The so-called Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus was first found in June 2012 in a patient from Saudi Arabia, who suffered from severe pneumonia. Since this time more than 300 persons have developed an infection, of whom about a third died. The fact that the Arabian camel is the origin of the infectious disease has been confirmed recently. The transmission pathways of the viruses, however, have not been clear until now.

Viruses in humans and camels from one region are identical

Public health works. In 2000, the United Nations drafted aggressive goals for both standards of living and public health. So far, they are ahead of schedule on both.

Two analyses by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington show that  international efforts to address maternal and child mortality have resulted in millions of lives being saved globally.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were created to drive maternal and child deaths down by 2015. They had been dropping in most countries since the 1980s but the pace accelerated and, if the trend continues, child deaths will fall from over 6 million in 2013 to fewer than 4 million in 2030.

The periodic table of the elements is about to get crowded on the heavy side.

Evidence for the artificial creation of element 117 was recentlyobtained at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, an accelerator laboratory located in Darm-stadt, Germany.

Given a choice, it's better to be miserable in a heated jacuzzi than be homeless on the streets of New York City during a blizzard.

But that 'money can't buy happiness' saying arose because some people just can't be happy - and money won't help. Psychology is subjective and relative so we're only left with averaging surveys but, generally, people who spend more on life experiences are happier than people who just buy stuff. Plenty of people are happy when they buy a new phone or a TV but it quickly becomes commonplace. If you are a football fan, and finally buy that trip to the Super Bowl, you are pretty happy.

It's not only the biology of lakes that varies with the climate and other environmental factors, it's also their chemistry. More knowledge about this is needed to understand the ecology of lakes and their role in the carbon cycle and the climate. Today an international research group led by Uppsala University is publishing a comprehensive study of the composition of organic compounds in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

New York, NY, May 1, 2014 – We may soon be able to make easy and early diagnoses of prostate cancer by smell. Investigators in Finland have established that a novel noninvasive technique can detect prostate cancer using an electronic nose. In a proof of principle study, the eNose successfully discriminated between prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) by "sniffing" urine headspace (the space directly above the urine sample). Results using the eNose are comparable to testing prostate specific antigen (PSA), reports the Journal of Urology®.