Since the Great Recession ended in 2009, the recovery in jobs has lagged behind that of Corporate America.

Corporate profits and business purchases of equipment and software returned to or near records within a year, yet unemployment remained stubbornly high – even though hiring usually tracks spending.

Even today, with joblessness at 5.7%, the labor force participation rate has declined to 63% from 67% before the recession, signaling many adults have simply quit looking for work. And in many parts of the US, unemployment remains elevated.

I was recently asked to give a talk in Toronto addressing this question: “Does science belong on my plate?” The quick answer is:

“No, because Science isn’t a “thing” you can serve or eat. Science is really a verb - a process, a method, a conversation.”

A longer, better answer is:

“There is a rich history of innovation and change in the human food supply extending over millennia. More recent innovation examples that have been achieved using sound science are a continuation of that tradition. They certainly belong on our plates.”

Urinary tract infections are common and wide-spread antibiotic resistance has led to calls for new ways to combat these infections. A recent paper details  an experimental drug that stabilizes the human immune defense protein HIF-1α can protect human bladder cells and mice against a major UTI pathogen, and it might provide a therapeutic alternative or complement to antibiotic treatment.

Health interventions to increase exercise in older people are making senior citizens a giant class in a way we don't do with other demographics - in the modern world there is a big difference between someone 65 and someone 80, it is not simply 15 years, but advertising treats everyone with gray hair the same, yet don't do it with Generation X and Millennials.

A research team writes in Cell Metabolism that they have uncovered a clue to how bacteria may promote some colon cancers.

The work used metabolomic technologies to find molecular evidence suggesting a vicious circle in which cancerous changes in colon cells promote the growth of bacterial conglomerations called biofilms, and biofilms in turn promote cancer development. 

On the whole, the findings suggest that removing bacterial biofilms could be a key strategy for preventing and treating colon cancers, which currently kill about 50,000 Americans per year. The study also revealed an apparent metabolic marker of biofilm-associated colon cancers.

There has been excitement among researchers in recent years that playing certain video and computer games may strengthen core components of cognition, helping us to make quicker decisions, think more fluidly, and avoid harmful distractions.

The Andromeda galaxy is our nearest galactic neighbor in space. Though it is 2.5 million light-years away, its spiral of over 100 billion stars makes it visible as a cigar-shaped smudge of light high in the autumn sky.

But there is also something that takes Hubble to notice - a huge bubble of hot, diffuse plasma surrounding it. If we could see that gargantuan halo from Earth, it would appear to be 100 times the angular diameter of the full Moon. 

The gargantuan halo can be thought of as the "atmosphere" of a galaxy and is estimated to contain half the mass of the stars in the Andromeda galaxy itself. Astronomers were able to identify the halo by measuring how it filtered the light of distant bright background objects called quasars. 

The baseless, superstitious fear of chemicals has certainly gripped our supposedly advanced population in a haze of inchoate panic akin to the residents of 17th century Salem, or Europeans of the Dark Ages.

Most cameras have an auto-stabilization feature to compensate for movement during - and our eyes do also.

But in order for that imperceptible reflex that prevents our vision from blurring when we move to do its job, wirelike projections - axons - of specialized nerve cells must find their way from the retina to the correct part of the brain during embryonic development.

How those axons find their way through the brain's maze of neurons to make the right connection could lead to new ways to treat eye movement disorders. 

Militant animal rights activists have forced Tübingen neuroscientist Professor Nikos Logothetis’ to announce that he will no longer do primate research.

The death threats and hostility he has received are not worth it, he said. But scientists are showing solidarity, even if it just means signing a letter and they won't be getting in the way of any bullets. In less than 48 hours more than 2,000 scientists from all over the world signed a motion by Professor Peter Thier, Chairman of the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN) at the University of Tübingen.