines, researchers show for the first time that a supervised autonomous robot can successfully perform soft tissue surgery. The robot outperformed expert surgeons and current robot-assisted surgical techniques in open bowel surgery in pigs. By taking human intervention out of the equation, autonomous robots could potentially reduce complications and improve the safety and efficacy of soft tissue surgeries, about 45 million of which are performed in the U.S. each year.

University of Exeter academics have created an app which could help aid humanitarian rescue work in disaster-struck regions by using geographic data to map landscapes.

The android mobile phone application means for the first time a standard smart phone can be converted into a self-contained remote sensing device.

Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have grown and catalogued more than 130 bacteria from the human intestine according to a study published in Nature today (Wednesday May 4, 2016).