Up to 10 percent of women with family history of breast or ovarian cancer have at least one genetic mutation that would prompt their doctors to recommend changes in their care - and it isn't BRCA1 or BRCA2.

The women in the study did not have mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2, which are strongly associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, but they did have mutations in other cancer-associated genes and those were found using a multiple-gene panel to quickly and cheaply sequence just a few possible genetic culprits selected by researchers based on what is known about a disease. Although such panels are becoming widely clinically available, it's not been clear whether their use can help patients or affect medical recommendations.

If you're over 24 years of age you've already reached your peak in terms of your cognitive motor performance, according to a new paper.

Simon Fraser University doctoral student Joe Thompson, associate professor Mark Blair, Thompson's thesis supervisor, and Andrew Henrey, a statistics and actuarial science doctoral student say this in one of the first social science experiments to rest on big data and they tested when we start to experience an age-related decline in our cognitive motor skills and how we compensate for that by analyzing the digital performance records of 3,305 StarCraft 2 players, aged 16 to 44. StarCraft 2 is a competitive intergalactic computer war game that players sometimes play for money. 

Should you get a pet? If so, a dog or a cat?  For families of children with autism, the decision may have gotten a little easier. A University of Missouri nurse has studied dog ownership decisions in families of children with autism and found, regardless of whether they owned dogs, the parents reported the benefits of dog ownership included companionship, stress relief and opportunities for their children to learn responsibility.

Humans depend on microbes for survival. So do most animals and such symbioses can persist for millions of years.

Scientists have discovered that certain wasps tightly control mother-to-offspring transmission of their bacterial symbionts. This stabilizes the symbiotic alliance and contributed to its persistence over the past 68-110 million years.

 A review of a dozen popular websites found that information on colorectal cancer is too difficult for most lay people to read and doesn't address the appropriate risks to and concerns of patients.

Carbon dioxide, in its ionic form bicarbonate, has a regulating function in the splitting of water in photosynthesis. This means that carbon dioxide has an additional role to being reduced to sugar, according to scientists at Umeå University in Sweden.