EAST LANSING, Mich. - The ubiquitous nutrition facts panel has graced food packages for many years. But can it be improved?

Results from a study led by Michigan State University and featured in a recent issue of the journal Food Policy indicates the answer is, "Yes."

Obesity is a serious and growing global health crisis. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 40 percent of the world's adults are overweight - a number that's doubled since 1980. While many factors contribute to this epidemic, improving food labeling could be one tool to fight it.

The Nipa Nuts

Nipa oil, unknown in the chemistry handbooks, had been characterized in the Philippines and Indonesia.  These studies however, do not agree with each other as shown on their results in Table 1. 

      Table 1 Discrepancies on the characteristic studies on Nipa oil 

April 16, 2016, Barcelona, Spain: Data presented today demonstrate that choosing a different combination of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment for Hepatitis C can eradicate the virus at four weeks in patients who had already failed on previous medication regimens.

The results were presented at The International Liver CongressTM in Barcelona, Spain and suggest that with the amount of DAAs available, the right combinations must be chosen for the right patients in order to eradicate the virus from the body.

A new study presented today demonstrates the potential challenge posed to public health systems across Europe as a result of the prevalence of Hepatitis B among new refugee populations. 

With nearly 1,000,000 asylum applications lodged in Germany alone last year, the European Union (EU) is experiencing an unprecedented wave of immigration by refugees and asylum seekers. With many coming from the mid-east, health authorities in the EU face serious challenges in responding to the spread of communicable diseases among both refugee and native populations. 

The hip fracture risk of farmers is lower than the general population , according to a study in Sweden, one of the few countries which tracks hip fractures through a national registry, making it possible to assess how hip fracture risk across the country according to occupation, economic status, level of education, latitude, and urban versus rural living.

Hip fracture risk is known to be correlated to physical activity, but that's one of the variables which the registries can't accurately track, since self-reported surveys about exercise are as useless in epidemiology as they are in food and various hazard claims.

Most people who enjoy running or cycling know that if you drink a sports drink you can perform for longer. But for people taking part in sports such as football or tennis, where skill and accuracy are important, it’s unclear whether sports drinks can improve performance.

Okay, this one was not about the umpteenth statistical fluctuation, hopelessly believed by somebody to be the start of a new era in particle physics. It's gotten too easy to place and win bets like that - the chance that the Standard Model breaks down due to some unexpected, uncalled-for resonance is so tiny that any bet against it is a safe one. And indeed I have won three bets of that kind so far (and cashed 1200 dollars and a bottle of excellent wine); plus, a fourth (for $100) is going to be payable soon.

The swirling skies of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night illustrate a mystery that has eluded biologists for more than a century--why do we perceive the color blue in the dimly lit night sky? A newly discovered mechanism of color vision in mice might help answer this question, Caltech researchers say.

The work, which was done in the laboratory of Markus Meister, Anne P. and Benjamin F. Biaggini Professor of Biological Sciences, will be published on April 14 in the print edition of the journal Nature.

Intestinal worms beneficially influence the composition of gut microbiota in the presence of inflammatory bowel disease, a new study suggests. The findings provide important insights into how intestinal worms, or helminths, manipulate the gut microbiota in a way that is beneficial for its host. Building upon previous research, Deepshika Ramanan and colleagues found that mice deficient in the gene Nod2, which are used to model Crohn's disease, develop abnormalities in their small intestines, including a compromised layer of mucus and changes to intestinal cell morphology. These alterations allowed for greater colonization by the bacteria Bacteroides vulgatus.

Scientists have mapped how thousands of genetic mutations can affect a cell's chances of survival.

The study involving yeast reveals how different combinations of mutations in a single gene can influence whether the cell lives or dies.

It is the first time scientists have been able to measure the effects of every possible combination of mutations in a gene.