America has led the way in achieving something that was once believed to be science fiction: For the first time in history, poor people can afford to be fat. 

Atlanta -- Dec. 26, 2016 -- Survivors of cancer pay thousands of dollars in excess medical expenditures every year, with the excess financial burden varying by age and cancer site, according to a new American Cancer Society study. The study, appearing early online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, says targeted efforts will be important to reduce the economic burden of cancer.

As a group, cancer survivors (estimated to number 14.5 million in the United States in 2014) face greater economic burden, including medical expenditures and productivity losses. But relatively little is known about whether that burden varies by cancer site compared to similar individuals without a cancer history.

DALLAS - December 28, 2015 - In the first study of its kind, a team of international scientists led by UT Southwestern Medical Center and UCLA researchers have identified a dozen inherited traits related to sleep, wake, and activity cycles that are associated with severe bipolar disorder.

Researchers also were able to tie the traits to specific chromosomes, providing important clues to the genetic nature of the disorder, as well as potential new avenues for prevention and treatment.

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 29, 2015 -- What can mathematical modeling teach us about the micrometeorology of the southern Amazonian 'transitional' forest? Quite a lot, it turns out. This particular forest is located between the rain forest of the Amazon Basin and the tropical Brazilian Savanna, so it plays a crucial role in both regional and global biogeochemical cycling.

Tropical forests and savannas exchange vast amounts of energy and matter with their surroundings and, as such, contribute to the local and global climate. They can accumulate large quantities of carbon, for example, which helps partially offset anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

A central challenge in the field of metabolic engineering is the efficient identification of a metabolic pathway genotype that maximizes specific productivity over a robust range of process conditions. A review from researchers at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI covers the challenges of optimizing specific productivity of metabolic pathways in cells and new advances in pathway creation and screening.

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 29, 2015 -- Thermal properties of cells regulate their ability to store, transport or exchange heat with their environment. So gaining control of these properties is of great interest for optimizing cryopreservation -- the process of freezing and storing blood or tissues, which is also used when transporting organs for transplants.

Cell activity influences thermal properties, and at the tissue level this explains why infected wounds feel warm to the touch. Cancer cells, in particular, contain a thermal signature that reflects a higher metabolism than those of healthy cells. This feature is useful for grading tumors and can be used to complement classical histological analysis.