The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been controversial in both the United States and European countries like Germany. It prevents about 70% of cervical cancers, cervical cancer is uncommon and highly treatable, and it will need another vaccine before girls who are given it even become adults. Along with those data issues, academic scientists and the public have been engaged in a culture war against pharmaceutical companies - that vaccines are exempt from ordinary lawsuits and that the vaccine was marketed heavily just after an expensive settlement by manufacturer Merck was not lost on the public.

Does simultaneously using a mobile phone, a laptop and other media devices change the structure of our brains? Sure, so did reading that sentence. We all have different experiences and therefore different brains.

No one knows you like you know yourself so if you think your memory is slipping, you may be onto something. Self-reported memory complaints are strong predictors of clinical memory impairment later in life. 

 Richard Kryscio, PhD, Chairman of the Department of of Biostatistics and Associate Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Kentucky, and colleagues asked 531 people with an average age of 73 and free of dementia if they had noticed any changes in their memory in the prior year. The participants were also given annual memory and thinking tests for an average of 10 years. After death, participants' brains were examined for evidence of Alzheimer's disease.

Surveys are interesting and surveys can sometimes indicate what a certain number of people in a group might be thinking - but so can betting services. In the 2012 election, the Intrade betting service got as many states right in the presidential election as Democratic statistical wunderkind Nate Silver did - and Intrade is mostly Europeans who know nothing at all about American politics.

In our hyperactive media climate, where every incident is proof or not proof of something, it has become common to see claims that wildfires have become worse due to global warming even as American CO2 emissions have dropped.

Scientists have put a fire retardant on claims that Colorado's Front Range wildfires are becoming increasingly severe.

The first animal model for ALS dementia, a form of ALS that also damages the brain, has been developed. This advance will allow researchers to directly see the brains of living mice, under anesthesia, at the microscopic level and will allow direct monitoring of test drugs to determine if they work.