It’s that time of year when we raise a glass to celebrate Christmas, the beginning of holidays, the new year, or simply to join with our friends. Many of us will pay a price, even if it’s “just” in the form of a hangover.

In a "clash of the microbes," University of Delaware plant scientists are uncovering more clues critical to disarming a fungus that is the number one killer of rice plants.

The findings, published in December in Frontiers in Plant Science and in Current Opinion in Plant Biology, may lead to a more effective control for Magnaporthe oryzae, the fungus that causes rice blast disease.

When patients suffer, doctors tend to want to fix things and if they cannot many doctors then withdraw emotionally. But by turning toward the suffering, physicians can better help their patients and find more meaning in their work, wrote University of Rochester Professor Ronald M. Epstein, M.D., in the Journal of the American Medical Association's weekly essay, "A Piece of My Mind."

As a national and international keynote speaker and investigator in medical education, physician burnout and mindfulness, Epstein is concerned about a lack of attention to suffering. It doesn't often fit neatly within the hurried, fragmented, world of clinical care, he said.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Cancer can cause an enormous financial burden for some patients. Now a new study finds the burden is worse for patients without paid sick leave.

In a survey of more than 1,300 patients with stage 3 colorectal cancer, researchers found that only 55 percent who were employed at the time of diagnosis retained their jobs after treatment. Patients who had paid sick leave were nearly twice as likely to retain their jobs as those without paid sick leave.

"Financial burden happens in a lot of different ways," says study author Christine Veenstra, M.D., MSHP, clinical lecturer in internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.

The first discovery of a new type of hydrothermal vent system in a decade helps explain the long observed disconnect between the theoretical rate at which the Earth's crust is cooling at seafloor spreading ridge flanks, and actual observations. It could also help scientists interpret the evidence for past global climates more accurately.

This discovery has been made by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the University of Southampton using a combination of robot-subs and remotely operated vehicles operated by the NOC.

Evolocumab (trade name: Repatha) has been approved since July 2015 for two therapeutic indications: on the one hand, for hypercholesterolaemia or mixed dyslipidaemia, and on the other, for homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia. The drug is an option for patients whose cholesterol levels are not adequately lowered by diet and other drugs. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined in a dossier assessment whether evolocumab offers an added benefit over the appropriate comparator therapy. Due to a lack of suitable data, no such added benefit can be derived from the dossier for any of the two therapeutic indications.

As the 25-year period for the UN Millennium Development Goals concludes on Dec. 31. 2015, to be replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals, a deeper analysis of factors outside defined goals is necessary to learn why some countries failed. This is an argument presented by researchers at Umeå University in an article published today in the scientific journal PLOS Medicine.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - A Michigan State University study shows that 14- and 15-year-olds are at a higher risk of becoming dependent on prescription drugs within a 12-month period after using them extra-medically, or beyond the prescribed amount.

The study, led by Maria A. Parker, a doctoral student, along with professor James C. Anthony, both in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, is based on a nationally representative sample of 12- to 21-year-olds taken each year between 2002 and 2013. The survey sample focuses on what happens when young people start to use these drugs for other reasons.

Akron, Ohio, Dec. 22, 2015 -- What drives you to Facebook? News? Games? Feedback on your posts? The chance to meet new friends?

If any of these hit home, you might have a Facebook dependency. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, says Amber Ferris, an assistant professor of communication at The University of Akron's Wayne College.

Ferris, who studies Facebook user trends, says the more people use Facebook to fulfill their goals, the more dependent on it the become. She is quick to explain this dependency is not equivalent to an addiction. Rather, the reason why people use Facebook determines the level of dependency they have on the social network. The study found those who use Facebook to meet new people were the most dependent on Facebook overall.

Almost 10 years ago, we created the Science 2.0 movement, which was geared toward modernizing science collaboration, publication, communication and participation. And then...not much changed. Science is, at its heart, competitive and there is no benefit for most scientists in collaborating. The person who puts something all together at the end will win a Nobel Prize and everyone else will get nothing.

On the smaller scale, everyone who wants government funding is competing for it, so collaboration will only help another lab avoid expensive mistakes or get to a result sooner. Science 2.0 was greeted with enthusiasm...for someone else, anyway.