A large proportion of cancer cases and deaths among U.S. individuals who are white might be prevented if people quit smoking, avoided heavy drinking, maintained a BMI between 18.5 and 27.5, and got moderate weekly exercise for at least 150 minutes or vigorous exercise for at least 75 minutes, according to a new study published online by JAMA Oncology.

Cancer is a leading cause of death in the United States.

Stem cells are typically thought to have the intrinsic ability to generate or replace specialized cells. However, a team of biologists at NYU showed that regenerating plants can naturally reconstitute their stem cells from more mature cells by replaying embryogenesis.

"Paradoxically, this means that, in this system, stem cells don't immediately generate the plant's tissue, but, rather, tissues make stem cells," explains Kenneth Birnbaum, an associate professor in New York University's Department of Biology and the study's senior author.

Few alternative therapies are more divisive than homeopathy. Whenever I write about the subject, I get bucket-loads of hate mail. Somehow, homeopathy has the power to touch raw nerves and strong emotions. And it makes fallacies appear like mushrooms after the rain:

·         It has stood the test of time.

In a chapter of the book I have written, "Anomaly! - Collider physics and the quest for new phenomena at Fermilab" (available from September this year), I made an effort to explain a rather counter-intuitive mechanism at the basis of data collection in hadron colliders: the trigger prescale. I would like to have a dry run of the text here, to know if it is really too hard to understand - I still have time to tweak it if needed. So let me know if you understand the description below!

New York, NY (May 19, 2016) - Scientists at The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute discovered an important biological phenomenon in human cells that will help scientists and clinicians design safer treatments to prevent mitochondrial diseases. NYSCF first pioneered a technique, mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), in 2012 to prevent inheritance of these devastating and debilitating diseases. Now, scientists at the NYSCF Research Institute and Columbia University are working to hone this technique and understand the biological processes that would impact patients as this process is brought into clinical trials.

In the bird world, the color red has special significance. Many species use red signals to attract mates or deter rivals, adding the color to their beaks, feathers, or bare skin. Generally speaking, as far as many birds are concerned, redder is better. Now, two teams of researchers have independently identified an enzyme-encoding gene that allows some bird species to convert yellow pigments from their diets into that remarkable red. Their findings are reported on May 19 in Current Biology.

Mitochondrial replacement therapy, where a nucleus from a mother's egg cell is transferred into a donor egg containing healthy mitochondria, shows promise for preventing the inheritance of mitochondrial DNA diseases. However, small amounts of mitochondrial DNA can sometimes hitch a ride with the transferred nucleus, and a study publishing May 19 in Cell Stem Cell shows that this DNA can override the mitochondria in the donor cell. The findings may call into question the beneficial effect of nuclear transfer for mitochondrial replacement therapy.

Flaviviruses--such as Zika, dengue, and yellow fever--have emerged as human (and other primate) pathogens because of their ability to specifically overcome our anti-viral defenses. In the case of Zika, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai report May 19 in Cell Host & Microbe that one of the virus's seven non-structural proteins (NS5) is singularly responsible for blocking the action of interferons (proteins that stop viral replication) in human cells, while mouse cells are unaffected.

A storm does not have to be especially powerful in terms of its winds to be deadly. Such is the case with Tropical Cyclone 01B (TC 01B) in the Bay of Bengal. Despite only reaching minimal tropical storm intensity just this morning at 06 UTC 18 May 2016, the system has been responsible for dumping heavy rains in and around Sri Lanka and southern Indian over the past few days as it tried to organize itself in the southwestern Bay of Bengal. This set the stage for two massive landslides, which buried 3 villages in south central Sri Lanka. So far, although several hundred people have been rescued, it is feared from 150 to as many as 400 others may have been buried by the mudslides.

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Using state-of-the-art tools, EPFL scientists have described a million-atom "tail" that bacteriophages use to breach bacterial surfaces. The breakthrough has major implications for science and medicine, as bacteriophages are widely used in research.