Early life exposures to toxic chemicals such as PCBs and DDT dampen an infant's response to the tuberculosis vaccine, according to a new study.

DDT? Banned over 40 years ago but so safe the United States EPA creates guidelines for other countries to spray it inside homes? 

It's that pesky 'persistent pollutant' designation which, like endocrine disruptor, is invoked when nothing else is available. Todd Jusko, Ph.D., an assistant professor in epidemiology at the University of Rocheste, lead author of the paper, also says PCBs - banned in the 1970s - are still impacting babies and, in case that doesn't get environmental activist fundraiser juices flowing, that thousand of other pollutants similar to PCBs and DDT have "unknown health implications."

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is now at home on the African plains, but it started a migration 100, 000 years ago from North America towards its current habitat. The research, published in the open access journal Genome Biology, found that the migration from North America was costly for the species, triggering the first major reduction in their gene pool.

Playing three-dimensional video games can boost the formation of memories, along with improving hand-eye coordination and reaction time, this finding shows the potential for novel virtual approaches to helping people who lose memory as they age or suffer from dementia. 

For their research, scholars recruited non-gamer college students to play either a video game with a passive, two-dimensional environment ("Angry Birds") or one with an intricate, 3-D setting ("Super Mario 3D World") for 30 minutes per day over two weeks. 

Chapel Hill, N.C. (Embargoed until 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 8, 2015) - Two UNC physicians have joined other leading experts in gynecology and related specialties across the country in asking the Food and Drug Administration to rescind or revise a warning it issued severely restricting use of a device commonly employed in minimally invasive procedures to treat uterine fibroids.

Biologists have found used to characterize new antibiotics can screen natural products quickly for compounds capable of controlling antibiotic resistant bacteria. Antibiotic resistance is increasing at an alarming rate. The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, a publication established to produce an analysis of the global problems of antimicrobial resistance, recently predicted that by 2050, the worldwide toll from drug resistant bacterial infections could reach 10 million deaths per year, more than cancer (8.2 million) and diabetes (1.5 million) combined. 

Women are now spending fewer years with cognitive impairment but more years with disability compared to 20 years ago. We're living longer but senior years are still marked by declines in physical well-being even as mental acumen remains better than in decades past. In most developed countries worldwide life expectancy is increasing at the rate of at least two years every decade, and, for life expectancy at age 60, shows no sign of slowing down. 

FROSTBURG, MD (December 9, 2015)--Emissions controls on coal-fired power plants are making a difference in reducing exposure of mercury to people, especially in the western Maryland community. A study of air quality from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science found that levels of mercury in the air from power plant emissions dropped more than half over a 10-year period, coinciding with stricter pollution controls.

"I was surprised when I first saw it," said the study's author Mark Castro, associate professor with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's Appalachian Laboratory in Frostburg. "We've been measuring mercury for years. To see such a dramatic drop was exciting."

TORONTO, ON - A study led by researchers at the University of Toronto shows that when older adults feel negatively about aging, they may lack confidence in their abilities to hear and remember things, and perform poorly at both.

"People's feelings about getting older influence their sensory and cognitive functions," said Alison Chasteen, professor in U of T's Department of Psychology and lead author of the study published in Psychology and Aging. "Those feelings are often rooted in stereotypes about getting older and comments made by those around them that their hearing and memory are failing. So, we need to take a deeper and broader approach to understanding the factors that influence their daily lives."

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses seemed to be a relic of the 1990s, and it was believed impatient teachers, helicopter parents and the pediatricians that enable them had moved onto other things.

Not so, instead 12 percent of U.S. children and teens had an ADHD diagnosis in 2011, up 43 percent since 2003, The analysis by Sean D. Cleary, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at George Washington University suggests that 5.8 million U.S. children ages 5 to 17 now have this diagnosis. 

LA JOLLA--Chronic damage to the liver eventually creates a wound that never heals. This condition, called fibrosis, gradually replaces normal liver cells--which detoxify the food and liquid we consume--with more and more scar tissue until the organ no longer works.

Scientists at the Salk Institute have identified a drug that halts this unchecked accumulation of scar tissue in the liver. The small molecule, called JQ1, prevented as well as reversed fibrosis in animals and could help the millions of people worldwide affected by liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, caused by alcoholism and diseases like hepatitis. These results were published in PNAS the week of December 7, 2015.