A new study in Clinical Pediatrics claims that the obesity 'tipping point', the point at which children begin their progression towards obesity in adulthood, begins at the age of two and sometimes as early as three months.  The authors warn that while many adults consider a chubby baby healthy, too many plump infants grow up to be obese teens, saddling them with Type-2 diabetes, elevated cholesterol and high blood pressure

A team of scientists from Princeton University and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey are attempting to unravel the secret lives of cancer cells that go dormant and self-cannibalize to survive periods of stress, a process called autophagy. The work may help produce new cancer therapies to stem changes that render cancer cells dangerous and resistant to treatment.

When administered in lethal levels, antibiotics trigger a fatal chain reaction within  bacteria that shreds the cell's DNA. But, when the level of antibiotic is less than lethal the same reaction causes DNA mutations that are not only survivable, but actually protect the bacteria from numerous antibiotics beyond the one it was exposed to, says a new study recently published in Molecular Cell. The findings underscore the potentially serious consequences to public health of administering antibiotics in low or incomplete doses.

An analysis of available research on the topic (three studies) suggests that eating choclate may reduce your risk of stroke. Chocolate is rich in antioxidants called flavonoids, which may have a protective effect against stroke, but more research is needed, concluded the analysis that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010.

 The first study found that 44,489 people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke than people who ate no chocolate. The second study found that 1,169 people who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46 percent less likely to die following a stroke than people who did not eat chocolate.

Data collected on speleothem encrustations, a type of mineral deposit, in coastal caves on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca indicate that sea level was about one meter above present-day levels around 81,000 years ago. The finding challenges other data that indicate sea level was as low as 30 meters below present-day levels. Theories about the rates of ice accumulation and melting during the Quaternary Period may need to be revised as a result of the findings, which appear this week in Science.

The sea level high stand of 81,000 years ago was preceded by rapid ice melting, on the order of 20 meters of sea level change per thousand years and the sea level drop following the high water mark, accompanied by ice formation, was equally rapid.

Arizona State University researchers have developed the first versatile DNA reader that can discriminate between DNA's four core chemical components, the key to unlocking the vital code behind human heredity and health. If the process can be perfected, DNA sequencing could be performed much faster than current technology, and at a fraction of the cost.