Researchers have discovered the link between antibiotics and bacterial biofilm formation leading to chronic lung, sinus and ear infections. Bacterial biofilms can actually thrive, rather than decrease, when given low doses of antibiotics.

 Biofilms are highly structured communities of microorganisms that attach to one another and to surfaces. The microorganisms group together and form a slimy, polysaccharide cover. This layer is highly protective for the organisms within it, and when new bacteria are produced they stay within the slimy layer. With the introduction of antibiotic-produced glycogen, the biofilms have an almost endless food source that can be used once antibiotic exposure has ended.

If a young patient needs anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery, it's better to get it done. Postponing is risks secondary knee injuries, according to a paper at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting.

The anterior cruciate ligament is one of the four major ligaments connecting the thighbone (femur), shinbone (tibia), and kneecap (patella) to form the knee joint. The cruciate Ligaments are found inside the knee joint and control its back and forth motion and they cross each other to form an 'x' shape, with the posterior cruciate ligament in back and the anterior cruciate ligament in front.

You have to admire the consistency of our government, especially when it comes to protecting us.

While the TSA is strip-searching 95-year old women in wheelchairs, a janitor tripped over a box of smallpox samples that someone left in an old Budweiser cooler in some closet.

OK, this may not be strictly accurate. It could have been Bud Lite. And it wasn't really a janitor, but it really doesn't makes much difference in the grand scheme of things.
What really happened is that a bunch of sealed vials of the smallpox virus—possibly the most deadly pathogen ever—were discovered in a  cardboard box in storage room, unsecured and unlocked. This is not good.

Tofu is prized by vegetarians as an alternate source of protein, if they don't mind highly processed food that will make men sterile.

But Dr. Oz, the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and others swear by it. Yet Tofu is not a food fad for Millennial women because of any marketing claims about health benefits, they just want dishes that are quick, easy to cook and that don't have calories. 

"They basically seem to care less about any health benefits of Tofu," said lead Cornell researcher Brian Wansink, "They eat it to look good and because it's quick to cook and it's filling."

Vasectomy is a common form of contraception in the U.S., with about 15% of men having the procedure. Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death among U.S. men, so identifying risk factors for lethal prostate cancer is important for public health.

A new study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that vasectomy was associated with a small increased risk of prostate cancer but a stronger risk for advanced or lethal prostate cancer. The association remained even among men who received regular PSA screening, suggesting the increased risk of lethal cancer cannot be explained by diagnostic bias. This was the largest and most comprehensive study to date to look at the link between vasectomy and prostate cancer.

It's not well known to urban environmentally conscious people but rural people know that deer are a lot like rats - they will eat everything if you don't stop them.

Because state forests are part of a political machine, various political lobbying has blocked biology and that led to an overabundance of deer and decades of damage.

But regulated deer hunts in Indiana state parks helped damaged forests recover nicely. The big win, found analysis of a 17-year-long Indiana Department of Natural Resources policy of organized hunts in state parks, was for native tree seedlings, herbs and wildflowers once rendered scarce by deer. 

The ability to switch out one gene for another in living stem cells puts us on the path to a  science fiction future - fixing disease-causing genes in humans.

But there are concerns about mutations. However, a new study has found that using gene-editing techniques on stem cells doesn't increase the overall occurrence of mutations in the cells.

As every Boy Scout knows, friction generates heat. A new study finds that friction could be the key to survival for some distant Earth-sized planets traveling in dangerous orbits.

Earth-sized planets are becoming common in other star systems. Too close to a star, and heat can be a destructive force but for planets in the habitable zone, the right amount of friction, and therefore heat, can be helpful and perhaps create conditions for habitability.

A study has documented the safety benefits of aortic stent grafts inserted during minimally invasive surgery to repair abdominal aortic aneurysms; weaknesses in the body's largest artery that can rupture, causing potentially lethal internal bleeding. 

The study shows that patients who received the minimally invasive aortic repair procedure had a 42 percent reduction in preventable post-operative complications and a 72 percent reduction in mortality, compared with those who had undergone open repair surgery.

Obesity is so common among U.S. Hispanics, particularly among young Hispanics,  that it is at crisis proportions, according to data from a study of 16,344 people of diverse Hispanic origin in four U.S. cities; New York City (Bronx), Chicago, Miami and San Diego. Men were average age 40 and women were average age 41. People with Mexican roots were the largest group (about 37 percent), followed by Cuban (20 percent) and Puerto Rican (16 percent) backgrounds.