The microbes that call the New York City subway system home are mostly harmless, but include samples of disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to drugs -- and even DNA fragments associated with anthrax and Bubonic plague -- according to a citywide microbiome map published today by Weill Cornell Medical College investigators.

Middle-school children who consume heavily sweetened energy drinks are 66% more likely to be at risk for hyperactivity and inattention symptoms, a new study led by the Yale School of Public Health has found.

The finding has implications for school success and lends support to existing recommendations to limit the amount of sweetened beverages schoolchildren drink. The authors also recommend that children avoid energy drinks, which in addition to high levels of sugar also often contain caffeine. The study is published in the journal Academic Pediatrics.

In this century, vaccine denial is primarily located in progressive hotbeds of states like California, rooted in distrust of science. It's an embarrassment for Democrats, who pride themselves on being more scientific than Republicans, to see that right-wing states like Mississippi and Alabama have negligible exemption rates while supposedly more educated places like California, Washington and Oregon lead the charge in bringing back dangerous infectious diseases.

Colorectal carcinoma, colon cancer, is the third most common cancer in the United States. 

So-called microsatellite stable colorectal cancer with mutations in the BRAF gene represents a particularly aggressive form. The BRAF gene produces the enzyme B-Raf, which plays a critical role in controlling cell division.

Gas turbines are used for the production of electricity and in aircraft engines and they are sprayed with a surface coating to increase their lifespan.

The coating consists of two layers, one of metal to protect against oxidation and corrosion, and one ceramic to give thermal insulation. The structure of the coating varies greatly, consisting of pores and cracks of different sizes. It is these cracks and pores that largely determine the efficiency of the thermal insulation and the length of the coating's life-span. 

The BICEP2 telescope at twilight at the South Pole. The supporting data for the inflation of the universe have also gone off into the sunset. Steffen Richter/ Harvard University , CC BY-NC-SA

By Chad Orzel, Associate Professor of Physics at Union College.

Some of the most prized violins in the world were crafted in the Italian workshops of Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri in the 17th and 18th centuries. They produced increasingly powerful instruments in the renaissance and baroque musical eras.

This Cremonese period is now considered the golden age of violin-making.

Standard cleaning procedures in retail delis may not eradicate Listeria monocytogenes bacteria, which can cause a potentially fatal disease in people with vulnerable immune systems. 

In a recent study, 6.8 percent of samples taken in 15 delis before daily operation had begun tested positive for L. monocytogenes. In a second sampling phase, 9.5 percent of samples taken in 30 delis during operation over six months tested positive for the bacteria. In 12 delis, the same subtypes of the bacteria cropped up in several of the monthly samplings, which could mean that L. monocytogenes can persist in growth niches over time. 

We have beneficial bacteria because of symbiosis: the success of the host determines the survival and spread of the microbe. But if bacteria grow too much they may become deadly. In a new study, a research team from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia found that a single genomic change can turn beneficial bacteria into pathogenic bacteria, by boosting bacterial density inside the host.

Ewa Chrostek and Luis Teixeira studied the symbiosis between a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and the bacterium Wolbachia to answer how benign bacteria become pathogenic. Wolbachia is present in most insect species and protects some of them against viruses, including the dengue fever virus.