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How about an invention that will benefit everyone? 
They don't come along very often, but with a little luck Dr. George Bonheyo (1) and his group at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) might have something very big on their hands—a novel way to clean up oil spills, with the aid of chemically modified sawdust.

Do you "hold the fries?" You might want to if your pants buttons start blowing off. But don't do so because of a deep-fried, phony chemical scare: acrylamide. 

Dr. Kabat, a cancer epidemiologist at New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine, explains how we are scared of the wrong things – and why. A compelling read, and a must for anyone wanting to take a critical look at the mass of conflicting information we're constantly bombarded with.

When you need some serious medicine for an asthma attack or an autoimmune disease flare-up, prednisone is your drug of choice. But the stuff is also nasty. Here's why.

A speaker at a recent Alzheimer's conference said that the Alzheimer's-Amyloid Plaque hypothesis shouldn't be shown the door quite yet. That's despite one failure after another to dissolve the plaques and slow the progression of the disease. Not so sure I agree. 

There's an ever-growing body of evidence that reinforces the health benefits of being with animals. A new study published in BMC Psychiatry explores the role pets had with those suffering from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other significant, long-term mental illnesses.

On the First Day of Christmas, ACSH gave to me... The End of the NRDC
On the Second Day of Christmas, ACSH gave to me... Two Killer Coffees
On the Third Day of Christmas, ACSH gave to me... Three French Fries

The U.S. Office of Inspector General estimates that in 2013, more than 80 percent of the $438 million paid to chiropractors under Medicare Part B did not comply with Medicare's own requirements.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been grooming selected journalists to give favorable treatment to government findings, and even FDA ad campaigns, by inviting them to elite briefings that other journalists could not attend – or did not know even existed – as long as these special friends in journalism played by a strict set of FDA-friendly rules, as detailed in an exposé by Charles Seife in Scientific American, which confirmed what outsiders had long suspected.

Pharmaceutical companies usually provide innovation that helps improve the lives of patients. But AstraZeneca marketed Nexium, a drug that should have never been approved in the first place. The company did it solely for money — without any benefit to society – and it hauled in nearly $48 billion during the past decade.
 

You'd be excused for thinking that by now everyone understands the health risks of cigarette smoking. But some recent research points to a significant lack of knowledge among many Americans — a lack that can certainly put their health at risk.

Although they have been prominently featured in the news since March, the herpes vaccines GEN-003 and Theravax are not the only kids on the block. Here are some of the others you should know about.

African women have one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. Although some means of prevention exist, compliance has not been great. However, two large, random controlled trials of vaginal rings containing a viral inhibitor, and requiring changing only once every four weeks, suggest that there may be help on the horizon.

Dipping a toe into the waters of dental issues associated with scuba diving, a DDS-to-be wants to alert divers to the fact that taking the plunge can exacerbate problems with unhealthy teeth and loose fillings.
The researcher, a student in the University of Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, began a small survey of divers on a personal instinct that underwater conditions worsen existing dental problems.

You've heard it before: Only eat oysters in months that end with 'R.'  If you consider this adage true, December is your lucky month — though you've only got a few days left to indulge in delicious shellfish. But if this were truly a fact, how do millions of restaurants serve up oysters year-round with no public health repercussions? Experts in the field say that's because the safest time to eat oysters is, in fact, all year long.

The 21st Century Cures Bill is a huge piece of legislation that's soon expected to become law. Part of the bill facilitates antibiotic research, but a number of anti-pharmaceutical groups and individuals object to it because it benefits the pharmaceutical industry. None is worse than Public Citizen. They want to kill you, not bacteria. 

As amphibians, toads prefer a wet environment. Those that live in arid regions hide during dry spells underground, where the soil is moist, and they emerge from their shelter when the rain returns. But given that the subterranean soil they inhabit is already damp, how do the toads know when it's raining?

On the 12th Day of Christmas ACSH gave to me 12 swimmers cupping....
 

If you have high cholesterol, you may be taking some medications called statins, which are the most effective medicines for lowering "bad" cholesterol. But some people are turning to over-the-counter alternatives like red yeast rice, a nutritional supplement with cholesterol-lowering action. However, they come with safety concerns.

Scientific research is not cheap. But what is the process that academic scientists go through in order to receive funding for their work? This article – the first of a two-part series – describes this stressful and highly competitive procedure. 

There are many good reasons to avoid illegal drugs, like addiction and overdosing. The next best is that local street chemists aren't terribly trustworthy. It's common for drugs to be mixed with other chemicals, some of which are far more dangerous than the drug itself. Case in point: Fentanyl, which is often mixed into heroin.

Ask yourself this: How often do you think about your ability to hear? Or this: How much would you, or your loved ones, be affected if your hearing was diminished, or lost completely? Not a pretty picture, so learn here how to best protect this incredible gift.
 

Three separate bills have been introduced in the U.S. Congress that are designed to drive a stake into the vampire-like Independent Payment Advisory Board. It has no members, little funding and bipartisan support for its demise.  
 

Even birds know when they're paired up with a mate that's "out of their league." New research from the journal Biology Letters demonstrates that unattractive, male, red-backed fairy-wrens spend more time guarding their female mates – while their sexy competitors spend more time seeking "extramarital" affairs.

Guys, you know the rules: Always pick the urinal the furthest from the other guy. Little did we know that this issue was of such import, that a couple of lunatics with expertise in math and computer science would quantify urinal selection behavior. Sorry, you'll have to read it. It's not live streaming.