Measuring the levels of RNA biomarkers in blood may help quickly differentiate sepsis from infection-negative systemic inflammation, according to research published this week in PLOS Medicine. Leo McHugh, Ph.D. of Immunexpress, Seattle, Washington, and colleagues describe the discovery and validation of a molecular classifier consisting of 4 RNA transcripts (SeptiCyte Lab), which in several selected patient cohorts was able to diagnose sepsis more accurately than procalcitonin or clinical parameters, and more quickly than blood culture.

MADISON, Wis. -- Starting around 1950, a series of advances formed a clear and accepted picture of how individual stars are born, evolve and die. As they age, the changing patterns of color, light output, size and lifespan of stars are predictable. Every star like the sun will become a red giant, a planetary nebula and finally a white dwarf.

But half of all stars are in binaries -- pairs of stars that orbit each other. Half of binary stars orbit so close that gravitational interaction significantly affects their evolution and demise. Today, scientists led by Robert Mathieu, a professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his former student Natalie Gosnell confirmed one of the possible explanations for a common group of exceptions: the blue stragglers.

'Delay discounting' is the tendency, given the choice, to take a smaller reward that is available immediately, instead of a larger reward that will be delivered in the future - and that is a trait that can be inherited.

Yes, your impulsive nature can be blamed on your parents, according to a report presented today at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting. If you need an excuse for spending too much on things you don't need, just say your delay discounting is in your genetic makeup. 

 Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) virus, first detected in the U.S. in 1987, has been identified as a $660 million per year problem. Pigs who contract the disease have extreme difficulty reproducing, don't gain weight and have a high mortality rate and no vaccine has been effective.

A team of researchers from the University of Missouri, Kansas State University, and Genus plc have put biology on the case, by breeding genetically edited pigs that are not harmed by the disease.

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.