Every time a disaster occurs, people show their philanthropic side, but the same framing that works for blood drives, such as 'gift of life' appeals, is far less effective when it comes to organ donation.

Though much is known about why people donate blood or register as an organ donor, we don't know a lot about why individuals continue to choose not to do so. Most people do not and never will donate so it makes sense that asking people 'why not' rather than 'why' has more value.  The anonymous data for the study was collected via a survey promoted by Australian donation organisations including Zaidee's Rainbow Foundation, Kidney Health Australia, and Transplant Australia.

In a Current Treatment Options in Gastroenterology review, a nutritionist and a gastroenterologist claim that "ultra-processed" food causes obesity.

If you are not familiar with ultra-processed food, that is a new-ish designation, an arbitrary metric of numerous things to separate it from regular processed food. All bread made in the last 10,000 years is "processed" food, for example, and 'all food is processed' reality hobbled efforts by integrative medicine/food is medicine proponents to claim our modern lifestyle is killing us, when the science community instead knows it's simply obesity that is the risk factor.

When Christopher Columbus discovered a continent unknown to Europeans, his accounts included harrowing descriptions of native pirates who cannibalized men and kept women as sex slaves, but more recent humanities scholars, even ones who readily accept oral histories long changed, dismissed that as myth.

However, the belief stuck. He had no reason to lie, the Spaniards didn't know they had a new continent and didn't colonize it until that realization happened.

Artificial intelligence (AI) for histopathological diagnosis and grading of prostate cancer has the potential to solve one of the bottlenecks in today's prostate cancer histopathology; by providing more accurate diagnosis and better treatment decisions.

A new study finds the AI-system is as good at identifying and grading prostate cancer as world-leading uro-pathologists.

Stevia rebaudiana is part of the sunflower family (Asteraceae), like the daisy. It is native to Brazil and Paraguay, where the local populations have used it as a sweetener for as long as written records have been kept.

For many people, the start of a year is a time for new health resolutions – be it eat more vegetables, consume less sugar or drink more water.

Keeping hydrated is essential for body functions such as temperature regulation, transporting nutrients and removing waste. Water even acts as a lubricant and shock absorber for joints.

But while most people know they should drink more water, it can be a bit boring. So what about sparkling water as an option to liven things up a bit? After all, sparkling water is just as good as normal water, right? Not quite.

Australian academics have a filed patent (PCT/AU 2019/051239) on the manufacturing process for a lithium-sulphur battery capable of powering a smartphone for five continuous days. Even better for them, they got $2.5 million in government funding and industry partners to test it.

They say their ultra-high capacity Li-S battery has four times better performance and less environmental impact than current lithium-ion products. Improvements are certainly needed. Li-ion batteries were developed decades ago and while technology has zoomed into the future in many areas, in battery storage it has not. The lack of progress holds back applications that require storage, like solar power.

With health insurance costs having gone up for many Americans by 300 percent since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, there is concern about ways to contain costs.

No one is willing to contain costs when it comes to children, a new study shows. In America's sue-and-settle culture, the big cost for medicine was not drugs or malpractice insurance, it was "defensive" medicine; running tests doctors know patients don't need, or providing a treatment that won't help, because they have to check off every box to prevent lawyers waiting to sue for malpractice.

Though there is some evidence that a ketogenic diet can help people with epilepsy, the 'food as medicine' industry has instead made huge leaps into a lot of claims based on suspect evidence.

While biologists will often note that there are a lot of food myths - turkey will make you sleepy, a child will run around like a maniac if they eat sugar - new ones are promoted just as fast, like that various diets significantly influence mental health and wellbeing. That is the issue; science may find one thing but surveys pretend to be just as valid, using claims of statistical significance that may be meaningless.

Poplars have become popular for use in products like paper, pallets, plywood, furniture frames - even as a biofuel - because they grow quickly.

But being natural doesn't mean being good for the environment. Poplars are a natural source of isoprene, which negatively affects regional air quality and can lead to higher levels of atmospheric aerosol production, more ozone in the air and longer methane life. Ozone and methane are n the category of greenhouse gases, and ozone is also listed as a respiratory irritant.