A new review finds that people consume more food or non-alcoholic drinks when offered larger sized portions or when they use larger items of tableware.

Overeating increases the risks of heart disease, diabetes, and many cancers, which are among the leading causes of ill health and premature death. However, the extent to which this overconsumption might be attributed to ‘overserving’ of larger-sized portions of food and drink has not been known. The research suggests that eliminating larger-sized portions from the diet completely could reduce energy intake by up to 16% among UK adults or 29% among US adults.

This spring, the world learned of a newly discovered missing link between microbes and humans called Lokiarchaeota. The actual story is that the microbe Lokiarchaeota, discovered on the deep sea floor by a hydrothermal vent called Loki’s Castle, shares features with both bacteria and us. The spin is that this makes it a missing link between the two.

Imagine if you could ban a certain, easily replaceable food component and save thousands of lives as a result.

That’s the claim of new research that says a ban on trans fats in England could prevent 7,200 deaths between 2015 and 2020.

The problem is that industrial trans fats have already virtually disappeared from UK diets.

People with health insurance are more likely to have their high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure correctly diagnosed--and to have these chronic conditions under control--than similar uninsured people, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Banning smoking in the workplace and increasing taxes on cigarettes have discouraged teens and young adults from taking up smoking, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Merced.

The study, published today (Sept. 8, 2015) in JAMA Pediatrics, used data on the smoking habits of a group of 12- to 18-year-olds living throughout the country in 1997. They were tracked for 11 years as they transitioned to young adults.

The researchers found that a 100 percent smoke-free environment reduced the odds of taking up smoking by one third and that the number of new smokers plummeted over time. These effects impacted nonsmokers by protecting them from the toxins of secondhand smoke.

As climate change accelerates ice melt in the Arctic, polar bears may find caribou and snow geese replacing seals as an important food source, shows a recent study.

The research, by Linda Gormezano and Robert Rockwell at the American Museum of Natural History, is based on new computations incorporating caloric energy from terrestrial food sources and indicates that the bears' extended stays on land may not be as grim as previously suggested.

Our cabin is situated in one of the most remote places in Norway. My family got the place in the early 60ties and at the time there were no roads leading to what then was a fox farm kitchen. It is still one of the most remote areas of Norway. I grew up listening to the stories about the hardship of life in what for us was a recreational haven. The most exciting stories were about the predators, brown bear and wolves, that were roaming around our cabin.

Despite all the hype we hear about revolutionary new approaches to combating cancer, such as genetic analysis of tumors, targeting cell growth pathways, and immunotherapy, the reality is that most cancer patients are still treated with cytotoxic drugs (cell poisons), many of which have been used for more than 50 years.

The following table gives examples of commonly used cytotoxic drugs, when they were first used, and how likely they are to cause vomiting:

Individually, we use thousands of chemicals in our households and very few of us think about whether they are harming the environment. We often think about buying a “green” detergent to wash our clothes, but the simple act of shampooing and conditioning our hair, even with green products, results in more than 30 chemicals being washed into our sewers.

Despite our best efforts in the supermarket, our waste water treatment systems are well designed for removing most of these chemicals, as the majority are biodegradable. However, a number of household chemicals are difficult to remove and end up being discharged into our coastal environments and waterways.

The high frequency and magnitude of volcanic eruptions could have been the cause of the progressive cooling of ocean surfaces over a period of 1,800 years, according to a new study.

The study emphasizes that this trend came to an end with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the resulting global warming caused by human activity. It further shows that the lowest temperatures in the first 1,800 years of the Common Era were recorded between the 16th and the 18th centuries, a period known as the "Little Ice Age".