Boston, MA - Diacetyl, a flavoring chemical linked to cases of severe respiratory disease, was found in more than 75% of flavored electronic cigarettes and refill liquids tested by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Two other potentially harmful related compounds were also found in many of the tested flavors, which included varieties with potential appeal to young people such as Cotton Candy, Fruit Squirts, and Cupcake.

The study will be published online December 8, 2015 in Environmental Health Perspectives and will be available here after the embargo lifts: http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/15-10185.

Children born to mothers with polycystic ovarian syndrome, PCOS, are at an increased risk of developing autism spectrum disorders, according to a new epidemiological study from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet. The findings, which are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, support the notion that exposure to sex hormones early in life may be important for the development of autism in both sexes.

Though 99.9999% of species that have gone extinct have never actually been identified, it is common to read claims that we are facing a catastrophic species extinction crisis.

It's best to take such talk with a grain of salt, because conservationists are only now discovering that cities are better at preserving species than pristine wilderness environments. A recent study looked at the distributions of 1,643 protected species in Australia, and counted up the number of these species that occurred in square-kilometer units across the continent. They found that, on average, urban environments contain more threatened protected species in a given area than rural environments.

Add green tea to the growing list of substances that activists will soon be calling an endocrine disruptor; a study has found that, rather than bring health benefits, as Big Tea proclaims, excessive consumption adversely affects development and reproduction in fruit fly populations.

Derived from the plant Camellia sinensis, green tea is popular worldwide for its purported brain and heart health and anticancer properties.
Nutraceuticals such as green tea, are popular among groups that distrust agricultural, medical, and energy science, but they are unregulated. 

A team of psychologists say MIT linguist Noam Chomsky's discredited belief that we possess an "internal grammar" that allows us to comprehend even nonsensical phrases holds up.

PHILADELPHIA, December 7, 2015 - The leading cause of epilepsy-related death is a poorly understood phenomenon known as sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). The risk factors and causes of SUDEP remain unclear but researchers have proposed explanations ranging from irregular heart rhythm to genetic predisposition to accidental suffocation during sleep. Three studies to be presented at the American Epilepsy Society's (AES) 69th Annual Meeting parse the contributions of genetics to SUDEP in hopes of uncovering new strategies for prevention.