An international research team, including biologists from NOAA’s Fisheries Service, reported in the scientific journal Conservation Biology, that the estimated population of vaquita, a porpoise found in the Gulf of California, is likely two years away from reaching such low levels that their rate to extinction will increase and possibly be irreversible. Scientists believe only about 150 vaquita remain.

Children whose mothers are chronically stressed during their early years have a higher asthma rate than their peers, regardless of their income, gender or other known asthma risk factors.

As the incidence of liver cancer continues to grow-- fueled in large part, by rising rates of hepatitis C infections – so too does the need for tests to help diagnose the disease at an earlier stage. A study appearing in the January 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research demonstrates that a novel mass-spectrometry based form of proteomic profiling is more accurate than traditional biomarkers in distinguishing liver cancer patients from patients with hepatitis C liver cirrhosis, particularly with regard to identifying patients with small, curable tumors. Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), the study could help lead to earlier diagnostic methods – and subsequent treatments -- for liver cancer.

Prescription drugs now used to treat human immunodeficiency virus infection in adults may prevent the vaginal transmission of HIV, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

Whether you are dealing with the number of wildebeest on the Serengeti or the number of malaria parasites in the human body, new research shows the same ecological framework determines breeding numbers and population size. New research published today (15 January) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Fellow shows that the same community ecology principles that determine how different animal species on the savannah affect each other’s population sizes through competition for food and hunting by predators also affect parasite species interacting within the microcosm of a single host.

Sexually active gay men are many times more likely than others to acquire a new, highly antibiotic-resistant strain of the so-called MRSA bacteria widely know as the "superbug," a UCSF-led study shows.

Dinosaurs had pregnancies as early as age 8, far before they reached their maximum adult size, a new study finds.

A specially developed carrot has been produced to help people absorb more calcium.

Ecologists have long observed that when food becomes scarce, animal populations exploit a wider range of food sources. So scientists studying southern sea otters at different sites in California's coastal waters were not surprised to find that the dietary diversity of the population is higher where food is limited. But this diversity was not reflected in the diets of individual sea otters, which instead showed dietary specialization in response to limited food.

Reporting in the online journal BMC Genetics, researchers from the Monell Center have for the first time attempted to count the number of genes that contribute to obesity and body weight.