For being so small, fruit flies have had a large impact on genetic research. Thomas Werner, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University, has bridged the miniscule and the massive in an effort to better understand the mechanisms behind several unique features of fruit fly genes.

Over the past week, several studies that Werner co-authored have been published in PLoS ONE, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Nature Education. All are linked by Drosophila--a genus of fruit flies--and the insights that fruit fly genetics provide on human health, specifically cancer-causing genes.

A case study reports on a young woman who gave birth to a healthy child after doctors restored her fertility by transplanting ovarian tissue that had been removed and frozen while she was a child. 

There have been reports of successful pregnancies after ovarian transplantation using tissue that had been removed from patients as adults but this is the first successful instance using tissue taken from girls before puberty.

The Global Sanitation Fund's latest Progress Report details how support for nationally-led programs has helped 7 million people in over 20,500 communities become open-defecation free, improved toilets for 4.2 million people and seen eight million people gain access to hand-washing facilities. The governments of Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom contributed.

Established by WSSCC, the GSF funds large-scale behavior change activities to help poor people in the world's hardest-to-reach areas attain safe sanitation and adopt good hygiene practices. The community-led, government-backed activities support existing national efforts, uniting a diverse group of stakeholders to address deficiencies in access to sanitation and hygiene.

Bariatric surgery does not only benefit the health of patients who undergo this weight loss procedure. It also leads to greater intimacy between them and their life partners, and adds a spark to their sex life. It's all in all a shared journey that brings partners closer together, says Mary Lisa Pories of East Carolina University in the US, lead author of a study providing insights into the experience of couples after one of the partners underwent weight loss surgery. The findings are published in Springer's journal Obesity Surgery.

Much media attention is being given to the rising toll of methamphetamine-related harm in Australia, fuelled by the increased availability and use of high purity crystalline methamphetamine (crystal meth or ice).

Unlike other forms of methamphetamine available in Australia (speed or base), ice (crystalline methamphetamine or crystal meth) can be smoked. This gives a rapid drug effect because it gets into both the bloodstream and the brain quite quickly.

A single dose of the bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine (Cervarix) offers a similar level of protection against the HPV-16/18 infections - which cause about 70% of cervical cancers - as current two- and three-dose schedules, according to data from two large phase 3 trials.

Worldwide, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. The bivalent vaccine targets HPV types 16 and 18 that are responsible for about 70% of cervical cancers. The HPV-16/18 vaccine was initially approved to be given in three doses over 6 months, but many countries are moving to a two-dose schedule in adolescents.

The present day habitability of Mars is an area of research that has exploded hugely in the last decade, to the extent that it's often hard to keep track of everything that's going on. This is by way of background material for my other articles on habitability of Mars.

Researchers have identified individual stem cells that can regenerate tissue, cartilage and bone.

The stem cells are mixed within human bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) but are similar in appearance and previously, scientists had difficulty in distinguishing between them. The researchers isolated individual MSCs and analyzed their different properties.

This allowed researchers to identify those stem cells which are capable of repairing damaged cartilage or joint tissue opening the way for improved treatment for arthritis.

Non-invasive prenatal testing for Down syndrome is feasible, acceptable to parents, and could be introduced into the National Health Service (NHS), researchers in the United Kingdom say. 

The results of a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) study carried out by the first NHS laboratory to provide  non-invasive prenatal testing  testing were reported to the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics Saturday. 

 If you want to blame something for an overcast day, it's safe to go with the tropics. Water vapor originating from the Earth's tropics is transported to mid-latitudes on long filaments of flowing air that intermittently travel across the world's oceans.

When these airy tendrils make landfall, they can cause severe floods and other extreme weather events. Yet despite the importance of these "atmospheric rivers" for the global water and heat cycles, the mechanism behind their formation is still a mystery.